This week Ascent Media Group’s R!OT Atlanta officially launches a renovation and expansion, which increases the company’s overall space by more than 50 percent and includes new infrastructure to support HD, editorial, audio, visual effects and finishing capabilties. Three new 5.1-capable mixing suites, equipped with Fairlight Dream Constellations and MSoft’s server-based music and sound effects storage system, finish off the expansion. Additionally, R!OT Atlanta, which does not currently offer telecine services, has become a host site for Ascent Media’s UP Satellite service, which provides remote, real-time telecine sessions with colorists at sister companies R!OT Santa Monica, Company 3 (Santa Monica and New York) and Encore Hollywood….San Francisco-based animation studio Wild Brain has appointed entertainment executive Charles Rivkin as CEO. Rivkin formerly served as president/CEO of Hollywood-based The Jim Henson Company, known worldwide for its creation of The Muppets, as well as its television, film and video production, visual effects, character licensing and children’s publishing businesses. “Wild Brain is a well capitalized, artist-driven company that has the potential to become one of the most important players in CG animation” said Rivkin in a released statement. “I’m thrilled to have the chance to work with such an extraordinary group of people and I believe that Wild Brain will be a magnet for some of the most creative writers, directors and producers in the animation industry.” ….Bicoastal Post Logic Studios has hired colorist Sheri Eisenberg for its Hollywood-based digital intermediate team. Eisenberg previously worked at Hollywood-based Laser Pacific Media Corp. Post Logic also named Darby Walker as commercial producer for its Hollywood facility. During her career, she has served as an executive producer of commercials and music videos at R!OT Santa Monica, as well as executive producer at Santa Monica-based Radium…..
A Nomination Tradition: DGA Award, Best Director Oscar Discrepancy Continues
The awards season norm has seen the nearly annual occurrence of at least one difference between the lineups of Best Director Oscar and the DGA Award nominees. In only five of the  77 years of the DGA Awards have the Guild nominations exactly mirrored their Academy Award counterparts. This time around Edward Berger and Coralie Fargeat are in line with the predominant history. Fargeat earned a Best Director Oscar nomination this week for The Substance (MUBI). Berger, who didn’t make the directorial Oscar cut, earned a DGA Award nomination for Conclave (Focus Features). Four of the five directors vying for the DGA Award and the Outstanding Achievement in Directing Oscar are in sync this year: Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez (Netflix) Sean Baker for Anora (Neon), Brady Corbet for The Brutalist (A24), and James Mangold for A Complete Unknown (Searchlight). On the flip side of tradition, if Fargeat were to win the directing Oscar, that development wouldn’t be aligned with but rather bucking history. Only eight times has the DGA Award winner not gone on to win the Oscar. That happened most recently in 2020 when Sam Mendes won the DGA Award for 1917 while Bong Joon-ho scored the Oscar for Parasite. Fargeat has already made a bit of history, scoring just the 10th Best Director Oscar nomination ever for a woman. The Substance is up for five Oscars--the other nominations being for Best Picture, Leading Actress (Demi Moore), Original Screenplay (Fargeat), and Makeup & Hairstyling (Pierre-Olivier Persin, Stephanie Guillon, Marilyne Scarselli). Even without a Best Director nomination, Conclave tallied eight Oscar nods--for Best Picture, Leading Actor (Ralph... Read More