Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, which started in Hollywood 90 years ago (under the William Fox Studio film lab banner) and became an industry mainstay in Southern California, has now added to that heritage with the new Bud Stone Building at the company’s Hollywood campus. A dedication/ribbon cutting ceremony was held this week (7/20) for the building which is named after Burton “Bud” Stone, who served as president of Deluxe from 1976 until his retirement in 1994. Stone passed away in April 2008 at the age of 80, leaving behind a storied legacy, which included not only contributing to the growth of Deluxe but also mentoring assorted people, and taking a proactive role in support of the filmmaking community.
The Bud Stone Building increases the Deluxe Hollywood campus to 152,000 square feet. The expansion includes the installation of new, higher capacity film processing and printing machines that will create greater efficiency in handling theatrical release schedules for studio customers in the U.S. Furthermore, updated technology enables Deluxe to decrease use of electricity by an estimated 20 percent and to realize some 25 percent savings on water as part of the company’s programs to cut back utility and chemical usage while also reducing, reusing and recycling raw materials during production of motion picture film prints.
The dedication ceremony for Deluxe’s Bud Stone Building drew a turnout that included Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, filmmakers such as Brett Ratner and Julie Taymor, American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) president Michael Goi, International Cinematographers Guild president Steven Poster, lauded cinematographer Owen Roizman, and Stone’s family, including his children, grandchildren and wife Judy Stone.
Deluxe chairman Ronald O. Perelman and Deluxe president/CEO Cyril Drabinsky joined Mayor Villaraigosa and Judy Stone on stage for the formal ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Perelman offered his reflections on Bud Stone, first from the perspective of a competitor. Perelman noted that in the mid-1980s he became owner of Technicolor, an arch business rival of Deluxe. “We faced Bud Stone as a worthy competitor,” said Perelman, citing Stone’s “integrity, spirit, generosity and loyalty” as making him beloved throughout the marketplace.
Those qualities, continued Perelman, made it clear that Deluxe’s Hollywood expansion should be dedicated to Stone.
Drabinsky cited Stone’s close-knit professional relationships with artists, including filmmakers and cinematographers, as being a major part of Deluxe’s success.
Stone received the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ John A. Boner Medal of Commendation for outstanding service and dedication to the industry and was conferred honorary membership in the ASC, a tribute that has been reserved for a select group outside the ranks of cinematographers, including Thomas Edison, George Eastman and astronaut “Buzz” Aldrin.
Stone also played a key role in the creation of the ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards. And fittingly the 2009 ASC Heritage Award was dedicated to Bud Stone. Inaugurated in 1999, the ASC Heritage Award–which recognizes the talent of undergraduate, graduate and recently graduated film school students–has been dedicated to the memory of a different cinematographer each year. This year was the first that the award was dedicated to the memory of an extraordinary individual in the film industry who was not a DP.
While Deluxe has expanded over the years with facilities in New York and internationally, Perelman noted that the company’s roots are in Los Angeles. He credited Mayor Villaraigosa’s support as helping to make Deluxe’s Hollywood expansion a reality.
Villaraigosa said that the Bud Stone Building reflects what has been building momentum for Hollywood. The Mayor said there’s been “a renaissance” of restaurants, tourism and investments in Hollywood recently. He noted that Deluxe maintains a staff of 500 in Hollywood, contributing to a total of more than 2,100 skilled workers employed by the company in Southern California. “The fact that Deluxe has decided to grow and invest here for another generation is an acknowledgement that Hollywood is on the right track,” said Villaraigosa.
Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc. is a leading provider of a wide range of entertainment industry services and technologies, including motion picture film processing, printing and distribution; EFILM digital intermediates; postproduction and subtitling services; titles design; digital VFX; DVD compression, encoding and authoring; digital cinema services, digital asset management, digital distribution; and marketing fulfillment services.
Deluxe maintains facilities in Greater Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, London, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, Vancouver, B.C., Melbourne and Sydney.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More