Browsing: Cinema Tech

I am the type of person that believes only in what I see. I do however keep an open mind about that which I do not understand. I always give a chance for another individual to explain and make me believe in the myths that they conceive to be truth. My lack of faith to some is often viewed as a shallow existence, to others a way for me to start arguments with modern day witches and “bible thumpers”. Little do people know that, even though I have never seen a ghost, nor has God ever shown his presence to…

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On Sunday February 12th, 2008, I was invited by Avid to attend the ACE Eddie Awards at the Beverly Hilton in the Beverly Hilton Ballroom. If you have never been to the Beverly Hilton, the ballroom is a glamorous location for an awards ceremony. It was beautifully laid out Black Tie affair. The Golden Globes have been held here. The ACE Eddie awards honor those wonderfully creative Editors whose work in the past year have been of the utmost excellence. You could not find a more talented group of honored nominees. Norman Jewison was honored with a Golden Eddie for…

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It is a little heralded fact that the first Oscar statuettes of the season are awarded before the Oscar telecast watched the world over. The men and women who make the incredible cinematic, digital and audio tools that make film possible, down to the emulsion itself, are feted at a black tie ceremony at The Beverly Wilshire (the starring hotel in the film “Pretty Woman”) before the Oscar extravaganza Feb. 24. A number of certificates, plaques and the statuettes are awarded by the Scientific and Technical Awards Committee of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.Oscar statuettes were awarded…

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Luminetik Animation Studios delivers us the first in a series of three high octane shorts to promote what will become a video game possibly based on the Unreal Engine 3 for top game development. “Kuriocity”, which features key characters from their upcoming animated feature- “Dis_Konnected”, is a tour de force in animation. Surely to take the public by nothing short of a storm, the first short in the trilogy showcases- Ruby, a hard-nosed, no-nonsense soldier who is in midst of a mission is instructed by her contact, Ray, to proceed to a new location. The message demands immediate attention and…

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Hope Springs Eternal is a short animated film by Ron Noble. I had the opportunity to see this eclectic and wonderful film over the rainy days of winter in California. What is remarkable about this film is seeing the dynamic personality Ron gives his character Mort through simple expressions. Hope Springs Eternal is not a children’s film. Why should animation be limited to just family films? This film is about someone who has suffered deep loss and gives up hope. In the process of he finds himself suicidal. When he tries to end everything it actually does not work out…

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Joe Byron, the Director of Education for The Los Angeles Film School, is in his eighth year with the school. During his tenure with LAFS, Byron has held various titles including Associate Director of Education, Associate Dean of the LAFS Immersion Filmmaking Program, and Director of Technology.Byron joined The Los Angeles Film School in 1999 as Director of Technology, overseeing the acquisition of all portable filmmaking equipment. In addition to being a member of the creative committee that supervised the creation of the Immersion Filmmaking Program, he also taught the first class ever offered by the school.In 2001, Byron served…

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In my last column, I discussed how virtual movie sets coupled with the collaborative presence of a distributed production team and virtual (but live) actors could save a significant part of the cost of a major film production. We have shown that this can be done today with commercially available hardware and software.To the best of my knowledge, no company has created a collaborative real-time virtual 3D pre-production set yet but it is just a matter of time now. Someday soon, a movie pioneer will invest in the necessary 3D hardware and software but save a lot on the production…

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Shuichi Nakahara is a multi-talented, multi-tasking creative artist with a love for animation. Shuichi is a highly educated Japanese engineer and computer animation guru. He started his career in Japan and has been working with companies in the U.S. through a virtual pipeline through the internet. What is interesting about Shuichi is his rare ability to be able to pick up a new software package or design idea in hours in what takes the average person months to learn. Shuichi went to school for animation but his unique skill for combining Japanese animation styles with American animation makes him a…

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Hollywood is an old-fashioned town in some aspects. Once I saw an ad for a digital editing software enticing would-be users to edit like “Spielberg,” without realizing that Steven Spielberg never used a digital editor in his life. In “Catch Me If You Can,” most of the colorization is created by placing colored pieces of glass in front of the camera lens. However…There is, of course, “Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow,” where all scenes are virtual and poor Gwyneth Paltrow must constantly pretend that a blue cylinder in front of her is really Dr Totenkopf’s evil assassin. As…

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First a word from our sponsor, Time: In every sense, filmmaking is all about time. Not just the time it takes to conceptualize, write, pitch, fund, produce and release a film, let alone the time it’s taken me to get this article to CWB…no, I mean Time in its most abstract state of self. There is no single definition for time that isn’t fuzzy and indefinite. Even the word “indefinite” seems to pop up in many of these definitions. A bit circular, really…but if we accept that events happen in the universe with or without us–that things are constantly changing…

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