There was spectulation in September that Marvel was considering 3D, but MarketSaw has reported that they have a credible source explaining that the film will definitely NOT be in 3D.
"Jim here. Got some rather bad news for S3D fans out there. I have it from a very good source (one very much in the know) that IRON MAN 2 will NOT be made in stereoscopic 3D. It was being considered back in September of this year.

I am VERY disappointed to say the least as I thought the *FIRST* one should have been made in S3D - let alone the second. I think Marvel is wasting a valuable opportunity to get this done and of course they are leaving a lot of money on the box office table by not doing it as well.

I am digging for more info on this but from what I can tell you - it is a no go for 3D. I do know that IRON MAN 2 is not the ONLY property that Marvel is considering for S3D! More when I get it."

To tell you the truth, I am very glad this film is not in 3D. I feel it is just a an annoying gimmick for the studios to make more money. I really hope they don't try this with none of the Upcoming films, Thor, Captain America, and specially not The Avengers. And I truly hope Marvel doesn't add the 3D because of the third installment of Iron Man. Great News.





Lucas' Red Tests

(movies.ign.com)              So George Lucas' Tuskegee Airmen film Red Tails has finished shooting, and now word has it that the man himself is considering using consumer-level DSLR digital cameras for pick-up shoots on the project. And not just that, but the oft-mentioned Star Wars live-action TV series is apparently also under consideration for use with the groundbreaking technology.

Slash Film noticed this tidbit on DSLR blogger Philip Bloom's site, and while it's all a bit techie sounding, this does give us an idea of where Lucas wants to go with his future projects. Bloom explains how he shot some test footage on Lucas' ranch for Lucasfilm's producer Rick McCallum and head of post-production Mike Blanchard.

"I had, at this point, never seen my work projected on a really good projector before so this was going to be a real test of the cameras," says Bloom. "Rick and Mike wanted to see how well the footage held up on the big screen. They had shot some stuff and weren't happy with what they were getting. … I was nervous. Never having seen my work on a big screen as good as this, but also George Lucas came in to watch and also the legendary sound designer Ben Burtt. My heart was racing. I watched as the edit played and they loved it."

The post by Bloom is also interesting because it offers a glimpse into the world of the Hollywood elite. It turns out that while staying at the ranch, Bloom got to sleep in the "Federico Fellini apartment" -- which is the bed Clint Eastwood always stays in. And then guys like Quentin Tarantino apparently just drop by from time to time.

"Then Quentin Tarantino came in as he was due to talk at a screening of Inglorious Basterds and George said to Quentin, come see this," he continues. "Quentin waxed lyrical, calling it Epic and William Wyleresque and was shocked it was shot on a DSLR. He had no idea you could shoot HD video on them or they were so good."

The bottom line: "Mike and Rick were over the moon. They didn't know how well these cameras would hold up on the big screen and it passed with flying colours. Lots of swear words of incredulity were used!"

As Bloom notes, Lucasfilm has always been at the forefront of digital technology, and Lucas and McCallum are obviously seeing the potential that theses cameras are offering. The pick-ups planned for Red Tails next year will mostly be "intimate in cockpit stuff and flying shots," which the DSLRs will be perfect for because of their size and ease of use.

"They were also looking at new ways to shoot the much anticipated Star Wars live-action TV series," Bloom adds. So, you know, there's that too.

Source:     http://movies.ign.com/articles/105/1056838p1.html





Using ZBrush in Avatar

(vizworld.com)              “Patton” on the ZBrushCentral forums has posted some early concept work from Avatar showcasing some of the early modeling and design work that went into the project 3 years ago using ZBrush.

    I started working on Avatar 3 years ago and was working with Zbrush 2 ( that means no subtools!!) I had to work on a fairly slow laptop so that I could work directly with Jim Cameron on the mocap stage.

    I was really green as a 3D artist but jumped in with both feet, after all this time I still really love the stuff we produced at Stan Winston Studio / Legacy effects.

    I was part of the group of artists that Designed the Na’vi characters I was responsible for working out Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) Digital sculpts with expressions as a proof of concept for the look of the Na’vi people. I also did the designs for Norm (Joel Moore) as well as the Grace ( Sigourney Weaver}.

Source:            http://www.vizworld.com/2009/12/zbrush-avatar/





Is PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 4 About to be Anchored?

New Disney chairman Rich Ross has made an immediate impact on his company’s future film production slate since taking on the job two months ago.

He quickly made the high profile cancellation of McG’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (a big budget tentpole for them) and after the big flop that was Old Dogs recently – caused much embarrassment to those involved by killing off the Wild Hogs sequel (from the same director and John Travolta) and actor Robin Williams’ farce comedy Wedding Banned.

Ross, a guy I might quickly begin to like at Disney, is clearly not afraid to flex his muscles and cancel productions with the wrong talent on board or films that don’t make sense either creatively or financially.

So with a couple of high profile executions recently, what do we make of three possibly connected developments that have taken place over the past month or so, which could effect a MASSIVE tentpole at Disney.

1) Johnny Depp signs on to make the sexy spy thriller The Tourist with Angelina Jolie next March, right when he should be filming Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

2) This week, Terry Gilliam states that Depp has now suddenly found time in his packed schedule to shoot the time-traveling character role in his recently resurrected The Man From Don Quixote.

3) Nine director Rob Marshall starts to sound a bit iffy/iffy towards Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, a movie whose filming start date seems to have been pushed back two months without any kind of announcement and is now looking a little less like a movie that will definitely set in stone happen.

Here’s what Marshall said…

    We’re still trying to figure out if it’s going to all happen. If it happens–I think Johnny’s doing a movie with Angelina Jolie in the spring [The Tourist] — so if it happens, we’ll start in the summer, and we’ll see. I’m excited. If it happens, it happens. I’d be thrilled. I just love Johnny and I’m excited about the genre.

There’s an awful lot of “if’s” now appearing for a film that sure sounded like it “would” be happening a little while back.

Has the Disney terminator Rich Ross struck again – or am I looking for a story when there isn’t really one to find?

You tell me. Depp is sure packing his 2010 schedule though… and Ross seems to be a results guy and Nine doesn’t seem to be all that. So… well, again, you tell me.




Avatar At The House Yoda Built

(nbcbayarea.com)               As you've already heard, the special effects in Avatar are flat out eye-poppingly awesome.  So it should be no surprise that, to track down how they were put onto the big screen, we went to Industrial Light and Magic, the house Yoda built.

Set back in San Francisco's quiet Presidio, ILM is legendary for its movie effects, from Star Wars, to Pirates of the Caribbean, and now to Avatar.  John Knoll, who has an Oscar on his mantel thanks to Pirates, sat down to talk with us about how his team put the jaw-dropping effects onto the big screen, and what it's like to work with mercurial director James Cameron.

Put it this way, Knoll says with Cameron, "You know exactly where you need to go, it's just a matter of getting there."  Unlike many directors, who come to ILM with humility and a lot of questions, Cameron came with a map, and a long to-do list.  Money, obviously, was no object.  "This was really diving in," Knoll says.  "With both feet."

Some $300 million later, Avatar is hauling in good reviews, big money ($3.5 million in the early Friday hours), and lots of Oscar buzz.  Unlike most "effects" movies, that feature three or four scenes to strut their stuff, Avatar creates a whole different world. And you're immersed into it.  It's 3D, but not with swords flying out of the screen at you; this is an entire 3D world we haven't seen in a movie before.

The guess here is that, as people line up to see it over the next few weeks, Hollywood will have taken a turn:  A new kind of special effects movie, that will likely change the way films are made in the future.  Much like Cameron's last big-budget blockbuster, Titanic.  Which, you may remember, cleaned up at Oscar time.

And how does it feel to have created this buzz?  Says Knoll, "I have to see other people's reactions.  It's rewarding to see what they think."  He should prepare for a lot of rewards.





3D "Captain EO" Returning to Disneyland

Michael Jackson's Captain EO, the 17-minute film made exclusively for Disney's Theme Parks, is returning for a limited engagement to Disneyland in California in February 2010. It was announced on December 18 that this revolutionary 3-D film, which cost an estimated $30 million to make, would finally be shown to audiences again after a 12-year absence.

Although it is billed as a 3-D film, Captain EO is really a 4-D film, utilizing not only spectacular 3-D effects requiring the viewer to where 3-D glasses, but also external in-theater effects including lasers shot over audience members' heads and effects such as smoke and stars coming out of the ceiling and walls. According to Wikipedia, at the time it was the most expensive film ever produced on a per-minute basis, averaging out at $1.76 million per minute.

The film was directed by Francis Ford Coppola and executive produced by George Lucas. The film stars Michael Jackson as Captain EO, the leader of an alien spaceship crew. Captain EO and his crew face destruction from the evil "Supreme Leader" played by Angelica Huston. The film, which could be considered a music video, features two Jackson songs, "Another Part of Me" which later appeared on the Bad album, and "We Are Here to Change the World", which finally appeared on the 2004 compilation, Michael Jackson: The Ultimate Collection.

The film premiered at Walt Disney World's Epcot Center in Orlando, Florida on September 12, 1986. It debuted six days later at Disneyland and ran continuously through April 1997. Captain EO played in the 500-seat Magic Eye Theater in Disneyland's Tomorrowland. To celebrate the premiere at Disneyland, the park remained open for 36 hours continually and attendees received a souvenier t-shirt. Captain EO was also shown at Disney Parks in Japan and France.

Disneyland reports that “Honey I Shrunk The Audience” will be closing sometime in the next few weeks to make way for Captain EO’s return.





Hawkman Movie Soon Taking Flight?

(screenrant.com)              The guys over at Collider picked up on a story yesterday that was first floated by Pajiba, regarding DC/WB possibly moving ahead with a Hawkman movie. I don’t really have all that much trust in Pajiba, but Collider’s report at least warrants us discussing the subject. Good guys over there.

Apparently, since the formation of DC Entertainment earlier this fall, the DCE/WB squad has been working hard on trying to catch up to Marvel in the super hero movie game (makes sense). This is pretty much the point of DCE – streamlining creative properties into profitable multimedia franchises – and reportedly, they are striving to make it happen, including getting some of their second-tier heroes (Hawkman) developed into Iron Man success stories.
     

Producers like Joel Silver and Akiva Goldman – who have been working with superhero properties for awhile – are being name-dropped as the sort of big guns who will make some of these DCE/WB projects into big screen realities. A few movies that have already gained traction are The Green Lantern, The Flash, Shazam! and the upcoming adaptation of Lobo. Well, Hawkman is now rumored to be on deck for a movie makeover.

Of course, a Hawkman movie is one of those things that’s been talked about by both fans and Hollywood players alike for…ever, maybe. Well before comic book movies blew up during the “oughties,” most of us were already having those discussions about seeing our favorite DC superhero(es) on the big screen. “Wouldn’t a ‘Hawkman’ movie be awesome?” was definitely part of the conversation at one point or another.





TyRuben Ellingson Designs Vehicles for 'Avatar'

(urbanacitizen.com)            ST. CLOUD, Minn. (AP) - St. Cloud native TyRuben Ellingson is no stranger to working at the forefront of pioneering film technology.

After working as virtual effects art director on the Steven Spielberg-directed "Jurassic Park," a film featuring pace-setting computer generated imagery, Ellingson thought he'd never work on a film like it again.

Then, film producer John Landau called him in to be a concept designer and lead vehicle designer for James Cameron's "Avatar" starring Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Sam Worthington and Stephen Lang.

"I remember looking at ('Jurassic Park') and thinking, 'This is going to freak everyone in the world out,'" Ellingson recalled. "When I got involved in 'Avatar,' it started to feel the same way. It started to feel like what Jim was proposing was so huge and so out of control and so dynamic, it started to make me think, 'Whoa.' This is going to make an impact on culture."

"Avatar" is the first narrative film from Cameron since 1997's "Titanic," a film that racked up 11 Academy Awards and a record $1.8 billion worldwide at the box office.

"Avatar" was a grand idea in Cameron's mind before "Titanic," but the technology of the time wasn't ready. He waited a decade before starting production on his action-adventure, interstellar love story.

What puts the film on the cutting edge is the way it mixes live action and computer animation to create an eye-popping, vivid alien world.

"It's going to be so memorable and so relevant to conversations for the next six months to a year," Ellingson said shortly before the film opened. "But I'm going to say something very risky. I think two weeks after the movie comes out, people are going to stop talking about it in terms of the technology, visual effects and CGI. I don't think that's where the heart of the movie lies."

More:    http://www.urbanacitizen.com/main.asp?SectionID=21&SubSectionID=126&ArticleID=152661





A Cross Between 'Shrek' And 'Lord Of The Rings'?

(splashpage.mtv.com)              "Sherlock Holmes" producer Dan Lin is currently hard at work on a very different but no less enigmatic film project — none other than the adaptation of cartoonist Jeff Smith's "Bone."

Details on the comic book film have been fairly scarce, though Smith has previously said that he's happy with the project's progress so far. But Lin, who is producing "Bone," had more detailed comments to offer when speaking with Collider about the film. Specifically, Lin said that he and the "Bone" crew are striving for a tone that mixes the best elements of "Shrek" and "Lord of the Rings" together.

"It really looks like a mix of Shrek as far as the three Bone characters and their comedy, their Looney Tunes of Marx Brothers comedy set in a Lord of the Rings world," said Lin. "I mean, the best way tonally again is Shrek meets Lord of the Rings. Very fantastical but between the Bone characters just a lot of comedy."

Lin revealed that Australian writer Justin Monjo is working on the film's screenplay, while Animalogic — the folks behind "Happy Feet" and Zack Snyder's upcoming "Guardians of Ga'Hoole" — is responsible for the animation and visual effects on "Bone." There's also hope that a director could be hired as soon as January.

"We've met with several directors and we hope to come to a director decision by January and Jeff Smith has been very intricately involved in the development process with us," said Lin. "I'm thinking in first quarter of next year you'll hear who's the director of Bone and that'll give you a sense of where we're going."

The producer said that "Bone" is aiming for a rating of either PG or PG-13, and that the current dilemma facing the production is exactly how much of Smith's original work should be adapted for the first film.

"If anything, right now we're discussing how many books should be in the first movie and if we do things right hopefully there'll be multiple movies to tell," said Lin. "But right now there's a discussion of do we use the first 3 books? Do we use the first 4 books of Bone? That's the discussion but the source material is all from Jeff's books."





USC's Unique Facial Screening Technology Lauded in Avatar

(uscnews.usc.edu)               Paul Debevec, associate director for graphics research at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies, research assistant professor Abhijeet Ghosh and postdoctoral researcher Wan-Chun Ma have been recognized with film credits for their work using the institute’s facial screening technology in Avatar.

Working with the visual effects artists at the New Zealand-based company Weta Digital, the institute’s graphics laboratory scanned the faces of many of the film’s principal cast members using Light Stage 5, the latest geometry and appearance capture system. This innovative technology, housed at the institute’s Marina del Rey campus, captures the shape, shine, color and texture of an actor’s face down to the level of each fine pore and wrinkle.

The detailed scans were used by Weta Digital during its process of creating the film’s photorealistic digital humans and creatures, which are being lauded as a groundbreaking achievement in the evolution of digital filmmaking.

Avatar joins a growing list of movies that have used the Light Stage technology. Others include Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3, Superman Returns, King Kong, Hancock and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.





"Wolverine" Pirate Just A Patsy?

The FBI has accused the man who allegedly was first, or among the first, to upload a pirated copy of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" that circulated online in April. What authorities have apparently yet to do is identify the original source of the leak.

On Wednesday, after Gilberto Sanchez was charged in New York with violating federal copyright laws by posting "Wolverine" to a file-sharing site a month before the film's theatrical release, he told reporters from The New York Daily News: "It's just ridiculous. I bought it from a Korean guy on the street for five bucks. Then I uploaded it. I didn't make any money."

In the months after the leak, "Wolverine" went on to gross $375 million worldwide, so it doesn't appear the pirated copy prevented the film from turning a profit. But 20th Century Fox, which produced the movie, argues the unauthorized version was watched about 14 million times online and no matter how one slices it, the leak cost the studio big money.

Full Press:             http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10420059-93.html

   Hoodwinked Too Gets Hoodwinked And Pushed Back It’s still hard to believe that Hoodwinked was successful. It had terrible animation that I could have made on my very first Acer PC, running Windows 98. The voice acting was awful, just a slew of big names who showed up to read lines. And the plot, while interesting, was executed sloppily. Despite all of this, the movie made millions and warranted a sequel. But it won’t be coming as soon as we thought.

According to the LA Times, The Weinstein Company has decided to push back the release of Hoodwinked Too: Hood Vs. Evil from its original January 15 release date to some time in February. A Weinstein executive cited their desire to push Youth in Revolt (coming out January 8) as well as the need to tweak some of the animation. There are also fast food tie-in deals that have yet to be closed.

The original film was released on January 15 and obviously did very well, so it’s hard to say how this move will affect the flick (it may have to go up against Shutter Island or Kevin Smith’s Cop Out). But really, is anyone waiting for this to come out anyway? While Hoodwinked was initially successful, it definitely doesn’t have half the staying power of a Pixar movie.





From 'The Jazz Singer' to 'Avatar': A Look at Historic Technological Movie Tricks

(jacksonville.com)                James Cameron's "Avatar" mixes live-action filming with an array of technological tricks: 3-D, motion capture, computer animation and green-screen technology, among them. It hasn't been cheap; the movie's budget is said to be at least $300 million. But early reviews have been largely positive, and many in Hollywood are hoping that "Avatar's" technological wonders can transform the movie industry at a time when it needs a jolt. Here's a look at other movies that popularized some technological advances in movie-making — some that stuck around, and some that didn't.

"The Jazz Singer" (1927) featured a few lines of actual people speaking, as Al Jolson uttered these famous lines: "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain't heard nothing yet." The talkies had arrived ...

"King Kong" (1933) couldn't have been told without stop-motion animation. It had been done for decades before, but legendary special-effects wiz Willis O'Brien, moving a King Kong puppet a tiny bit for each new frame of film, really wowed the masses.

"Becky Sharp" (1935), based on Thackery's novel, "Vanity Fair," is credited with being the first feature film shot entirely in Technicolor - though filmmakers had been experimenting with color techniques almost since the beginning. It was followed by hits such as "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" (1936) and "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938). And though black-and-white dominated for years afterward, the new technology's promise was made clear in 1939, when Dorothy arrived in Oz in "The Wizard of Oz" and when Atlanta burned in "Gone With the Wind."

Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937) was the first full-length animated feature, and it holds up just fine today.

"The Thief of Bagdad" (1940) won an Oscar for its many special effects, including the technique of shooting actors in front of a blue screen, then blending their images with other footage - allowing the fantasy film's fantastical images to come to life. The technology has been used by TV meteorologists and hundreds of films since.

"Bwana Devil" (1952), an African adventure yarn, kicked off a short-lived 3-D craze in the '50s. It's been used fitfully since then, most recently in "Avatar" and at last weekend's Dallas Cowboys football game (most fans didn't seem that thrilled with the images on the big stadium screens).

"The Robe" (1953) was a biblical epic that introduced audiences to widescreen Cinemascope, as movie execs tried to find a way to lure viewers away from tiny TVs.

"Scent of a Mystery" (1960) introduced audiences to Smell-O-Vision, in which scents were pumped into the auditiorium at the appropriate time. Audiences quickly said "No thanks."

"Tron" (1982) didn't do great at the box office, but it was the first feature to make wide use of computer-generated images - images that exist only digitally - as it took us along with a programmer who enters the world of his computer. A no-doubt flashier sequel is planned for next year.

Cameron's "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" (1989) really showed the potential for CGI, with its liquid-metal villain, the first main character to be created entirely digitally.

"Toy Story" (1995) was the first feature-length computer-animated film, so successful it pretty much pushed hand-drawn animation to the sideline (though it's mounting a comeback with "The Princess and the Frog").

"Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones" (2002) was the first major live-action feature to be shot entirely digitally, without film.

In "The Polar Express" (2004), Robert Zemeckis used motion-capture technology (in which actors' performances are digitally tinkered with) for an entire movie. He would do the same in "Beowulf" and this year's "A Christmas Carol."

Blu-ray 3D Standards Finalised

(darkhorizons.com)                The Blu-ray Disc Association has announced that a 3D Blu-ray specification standard has been finalized reports CNet.

Using the new MVC codec, an extension of the MPEG-4 AVC codec currently used by most Blu-ray discs, 3D films will require around 50% more space than their 2D counterparts while the discs should be backwards compatible with existing Blu-ray players.

To take advantage of it though it will require a 3D capable Blu-ray player, PS3 owners will get an operating system update that will make theirs 3D capable. However it will likely also require a new TV set capable of supporting stereoscopic 3D which may be a hitch as none have really hit the market yet, and there's simply not enough titles to take advantage of 3D capability.





Morpheus to Fight Predators

(ShockTillYouDrop.com)                 Laurence Fishburne ("CSI," "The Matrix" trilogy) has joined the cast of Robert Rodriguez's Predators, now filming in Austin, Texas under the direction of Nimrod Antal.

Fishburne is playing a character named Roland in the film. He joins a cast that includes Adrien Brody, Topher Grace, Danny Trejo, Walton Goggins and Alice Braga.

They play a disparate group of people who land on the Predator home planet only to discover "unspeakable horrors."

20th Century Fox is targeting a July 7, 2010 release for the film.




Stunning Demo Reel of VFX Impresses

(infoaddict.com)               Wow. Stargate Studios, founded in 1989, has worked created special effects for a ton of movies and television shows. They are now showing off their proprietary Virtual Backlot Library that offers real-time compositing. Compositing is a popular, cheap method of adding background to live-action via a traditional green screen, but Stargate has elevated the art to new heights, as is evidenced by this newly released demo reel. This is impressive work indeed.

Take a look:              http://www.infoaddict.com/stunning-demo-reel-of-green-screen-special-effects-impresses




Toy Story 3 to Get IMAX 3D Release

(IMAX Corporation)              IMAX Corporation and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures today announced that Toy Story 3 will be released to IMAX 3D theatres simultaneously with its wide release on June 18, 2010. Toy Story 3 will be digitally re-mastered into the unparalleled image and sound quality of "The IMAX Experience" with proprietary IMAX DMR (Digital Re-mastering) technology.

Commenting on the announcement Bob Chapek, president, Distribution, The Walt Disney Studios, said, "We're very excited to once again unite Disney Digital 3D with The IMAX Experience, and to do it for the long-awaited release of 'Toy Story 3' is a real treat. A film like this is designed to take audiences on an exciting thrill-ride adventure, making it a perfect match for both 3D and IMAX."

"We have always envisioned the 'Toy Story' franchise as an ideal fit for 'The IMAX Experience' and we're very happy to finally turn that vision into a reality," said IMAX CEO Richard L. Gelfond. "This film also fits nicely into our 2010 lineup, ensuring that families will be able to start the summer holidays with a fun Disney release in IMAX."




2,400 Hours to Make 1 Second of Action

(nypost.com)                   Hundreds of of graphic artists linked up the world’s third-biggest computer setup and invented new camera systems to create the astonishing 3-D futuristic world of “Avatar,” James Cameron’s new sci-fi thriller.

With a whopping $489 million budget, the groundbreaking movie — the most expensive ever made and Cameron’s first since 1997’s “Titanic” — is meant to immerse audiences in high-tech imagery and ensure they leave the theater asking: “How did they do that?”

Cameron’s team hired WETA Digital, the same New Zealand company behind Gollum and other special effects in “The Lord of the Rings” films, to create the artificial yet realistic-looking images in “Avatar.”

“WETA Digital ended up having more than 800 employees just working on their effects,” said Jon Landau, Cameron’s co-producer.

Some of the film’s shots required 100 computer hours for each frame — or 2,400 hours of computing time for each second of film, figuring each second requires 24 frames.




Dan O'Bannon Dead at 63

(examiner.com)                    Some sad news from the world of film making yesterday. Screenwriter, director and actor Dan O'Bannon has passed on at age 63.

O'Bannon was responsible for some of the favorite sci-fi/horror myths of our generation. He wrote the screenplay for a little film called Alien, directed by Ridley Scott, (you may have heard of it), and worked on all the sequels. He was also responsible for The Return of the Living Dead, the amazing George Romero zombie satire, and he worked on the Total Recall script and created the B-17 sequence in Heavy Metal. Not only that, but he provided the screenplay and served as Special Effects Supervisor on the John Carpenter flick, Dark Star, and he worked on a film called Star Wars. You may have heard of that one, too.





When VFX Become 'Vomit Inducing'

(abcnews.go.com)          "Avatar" is one of the most expensive movies ever made. This year's most eagerly awaited release cost $237 million to make and another $150 million to market. One of its stars, Sigourney Weaver, described "Avatar" as "like 'Gone with the Wind' in space."
Share
The movie's special effects may bring some unpleasant side effects.

James Cameron's last opus was of course "Titanic," the highest-grossing movie of all time. Early reviews of Avatar were very positive, the film is being hailed by some as "The future of cinema."

The epic, which runs two hours and 41 minutes, premiered in London to wild applause. But some see Cameron as a vainglorious auteur and seek to puncture his perceived pretension. One anonymous critic claimed the ground-breaking 3D effects in "Avatar" are, I quote, "vomit inducing." Word quickly spread through the blogosphere.




Does Your Work Space Repulse Women?

(arstechnica.com)                New research suggests that a stereotypical programmer's workspace—Star Trek posters, empty Mountain Dew/beer cans and all, according to the article—may be a significant reason why more women are not entering into computer science disciplines and fields. While my formal training is as a chemical engineer, I have been programming since my parents enrolled me in computer camp when I was eight and didn't have many friends at home. In the intervening 23 years, I can probably count on one hand the number of times my computer workspace has been clean as opposed to looking like a bomb went off, but it has never looked like a sophomore male's dorm room... except my second year of college when I took all those computer science classes.

Where other STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) are seeing the percentage of women enrolled increase, computer science is going through a decline. The study, published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, finds that the feeling of ambient belonging—a sense of how well one feels they fit into a field—is not there for women in computer science. "When people think of computer science the image that immediately pops into many of their minds is of the computer geek surrounded by such things as computer games, science fiction memorabilia and junk food," said Sapna Cheryan, a University of Washington assistant professor of psychology.

The authors describe this feeling as one that is garnered on a first impression of a space. "You look at the objects and make an instant appraisal of how you would fit with the objects and the people who are typically found in that environment. You also make a judgment of 'I like it here' or 'I don't belong here,'" said Cheryan.

To assess such a feeling, the authors set up a series of four experiments that were designed to aid understanding of whether stereotypical surroundings may cause women to choose fields of study over computer science.

The participants, over 250 male and female students not enrolled in a computer science course of study, and were ushered into a classroom that was either filled with stereotypical computer science objects, or one with generic crap. They were told the room was being shared with another class, and after a few minutes were asked to fill out a questionnaire probing their feelings about the room.

The survey found that women's who sat in the stereotypically decorated room expressed less interest in computer science than those who sat in the control room. Men, on the other hand, did not show a similar drop in interest. This lead the researchers to conclude that choices of classes or even major can be influenced simply by the decor of the offices, classrooms, and labs that a department has.

In a continuation on the theme, the researchers conducted three similar experiments. When faced with the choice of joining one of two all-female teams, the only difference being the objects found in the team's workroom—stereotypical versus nonstereotypical—women overwhelmingly (82 percent of the time) choose to work with the team based in the nonstereotypically decorated room.

When men and women were asked about job offers at two companies who both had a 50/50 gender ratio, where one was decorated with the usual computer science gear and the other more generic stuff, both genders preferred the nonstereotypical setting, women more so than men. The final experiment probed thoughts about working at a nondescript Web design company; again, women would choose a work environment that was not decorated in the stereotypical computer science way.

The work does show a definitive trend of nontechnical people not liking work environments that have stuff a 17-year-old male would have hanging on the walls of his room. However, outside of the occasional computer science TAs office or undergraduate dorm room, I cannot see how this stereotypical setup seems very, well... stereotypical—especially in the latter of the three experimental setups. While my personal workspace may look like an utter mess, it is not the image that my company (or any I have visited, worked with, or interviewed at) as a whole projects themselves to potential hires and customers.

Judging simply from the image that accompanys this article, the brightly colored Star Trek poster and game boxes strongly draw one's eyes and attention—after all, it's what they were designed to do! I would be curious if the disparity in ambient belonging remains if even just these two focal objects were removed from the "stereotypical computer science" workspace. Technical books and papers are one thing, but a huge color poster and unrelated video games are not what I would consider to be present in any sort of professional environment (short of a movie studio, or game development office), nor what I would think appropriate for a general use classroom at a University.

Prior work has shown that kids and teens (and by extension, I'll wager college-aged young adults) don't actually feel that the common stereotypes are descriptive of people who work in STEM fields. While I will agree that certain aspects of technical fields can be off-putting to individuals who don't know the field—compounded by arrogant jerks who revel in their smug superiority over such unenlightened people—it has been shown that by and large, people are interested if someone gives them the time of day to answer questions.

Many STEM fields suffer from a chicken-and-egg type problem. A group that is not adequately represented in teaching or high-ranking positions is by definition not present to mentor new people from that group, hence perpetuating a cycle that is very hard to break. While cleaning up the first impressions that may be perceived by those outside or new to the field will help, it will not instantly resolve the underlying issues. As the cryand for more  competent technical individuals increases, however, every little bit of information that helps bring more people in is good.

  Out doing promotion for "Sherlock Holmes", British thesp Mark Strong ("Body of Lies," "Rocknrolla") tells Cinema Blend that most of his work on the upcoming "John Carter of Mars" film will not involve much CG.

"My character doesn't actually get involved in any of the motion-capture stuff. All the stuff is live action. Although I can shift my shape, so I have to be photographed by a 360-degree camera. I can adapt into anything. That's going to be my particular talent" says Strong who plays Matai Shang, the ruler of the Thems.

He adds that "there's some filming in Utah, but most of it is in a studio outside of London". Joining him are the likes of Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Willem Dafoe, Samantha Morton, Dominic West, Polly Walker, Thomas Haden Church and James Purefoy.

Andrew Stanton helms the project currently scheduled for a Summer 2012 release.





Roy Edward Disney Dies at 79

(forums.cgsociety.org)               In the 1980s after establishing financial independence, he paved the way for a new management team that brought back to life the art form that defined Walt Disney Co.
Roy E. Disney

Roy Edward Disney, seen in his Burbank office in 1985, was the billionaire nephew of entertainment icon Walt Disney. Roy E. Disney so closely resembled his uncle's physical appearance that when he made outings to Disney theme parks or was out promoting the company's animated films, people in public would ask him if he was Walt Disney's brother. (Los Angeles Times)


Roy Edward Disney, the nephew of Walt Disney whose commitment to his uncle's creative spirit prompted him to mount revolts that led to the unseating of two of the company's chief executives and a revival of the studio's legendary animation unit, died Wednesday. He was 79.

Disney, who had been battling stomach cancer, died at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, according to Clifford A. Miller, a spokesman for Disney's company Shamrock Holdings.

Disney toiled for years in the shadow of his famous uncle and his father, Disney Studios co-founder Roy O. Disney, who ran the business side of the company for his brother. But the quiet scion would emerge as a forceful protector of Disney traditions when he believed that the company that bore the family name was headed in the wrong direction.

"People always underestimated Roy," Peter Schneider, the former president of Walt Disney Feature Animation, said recently. "You underestimate Roy at your peril, as many people have learned."





3D Computer Graphics Patents Deemed Invalid

(vizworld.com)              In a victory for software patent haters everywhere, a patent on “improving 3D computer graphics through provision of an improved method for performing visibility calculations” was recently overturned because it was considered related to calculations and algorithms, and therefore not patentable.

    Patents “directed to improving 3D computer graphics through provision of an improved method for performing visibility calculations” were invalid under In re Bilski, 545 F.3d 943 (Fed. Cir. 2008) (en banc), cert. granted, — U.S. —, 129 S.Ct. 2735 (2009) because they failed to claim patentable subject matter. “[Plaintiff] concedes that its patent claims are not transformative, but nevertheless argues that they are tied to a particular machine; to wit, a computer. . . . The claim language clearly states that these claims are drawn to mathematical calculations and algorithms for calculating whether certain surfaces are visible or invisible in 3D computer graphics. This is exemplified by the language of the claims, which specify a sequence of calculations that involve identifying,comparing,determining, and ignoring; data. Though the calculations may be performed on a computer, they are not tied to any particular computer. For these reasons, the claims of the [patents-in-suit] fail to pass muster under the Bilski machine implementation test for patentability under 35 U.S.C. § 101.”




Bryan Singer Will Direct X-Men: First Class!

(MySpace.com)            James Cameron's Avatar had its premiere in Los Angeles tonight, and MySpace had a television crew on-hand at the "blue carpet" to interview arrivals.

One of the people there was director Bryan Singer, who directed X-Men and X2: X-Men United for Avatar distributor 20th Century Fox at the start of the decade. In recent interviews, Singer has been asked about possibly directing the planned prequel X-Men: First Class, and he always seemed interested, but earlier this evening he let slip that he has in fact just signed the deal with Fox to direct the next "Origins" film, which will reportedly look at the early days of Cyclops, Jean Grey and others at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning.

You can see for yourself what Bryan Singer told the interviewer about signing to do X-Men: First Class if you go to the Official MySpace site, click on "Next Slide" at the bottom left and then scroll forward to the 27-minute mark where he's asked about what he has coming up next. He tells the interviewers without any hesitation and complete seriousness: "I'm ramping up to do a movie called 'Jack the Giant Killer' at Warner Bros, and I just yesterday signed a deal to do an 'X-Men: First Class Origins' picture, which is kind of cool. I'm very excited."





"District 9"  VFX Studio Expands - Bank Provides $2.2M Financing

VANCOUVER, Dec. 17 /CNW Telbec/ - Image Engine Design Inc., a Vancouver-based production studio specializing in visual effects for movies, today announced the expansion of its studio facilities to help meet growing business demand. The acquisition of a new building was made possible through a $2.2 million financial loan package from the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC).

Image Engine, founded in 1995, began providing visual effects for feature films in 2006. Most notable of these early years was a significant body of work for Marvel Studios' The Incredible Hulk. The company, which started out doing work for television, gained experience and respect with its work on the popular TV series Stargate as well as several other television productions, including one for Stephen King where its creature work garnered a coveted VES award.

A turning point occurred with the opportunity to provide visual effects on District 9, the breakout film for Writer/Director Neill Blomkamp. The film gave Image Engine the chance to show what a Vancouver, Canada facility could accomplish under tight budgetary constraints and an extremely challenging creative agenda. Since the movie's release in August of this year, the alien shots delivered by Image Engine have received critical acclaim from the visual effects industry, including recognition from District 9 Producer, Peter Jackson, of "Lord of the Rings" fame.

For Greg Holmes, CEO of Image Engine, BDC's support and understanding of the company's expansion plans were key to helping prepare for future successes: "BDC was very supportive, and able to qualify risk and characterize it differently than traditional banks. Their years of experience in supporting entrepreneurs and matching a decent business model to a property acquisition opportunity helped them understand where we were going."

BDC Financing Account Manager in Vancouver, Kobie Lofty-Eaton, says "a sound and solid evaluation of risk factors can lead a project on the path to success. This is part of the expertise we offer at BDC. The movie industry is a good example. No matter how big or how risky the project, with the right tools we can help our clients show that their expertise is second to none worldwide."

Greg Holmes points out that there are lessons to be learned from playing at a high level in this very competitive business: "Knowing your appetite and capability for risk and execution is important. This industry is driven by gifted artists and talented people, but without a solid business backbone to carry the weight of that risk, it is difficult to achieve results that are sustainable".






Avatar VFX Revolutionary?

(movieviral.com)             Special effects are big thing for me. For years, they were an addition to what was going on on the screen; something to help your imagination along. I find that the Star Trek franchise sums this point up for me. Watch any of the early original episodes and the special effects are laughable, but they helped to set the scene. This was fine for years but then along came Star Wars. It has to be recognised as a milestone in cinema history, because it changed what we saw on screen. The ripple effect this brought to film can be seen up to this day, and the pioneer, ILM, is still the biggest and best in the business.

The problem I now have with special effects is the part it plays in a films today. 2012 may be the perfect example of this. If you read Dan’s review, you will remember his issues with the effects, that there far too many things going on to take in. For films like this, the special effects are the story, with everything gearing up to that set piece, where the White house is destroyed, or a big explosion rips through the Manhattan skyline. It takes away from the imagination of the audience, and I fear, the writers as well. But people are starting to notice and perhaps the biggest rebellion centered around Transformers 2. The effects were big, but the story was terrible and the acting even worse. It seems we, the film-going audience, have started to see past the effects now.

Up until this week, my film of the year for special effects was Star Trek. The effects were beautiful, well-crafted, and subtle. They add to the film but don’t take over it. If you look at the shuttle hanger scene for instance, you’re watching the film, not the effects, because they are subtle, believable. I was worried that Avatar would err on the overpowering side, after all, at least 75% of the film is special effects, but wow, you’d better be ready.

Avatar

My advice for your trip to the cinema? You’ll need to do some preparation work first. Buy some energy drink and some saline solution, mix them up and soak your eyes in it! You’ll need it. The effects are amazing. It’s as simple as that.

You might have cringed when you saw the first trailer. I know I did. These big blue creatures walking around just didn’t quite sit right with me, but when you see them on the big screen in all their 3D glory, you very quickly forget that these creatures are not real. The animation is flawless in their movement and their interaction with the scenery. It is like nothing you have seen before, and Cameron must be applauded for waiting all these years (upwards of 10 if you’re counting) until the technology could keep up with his imagination.  The marines’ weaponry and machinery is just as amazing to watch and looks so damn realistic and plausible that I expect to see them hit the battlefield sometime in the future. Cameron enjoys taking us to places that we have never been before. Just watch the doc “Return to Titanic” to see his perseverance, and in Pandora, he has once again showed us a place that is so wondrous and intriguing that you want to spend more time there.

My one admission I have to make is that I watched this in a normal cinema rather than on IMAX (we’ll update the review though when we do), and as such I don’t know if my criticism of the 3D will ring true with those that do get to see it as the director intended. In parts the 3D worked very well, but there are other moments that I would have been just as happy watching the 2D version. The scene at the start of the film which sees Jake Scully landing on Pandora is a good example of 3D that works, but at other points, particularly when the Navi are on screen, the 3D seemed to be lacking. There are some scenes where you are following Navi Scully through the trees at a great height, and this should have been the money shot, but it just didn’t materialize. As I said, this may not be the case in IMAX, so if you’re torn between your local Multiplex or IMAX, choose IMAX for sure.

So, in terms of the special effects thats a big A+. This is the Star Wars for our generation, and your kids will be watching this for several Christmases to come. It will change cinema.





CGI Vampire & Werewolf Take On Animated Zombies

(Variety)                     DreamWorks Animation has hired Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris to write Gil's All Fright Diner, an adaptation of the A. Lee Martinez novel that has Barry Sonnenfeld attached to direct.

Gil's All Fright Diner revolves around a vampire and a werewolf. They are mismatched partners who battle zombies and try to save the world, after they stop in a diner in the desert that is a conduit for the supernatural.

Kirk De Micco was the first writer on the film.

Reiff and Voris' credits include Kung Fu Panda and the upcoming Robin Hood.





Award Winning VFX Studio Pixomondo Expands For Commercials

(shootonline.com)           Pixomondo, with studios in Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, London, Shanghai, Beijing and Santa Monica – and with a Paris office opening soon - is launching a new commercial digital production company, called Public Art. Public Art is aimed to service the advertising community and features a collection of live action directors, designers, animators, visual effects artists and flash developers.

Pixomondo's feature effects division had many shots in the recently released movies "2012" and "Ninja Assassin". Currently they are engaged on work for several features including "Suckerpunch", "Percy Jackson and the Olympians The Lightning Thief", "Hindenburg" and a number of other movies.





Rob Marshall On Fourth "Pirates" Status

Out doing promotion for his new musical adaptation "Nine", director Rob Marshall talked with Coming Soon about his hiring to direct the next sequel in the 'Pirates' franchise, "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides", for Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films.

Marshall says it may not have progressed as far as you might have thought - "We're still trying to figure out if it's going to all happen. If it happens--I think Johnny's doing a movie with Angelina Jolie in the spring ("The Tourist") - so if it happens, we'll start in the summer, and we'll see. I'm excited. If it happens, it happens. I'd be thrilled. I just love Johnny and I'm excited about the genre."

When asked about the film's visuals, he said "I would need a script first. It all comes from the script and the story. You serve the story and you find out what the story is and then you work from there, that's it. It's simple."




NY Anim Company to Create VFX for 'Ghost Whisperer' Director

(webwire.com)            Walsh Family Media, an independent animation company and visual effects studio in NY, was selected to provide visual effects cinematography for the upcoming film White Irish Drinkers. The film is an independently funded venture by renowned writer/director John Gray whose projects include Ghost Whisperer, Empire and Helter Skelter.

Walsh Family Media was asked to digitally recreate a crowd of screaming fans at the concert of a legendary rock band. The scene was originally filmed at Lafayette Theater in New York where producers John Gray, Paul Bernard, Melissa Peltier, and James Scura had only 100 extras on hand for the scene. Using state-of-the-art composite and visual effects, Walsh Family Media helped transform the meager crowd of 100 into a roaring crowd of 3,000, the number of seats in Lafayette Theater.

According to producer Paul Bernard, the visual effects provided by Walsh Family Media helped the film overcome budget restraints. "It’s hard to fill a 3,000 seat venue on a small budget so we turned to WFM Services to help create a crowd scene deserving of legendary rock fame" said Bernard. "It’s amazing what these guys can do on the computer.”





Spider-Man 4 In Trouble?

(cinemablend.com)             Director Sam Raimi is hung up on a few major issues, mostly notably that they still don’t have a completed script. And why is it incomplete? Why it’s Spider-Man 3 all over again. Raimi is butting heads with the studio over who the villain should be. That same conflict is how we got a Spider-Man 3 overloaded with too many villains, at least half of whom Raimi seemed to have absolutely no interest in shooting. If this is true, it sounds like Sony has learned absolutely nothing from the last movie and they’re still unwilling to simply let Raimi, a proven commodity, do whatever the hell he wants.

So word is that Raimi wants Vulture to be the bad guy and Sony wants anyone but Vulture to be the bad guy. Now I can see Sony’s point of view here, Vulture is pretty much the worst villain in the web-head’s rogues gallery. He’s more of a punchline than a villain really and I’m pretty sure that very few Spidey fans actually care about seeing him on screen. On the other hand, Raimi is Raimi and it probably doesn’t matter whether or not Vulture sucks in the comics, on film he has the ability to make the character awesome. There’s only one reasonable decision here and that’s for Sony to get the hell out of the way. We don’t need another Venom debacle.





VFX Games Artists Ready For Pool Party & Awards Show

(gamesindustry.biz)               San Diego will be the new Host City for the previously-Canadian awards ELAN Awards Show which honors artistry and innovation in the video games industry.

Today the highly anticipated announcement of the Official Categories for the 2010 ELAN Awards.

Three days of celebrating are in place for the video game, animation and visual effects industries beginning with a pool party on Saturday, July 17th, followed by a street party on Sunday night and wrapping up with a four-part-party including the awards ceremony itself on Monday, July 19th, the evening prior to Comic-con.

Every year the ELANS go to the industry to determine their award categories, a practice they believe to be crucial to staying on top of what's important in such a rapidly changing industry. "This year's categories were a bit tougher than previous year's in that we're not quite done with some that are on their way out meaning they're still very relevant, and ones that were too new a year ago have proven themselves worthy now and must be included," says Carinci, explaining her thirty award category show. "And there will be more," she smiles, "as we're adding 4 exciting sponsored awards which we'll announce on January 4th, the day submissions officially open." An Industry-only newsletter containing all pertinent information for submissions pertaining to the entire judicial process and submissions will be delivered Monday, December 21st just prior to the holidays.

And now, the Official Categories for the 2010 ELAN Awards are:

21. BEST REAL-TIME VISUAL EFFECTS in a VIDEO GAME PRODUCTION

Recognizing outstanding achievement in visual effects in a video game, the ELAN in this category is awarded to the vfx artist, vfx team or vfx director that exhibits excellence in real-time game engine-rendered visual effects within a video game. This category is open to vfx teams hired outside of the video game company.

Full Press:       http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2010-elan-awards-award-categories-announced---all-30-of--em





Over 350 Avatar Screenings Already Sold Out

(cinemablend.com)             Over 350 Avatar Screenings Already Sold Out Avatar is less than 24 hours away from exploding onto the screen, with thousands of midnight screenings kicking off tonight. Early ticket sales are already giving an idea of just how big the movie may be.

Given the heavy focus on the movie's visual effects and 3D nature, it's no surprise the movie will open on a record number of 3D screen. Of the 3,457 theatres showing the movie, 2,032 will be running it in 3D, including more than 190 IMAX theaters. Also unsurprisingly, almost 90% of all ticket sales at some major movie ticket sites are for 3D screenings.

Already more than 350 showings have sold out online, with many others filling up. That's no indication the movie will be breaking New Moon's midnight or opening day records, but it's a healthy sign that audiences are excited.

One thing is for sure: guys are far more excited for this movie than the ladies. MovieTickets.com reports that 78% of its tickets are being bought-up by the boys. I guess shirtless characters with well-defined abs only get the ladies going if they're werewolves, not blue aliens.