Oscars Rules Changes - Visual Effects Affected

 The film academy's Board of Governors has instituted rules changes that affect the music, foreign language, makeup and visual effects categories for the Oscars.

The makeup category has been renamed to include hairstyling, and within that category, all branch members who have seen the seven shortlisted titles will receive ballots to list their top three choices during the nominations process.

In the original song category, the exec committee will now be able to recommend that a fourth songwriter for an individual song be considered "in rare and extraordinary circumstances." Since 2005, the limit has been two songwriters with a third possible if found to be "an essentially equal contributor."

In visual effects, the number of potential nominees chosen by the branch's exec committee (via secret ballot) will be 10. Previously, there could be as few as seven.

And for foreign language, films must be submitted to the Academy in 35mm or (DCP (digital cinema package), but are no longer required to be exhibited in those formats in their countries of origin.

The rules changes were approved at this week's Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences meeting of the Board of Governors.


Source: chicagotribune.com

Radical Entertainment shut down

Radical Entertainment, the Canadian studio behind Prototype and Scarface: The World Is Yours, has closed.

The news was confirmed by various industry figures on Twitter, including the studio's audio designer Rob Bridgett, who tweeted: "RIP Radical Entertainment 1991-2012". Read more..

"The Avengers" Passes $600 million

[Source: darkhorizons.com]

Marvel's "The Avengers" is expected to cross the $600 million U.S. domestic box-office mark today, its 54th day of release, making it only the third film in history to reach that milestone.

It now sits only behind "Avatar" with $760.5 million and "Titanic" with $658.6 million. Though still earning solidly, the final tally is expected to end up around the $630-640 million mark.

Outside the States, the film has raked in $837.9 million thus far - extremely impressive but not as significant a hit as "Avatar" or "Titanic" which took in $2.0 billion and $1.5 billion respectively in foreign markets alone.

In terms of non-US grosses it's currently fourth highest in history behind those two Cameron films and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" which scored $947 million overseas.

With the added domestic total back in though its current worldwide haul stands at a whopping $1.4 billion.

Rainmaker sells animation studio to Xing Xing Digital

Just two days after Vancouver-based Rainmaker Entertainment announced Catherine Winder will step down as the company’s president and executive producer on June 30, Rainmaker has revealed it’s selling its animation studio to Beijing-based animation company Xing Xing Digital. Read more..

Google I/O Live

Incredible Visual Effects of Prometheus

Prometheus sure has some incredible VFX work. This video has interviews with overall visual effects supervisor Richard Stammers, and Fuel VFX supervisor Paul Butterworth.
Fuel worked on many of the amazing holograms and graphics in Prometheus, including for the star map orrery sequence.

VIEW Conference announces guests for 2012, so far

GARY RYDSTROM
Sound Designer, Skywalker Sound, Winner of 7 Academy Awards, BRAVE, WAR HORSE,
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, TOY STORY, A BUGS LIFE, FINDING NEMO, JURASSIC PARK

Gary Rydstrom has been nominated for 16 Academy Awards™ (7 wins), 12 Golden Reel
Awards (5 wins), 5 C.A.S Awards (2 wins), and 5 BAFTA Awards (2 wins). Gary Rydstrom
can truly be described as one of the inventors of modern cinema sound design. After gaining
invaluable experience as a sound technician on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,
he went on to design the sound for the comedy Spaceballs. Rydstrom’s sound design for
Backdraft was the precursor for his design for some of the biggest blockbusters (and most
memorable soundscapes) in modern cinema – here is just a small sampling of the many films
he has helped create: Terminator 2: Judgment Day (which earned Rydstrom two Academy
Awards™- Best Sound and Best Sound Editing), Jurassic Park (the very first motion picture
to be presented in DTS Digital Theater System, which earned him another two Academy
Awards™, again for Best Sound and Best Sound Editing), Titanic (Academy Award™ for Best
Sound), Saving Private Ryan (two Academy Awards™ for Best Sound and Best Editing),
Minority Report and Finding Nemo. He has recently made his directorial debut with the Pixar
animated short, Lifted, for which he received his fourteenth Academy Award™ nomination; for
the same studio he directed and wrote the screenplay for the 2011 animated short Hawaiian
Vacation.


ERIC DARNELL
Director of the MADAGASCAR trilogy. Eric brings to VIEW MADAGASCAR 3: EUROPE’S
MOST WANTED

Eric Darnell is the writer/director of Madagascar (2005), Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
(2008) and this summer’s major release Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted. Eric’s feature
directorial debut was as co-director (with VIEW 2010 keynote speaker Tim Johnson) of Antz,
the very first computer animated feature produced by Pacific Data Images/DreamWorks
Animation, in 1998. After graduating with degrees in broadcast journalism from the
University of Colorado and in Experimental Animation from the California Institute of the
Arts, Eric joined Pacific Data Images, where he worked as a character animator on the 1991
Hanna-Barbera Halloween special The Last Halloween, and was the writer/director/lead
animator for the Pacific Data Images short film Gas Planet. In addition to his directing duties,
Eric also wrote the song “Welcome to Duloc” for the 2001 film Shrek, for which he also
worked as story artist.


DAN ATTIAS
Director, Winner of the Directors Guild of America Award, DR. HOUSE, THE SOPRANOS,
LOST, THE WIRE, SIX FEET UNDER

Dan Attias has directed many of the most celebrated American television shows in recent
history, including The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Lost, Six Feet Under, Homeland,
Damages, Big Love, Dr. House, Alias, Heroes, True Blood, The Killing, Northern Exposure, and
Entourage. He has been nominated for multiple Emmy Awards and has won the Directors
Guild of America Award for Distinguished Directing in Episodic Drama. A gifted storyteller
and teacher, Dan will speak about how he approaches story, both in his preparation for a
project and in the actual production of a television episode.


JOSH HOLMES
Creative Director of HALO. Josh will premiere at VIEW HALO 4

Josh Holmes is an accomplished video-game producer and designer best known for his work
as Executive Producer and then Creative Director for the multi-billion dollar video-game
franchise Halo. Holmes is currently the Franchise Creative Director for 343 Industries, the
Microsoft Game Studios unit formed to to oversee development of Halo, which includes
video games, novels, comics, and other multimedia content. Josh turned to game design after
several years pursuing a career as a film actor, and his early training in drama and storytelling
continues to inform his work as a game designer. Holmes got his start in the video-game
business in 1995 at the Burnaby, Canada campus of gaming giant Electronic Arts. At EA, Josh
created the hit Def Jam series of fighting games, as well as the NBA Street series. In 2005, Josh
cofounded the Vancouver based video-game studio Propaganda Games, which was acquired
by Disney Interactive shortly after it opened. Holmes left Propaganda Games in 2008, moved
to Microsoft where in 2009 he was an Executive Producer on Halo Waypoint and Halo Reach,
and now heads up all creative on what has become one of the biggest gaming franchises of all
time.

                                                                                                                                                       


New contests!

VIEW SOCIAL CONTEST / a movie, a short, a music video or an advertising using 2D/3D
animation and/or VFX focusing on current social themes / deadline 15 September / First
Prize: 1500€

VIEW AWARD / animated short with 2D/3D animation and VFX / videogames / deadline 15
September / First Prize: 2000€

ITALIANMIX / inspiring works by Italian filmmakers or byforeign filmmakers but having as
their topic Italy or Italian subjects / deadline 15 September

GRIMM ANIMATED / animated short films with a maximum length of 5 minutes that
explore Grimms classics innovatively / deadline 24 August / First Prize: 1500€

PAPERS, WORKSHOPS and ARTWORK / deadline 31 July

VIEW Conference will take place in Turin from 16th to 19th October 2012 while the VIEWFest
will be from the 19th to the 21th.

For more info about the contests and the conference please visit the official website
http://viewconference.it

Prometheus - About the Spaceship

Ridley Scott's epic thriller PROMETHEUS takes its name from the spectacular, state of the art spaceship that transports its crew to a distant, foreboding world. Experience The Prometheus, when the film lands in theaters everywhere June 8.