Archive for November, 2011

Leading motion capture and animation service company House of Moves (HOM) put their newly revealed electrooculography (EOG) capture pipeline to work for the first time on EA’s video game Need For Speed: The Run, now available. Developed by Black Box Studios, the high-octane racing game features the exact digital likenesses of various actors, including Sean Faris and Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks, as well as Sport Illustrated swimsuit models Irina Shayk and Chrissy Teigen, made possible by HOM’s EOG process.

Having previously collaborated with HOM on work for the video games Dead Space 2, Dante’s Inferno and Army of Two: The 40th Day, EA producers were well aware of HOM’s motion capture and animation capabilities. EA approached HOM in March 2011 looking for a place to capture eyeball movement for Need For Speed: The Run to deliver more lifelike characters. Ever up for the challenge, the HOM team set to work on bridging existing technologies and developing new ones, resulting in the EOG eye tracking process that, when combined with their current system, enables the creation of incredibly emotive digital characters.

Full performance capture was done on ten performers over the course of three days on HOM’s secondary 459 square foot stage that features 200 Vicon T160 cameras and is geared towards capturing detailed facial performances. For the EOG, HOM used four electrodes affixed around the eyes of a performer to track ocular muscle movement capturing eyeball tracking for animation. Custom HOM tools bring the data into Vicon’s Blade full performance capture software resulting in animation-ready files.

After performance data and audio were captured, HOM retargeted data for the body, face, fingers and eyes. Facial animation was also completed by HOM with the entire project taking about a month and a half to complete.

“With the all of the advancements in animation, CG characters are becoming increasingly more believable, but the trick to bridging the uncanny valley is realistic eye movement,” said Brian Rausch, Vice President of Production, House of Moves. “Using EOG technology in our mocap sessions requires very little additional hardware or post processing time but injects a tremendous amount of possibility into the data captured.”

About House of Moves
House of Moves has been the go-to studio for film, television, game and commercial creatives for over 10 years and has recently worked on projects for clients including Microsoft, Activision, EA, Bandai, Rockstar Games, Capcom, THQ, Naughty Dog Studios, SCEA, Bungie and others. In addition to the HOM main stage, the 26,000 square-foot facility is also home to a full performance capture volume capable of recording simultaneous high-quality audio with a capture session without any interfering background noise. House of Moves is part of the OMG (Oxford Metrics Group – LSE: OMG), plc., family of technology companies. http://moves.com/

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Wayne, N.J.– Seeking exceptional optical quality for fast-paced episodic television productions, three Canadian Directors of Photography (DPs) recently rented a complement of FUJINON Premier PL Mount zoom lenses from Sim Video—a leading Toronto-based broadcast and film equipment rental company.

The three notable Canadian DPs—Mike McMurray, David Perrault, and Rudy Blahacek—chose FUJINON Premier PL zoom lenses to shoot sci-fi television series for broadcast on NBC/Universal’s SCI FI Channel, CTV, and Lifetime. In choosing equipment for these productions, they selected from the Sim Video PL lens inventory which includes: Premier PL 18-85 T2.0 zooms, Premier PL 24-180 T2.6 lenses; and Premier PL 75-400 T2.8-3.8’s. Designed for high-end 35mm film and digital cinematography, the FUJINON PL Mount product family offers focal lengths ranging from 14.5mm to 400mm.

DP McMurray, CSC, has been using the Premier PL lenses to shoot “Warehouse 13,” an American fantasy/drama series for the SCI FI Channel. “In shooting ‘Warehouse 13,’ equipment reliability is crucial. FUJINON lenses are workhorses in the film industry, especially for TV series work, because they produce crisp, clean images and color-match extraordinarily well with each other,” he explained. “The FUJINON Premier PL 18-85 T2.0 is an excellent wide to mid-range lens, while the Premier PL 75-400 T2.8-3.8 takes care of all my long lens needs. But my favorites are the two Premier PL 24-180 T2.6’s that I use with my A and B cameras because, with their wide focal lengths, lens changes are minimal.”

DP Perrault, CSC, has also been using Sim Video’s FUJINON PL zoom lenses to shoot “Alphas,” a new action thriller series for the SCI FI Channel featuring five ordinary people who acquire super human physical and mental capabilities.

“I’ve been using the FUJINON Premier PL 75-400 T2.8-T3.8 and Premier PL 18-85 T2.0 to shoot season one of ‘Alphas,’ and they’re both beautiful lenses,” Perrault said. “These compact lenses offer broad focal ranges, great coatings, and flare rejection qualities, nice markings for focus, and in particular, gorgeous ‘bokehs’ on the 18-85.” Considered the mark of an exceptional lens, a bokeh is the blur in the out-of-focus areas of an image. While some lenses produce bokehs that are unpleasant and distracting, FUJINON PL Mount lenses have the distinction of rendering very aesthetically pleasing blurs.

Regarding the FUJINON Premier PL 18-85 T2.0 lens, DP Blahacek said, “I will always carry this lens in my package. The resolution is amazing, and the lack of aberrations coupled with the fast T-stop put this lens in a class of its own.” Blahacek has been using this lens for almost two years to shoot several projects including: “Score: A Hockey Musical,” a film featured at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival; “Salem Falls,” a TV mini-series to air on Lifetime in 2012; and “The Listener,” a sci-fi TV series now in its second season on CTV, Canada’s leading broadcast network.

These three DPs, all with a long list of American and Canadian television credits, have long relied upon Sim Video for equipment rentals as well as responsive technical and customer support. In its more than 30 years in business, Sim Video has expanded from its Toronto headquarters, adding locations in Los Angeles, Vancouver, Atlanta, Halifax, and Beijing to better serve its customers. Sim Video’s FUJINON Premier PL mount zoom lenses, as well as its FUJINON “E” Series Zooms and HD ENG zooms are ideal companions to its high-end camera inventory, which includes the Arri Alexa, Red Epic, Phantom HD, Sony F35 and F800.

“FUJINON Premier PL zoom lenses are unique in that they provide cinematic and television productions with the same caliber of quality expected from the highest performing prime lens. Having the flexibility of a zoom means fewer lens changes on set which speeds up the overall space of production,” said Rob Sim, president of Sim Video. “Our investment in FUJINON Premier PL lenses was an easy decision given this lens maker’s legacy of providing superior product development and service to our industry.”

About Fujifilm
FUJIFILM North America Corporation, a marketing subsidiary of FUJIFILM Holdings America Corporation consists of five operating divisions and one subsidiary company. The Imaging Division sells consumer and commercial photographic products and services including film, one-time-use cameras, online photo services and fulfillment, digital printing equipment and service. The Electronic Imaging Division markets consumer digital cameras. The Motion Picture Division provides motion picture film, and the Graphic Systems Division supplies products and services to the printing industry. The Optical Devices Division provides binoculars, and optical lenses for closed circuit television, videography, cinematography, broadcast and industrial markets. FUJIFILM Canada Inc. markets a range of Fujifilm products and services. For more information, please visit www.fujifilm.com/northamerica, or go to www.twitter.com/fujifilmus to follow Fujifilm on Twitter. To receive news and information direct from Fujifilm via RSS, subscribe at www.fujifilmusa.com/rss.
FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation, Tokyo, Japan, brings continuous innovation and leading-edge products to a broad spectrum of industries, including electronic imaging, digital printing equipment, medical systems, life sciences, graphic arts, flat panel display materials, and office products, based on a vast portfolio of digital, optical, fine chemical and thin film coating technologies. The company was among the top 16 companies around the world granted U.S. patents in 2010, and in the year ended March 31, 2011, had global revenues of $25.8 billion*. Fujifilm is committed to environmental stewardship and good corporate citizenship. For more information, please visit www.fujifilmholdings.com.

* At an exchange rate of 86 yen to the dollar.

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners.

FUJIFILM Optical Devices Division, 10 High Point Drive, Wayne, New Jersey 07470. Phone: 973-633-5600. Fax: 973-633-5216. Web site: http://www.fujifilmusa.com/products/optical_devices/index.html.

Les Cinémas Guzzo (“Guzzo”), one of Canada’s leading independent chains and the largest privately owned cinema chain in Quebec, is going 100 percent digital with its recent purchase of projectors, support and services from Christie®. The contract includes the Christie CP2000ZX, Christie CP2000-SB, Christie CP2210, Christie CP2200, and Christie CP2300 projectors. It also includes the upgrading of 27 screens to the Christie CP4220 and Christie CP4230 4K projectors.
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With installation managed in-house – supported by Christie – the conversion of all 142 Guzzo screens is planned for completion by April 2012.
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“In addition to the terrific image quality offered by digital projection, the conversion will give us more flexibility in the types of presentation we can offer, such as 3D and 2D, and more personalized pre-show and alternative content,” says Vincenzo Guzzo, executive vice president and chief operating officer, Cinémas Guzzo. “It will also help us decrease booth labor cost.
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“With Christie, we get first-class service and great after-sale support. It’s also a bonus that their manufacturing is centered in Canada, since that means few border-crossing issues. We’ve been with Christie from our first installs in 2008, so we know they’re the most reliable choice for this project.”
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Dave Muscat, senior director of sales, Christie Canada, said, “Christie is honored to help Cinémas Guzzo make this pivotal transition to digital, with best-in-class product and flexible, customized service. Christie is committed to meeting the needs of all exhibitors, including independents. We have earned more than 85 percent of Canada’s digital cinema exhibition market through our commitment to long-term partnership with our customers.”
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Services as Well as Projectors Included
Guzzo has committed to working with Christie Managed Services in support of sourcing, integrating and validating hardware that enables Managed Services to remotely monitor and manage Guzzo’s digital cinema projection environments. Included with the hardware will be Library Management Servers that hold the feature films, advertisements, trailers and other digital content for playing on multiple screens.
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In addition, Cinémas Guzzo will use Christie ACT™, a theater automation controller to automate presentations in some of its theaters. Christie ACT translates cues from connected devices to control most theater equipment including lighting, curtains, sound, masking and projectors. Christie ACT is accessible on any networked computer, laptop or handheld device using any web browser.

BAYSIDE, CALIFORNIA, November 16, 2011 – Monterey Jazz Festival organizers decided that 2011 was the year they would bring performances from the venerable festival to a global audience through the power of streaming media. The decision paid off as the festival and two media partners reported impressive online viewing statistics for performers including the Robert Glasper Experiment, Carmen Souza and the Benny Green Trio.

Streaming media and content delivery provider StreamGuys provided the Internet broadcast services for the 54th Monterey Jazz Festival. Evening performances from the Night Club/Bill Berry Stage were hosted live over the websites of the Monterey Jazz Festival and Santa Cruz-based NPR member station KUSP-FM. Popular NPR jazz music blog “A Blog Supreme” also hosted the performances.

StreamGuys delivered H.264 video and AAC+ audio at varying bit rates to support an array of user speeds and media players. The company used its highly scalable, virtualized streaming infrastructure to deliver live, synchronized video and audio streams to desktops, laptops and mobile devices. StreamGuys provided embedded media players to all three websites to give viewers direct, simple and free access to the live streams.

Timothy Orr, marketing associate for Monterey Jazz Festival, noted that streaming media offers a unique opportunity to introduce jazz to new audiences. The webcast recorded more than 3,000 visitors from 59 countries, and expects that to grow in the coming years with more advance promotion.

“It’s about reaching more people,” said Orr. “We want to increase our audiences and put something out there that inspires people to come to the festival. Jazz needs to grow as a genre, and using technology in a forward-thinking manner is an ideal way to engage a younger demographic while gaining more exposure for the festival and the artists.”

The Monterey Jazz Festival first experimented with streaming media in April 2011, delivering stationary, single-camera live feeds to the Internet for its Next Generation Jazz Festival, which highlights top student musicians from around the country. Orr and his team, together with representatives from KUSP, soon began conversations with StreamGuys to put streaming plans in place for the September 2011 Monterey Jazz Festival.

McCune Audio produced the live video and audio, handing off the synchronized signal to StreamGuys via a Wirecast encoder. StreamGuys re-wrapped the original H.264 video stream for delivery to Apple iOS systems, Android mobile devices and embedded Flash players for web streaming. Multiple audio bit rates (300, 800 and 1500kbps) supported adaptive bit rate streaming in iOS and web-based platforms, ensuring that mostly anyone with a 3G, Wi-Fi or broadband connection could stream the performances.

“Streaming has become more of a reality for many organizations as people have moved away from dial-up and toward DSL, cable and T1, and the Next Generation Jazz Festival gave us the opportunity to evaluate today’s streaming experience,” said Orr. “We wanted the Monterey Jazz Festival stream to resemble a TV special with a professional, multi-camera shoot. We had the venue, the performers, the production team and the media partners, but no one to deliver it to the world. It was important for us to partner with a company like StreamGuys that had the experience.”

Steve Laufer, director of new media at KUSP-FM, was already familiar with StreamGuys, which hosts the station’s “KUSP Music Show Player” (http://kusp.org/archive/102.html), offering weekly music shows around the clock. KUSP has been affiliated with the festival for more than 30 years, broadcasting afternoon and evening performances from its largest venue over the air. This year was also the first time the station streamed video performances from the festival.

“StreamGuys made it easy for us to embed the stream in our web page, and provided onsite personnel and technical support over the phone throughout,” said Laufer. “The stream quality looked great, especially when viewed at full screen.”

Orr added that StreamGuys provided real-time viewer statistics that allowed all three media partners to confirm the number of viewers at each site at any time.

“The success of this event is a result of the synergy between a media company, a production company, a content delivery company and an entertainment company,” he said. “We proved that it can be done; now it’s about how far we will take it,” concluding the festival will explore a potential mix of free streams and subscription models.

About StreamGuys, Inc.
In business since 2000, StreamGuys, Inc. offers a variety of streaming media solutions and tools enabling superior quality delivery and monetization of digital media. Through devout dedication to improving the customer experience, StreamGuys has enjoyed continued success across all sectors of Internet broadcasting. Headquartered in Northern California, they currently serve a base of more than 500 clients worldwide, including such companies as Cisco, CIA, NBC Universal, NASA, New Balance and broadcasters such as WNYC, KQED, WXPN and American Public Media. Visit www.streamguys.com for more information on its products and services.

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StreamGuys, Inc – info@streamguys.com – www.streamguys.com – 707.667.9479
P.O. Box 828 Arcata, California 95518 – fax 707.516.0009

• All Sorenson Media Video Solutions Already Fully Optimized to Create Video for Playback on New Kindle Fire, Which Includes True 16:9 Movie Ratio on 7-Inch Screen
• Company’s Free Preset Exchange, with Presets Developed by Global Video Encoding and Transcoding Experts, Is Consistently on the Leading Edge for Optimization of the Most Popular Devices in the Video Marketplace

SAN DIEGO (November 16, 2011)—Sorenson Media today announced that all of the company’s video solutions have been optimized for Amazon’s New Kindle Fire—including the perennial award-winning Sorenson Squeeze desktop encoding application, the high-volume transcoding Sorenson Squeeze Server (both in the Cloud and on-premise), and the Sorenson 360 online video platform.

This company-wide optimization is available immediately via Sorenson Media’s Preset Exchange, at no additional charge to all Sorenson Media customers. The Preset Exchange – which is a unique to Sorenson Media – offers a full library of video encoding presets or “recipes” (including those for the new Amazon Kindle Fire) that can be downloaded directly to the company’s full suite of encoding and transcoding solutions. All of the presets have been developed by video encoding experts to optimize video playback for a wide range of devices and specifications. The Preset Exchange can be accessed at http://exchange.sorensonmedia.com or directly in Sorenson Squeeze, Squeeze Server or Sorenson 360.

“Sorenson Media’s full and immediate support and optimization for Kindle Fire is further evidence of our commitment to lead the video encoding and transcoding market in overall workflow and ease and flexibility of publishing the highest-quality video online,” said Randon Morford, director of Squeeze product development of Sorenson Media. “We are consistently among the first in the industry to optimize for all the most popular devices, and will remain on the forefront of quality and performance – for the benefit of enterprise users, SMBs, and individual video professionals and web developers alike.”

Sorenson Media has been among the first companies to optimize its video encoding and delivery solutions for a wide array of leading video products and platforms, providing its users with full, free support. The company has offered rapid or immediate optimization for all iterations of such major devices as the Apple iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch, and a broad range of mobile devices – in contrast to many other providers that fail to optimize their solutions for these devices, charge extra fees for compatibility, or make customers develop their own interoperability.

Optimization for the Kindle Fire, which began shipping today, includes precise specifications for H.264 and VP8 video, as well as a variety of audio codecs, including AAC, MP3 and Ogg that maximize the quality of the encoded video played on the device. The new Kindle Fire features a 16:9 video aspect ratio on a multi-touch 7-inch display, which includes 1024 x 600-pixel resolution at 169 ppi and 16 million colors.

About Sorenson Media

Sorenson Media (www.sorensonmedia.com) is an award-winning provider of the highest quality, differentiated video encoding solutions. With highly scalable cloud- and server-based encoding solutions and desktop applications, Sorenson Media empowers the enterprise and video professionals to easily and cost-effectively encode, transcode, manage and deliver the highest-quality video online and to mobile devices. Since 1995, Sorenson Media has been at the forefront of bringing online and mobile video into the economic and cultural mainstream. As video rapidly proliferates online, businesses and video professionals increasingly rely on Sorenson Media’s innovative solutions and legacy of trust to meet their evolving needs.

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Press Contact

Jacob Moon Sorenson Media Public Relations 801-461-9797
Jacob@methodcommunications.com

We’ve seen robots fighting in a kitchen, 17th century lovers chasing one another through a woman’s home, and a fireman rescue a child as a man casually looks on. Now, DIRECTV’s Don’t Just Watch TV campaign continues with an incredible man-on-wolf battle raging in a suburban home, the product of a brilliant collaboration between the LA and London offices of MPC and Biscuit Filmworks Director Noam Murro, all working via Grey NY.

Frozen in Time follows a fur-clad arctic explorer as he fights off a ferocious pack of wolves in the midst of a blizzard. This severe environment and intense battle are improbably couched in the modern home of a casually dressed man, who walks unhindered among the raging battle. The T-shirt-clad observer repeatedly pauses the action mid-fight as he wanders from room to room to grab a drink, answer the door for a pizza delivery, and relax on his couch. “With DIRECTV, you can start watching in one room, pause, and continue watching in any other room,” explains a narrator.

“This is the same team we worked with for Hot House, with Grey, Noam, Bruce McCloskey on production design, with the addition of Toby Irwin as DP,” MPC MD Andrew Bell explained, referring to the aforementioned and well-regarded fire rescue spot for DIRECTV. “Only this time, we really stepped up the post work, bringing the full force of LA and London together to create some really memorable effects.”

The post work indeed integrates seamlessly with the live action. Working with four live-action wolves, the combined crew generated a CG stand-in, a task necessitated by the tricky nature of working with live animals. “Everyone certainly tried their best to get the required performance out of the wolf, but that’s the risk you take when you use live-action wolves. We had to find a plate in which the wolf looked aggressive and had the correct eye line,” noted Bell. “Here, London’s expertise proved invaluable, as they were able to lead the creation of a perfect CG stand-in.”
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Los Angeles has its own expertise, and set all of the shots up, proxy modeling the bedroom and kitchen sets and the camera tracking of each scene. Using this information, London began generating the wolf as LA kicked out airborne snow and mist, breath condensation from the explorer and wolves, and flame and spark effects. “As in the previous spots in this series, each of these effects had to work both in real-time and for the frozen moments, where they would really be scrutinized,” stated Bell.

“This was a seamless intra-company collaboration that showcases how well we work in spite of our geographical distance,” Bell continued. “Franck Lambertz flew back to Los Angeles to supervise the shoot and oversaw the CG wolf team in London, while Benoit Mannequin looked after the snow and fire effects in LA. New York allowed Grey – who, as always, had a superb vision of their desired final product – to view HD real time work in progress, work with our senior colorist Mark Gethin remotely, and put the final film to tape.”

The final challenge came with the end of the spot, when the action leaves the home and emerges on a wall-mounted flatscreen. For this shot, MPC created a matte-painted background of a forest, rotoscoped the arctic explorer and composited the 3D world into the center of a computer-generated blizzard.

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Credits
Client: DIRECTV
Spot Title: Frozen in Place :30, :60
Air Date: November 2011

Agency: Grey, NY
Creatives: Dan Kelleher & Denise O’Bleness
Producer: Andrew Chinich

Prod Co: Biscuit Filmworks
Director: Noam Murro
DP: Toby Irwin
Producer: Colleen O’Donnell & Jay Veal

Editorial Co: Spot Welders
Editor: Haines Hall

Post/Effects Co: MPC LA & London
VFX Supervisors, LA: Mike Wynd (3D), Benoit Mannequin (2D)
VFX Supervisors, UK: Jake Mengers (3D), Franck Lambertz (2D)
MD, LA: Andrew Bell
EP, UK: Michael Stanish

VFX Team:
3D Artists: John Cherniack, Yas Koyama, Daniel Kmet, Dominic Edwards, Fabio Zaveti, Christopher Antoniou, Andreas Restle, Neil Griffiths

2D Artists: Kurt Lawson, Ben Persons (Matte Painter) , Thomas Borowski (Matte Painter), Christopher Fraser , Luke Todd, James Adamson, Toby Aldridge , Rob Walker , Byron Woofinden, Yourick Van Impe, Bruno Fukumothi, Ryan Hadfield

Telecine: MPC
Colorist: Mark Gethin
About MPC
MPC is an award winning VFX and Digital studio servicing the advertising, motion picture and television industries. From its London, New York, Santa Monica, Vancouver, and Bangalore offices, MPC’s dynamic and diverse team delivers industry-defining VFX, animation, motion graphics, color grading, production, projection mapping, social and mobile application development, online advertising, data management, software R&D and pipeline development.

With a trio of integrated divisions, MPC utilizes a unified approach that drives the use of existing or newly created assets across the whole range of today’s media landscape. MPC Creative handles client projects directly with top-notch directing, CG animation and character design. MPC FX Studio is a dedicated corps of graphic and digital designers who bring clients’ visions to life. MPC Data Lab processes the content and makes it available for editing on demand. MPC is a Technicolor Company.

moving-picture.com

More info: TRUST 646 452 3388 (NY) 310 451 5153 (LA) trustcollective.com

Burbank based AlphaDogs Post Production has completed work on the film A Star For Rose. A story that follows three homeless people who come together as a street family and their day to day struggles against the harsh realities of the world living life on the street. Cast members include: Debbie Allen, John Savage, and Tara Walker.

Producer Daniel Yost (Co-writer, Drugstore Cowboy) faced a big challenge when choosing a post facility after being told the audio on the film could not be fixed. Yost comments, “I contacted several post house facilities and AlphaDogs was the only company who said the audio could be fixed and still remain within my budget.”

Paul De Cham, General Manager of AlphaDogs helped usher the mix through one of the facilities 5.1 Pro Tools audio suites. Production sound issues were fixed with the use of multiple audio restoration plug-ins to reduce hiss, crackle, and overmodulation. “Producer Yost was concerned that all hope was lost with scenes that contained excessive background noise. He was pleasantly surprised to find that AlphaDogs possessed the essential noise reduction plug-ins and ambient sound effects that allowed the dialog to be more audible, especially for outdoor scenes.” said De Cham. “Having an extensive sound library for ambiance and sound design also allowed for a full surround soundscape adding to the emotional tone needed for the film.”

A Star For Rose was shot documentary-style in and around Hollywood and Santa Monica. Finishing editor and colorist Sean Stack used Final Cut Pro 7 to complete the edit. Scene setups did not allow time for perfect lighting conditions creating a challenge in keeping a look of progressive shifts in time throughout the day while telling the story. Stack was able to add contrast, saturation, and adjust color balance to match shots from different camera angles using Apple Color. “We were able to color correct scenes to keep the time of day consistent where it needed to be for the story points. Once the first pass of color grading to even out the footage was completed a second pass was performed to create a more cinematic feel to the video footage.” Stack said. Producer Yost comments, “Sean was amazing in the work he did with the color in making the picture look like film instead of HD. I would definitely come back to AlphaDogs with the service and quality of work I have received. The audio issues were resolved and the film looks great. Everyone was professional and easy to work with.”

The story follows the life of a 50-year-old African-American woman named Rose who begins her mornings by cleaning an empty star on Hollywood Boulevard’s Walk of Fame. Her life is spent ranting to the air and blaming everything on pigeons until she finds 20 year old Marcy asleep in her car. Rose becomes a surrogate mother to Marcy and teaches her the benefits of being homeless and how to survive on the streets. Meanwhile Marcy continues to wait for her chance to appear on TV’s Search For A Star and be discovered as a tap dancer. Rose’s world is further changed when she meets Mort. A 50-year-old Gulf War veteran in a wheelchair who thinks the shadow government is out to get him, prompting Rose to question his sanity. The three become like family. aiding one another in survival on the street.

A Star For Rose was written, produced, and directed by Daniel Yost for Cascade Sky Films and Co-produced by Paul DeCham of AlphaDogs Post Production.

About AlphaDogs: AlphaDogs is a full service post production company. Operating in the heart of Burbank’s media district, AlphaDogs offers state of the art editing bays, color correction, audio mixing, visual effects, production offices and equipment rentals. To learn more http://www.alphadogs.tv

November 16, 2011 — Markham, Ontario: Digital Rapids announced today that the company has joined Akamai’s NetAlliance Solution Partner Program. Akamai has expanded its partner program to encompass the digital media ecosystem through the NetAlliance Solution Partner Program, with Digital Rapids joining as one of the new expansion’s inaugural members.

“We’ve worked closely with Akamai on projects from live streaming of high-profile events to large-scale, multi-screen initiatives for some of the world’s largest media and entertainment enterprises, and we’re pleased to be further strengthening our relationship through the NetAlliance Solution Partner Program,” said Brick Eksten, President of Digital Rapids Corporation. “We look forward to continuing our success with Akamai as our customers tackle new opportunities and new challenges in the rapidly expanding media landscape.” more

Charlex is proud to announce that their latest film, ShapeShifter, received a Gold Prize for Technique in the Animation category at the 26th London International Awards. The standout short was one of only four Gold Prizes presented.

 
With narration by the incomparable Gabriel Byrne and a haunting score by Stimmung, ShapeShifter follows a mysterious sedan on a cosmic quest through an ominous dreamscape where shape and form know no bounds. Words, sounds, and images collide in a shared desire to answer the simple question: What are dreams?
 

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About Charlex
 
Charlex is a full-service creative studio based in New York City. We specialize in visual effects, animation, design and live-action. We’ve thrown fancy mission statements out the window and simply embrace versatility. Our motto is design and build. We can take any seed of an idea and bring it to life.

 
Making great work is the product of forging great relationships. Our team prides itself on fast, efficient work at the highest level of excellence. Our reputation is founded on a commitment to creating compelling imagery, regardless of the assignment. We are experts at building a seamless experience from concept to completion, from client brief to end result.

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Santa Monica, Calif. November 15, 2011 – Acura’s “Season of Reason” campaign returns for the third year featuring superstars Bette Midler and Gordon Ramsay. Developed by Acura’s agency of record, rp&, a division of RPA, the sales event campaign emphasizes the value of Acura for affluent but recession-fatigued shoppers.

“The ‘Season of Reason’ has become a humorous, annual reminder of Acura being a smart choice for customers seeking innovation and luxury,” said Susie Rossick, brand manager of Acura National Advertising. “Our goal is to stand out in the pack of end-of-the-year automotive advertising by being clever and wry, and these spots portraying holiday zealots overspending to hire personal celebrities is a funny twist on our successful past holiday campaigns.”

The spots, shot by The Perlorian Brothers, open with a holidaymaker making the well-intentioned announcement that they had hired celebrity talent to make for an extra-special holiday. In the spot starring actress Bette Midler, a local caroler brings her on to make his singing troupe the best on the block only to have the ostentatiously dressed Midler commandeer the group and deliver an outlandish performance. In the spot featuring Gordon Ramsay, a woman brings the celebrity chef into her home to prepare a special holiday dinner only to find her buttoned-up family sitting in awkward silence as Ramsay chews out and fires his staff. “At a time when it’s easy to go overboard, Acura invites you to be smarter and over-save during the Season of Reason sales event,” a narrator offers at the end of each spot.

“Our main message to those fed up with the overindulgence of the holidays is that Acura is a sensible choice,” said John Guynn, ACD/copywriter at rp&.

The creative team worked closely with the celebrity talent to ensure a flawless final cut. Highlights included Midler spontaneously creating her song her song in the studio and working with the off-set, affable version of Gordon Ramsay.

The TV campaign will launch on high-profile programming, including the NFL on CBS. Online banner ads will complement these featured spots, appearing on 18 top auto shopping sites, including KBB.com, Edmunds.com and Cars.com. The campaign will also include print, POP and radio ads.

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Credits
Agency: rp&
Exec. Creative Director: John Hage
Director of Art: Phillip Squier
ACD/AD: Eric Goldstein
ACD/Copywriter: John Guynn
Art Director: Puja Shah
Executive Producer: Jack Epsteen
Senior Producer: Carolyn Casey

Production Co: Furlined
Executive Producer: David Thorne
Line Producer: Josh Porter
Directors: The Pelorian Brothers
DPs: Bryan Newman/Curtis Clark

Editorial: Arcade Edit
Editor: Stewart Reeves
Post Producer: Ali Reed
Managing Partner (Arcade): Damian Stevens

Music Company: Elias Arts
ECD: Jonathan Elias
Music Creative Director: David Gold
Composer: Christopher Kemp
Exec Producer: Ann Haugen

Post House: Airship
VFX Artist: Matthew Lydecker
Post Producer: Lisa English

Audio Post: Juice West
Engineer: Bob Gremore

Telecine Company: MPC
Colorist: Mark Gethin
About rp&
rp& is a full-service marketing communications division of RPA, headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif. Established in 2008, rp& has been responsible for the development of all Acura National, Regional, Online, Direct Mail and Event Marketing communications. For more information, visit http://www.rpa.com.

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