Digital destruction is Bottleship VFX’s sweet spot. From fiery explosions to churning waterfalls, the Bulgarian studio excels at crafting data-heavy VFX, including particle work and fluid simulations – feats accomplished in part through Thinkbox Software tools.
New York Women in Film & Television has announced the results of the 2016 board of directors election. As a nonprofit 501c3 public charity, NYWIFT is governed by an 18-member board of directors. Board members serve on committees in the areas of Development, Membership, Communications, Programming and Special Events. The board is elected by the membership. Six spots on the board have been filled, with four new members and two returning members.
X-Men: Apocalypse, the latest entrant in Twentieth Century Fox’s popular superhero franchise, features more time-bending magic from Australia’s Rising Sun Pictures. The visual effects studio contributed to several key sequences in the film, most notably an electrifying scene where Quicksilver (Evan Peters) uses his hyper-speed ability to rescue students from an exploding mansion. Quicksilver’s Rescue builds on a notable scene from the preceding X-Men: Days of Future Past where the character races around a Pentagon cafeteria to prevent security guards from shooting a trio of X-Men. RSP’s impeccable work in making pots, pans, bullets and water drops freeze in mid-air helped the film earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects.
Seeking to provide brands with an alternative to the traditional agency model, former Ogilvy & Mather executive creative director Tommy Henvey and executive producer Patti McConnell have launched Something Different. The new creative marketing boutique will leverage a lean and flexible business structure to provide brands with the thing that agencies do well—produce great creative—while avoiding pitfalls that cause work to bog down and cost too much.
Roundabout Entertainment has extended its high dynamic range mastering services by upgrading its DaVinci Resolve systems with the latest software release from Black Magic Design, version 12.5. The new software includes improved HDR grading controls that add to the facility’s ability to finish, grade and deliver theatrical, television and home entertainment projects in HDR. It also adds new tools for editing, visual effects and noise reduction.
Panavision has introduced the Millennium DXL Camera, developed through an unprecedented combination of three companies’ contributions: large format optics and modular accessories from Panavision, a brand new 8K sensor from Red Digital Cinema, and new color science and optimized workflow from Light Iron.
Universal Pictures premiered the restored 1929 silent film classic The Last Warning June 4 at the Castro Theater as part of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. Directed by Paul Leni and starring Laura La Plante, The Last Warning is a dramatic horror centered on an unsolved murder during a theatrical performance and the revival production meant to solve the mystery. This restored version is a part of Universal's silent restoration initiative announced last year.
WEDU PBS, Semkhor Networks, and Ringling College of Art and Design have signed a letter of intent to develop a wide-ranging collaboration centered on a new sound stage and post-production facility, which is slated to be fully operational in 2017. The first large stage will open later this year. The new facility is designed to take full advantage of the rapid advancements in digital production and distribution with the flexibility to support a wide range of content production.
Post work for director Rebecca Miller’s new romantic comedy Maggie’s Plan, currently in wide release from Sony Pictures Classics, was a labor of love for Technicolor PostWorks New York. A long-time supporter of independent film, the facility furnished suites and systems to picture editor Sabine Hoffman and her crew. It also provided resources for dailies processing, editorial finishing, color grading, sound mixing and deliverables. The project involved months of concentrated effort, spanning pre-production through the film’s world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Cinema immersive sound is upside down. Technology providers invest in intellectual property for immersive sound rendering engines, but they compete on the availability of content. Trading on content has been counterproductive to growth, contributing to a lackluster immersive sound installation count that is less than two percent of worldwide screens. Immersive sound has more moving parts to address than distribution, but the industry is fixated on a design from scratch, do-everything, distribution standard that’s two and a half years in the making and at least as many years from finding its way into cinemas. A deeper look shows that the key friction point of production for competing systems has been addressed. It’s time to put immersive sound right side up and grow the format.
