As part of Universal Music Publishing Group’s ongoing effort to deliver what it says is greater value to songwriters, its production music arm, Universal Publishing Production Music has a new agreement with SESAC to enhance UPPM songwriters’ compensation.
After 37 years in Manhattan, IFP’s signature event, IFP Film Week is moving across the river to Brooklyn. The event will set up shop in DUMBO anchored around its headquarters, the Made in NY Media Center By IFP. Since its downtown beginnings as the Independent Feature Film Market in 1979, IFP Week has evolved into a must-attend gathering for the global storytelling community. It remains the only international co-production market for film – and now television, web-based, and VR projects – in the United States, with over 150 projects from over 22 countries curated and presented as scripts and works-in-progress each year.
Signiant has announced the integration of its Manager + Agents software with the Avid Interplay MAM system. Customers can now initiate accelerated file transfers from within Interplay | MAM, making it easier than ever to use the power of Signiant technology in support of global creative processes.
Belgian-born director, creative director and visual artist Jean-Paul Frenay has joined Accomplice Media for U.S. advertising projects. Frenay’s eclectic output encompasses commercials, music videos, short films, live visual installations and photography. This includes award-winning work for such brands as Toyota, VW and CPH Bank. Frenay’s short film You Are the Canvas was a finalist in the Title Design competition at this year’s SXSW Film Festival. His most recent commercial project, a campaign for Lincoln and New York agency Hudson Rouge, showcases his mastery of storytelling and visual effects as a woman dances on the walls and ceiling of an elegant drawing room. He also directed a magical spot for Nissan and Digitas LBi Paris in which a Leaf “dreams” of traveling country roads while “sleeping” in a suburban garage.
Cinecittà Studios recently used WCPMedia Services’ cloud-based digital asset management platform WCPApp to send high resolution scans of Federico Fellini’s 1985 comic masterpiece Ginger and Fred to Paris as part of a new remastering project.
Technicolor PostWorks has agreed to lease 50,000-plus square feet at 1411 Broadway, a 40-story tower in Midtown Manhattan. The lease term extends beyond 2026. The new facility, set to open early this summer, will house 120-plus editing rooms available to film and television productions for rental on long- or short-term bases. The facility will be directly linked with the company’s existing downtown finishing and sound facility network.
DFT has unveiled new WetGate technology for its latest Scanity HDR film scanner. The patented technology is designed specifically for DFT’s Scanity HDR model providing a real-time organic solution for the ingest and management of difficult to solve historical film transfer issues – such as dust and scratch removal – surpassing prior transfer standards. The company says the WetGate is ideal for archive owners who need a scanner that’s able to handle a range of problematic and historically aged film issues.
Panasonic has announced that a firmware upgrade for its AG-DVX200PJ 4K large-sensor, 4/3-inch handheld camcorder is immediately available.
MTI Film will debut the latest version of its dailies and media management software Cortex next month during the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas. New features include IMF deliveries, dead pixel correction, Dolby Vision, 4K up-resing and editing, as well as many UI improvements. Originally conceived as a streamlined dailies processing application, Cortex has developed into an end-to-end solution for managing media from the set through delivery.
Final post-production for Justice for MLK: The Hunt for James Earl Ray, a two-hour documentary that premiered recently on the American Heroes Channel, was completed at Pixel Underground, a Sim Group company. The facility handled online, final color grading and deliverables. It also provided graphics services, creating the main title as well as dozens of artfully animated elements that appear throughout the show. Produced by Cream Productions in association with Absinthe Film Entertainment, Justice for MLK centers on the final days of Martin Luther King’s life and the tense, 65-day manhunt that led to the capture of his killer. Directed by Michael DeCarlo, the documentary is composed of archival footage, interviews with people familiar with King, Ray and the police investigation, and historical reenactments.
