CG Artists Left Unpaid, Pixar's VFX Man, & Virtual Porn Conviction...

(canada.com)                     In what could be called a rerun, for the second time in less than a year, a Montreal special-effects studio has closed unexpectedly and left its artists unpaid.

DamnFX Inc., which won a Visual Effects Society industry award in March for its work in the 3D film Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure for IMAX screens, ceased operations two weeks ago.

About a dozen of about 60 special-effects artists thrown out of work are the same left jobless and unpaid when Meteor Studios Inc. shut down last November after wrapping up Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

Ironically, the Journey DVD was released this week while nearly 130 former Meteor artists are trying to recover the $1 million they claim is still owed them.

Dave Rand, the lead effects artist on Journey, who says he's owed a total of $19,000 by both studios, accused DamnFX of promising Meteor artists job security by telling them: "This will never happen here."

Rand, in a telephone interview from Hollywood, said the Meteor Employees Union he formed this year is still fighting to recover lost wages and overtime pay.

He charged DamnFX with the same "unethical business practices" as Meteor.

Marc Côté, the owner of Montreal's Camera-e-motion and its subsidiary, Fake Studio, said yesterday he attempted to step in.

"We tried to acquire them two months ago to save the jobs and their projects, but we were refused by (DamnFX's) bank."

Côté emphasized that Montreal's international reputation in the special-effects field "doesn't need this kind of scandal," referring to the closings of DamnFX and Meteor.

Quebec film commissioner Hans Fraikin called the moves an anomaly.

"We have a dozen internationally renown (effects) houses here today, so this is not representative of a mass migration (out of Montreal)," Fraikin said.

Q. You had also worked in VFX in live action features like Batman Forever, Broken Arrow, have things changed drastically since then, now that you are in a completely CGI environment?

The tools used in CG visual effects for live action are not that different than what we use in animation. There are naturally creative differences – in animation we strive for caricature while live action visual effects are focused on realism. Both have their own unique challenges and I would love to work on the visual effects project at some point, especially one that integrates practical special effects with CG visual effects.

Full Press:    http://www.cgtantra.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=210&Itemid=35

Abrams Star Trek Trailer Brings Tears

MTV: "Star Trek," this little film that you've directed that's coming out next summer, where do you stand on it? Do you have a final cut, music in place?

Abrams: We've recorded most of the music, and we're about a week away from locking the movie.

MTV: Can you speak to the running time? Am I in for two and half hours of brilliant "Trek"?

Abrams: It will be a two-hour movie. I'm sick of these two-hours-and-forty-five-minute movies. Seriously, it's like I don't have enough time to say two hours and forty-five minutes. I'm exhausted just saying that twice. I can't stand it.

MTV: Do you have it on your iPhone or something? I heard a rumor that you had "Trek" footage somewhere.

Abrams: I did have it on my iPhone. Not the whole movie. I just had a little trailer footage. I showed Simon Pegg when we were at Comic-Con, I showed him this little trailer thing, and it was my favorite thing ever. He literally started weeping. It was ridiculous. He was sitting there, I mean, he must have been plastered. Because he was looking at my iPhone [crying].

Neil Gaiman Leaves David Fincher's 'Black Hole'

They've been working on the project for two years. Originally, Alexandre Aja was set to direct, but then David Fincher claimed it as his own. And that's when Gaiman and Avary stepped aside. "Once they got David Fincher on, David explained his process consisted of having over ten drafts, done over and over, and Roger and I were sort of asked if we wanted to, if we were interested in doing that. And we definitely weren't."

Fincher is a notoriously demanding director (Robert Downey Jr. once compared working with him to being in a gulag), but no one can question the results. Then again, after spending two years on the script, the prospect of writing ten more drafts can hardly be appealing. If nothing else, Gaiman and Avary's work might stick around -- Gaiman says they left the last draft with Fincher, though he's unsure what will happen to it. "So we'll wait and see what happens. I just hope whatever happens, it's faithful to Black Hole." I think the graphic novel remains in good hands. The tone of the book seems a walk in the park for Fincher. And how far can a story about sexually transmitted mutations stray, really?

Baton Rouge Building a Digital City

(businessreport.com)                    When DreamWorks Animation SKG created the 2001 movie Shrek, it took the computing power of 300 processors. In other words, it took a supercomputer. Computers large enough, powerful enough and expensive enough to produce that kind of film are usually located where these feats of digital magic are made, like in Silicon Valley, in Orlando and in Baton Rouge.

No, really. In Baton Rouge.

The Capitol Region's supercomputer is actually more powerful than the massive processors used to power the creation behind the giant green ogre that captivated children across the world—it is comprised of 1,000 processors. Yet, SuperMike, as the computer is so dubbed, isn't just sitting on LSU's campus taking up space. It is a part of a burgeoning digital media initiative that is serving as a catalyst to drive economic development in the Capital Region.

The task of bringing digital media companies such as EA Sports, which in August announced it would open a quality-assurance testing facility in Baton Rouge, has been under way for several years. EA Sports is merely a fraction of what is still to come, according to the Baton Rouge Area Digital Industries Consortium. The goal is much larger: It is the creation of a "digital city."

Seth Green Helming Borderline Superhero Movie

(moviehole.net)             Moviehole caught up with Seth Green this week who let us in on a new project he's working on.

"I'm gonna direct The Freshmen, which is a comic book that my friend Hugh Sterbakov and I created", the "Sex Drive" star says.  "We have two graphic novels in the marketplace, and we conceived it as a feature.  But that'll be the movie that I direct."

"It is kids - it's Revenge of the Nerds meets X-Men.  It's kids in their first year of college, their first days of college, leaving the nest for the first time, awkwardly discovering their own identifies, trying to cast off all the things that have been placed on them throughout their scholastic career, and define their own identity in college.  And these kids are - you know, because of the overflow of the enrollment, they're put into the science building, where they don't even have permanent housing. And, you know, now this is a makeshift group they're supposed to be best friends with, and they find themselves at a fraternity party where they are the butt of every joke and humiliated beyond their imagination.  And then they go back to the dorm and kind of mull over the notion of being trapped in this place for the next four years.  And then they are the victims of a scientific event, which gives them borderline useless superpowers.  So now in addition to being these outcasts of the outcasts, they are additionally alienated, with a physical deformity."

Green so they're "writing the feature, and we're gonna make it when it's ready".

This is too big a movie for Green to finance on his own, so he's looking for a studio.

"You know, it'll probably need a studio for release.  My estimation is to make this movie the way we want to make it, we'll need independent financing.  But the nice thing about independent financing is, you know, a small-budget film is $35 million these days.  And that's about what we'd need to make it".

"Virtual Porn" is UK First Forcourt

(gazettelive.co.uk)                A MAN has made legal history as the first to be sentenced for downloading "Tomb Raider-style" computer-generated child pornography.

Robul Hoque, 32, was prosecuted over still images involving computer graphics in an unusual and important test case - the first of its kind in the UK.

The pictures were part of an illustrated story involving child abuse and incest - but involving no real children - downloaded by the former student and office worker.

He denied making nine indecent "pseudo-photographs" of children.

After a trial last month, he was unanimously convicted on six counts and cleared on three.

The six pictures on which he was found guilty were so realistic, the jury concluded they looked like photographs.

At Teesside Crown Court yesterday, Judge Peter Bowers told Hoque, of Hardwick Road, South Bank, the images "effectively crossed the line as to what is illegal and what is lawfully permitted."

He added: "You had no contact at all with any children."

He passed a community sentence with 18 months' supervision and a requirement to attend a internet sex offenders' treatment programme.

"I think you'll get some insight into the damage that children can suffer. This may be on the fringes of it but it's still an entrance, a door into a very murky and distasteful world."

The judge did not ban Hoque from working with children but he will be on the sex offenders' register for five years.

Peter Johnson, defending, said: "It is clear that, while Mr Hoque went over the line, it was only just over the line."

The pictures on which Hoque was acquitted were "almost comic strips" with speech bubbles, the court heard.

They were among tens of thousands of images on his computer hard drive seized by the police in October 2006, ranging from crude, simple illustrations to cartoon images to complex graphics.

Most were "fairly distasteful and disgusting, but perfectly lawful", said the judge.

Forensic computer analyst Ray Savage said outside court: "The sentence is appropriate for the circumstances.

"But what we mustn't lose sight of is that the nature of this material feeds the furnaces and, in my experience, leads on to people accessing more graphic images."

Hoque, who is unemployed and looks after his mother, told the Gazette he did not set out to break the law and was not attracted to children.

The Hulk May Return, CGI Only

(moviehole.net)             Doesn't sound like the Hulk's going to get another solo any time soon - - but he might get to thrash away as a member of a group.

Marvel's Kevin Feige tells MTV that although there are no immediate plans for a sequel to "The Incredible Hulk" he hints that the character may – as rumoured in the past – pop up in the forthcoming "Avengers" movie… and likely, as the villain.

"Here's the thing — it is all in the planning stages, but certainly if you look back to any number of 'Hulk' comics, or 'Avengers' comics, or 'The Ultimates' comics or the 'Ultimate Avengers' DVD that we released, it certainly makes a hell of a sequence," Feige said of a possible Hulk vs. Avengers scenario."

"To have all of the Avengers going up against a green goliath?" he teased. "I think that would be very cool to see that on the screen."

As the site points out, there might not even be a need for Edward Norton to return to the role in "The Avengers" – they'd just have the big green guy running around for the entire film, never transforming back into his old self. In other words, CGI should do the trick.

Job Application: Star Wars Costume Wrangler

They are looking for a registrar for the Lucasfilm archives which includes handling the costume which is seriously pretty rad. So if you're a museum person in apparel and textiles and want to be in California this might be a good gig.

Below are the details:
-Assist in all aspects of registrarial duties in regards to the Archive collection
-Coordinate aspects of outgoing loans including packing, shipping and crating and loan documentation and loan agreements to other Lucas companies and off-site storage
-Inventory, document, organize, move, pack, store and mark objects including models, costumes, props, maquettes, matte paintings and other film art and artifacts as directed by the Collections Manager
-Maintain proper storage and preservation practices. Maintain cleanliness of the Archives as well as all safety procedures and practices
-Assist in the accessioning and cataloging of new items to the Archive collection
-Process loan requests for production and exhibition; assess request, check on object availability, provide follow-up as needed for both internal and external requests perform condition reports, transportation arrangements and insurance
-Pack and ship objects and/or oversee packers and handlers when objects are being prepared for shipment by outside packing companies; assist with the installation of an exhibit in national and international exhibitions
-Travel to national and international exhibition venues to assist in installation and condition reporting of the exhibit

Full Press:     http://www.wornthrough.com/2008/10/21/lucasfilm-costume-job-sort-of/

Jules Verne Festival This Weekend in Downtown Los Angeles

The_day_the_earth_stood_still_1951Disney fans will be excited about a Friday 7 p.m. screening of "Fantasia 2000" but even better is the Saturday afternoon bill with its two grand classics of science fiction cinema: "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951) at 1 p.m. and "Forbidden Planet" (1956) at 3 p.m. All screenings at the Edison.

Alfred Gough ("Smallville") will be on hand for a special screening of Richard Donner's "Superman" and Christopher_reeve_3 his re-edited version of its sequel, which is called "Superman II: The Donner Cut" and well worth seeing if you are a fan of the Last Son of Krypton. Saturday 8 p.m., Imaginasian Center.

Adama himself, Edward James Olmos, will be a special guest at a tribute to Ron Moore, the creative force behind "Battlestar Galactica," the soon-to-be-concluded series on Sci Fi. Saturday, 7 p.m., The Edison.

Linda Harrison, who played Nova in the 1968 film "Planet of the Apes," will be on hand for a special program entitled "Planet of the Apes: 40 Years of Evolution." Sunday night, 6:45 p.m., The Edison. (There will also be a screening of the startling simian classic at the Imaginasian at 7 that night.)