The AICE Awards, the annual competition for excellence in the postproduction arts, has expanded the number of categories for color grading entries, recognizing how the art and craft of color correction–and correspondingly, the work of colorists at its member post companies–play an increasingly important role in achieving clients’ and directors’ creative goals.
There are now three separate categories under the Craft heading that honor achievements in color grading: Color Grading (under :90), Color Grading (over :90) and Color Grading Music Videos.
“This is a change that everyone on the AICE Awards Committee is excited about,” said AICE executive director Rachelle Madden. “Many of our member companies offer highly skilled color talents to clients and the demands placed on colorists can vary widely, based on the length of a piece of content, it’s genre or its intent. We feel our new set of color categories will help us properly recognize achievements in these areas.”
The 2017 AICE Awards has made other category changes as well. It’s renamed and refocused both its Public Service and Broadcast Promotion categories to better reflect the nature of work in these areas. The Public Service category is now called Cause Marketing, as the concept of what defines a PSA has changed as marketers have sought to find more authentic ways to engage consumers via issues and causes they’re passionate about. And with the new Content Promotion and Trailers category, it opens the AICE Awards to work created for games and other entertainment forms, as well as feature film promos and trailer, too.
AICE categories now include the following:
EDITORIAL:
- Automotive
- Content Promotion and Trailers
- Comedy
- Dialogue/Monologue/Spoken Word
- Digital Content (under :90)
- Digital Content (over :90)
- Docu-Style
- Fashion/Beauty
- Montage
- Music Video
- National Campaign
- Region Campaign
- Online Campaign
- Cause Marketing
- Storytelling
- Under $50,000
CRAFT:
- Audio Mix
- Color Grading (under :90)
- Color Grading (over :90)
- Color Grading Music Videos
- Motion Design & Graphics
- Original Music
- Sound Design
- Visual Effects
In addition to these awards, all finalists in the AICE Awards will be included in chapter-focused categories that recognize the best work entered by companies in New York, L.A., Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, Texas, San Francisco, Toronto, Atlanta and Boston, regardless of whether it’s an editorial or craft entry.
The deadline for entering the AICE Awards is Monday, February 6. All entries must have first aired or been made public on some form of media channel between February 8, 2016 and February 5, 2017. Full descriptions of categories and entry requirements can be found here.
Nintendo reports lower profits as demand drops for its aging Switch console
Nintendo, the Japanese video game maker behind the Super Mario franchise, said Tuesday that its profit fell 60% in the first half of the fiscal year, as demand waned for its Switch console, now in its eighth year since going on sale.
Kyoto-based Nintendo Co. reported a 108.7 billion yen ($715 million) profit for the April-September period, as sales slipped 34% from the previous year to 523 billion yen ($3.4 billion).
More than 74% of its sales revenue came from overseas, according to Nintendo, which didn't break down quarterly numbers.
Global Switch sales during the period dropped to 4.7 million machines from 6.8 million units the previous year.
But Nintendo said in a statement that Switch sales were still growing and vowed to stick to its goal of selling a Switch console to each and every individual, not just one Switch per every household.
Nintendo stuck to its earlier projection for a 300 billion yen ($2 billion) profit for the full fiscal year through March 2025, down nearly 29% from the previous fiscal year.
Annual sales were forecast to drop 23% to1.28 trillion yen ($8.4 billion).
It also lowered its Switch sales projection for the fiscal year to 12.5 million units from an earlier forecast to sell 13.5 million.
Nintendo and other game and toy makers rake in their biggest profits during the Christmas shopping season, as well as New Year's, a holiday celebrated with fanfare in Japan, when children receive cash gifts from grandparents and other relatives.
Nintendo has not yet announced details on a successor to the Switch.
Among its million-seller game software titles for the fiscal half were "Paper Mario RPG," which sold 1.95 million units since going on sale in May, and "Luigi Mansion 2... Read More