New York-based creative digital production company Click 3x announced that it has added Emmy Award-nominated creative director, Steve Tozzi, to its roster. He last served as creative director at PURE in New York. Before joining PURE in 2004, where he helped launch the new studio, Tozzi worked with Patrick McDonough of New York-based PMCD Design as design director. Over the years, Tozzi’s clients have included Footlocker/Nike, MTV, Lowes, ESPN and Verizon Wireless. He earned an Emmy nomination for his creative package for the ESPN X Games and has received numerous BDA Awards including two World Silvers for a Sky Cinema Classics package… Artist-owned-and-operated visual effects company Brickyard VFX, with bases in Santa Monica and Boston, has hired compositing and visual effects talent Jimi Simmons, who had most recently been freelancing after serving as director of visual effects at Pisces, Boston. Prior to that, Simmons worked at an array of leading San Francisco creative studios, including now-closed Western Images, where he served as VP and director of visual effects. During this time, he built relationships with Bay Area production entities and accrued credits in both features (Men in Black, Spawn, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace) and commercials (Coca-Cola, Captain Crunch, Budweiser, Miller Genuine Draft, Pillsbury). While with Western Images, he also garnered two Emmy Award nominations for the television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles…The Filmworkers Club’s Dallas locale has added colorists Joe Malina and Oscar Oboza to its staff. Both arrive with commercial, music video and independent film credits. Malina was formerly on staff at the Austin, Texas boutique Match Frame where over the past five years he has completed numerous assignments for GSD&M and other top creative agencies. Oboza previously worked at the Minneapolis post house Hi-Wire and has strong relationships with leading Midwestern ad agencies including Fallon, for whom he has colored spots for such national advertisers as Subway and Lee Jeans. The two men join colorist Valerie Christensen at the Dallas facility…Motion capture technology developer Vicon and House of Moves, the company’s motion capture service division, opened a new 25,000-square foot facility in Marina del Rey, Calif. The studio brings together House of Moves’ motion capture production services with Vicon’s hardware and software development, product support and consulting. The facility offers multiple stages for real-time simultaneous full-body, hand and facial capture with Vicon MX40 motion capture cameras. Stage 1 measures 150 by 70 feet with a 25-foot ceiling and is designed for large-scale, high character count real-time capture. Stage 2 is of the same size and is being designed to record studio-quality audio during performance capture sessions, capturing face, finger and full-body motion of multiple actors simultaneously and at high resolution. The facility also provides the opportunity to demonstrate, use and test Vicon technology prior to purchasing…Newbury, U.K.-headquartered Quantel promoted Neil Hinson to the position of research and development director. Hinson has been with Quantel since in 1980 and previously served as chief engineer. In that role, he was the project manager who delivered Quantel products such as Harry, Henry and Clipbox, and he was also one of the key architects of Quantel’s current generationQ product family….Cincinnati-based Lightborne has launched a CG division, headed by digital effects supervisor David Lombardi, who has experience in commercials, videogames, feature films, episodics and music videos. He will be responsible for new business development, maintaining client relations, overseeing all visual effects work and building the CG department. Most recently, he was a digital effects supervisor/on-set supervisor/senior artist at Santa Monica-headquartered The Syndicate/Computer Cafç where he specialized in commercials and music videos….Burbank-based post facility Matchframe Video has named Barry Nulman as COO. Nulman brings over 20 years of experience in the postproduction industry, most recently oversight of Avid Technology’s market development in Hollywood. Earlier, he held positions including president of Hollywood-based The Post Group and president of Anderson Video at Universal Studios in Universal City….Postproduction sound facility Pacific Soundwaves announced that Michael Geisler has joined the company as supervising sound editor. Geisler is a 20-year veteran of the postproduction industry and has received two Emmy Awards, five Emmy nominations for sound editing and design, and a number of Golden Reel Awards. He founded BadaBing BadaBoom Productions in 1998, where he handled sound design and sound/music editing, Foley, ADR, dialogue recording, foreign language dubbing and more, for animation and live-action TV, direct-to-video, feature film, Web-based media, radio, and commercials….
Beyoncé’s Halftime Show Highlighted Netflix’s NFL Debut On Xmas Day
Beyoncé provided more excitement than either game during Netflix's NFL debut on Christmas Day.
Riding into her halftime appearance on a white horse, the 32-time Grammy winner rocked her hometown Houston crowd with a nearly 13-minute performance on Wednesday.
She surprised fans by bringing along Shaboozey to perform "Sweet Honey Buckiin" and Post Malone joined her for "Levii's Jeans."
The action on the field didn't live up to expectations as the NFL showcased four of the AFC's top five teams.
Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce exposed a glitch in Pittsburgh's defense during Kansas City's 29-10 rout in the first game.
The broadcast itself went off just fine, quickly becoming the second-most popular live title on Netflix to date, according to NFL Media.
Lamar Jackson and the Ravens led C.J. Stroud and the Texans to 17-2 at halftime before Beyoncé stole the show.
Mariah Carey opened Wednesday's doubleheader with a taped performance of "All I Want for Christmas is You" and then the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs trounced the Steelers to clinch the No. 1 seed in the AFC.
There were no signs of any major streaming issues during the game after Netflix experienced minor blunders at the start of the pregame show. The broadcast opened with roughly 10 seconds of silence because it appeared studio host Kay Adams' microphone wasn't turned on.
Beyoncé's live performance at NRG Stadium was supposed to be the biggest test for the streaming giant and it seemed to go off without a hitch.
Mahomes threw for 320 yards and three touchdowns and Kelce had eight catches for 84 yards and one score as the Chiefs (15-1) earned a first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs. The... Read More