Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi’s The Dam Keeper has won the inaugural Best Animated Short Award at the Spark Animation Conference, Film Festival and Job Fair. The film was awarded the honor at the final shorts program on October 26 in Vancouver’s Vancity Theatre. The Dam Keeper has so far received awards from the San Francisco International Film Festival, New York International Children’s Film Festival and TIFF Kids.
« lessIt's the most wonderful time of the year, Halloween, and all the kiddies are gearing up in their ghost and ghoul guises while the adults get to ready to hunker down in front of a big ol' TV with a bottle of wine and watch scary movies (at least that's how we picture adults behaving). If you're like most people, chances are you'll pick a classic flick to watch, and if that flick is like most classic flicks, chances are it'll have a killer score. Horror, perhaps more than any other genre of cinema, makes proficient use of aural manipulation to conjure the appropriate feelings of fear, angst, and discomfort. So we've picked 11 of our favorite horror film scores, for your listening (dis)pleasure.
« lessIn filling out its release schedule through 2019, Marvel Studios has laid out the company’s cinematic plans that involves sequels to “Captain America,” “Thor,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” and “The Avengers,” but potential new franchises with “Doctor Strange,” “Black Panther,” “Captain Marvel” and “Inhumans.”
It’s an ambitious slate, overseen by Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige.
« lessWith the current array of apps that facilitate on-set organization, paperwork may be a thing of the past. Gone are the days when tools and clipboards weighed down cargo pants, having now been replaced with smartphones. Here are the most powerful, comprehensive and streamlined apps to make your on-set life easier.
« lessIt was a beautiful sunny Saturday morning, around 75 degrees, which was ideal since the entire event took place outside on the patio. Eric Roth, Executive Director of the Visual Effects Society, introduced Victoria Alonso, Executive Vice President of Visual Effects and Post Production for Marvel Studios. Alonso (who is currently producing the new Avengers: Age of Ultron movie and has worked on numerous films such as Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Iron Man and many more) was very energetic and extremely excited to share some of her experiences with us. Randy Star, a conference interviewer, immediately jumped into questions about her role at Marvel Studios, which lead her to discuss the role of VFX in Marvel’s movie making process:
« lessDarren Aronofsky looked to the future of a changing entertainment landscape on Saturday during a wide-ranging Q&A with the helmer and his producing partner Scott Franklin held as part of the Produced By: New York confab.
“It’s very blurry right now. It’s an exciting time,” the multihyphenate said during his session moderated by Producers Guild of America prexy Gary Lucchesi, a veteran producer and head of Lakeshore Entertainment.
« lessWith recent news that HBO and CBS are making a go of the subscription stream business, the subject was, naturally, on the minds of top execs in the space Tuesday at Variety‘s Entertainment & Technology Summit.
A panel on the state of the streaming entertainment biz raised concerns about how precarious SVOD can be, as Redbox recently discovered along with Verizon as a joint venture was shuttered earlier this month. For Erin McPherson, chief content officer at Maker Studios, it highlighted the difficulty in determining what a subscription service is going to mean for consumers.
« lessIt's not unusual for department heads to be hired onto features at different times, but these productions can benefit — creatively and likely with cost savings — if they join forces at the same time so that they can get involved, plan and collaborate, starting in prepro. That was the message of a panel at the Visual Effects Society Production Summit.
« lessMarvel’s exec producer and exec VP of visual effects & post-production, Victoria Alonso, called for vfx pros to hire more women — not just for gender equity, but because it will improve the work.
In her keynote conversation at the Visual Effects Society Production Summit in Hollywood on Saturday, Alonso diverged from talk of Marvel’s story process to thank the group for inviting a woman in to speak, but raised her voice to ask, “Where are the girls?!”
« lessAlonso was speaking in a Q&A before more than 150 people at the Visual Effects Society’s VES Summit on Saturday morning. The summit, being live-streamed online to VES’s membership around the world, urged young women considering careers as digital artists to make it happen, but said one reason she always agrees to speak at events such as the summit, San Diego Comic-Con and elsewhere is that young women need role models in notable positions. For her life, seeing (and eventually meeting) pioneering female producers such as Kathleen Kennedy made a huge difference in her career choices.
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