SHORT CUTS
Santa Monica-based SimEx Digital Studios completed a :30 for Kellogg’s Froot Loops and Leo Burnett USA, Chicago. "Aquarium," the final spot in Toucan Sam’s Extreme Adventure series, features the cereal’s mascot in an Egyptian temple setting to introduce "marshmallow mummies" shapes. SimEx credits include visual effects supervisor Nick Bates; executive producer Allen Yamashita; CGI artists Mark Shoaf, Chris MacKinnon, Nick Panagos, Jeff Chung, Spencer Levy and Kieron Lo; 2-D animation director Jean Perramon; 2-D producer Christina Cox; 2-D animator Roberto Casale; cel assistant director Ingin Kim; clean-up/inking artist Ed Hartley; tones/highlights artist Dave Bossert; and offline editor Jamie Norton.
FireWorks Motion Media, a special effects firm in Coral Gables, Fla., has upgraded its technologies and equipment. The company’s new tools include two Macintosh G4 Supercomputers, one with uncompressed digital video input and output; a Media 100 video board for pre-visualization and test work for video in real time; RealViz’s Matchmover and ReTimer software; 3-D animation system Softimage Xsi; and a new media studio based on Macintosh and Windows 2000 professional workstations for interactive content creation.
Jeff Meltzer Editorial (JME), New York, completed postproduction for an edition of MSNBC’s Headliners & Legends with Matt Lauer, which featured a profile of actor Tom Hanks. The editing team for JME consisted of senior Avid editors Richard Kronenberg and Terri Barbagallo, with JME VP Paul J. Girgenti as operations coordinator. Additionally, JME’s Kronenberg lent his editing skills to the first installment of We Are One Family, a new series on the Odyssey channel. Director on the project is Jeff Meltzer.
MUSIC NOTES
Howard Schwartz Recording (HSR), New York, and HSR/Silvercup, Long Island City, N.Y., and engineers Fernando Ascani, Bill Higley and Leslie Mona Mathis have been busy providing ADR and Sarah Jessica Parker’s voiceovers for Sex and the City, and ADR for the television shows The Fugitive, Third Watch, JAG, The Simpsons, Gilmore Girls, The Street, Rocket Power and Big Apple. HSR/Silvercup is HSR’s automatic dialogue replacement (ADR) dialogue recording and mix facility, which has ISDN capabilities.
John Trivers and Elizabeth Myers of Trivers/Myers Music, Manhattan Beach, Calif., have signed with Paramount Pictures/Showtime to compose the music for the feature The Day Reagan Was Shot. The film is based on the unusual events that took place during the 24-hour period following the assassination attempt on President Reagan. Richard Dreyfuss stars as Alexander Haig, with Cyrus Nowrasteh directing and Oliver Stone executive-producing.
Peter Rincon of Santa Monica-headquartered POP Sound mixed three :30 promos for the Cartoon Network and agency Jager Dipaolo Kemp, Burlington, Vt. "Chakarama Snow," "Chakarama Surf" and "Chakarama Combo," which were designed to raise awareness about Powerpuff Girls merchandise, show three teenage girls on various adventures with their Powerpuff towels and apparel.
