Senior colorist David Cole has joined FotoKem’s Creative Services Division, deepening the facility’s digital intermediate talent bench. One of Cole’s first projects, based at FotoKem’s Burbank headquarters, will be Legendary’s upcoming Kong: Skull Island.
VFX supervisor Eric Gambini has joined FuseFX, Vancouver, as the company continues to add staff to service the region’s boom in television production. A native of France who has worked at visual effects facilities around the world, Gambini most recently served as on-set VFX supervisor on the CW series The 100. Also new to FuseFX Vancouver are VFX producer Graeme Marshall and CG supervisor Adam Marisett.
There is a huge push for haptic advertising. Simply put, to add nuanced tactile effects to simulate a realistic feeling to 360 virtual reality content: the shaking of a martini glass in a Stoli ad; the power of the engine in a Peugeot ad and the flickering of lights in the American Poltergeist trailer. These are a few of the ways that haptic advertising has been utilized using Immersion’s Touchsense Design Cloud. Starting in 2014, Stoli was the first to break the ice, so to speak, with the first tactile ad. Now 554 mobile apps and 481 tablet apps on the Opera Mediaworks network have the capability to run haptic ads. These ads have the potential to reach 14.9 million total impressions, 4.2 million unique viewers
Director/DP Hal Long had a challenge. “The producers (including Bill Rogin and Cole Klapman) are committed to having a 4K master for residual use,” Long said. “And for season two, I wanted a 4K camera that would deliver better color accuracy and separation.” Long, a longtime user of Panasonic P2 cameras said that was why both seasons of Gunny Time were shot and finished in 4K with Panasonic VariCam 35 4K cinema camera/recorders.
Horace and Pete is a 2016 web series created, written, and directed by Louis C.K. A distinctive feature of the series is frequent references to highly topical current events during barroom discussions. This was made possible by having less than a week between the production and release of the episodes. It was also one of the reasons that the VariCam 35s were chosen for the show, according to post-production technical advisor Troy Thompson a longtime C.K. collaborator and colorist at New York’s Running Man.
GPL Technologies has chosen post-production industry veteran Chris Peterson to lead its office on the East Coast. Peterson, who will serve as account manager/Northeast from GPL’s New York office, brings extensive experience as a producer, post-production executive and marketing specialist.
SIGGRAPH 2016 will be presenting Making Of Production Sessions for a number of high-profile hit motion pictures, video games, VR films, and theme park attractions during this year's conference. With the tagline Render the Possibilities, the conference will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Orange County, California, July 24-28.
The Hallmark Movies & Mysteries modern day TV western JL Ranch spent this past winter shooting on location in Kentucky presenting director Charles Robert Carner and DP Kris Kimlin with an array of often-unexpected challenges. Facing snow, rain, mud, and temperatures ranging from -11°F to +50°F Kimlin relied heavily on his Cooke S4/i lens package consisting of 18mm, 25mm, 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, and 100mm focal lengths on an Alexa digital camera. “We didn’t expect the elements, so we had to embrace them,” said Kimlin.
Although it serves a state with a population of less than 1.5 million people, First Hawaiian Bank is intent on reaching its audience with the sophistication of an international financial powerhouse. Teaming with Honolulu agency MVNP and Los Angeles-based production company Accomplice Media, FHB has launched an ambitious branding campaign centering on people coping with life’s milestones. Rather than pushing specific retail services—as most regional banks do—these funny, beautifully produced spots aim to forge an emotional connection with Hawaii residents from all walks of life.
GrayMeta has unveiled Iris 3.0, a professional high dynamic range video player for the media and entertainment industry. According to the company, Iris 3.0 is the world’s only multi-format, broadcast quality media player and desktop collaboration tool that supports the up-conversion of SDR content to HDR to allow for accessible and affordable use of media companies’ current equipment. The collaboration tool provides quality control features including, on screen drawing, file checking templates, timeline annotations and shares messages securely and instantly with key stakeholders.
