The deadline and budget were tight. The client – a leading maker of iconic, affordable jeans – wanted stills and a beautifully photographed film-style location-shoot commercial turned around in one day.
While coming face-to-face with an actual Bigfoot would likely strike terror in most people, it could now potentially make you ten million dollars richer. In the new one-hour reality competition series Ten Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty, nine teams of lifelong Bigfoot bounty hunters—or sqautchers—use their skills combined with modern-day technology to track and capture this elusive beast, with one lucky team receiving a chance at 10 million dollars in cash.
Spidey has decided to call a truce in the cinema sound format war. Sony Pictures Entertainment is teaming with Dolby and Barco to mix The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in both Auro 11.1 and Dolby Atmos cinema sound. The movie will be released in theaters internationally beginning April 16 and domestically on May 2. The move will no doubt increase the number of movie theatres available to show the movie.
Lightcraft Technology and SolidAnim have agreed to combine their Previzion and SolidTrack product offerings in order to provide a full range of virtual production tools for the entertainment industry.
Some of the world’s leading manufacturers of camera systems, lenses, lighting equipment, workflow technology and other film and television production gear will be on hand when Sim Digital, PS Production Services and Bling Digital, hosts the Sim Technology Showcase on January 30 at Sim’s Toronto headquarters.
Sound technician Robert Maxfield just wrapped Season 4 of The Walking Dead and he says it’s one of the hardest shows he’s ever worked. On The Walking Dead, it is common to have to make quick cues between the numerous and spread out actors in various scenes. “We work outside a lot on this show,” he explains. “The actors are typically spaced far apart. The cameras, three on average, are usually spaced over a broad area and are placed at a great distance from the talent . . . many times throughout wooded forests. This requires that I be on a long ridged pole, that allows me to move quickly and precisely.”
Fujifilm is conducting a Zero Percent Financing program on purchases of its Premier PL ZK series of Cabrio lenses. Beginning today through March 31, any new purchases of a Fujifilm Premier PL19-90mm Cabrio (ZK4.7x19), PL 85-300mm Cabrio (ZK3.5x85B) or PL 14-35mm Cabrio wide-angle zoom (ZK2.5x14) will be eligible for the company’s Zero Percent Financing for 24-month program. The program is currently open to U.S. and Canadian customers only.
BTV Post recently completed work with Globe on Screen on three titles from Shakespeare’s Globe’s 2013 theatre season.
The industry doesn’t do as many pilots as in years past, which is a shame, because they can be a valuable format for testing not just story ideas and actors but new technology. In my role covering new cinema technology for the Digital Cinema Society I am often offered gear to test and evaluate, everything from new lighting units and cameras to various digital cinema recorders. Since I need to keep busy earning my living as a director of photography, I honestly don’t have time to run scientific tests, so I prefer instead to use the gear in real world productions I’m hired to work on. You could call me a technology test pilot. I get a better sense of how these tools perform where the rubber hits the road, and it’s a good way to help out the productions I’m working on, pulling in items they might not otherwise be able to afford. The perfect opportunity to put many of these items through their paces came up recently when I was asked to shoot a feature length pilot for a new action/adventure show aimed at young adults entitled, Tribe of the Wild.
Hula Post Production provided editorial systems, facilities and support to editor Melissa Kent and her crew during the production of the indie film Louder Than Words, the new dramatic feature from Identity Films. Hula set up and maintained a remote editorial facility in Connecticut, where the film spent five weeks shooting, and later provided editorial facilities at its Tribeca West location in West Los Angeles.
