Shotgun Software has released Shotgun 7.6, the latest version of its cloud-based review and production tracking software. This release delivers a new set of analytics and reporting tools which give studio leaders the ability to visualize key production metrics, keep a close eye on the progress of their projects, and make business-critical decisions fast.
Faced with shorter timelines, tighter budgets, and growing creative demands, studios need to be efficient, identify business issues quickly, and adjust where and how resources are being used during production–rather than after the fact. Now, instead of relying on manual reporting and gut instinct, Production Insights in Shotgun provide studio leaders with a high-level overview of the health of projects as well as the ability to dive into the details to see where time and resources are used, so operations can be streamlined and better decisions can be made, faster.
“Shotgun’s Production Insights help us work realtime software development and scrum-style methods for task organization into our VFX pipeline. So far this workflow has had an immediate positive effect on the communication we’ve been able to achieve between our departments,” said Kent Rausch, associate VR producer, Framestore. “The more data we can share across disciplines helps us work more predictably and efficiently, and these new tools are a great first step in helping us get there.”
James Pycock, head of product for Shotgun, Autodesk, said, “Our new Production Insights features help Shotgun customers answer critical, urgent, and costly production questions such as: Are we going to hit our deadline? How much work is there left to do? Where are we struggling? Having access to these tools out of the box gives everyone instant at-a-glance visualizations of how and where they are spending time and resources. We believe that sophisticated data analytics will help facilities of all sizes turn their production data into real insights which can help them remove guesswork and optimize the production process.”
Shotgun Production Insights include:
- Analytics: Apply production data in Shotgun to optimize how resources are used, plan ahead for tight deadlines and budgets, and accurately compile bids for upcoming projects
- Data Visualization: Explore new graph types including pie charts, vertical bar charts and line charts in addition to the existing horizontal bar chart in Shotgun
- Data Grouping: Display data as stacked or un-stacked bar charts to visualize in even greater at-a-glance detail
- Presets: Drag and drop from a number of pre-configured presets to build reports instantly, with flexible customization options
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
The one rule to follow is that... Read More