Animators/graphics designers Eric Hochstein and Mark Levy have joined Flite 3 Studios, Baltimore. Hochstein was previously a graphic artist with the 3M Corporation. He will be offering design and graphic services for the firm’s corporate, educational and advertising agency clients. Levy worked as a graphic artist at Patuxent Publishing. He will be specializing in the design and execution of 3-D graphics. Flite 3 Studios is a full service film, video and new media production facility, which includes two sound stages, multi-camera location productions and digital linear and nonlinear editing, audio production and postproduction services.….Michael T. Nicolaou has been added to the staff of Blur Studio, Venice, Calif. He will serve as general manager for the visual effects, animation and design studio. Previously, Nicolaou worked at Boxx Technologies, a developer and manufacturer of Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Linux-based hardware and software solutions based in Austin, Texas. He has also served as a regional director for technology solutions provider Intergraph Corporation, Huntsville, Ala. While at Intergraph, Nicolaou introduced Windows and Linux solutions to numerous animation houses in the entertainment industry. Blur Studio provides computer animation and visual effects production services for feature films, episodic television series and television commercials….Troika Design Group, Hollywood, has added senior designer Reid Thompson. Earlier in his career, he had worked as a broadcast designer at now defunct Pittard Sullivan, where his clients included ABC, CBS, NBC, FX, Discovery Health, Antena 3 in Spain, and the German TV networks Junior and Kabel 1….
Snubs and Surprises In Oscar Nominations
In one of the more wide-open Oscar fields in recent history, there were plenty of nominations surprises Thursday. Not too long ago, it seemed that people like Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman were destined for best actress nominations, while general audience disinterest in the young Donald Trump movie "The Apprentice" might have indicated its awards chances were dead on arrival. But the members of the film academy had something different in mind. Here are some of the biggest snubs and surprises from the 97th Oscar nominations. SURPRISE: Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan, "The Apprentice" The young Trump movie "The Apprentice" has been one of the bigger awards season question marks, especially after it failed to resonate with moviegoers in theaters. And yet both Jeremy Strong, for his portrayal for Trump lawyer Roy Cohn, and Sebastian Stan (who was also in the conversation for "A Different Man" ), for playing the future two-time president, made it in. Only Strong got nominated by the Screen Actors Guild. SNUB: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, "Hard Truths" This will forever be one of the more confounding awards season oversights. Marianne Jean-Baptiste delivered one of the all-time great performances in Mike Leigh's "Hard Truths," as the perpetually aggrieved and sharp-tongued London woman Pansy. The general thinking is that it was either going to be Jean-Baptiste or Fernanda Torres, and Torres got in for the equally beloved "I'm Still Here." SNUB: Pamela Anderson, "The Last Showgirl" This is perhaps up for debate, but there was certainly a lot of goodwill behind Anderson's movie-star turn in Gia Coppola's "The Last Showgirl," especially considering her SAG nomination. But like with Jennifer Lopez and... Read More