August 3, 2012

Eli Roth guest speaker at 16th annual Emerging Cinematographer Awards in September
Los Angeles — Eli Roth, producer/director/writer/actor, will be the guest speaker at the International Cinematographer Guild’s (IATSE Local 600) 16th annual Emerging Cinematographer Awards (ECA) to be held at the Directors Guild of America Theater in Los Angeles on September 30.

Roth is known for his successful horror films, such as Cabin Fever (2002), Grindhouse (2007), Hostel (2005) and Hostel: Part II (2007). As an actor he gained fame as ‘Bear Jew’ in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (2009).

The ECAs are open to members of the Guild who are not yet Cinematographers but who performed that task for these shorts. A record number of more than 100 submissions were received this year.

Award-winning Art Director Sitha Ngy joins Copacino+FujikadoSitha Ngy has been hired as Senior Art Director at Seattle advertising and marketing firm, Copacino+Fujikado.

Sitha has excelled at three global agencies: Fallon, Crispin Porter+Bogusky and Publicis. He’s earned high accolades for campaigns for brands that include T-Mobile, American Express and Rock For Hunger.

A graduate of Washington State University and the Miami Ad School, Sitha’s work has been recognized by The One Show, CMYK, the Webbys and the American Advertising Federation.

Copacino+Fujikado (www.copacino.com) was founded in 1998 by Jim Copacino and Betti Fujikado. The agency has represented a number of major regional and national brands, including REI, The Seattle Mariners, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Safeco Insurance, Symetra, Premera Blue Cross and Seattle’s Convention and Visitors Bureau.

ANA Supports Ad-ID Standard for Commercial Ad CodingNew York – Heralding the importance and need for a singular, consistent and seamless commercial asset identification process, the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) Board of Directors announced its unanimous endorsement of Ad-ID as the standard for digital advertising coding. The ANA board wants the marketing ecosystem to embrace Ad-ID as the industry standard no later than January 1, 2014.
   For years the industry had been slow to accept a common coding system for all advertising assets. The unwavering support of the ANA board crystalizes a preference that, until this point, had been highly scattered.
   “Syndicated workflow efficiency and syndicated measurement effectiveness are critical imperatives for our industry,” said Bob Liodice, president and CEO of the ANA. “At a time when media fragmentation is growing and new platforms are being created every day, the ANA board’s endorsement of Ad-ID brings efficiency and precision to the advertising supply chain.”
   Until now, coding of advertising assets has taken a variety of forms — from logbooks and spreadsheets managed by agency staff to the highly sophisticated Ad-ID. The endorsement of Ad-ID by the ANA board brings with it the support of many of the world’s biggest brands.
   Developed jointly by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) and the ANA, Ad-ID replaced the previous ISCI commercial coding system several years ago. Now with substantial advances in digital advertising asset management, ANA’s board wants to accelerate supply chain productivity improvements and syndicated measurement advances. 

Producer Hawk Koch elected film academy presidentBEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has elected producer Hawk Koch as its new president.

The group’s board of governors elected Koch to its top office Tuesday for a one-year-term. He served as first vice president of the film academy last year and has represented its producers branch as a governor for nine years.

Koch’s credits include “Losing Isaiah,” ”Gorky Park” and “Source Code.” He succeeds film executive Tom Sherak, who served three consecutive terms as president.

Google buying social-media startup Wildfire
NEW YORK (AP) — Google is buying a company that specializes in social media marketing as it intensifies competition with Facebook for ad dollars and attention.

The company, Redwood City, Calif.-based Wildfire, helps businesses such as Cirque du Soleil and Spotify manage social media efforts across the Internet.

It’s an important area for Google as people spend more time on social networks such as Facebook and as advertisers follow them. Google’s social network, Google Plus, hasn’t had the traction that Facebook Inc. enjoys. Wildfire will let Google play a role whether the ad campaign is on Google Plus, Facebook, Twitter or elsewhere.

Wildfire’s co-founders and other staff will join Google Inc. The deal’s financial details were not disclosed.

In recent months, Oracle Corp. and Salesforce.com Inc. also have reached deals to buy similar startups.

Veteran VFX supervisor Peter Vazquez joins KMPBURBANK, Calif. — Keep Me Posted (KMP), a FotoKem company, has appointed veteran VFX Supervisor Peter Vazquez to spearhead the expansion of the company’s visual effects services.

Vazquez’s experience in visual effects cinematography and supervision includes work for television, commercials, features, main titles and themed entertainment. In his new role, Vazquez will oversee the VFX pipeline and deliverables, extending KMP’s one-stop shop services.

He will utilize FotoKem’s multifaceted infrastructure to provide comprehensive services via the company’s network, linking its family of subsidiaries that includes Margarita Mix, SPY, and LA Studios.  

Vazquez has earned extensive credits as a visual effects supervisor and cinematographer. Since 2007, he has worked on such television series as Eli Stone, Grey’s Anatomy and Las Vegas, and created main titles for Dancing with the Stars and The Bold and the Beautiful. Previously, he spent over a dozen years as a VFX supervisor at Stargate Studios in addition to shooting visual effects, miniatures, models, blue/green screen and motion control. His visual effects cinematography credits include CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and CSI: Miami, for which he was part of th eteam that created the point-of-view shots that take audiences into the bodies of cadavers.  

“The plans we are putting into place will make the facility an even more powerful option for producers and creatives,” Vazquez said. “Now, we can take a project from script breakdown and pre-production to post and finishing with the most efficient turnaround, and deliver a high quality product.”

In addition to his expertise as a VFX supervisor, Vazquez is a member of the International Cinematographers Guild (ICG) with hands-on production knowledge encompassing every camera currently on the market, an important asset in the ongoing evolution of production, visual effects and post.

Cheney, Pryor get Showtime ‘Closeup’ profiles
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Showtime says it’s launching a new documentary showcase, with Dick Cheney and the late Richard Pryor among the first to be profiled.

The cable channel told the Television Critics Association on Monday that the series titled “Closeup” will offer provocative studies of culturally significant people.

Among the first films will be “The World According to Dick Cheney,” which Showtime described as a measured, complex look at President George W. Bush’s vice president.

Other documentaries include “Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic” and “Suge Knight: American Dream-American Knightmare.”

Filmmaker Brett Ratner (“Rush Hour”) will profile music mogul Tommy Mottola, who has worked with stars including Michael Jackson, Diana Ross and Mariah Carey. Mottola and Carey divorced after five years of marriage.

Air dates for the “Closeup” documentaries were not immediately announced.

Company 3, MOFAC join forces for South Korean virtual outpost
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Award-winning post house Company 3, a subsidiary of Deluxe Entertainment Services Group Inc., has partnered with Seoul, South Korea-based post facility Mofac Studio to provide feature film and commercial clients in the region color grading services from Company 3’s world-renowned artists.

Like the nearly 20 other Company 3 “virtual outposts” throughout the world, this one will allow Korea-based clients working out of MOFAC to collaborate in real time with any of the colorists based in any of Company 3’s Santa Monica, New York, Atlanta, or London facilities.

“South Korea has an extremely robust film industry and is the center of a great deal of high-end commercial production,” said Jackie Lee, Company 3’s Vice President, Sales. “This ‘virtual outpost’ is a wonderful way to bring clients working there to our Company 3 colorists.”

The outposts are set up to ensure perfect calibration of displays in the two locations so that everyone at both facilities sees exactly the same images and image refinements — as though they were together in the same theater. These innovative extensions of Company 3 offer clients worldwide exciting new creative, collaborative post production opportunities.

“For years, I have spoken with colleagues about how exciting it would be to have the same kind of connectivity in our business that the internet has brought to so much else,” said Mofac CEO Jang Seong Ho. “Fast forward to 2012, and this is now a reality here in Korea through the partnership between Mofac and Company 3. Our clients can now work with the best colorists in the world virtually without ever having to travel outside the city. Not only is the commercial industry buzzing over this, but the film industry as well. Both our companies are positioned perfectly to benefit from this new technology and the pipeline we now have with Company 3.”

Easy win for NBC in Nielsens
NEW YORK (AP) — The weekly television ratings competition is no competition with the start of the Summer Olympics.

NBC won easily with its Olympics coverage. Friday’s opening ceremony drew more than 40 million viewers, numbers that were about the same as for the Grammy and Academy awards ceremonies this year, and far more than anything else on U.S. television this summer.

The Nielsen company said the first two nights of competition that followed had NBC getting bigger audiences than they had in the Beijing Olympics four years ago.

NBC’s average audience for the week was four times its closest challenger, CBS.

Rihanna, Drake score 5 Video Music Award nods
NEW YORK (AP) – The MTV Video Music Award nominations are out, and Rihanna and Drake are leading the pack with five nominations each.
   Last year’s big winner Katy Perry isn’t far behind, with four nominations.
   Rihanna has two chances to win for video of the year; she’s nominated both for her hit “We Found Love” and for her duet with Drake on “Take Care.” Others in the category include Katy Perry for “Wide Awake”; Gotye for “Somebody That I Used To Know”; and M.I.A. for “Bad Girls.”
   The show will air live from Los Angeles on Sept. 6, and will feature performances from four-time VMA winner Alicia Keys and One Direction, up for best pop video for their hit “What Makes You Beautiful.” 

Online hit ‘Dr. Horrible’ to debut on CW TV Oct. 9
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Dr. Horrible is coming to television.

The CW network says the 2008 online hit “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” will air as an hour-long special in October.

The musical stars Neil Patrick Harris (“How I Met Your Mother”) as Billy, aka Dr. Horrible, an inept would-be villain trying for world domination. Nathan Fillion (“Castle”) co-stars as Dr. Horrible’s nemesis, Captain Hammer. Felicia Day plays Penny, Dr. Horrible’s crush.

“Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” was directed and co-written by Joss Whedon (“The Avengers,” ”Buffy the Vampire Slayer”). It’s scheduled to air on CW on Oct. 9.

Jackson to make ‘The Hobbit’ into a trilogy
BURBANK, Calif. (AP) — Peter Jackson is adding a third film to what was planned to be the two-part series “The Hobbit.”

The director of the Oscar-winning “The Lord of the Rings” movies said Monday that after viewing a cut of the first film and part of the second that there was room for a third.

Jackson says in a statement that a lot of J.R.R. Tolkien’s tale of Bilbo Baggins would remain untold if a third film wasn’t made. The films are set in the fictional world of Middle-earth 60 years before “The Lord of the Rings.”

“We recognized that the richness of the story of ‘The Hobbit,’ as well as some of the related material in the appendices of ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ gave rise to a simple question: do we tell more of the tale?” Jackson said in a statement. “And the answer from our perspective as filmmakers and fans was an unreserved ‘yes.’ “

“We know how much of the tale of Bilbo Baggins, the Dwarves of Erebor, the rise of the Necromancer, and the Battle of Dol Guldur would remain untold if we did not fully realize this complex and wonderful adventure,” he said.

Warner Bros. and MGM will continue their partnership to make the trilogy.

The first film, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” hits theaters Dec. 14, while the second, “The Hobbit: There and Back Again” is set for release on Dec. 13, 2013.

The third film will come out in the summer of 2014.

All three movies are being shot in digital 3-D in New Zealand, which is home to Jackson’s Weta Digital special effects house. Principal photography recently finished on the first two films.

Jackson, his wife Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Guillermo del Toro are listed as co-writers of the first two films.

Brickyard VFX brings beauty to life in Ruby Sparks
SANTA MONICA, Calif.–Directorial duo Dayton/Faris tapped longtime collaborators at bicoastal Brickyard VFX for all visual effects work on their second indie feature, Ruby Sparks. 

Dayton/Faris has partnered with Brickyard VFX since the company’s inception on numerous music videos, commercials, and other projects.

In Ruby Sparks, Calvin (Paul Dano) is a young novelist who achieved phenomenal success early in his career but is now struggling with his writing — as well as his romantic life. Finally, he makes a breakthrough and creates a character named Ruby who inspires him. When Calvin finds Ruby (Zoe Kazan), in the flesh, sitting on his couch about a week later, he is completely flabbergasted that his words have turned into a living, breathing person.

“Our job on Ruby Sparks was to enhance and polish the shots, keeping it artful and beautiful without detracting from the storytelling,” said Brickyard’s VFX executive producer Kirsten Andersen. “All of our work needed to be photo-real and elegant, fitting with the film’s aesthetic. This is one of those projects where if we did our job right, the viewer won’t even know we were there.”

Brickyard delivered 80 VFX shots for Ruby Sparks. Sequences that Brickyard contributed to include the film’s opening scene, a swimming pool scene shot underwater, skywriting over the Los Angeles skyline, and images of Ruby dreamily projected onto a ceiling. The opening scene features Ruby as an almost heavenly figure, surrounded by light and seemingly walking on air.

“While the sequence was shot practically, we did quite a bit of tweaking on the color and lighting, working closely with the directors to polish the shot exactly as they intended it to be seen,” explained VFX artist Chris Sonia. 

Ruby Sparks opened on Wednesday, July 25. View the trailer here: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/rubysparks/

Marker, famed director of “La Jetee,” dies at 91PARIS (AP) — France’s Culture Ministry has confirmed that award-winning French filmmaker Chris Marker has died, one day after his 91st birthday.

Many critics count Marker, with his experimental documentary style, as among the most influential French filmmakers of the post-war era.

His 1962 classic “La Jetee” — a 28-minute post-apocalyptic movie comprised almost entirely of stills — is often ranked among the best time-travel films ever made.

It was the inspiration for Hollywood’s “Twelve Monkeys,” which Marker co-wrote.

Cannes Film Festival President Gilles Jacob called Marker an “indefatigable filmmaker,” paying homage to a director who was still active into his 80s.

Emmy producer says memorial tribute a challengeBy Lynn Elber, Television Writer
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — The producer of this year’s Emmy Awards said it’s a challenge to decide who to include in the ceremony’s memorial tribute.

About three-dozen stars and other industry notables typically are honored in the “in memoriam” segment, although many more are deserving, executive producer Don Mischer said Friday.

He said he and the TV academy identify the late actors and other TV notables who will create an “emotional response” among Emmy viewers. That drew a wry observation from Jimmy Kimmel, who will host the Sept. 23 awards on ABC.

“I love that even in death, you’re subject to a popularity contest,” Kimmel said.

Omissions typically are more an issue for the Oscars than the Emmys. But some viewers objected when the death of “Taxi” star Jeff Conaway wasn’t noted in last year’s Emmy tribute.

Other than the host, the segment is consistently the audience’s favorite part of the telecast, Mischer said told a meeting of the Television Critics Association.

He was asked if Andy Griffith, who died July 3 at age 86, would get special attention because of the actor’s beloved 1960s comedy, “The Andy Griffith Show,” and his subsequent long-running legal drama, “Matlock.”

There are ways to focus attention on individuals with a unique position in the industry, Mischer said, such as placing their tribute at the beginning or end of the memorial segment.

ABC late-night host Kimmel was asked if he was annoyed the network didn’t ask him to host the Emmys the last time it aired the awards, in 2008. The emcee job went to five reality TV show hosts, including Jeff Probst of “Survivor” and Heidi Klum of “Project Runway,” who were roundly panned.

Kimmel said he took some satisfaction in the outcome.

“I was able to look good by not doing anything at all. That’s my goal in life, by the way,” he said.

Stars of ‘Modern Family’ reach contract dealBy Anthony McCartney, Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The stars of “Modern Family” have reached new contracts to keep working on the Emmy-winning comedy, ending a dispute that had threatened to spill over into a courtroom.

A 20th Century Fox spokesman confirmed Friday evening that the deals had been reached and that shooting on the ABC series’ fourth season will begin Monday.

The deals cover stars Sofia Vergara, Ed O’Neill, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Eric Stonestreet and Jesse Tyler Ferguson.

Five of the actors sued Fox on Tuesday, asking a judge to rule their contracts on the hit show are illegal and should be invalidated. O’Neill joined the case later in the week.

Executive producer Christopher Lloyd said the lawsuit wouldn’t have interfered with production but it is “great to have that not hanging over our head.” He said there would be no ill will on the set because the situation was resolved quickly and the show has a “charmed setup.”

“Modern Family,” a popular comedy that airs on ABC, has won Emmy Awards for outstanding Comedy Series the past two years. Several of the stars, including Burrell, Bowen and Stonestreet have won individual Emmys for their work on the show.

The show was recently nominated for 14 Emmy Awards, the most of any sitcom.

The lawsuit, which claimed the actors’ contracts were illegal because they bound them to the show for more than seven years, will be dropped. Exact terms of the deal were not released.

“The particular grounds for the lawsuit are debatable,” Lloyd said. “It was a tactic in negotiations. I don’t think it was ever taken that seriously.

“It was a step along the way. I think personally our actors got some bad advice,” he said, quickly adding: “I have nothing negative to say about our actors.”

Asked if the standoff could have been avoided, he replied: “It could have been avoided if Fox and ABC wanted to overpay. It could have been avoided if the actors asked for less than they probably deserve.” But neither side wanted to back down.

“I don’t know the terms of (the deal), probably both sides feel it didn’t end up where they wanted it to end up and that’s usually the sign it was a well-executed negotiation,” he said.

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