Archive for January, 2009

HOLLYWOOD; January 22, 2009 – Supervising Sound Designer Wylie Stateman of CSS Studios’ Soundelux facility in Hollywood has received an Academy Award nomination for Best Achievement in Sound Editing for his work on Wanted. It is his fourth Oscar nomination. more

MA Lighting’s grandMA console is on the bill worldwide for heavy metal great Metallica’s 2008-2009 coffin-clad concerts. A.C.T Lighting is the exclusive distributor of the grandMA in North America.

The show theme, echoing the coffin motif of the the 25-year-career heavy metal wizards’ latest release, Death Magnetic, boasts 8 2-ton lighting structures, courtesy of lighting designer John Broderick. Programmer Troy Eckerman reflects that on the current tour, everything is “zero time cue – fast and furious. It’s all about horsepower and intensity, full-on and in-your-face.” more

MONTREAL, Canada, January 21, 2009 – Maximum Throughput (www.max-t.com), developers of server-based media applications and high-performance storage solutions, today announced that its MAXedit® Server Edition has been endorsed by Bitcentral, a leading manufacturer and reseller of news production systems, based in Irvine, California. more

Prime Focus facilities in Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Goa handle pre-visualization, camera rental, HD dailies, visual effects, DI and deliverables.

Prime Focus, India’s leading integrated post production and visual effects services company has delivered an array of post services and over 1000 visual effects shots for Bollywood film “Chandni Chowk to China� (CC2C). Co-produced by Warner Bros, CC2C is the biggest internationally exposed film in the history of Indian cinema, the first Bollywood film to be distributed by Warner Bros and the first Indian production to be shot in China. more

San Diego, CA, January 21, 2009 – 3D Film Factory, an innovative company specializing in the production of original 3D entertainment content and 2D-to-3D conversion, recently completed production on a pair of inventive new 3D pilots – A3D TV, the first Adrenaline 3D show with attitude; and Rip-It 3D – the world’s first 3D extreme sports show. more

Canon’s DIGISUPER 22xs Compact HD Studio Lens and HJ11ex4.7B IRSE Wide-Angle Portable HD Zoom Lens Provide Crystal Clarity and Production Convenience Features

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., January 21, 2009 – As television audiences switch to HDTV, program producers of all kinds are transitioning to this new format to ensure that the shows they shoot today will appeal to viewers in the future. For the in-house production facility at the Voice of Evangelism, in Cleveland Tenn., converting to HDTV included purchasing three Canon DIGISUPER 22xs Compact HD studio lenses and two Canon HJ11ex4.7B IRSE wide-angle portable HD zoom lenses from the Broadcast and Communications division of Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging, to accommodate the ministry’s expanding weekly television and multimedia outreach. more

When Sesame Street launched as a children’s television show in 1969, no one could have predicted what a worldwide phenomenon it would become. Inspired by Jim Henson, Big Bird, Grover and dozens of other Sesame Street Muppet characters now reach children in more than 140 countries through all forms of media, including television, books, magazines, home video and the Internet. Overseeing the production of all content – both foreign and domestic – is Sesame Workshop (www.sesameworkshop.org/home), a nonprofit educational organization making a meaningful difference in the lives of children worldwide by addressing their critical developmental needs. more

Technicolor’s industry-leading services were on display in theatres all over North America last weekend – in support of the weekend’s three highest grossing theatrical features: Sony’s Paul Blart: Mall Cop; director Clint Eastwood and Warner Bros’ Gran Torino; and Lionsgate’s My Bloody Valentine. The three films led a record-breaking Martin Luther King holiday weekend.

For Mall Cop, Technicolor’s Creative Bridge team supplied DP Lights™ on set for cinematographer Russ Alsobrook, ASC to create real-time color-grading and looks. Using Panavision’s Genesis cameras, Alsobrook was able to bake those creative looks into his dailies that were sent via the ASC color decision list (CDL) to editorial and later Technicolor’s DI suites where they were employed as the starting point to film’s final color grading. The Creative Bridge team also provided the film on-set cloning solution for the original master tapes. Technicolor completed its work for the film with a digital mastered version for the post-theatrical markets. more

With A Twist Studio, a computer animation and visual effects studio servicing the feature film and advertising industries, has brought on Dan Lombardo as executive producer/general manager of its Los Angeles production facility. Lombardo, who arrives from a similar position with Montreal-headquartered Digital Dimension, will oversee West Coast production, client relations, sales and other activities for the company. His specific focus will be to grow the company’s feature film business. Lombardo has produced visual effects for such films as Get Smart, Rendition and Live Free or Die Hard. With A Twist’s recent feature film projects include director John Woo’s Red Cliff. more

In the new Broadway hit Shrek The Musical, DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. (NYSE: DWA) is relying on Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) 3D character animation technology. A customized system based on Autodesk MotionBuilder software is being used to generate a digital face in the Magic Mirror, which speaks to Lord Farquaad in real-time for every show. more