This week’s fxpodcast we speak to Stu Maschwitz, director, author, accidental technologist and vfx supervisor of the Spirit. Stu supervised over 1900 shots, many done at the Orphanage in San Fran. The film follows in a similar, but not identical vein to the blockbusters 300 and Sin City. It is first feature directed solo by Frank Miller. We speak about the film, Stu’s approach to working with Miller and the technical issues involved in producing this graphic novel as a film.

Visit the fxpodcast page for direct downloads and RSS feed links. To be notified automatically and have the episodes downloaded in iTunes, subscribe via this link.

It is our great pleasure for the holiday season to bring you an incredible fxguidetv episode. We are joined by film maker and Oscar winner George Miller. Coupled with this exclusive interview is a walk through of work done by Digital Domain artist Justin Van Der Lek for Mummy 3 : Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, showing the power of Nuke for compositing CGI.

Visit the fxguidetv page for direct downloads and RSS feed links. To be notified automatically and have the episodes downloaded in iTunes, subscribe via this link.

This week in Red Centre we discuss the Adobe implementation of .r3d support in both AE and Premier with our own John Montgomery. We also look at the work of Artbeats who have been shooting now with the RED and offer not only clips but the source .r3d files for stock use purchase. Happy Holidays – we return Jan 9th 2009.

To all our listeners : travel safe these holidays and thanks so much for your support in 2008, the red centre production podcast has wildy exceeded our plans, we are so happy you guys seem to like it.

Visit our red centre page to listen or subscribe via RSS or iTunes. This week’s Episode is  #24.

Email comments at email us at Red at fxguide.com or follow us via, twitter.com/mikeseymour or twitter.com/wingrove

Ascent Media announced that Santa Monica based Riot and Method are officially combining operations beginning January 1st. Method will be moving its operations into the current Riot location — and the facility will do business under the Method name. A trip by the facility this week shows that the Riot sign has already been removed from the front facade. Alex Frisch, co-founder and managing director of Method, will continue overseeing the Los Angeles and New York operations of Method.

This was actually somewhat foreshadowed back in October, when Method and Company 3 announced a collaborative partnership between the two companies. While not necessarily a direct response to the current economic conditions, the current move does make sense in that the merging of the two very similar companies could yield cost savings for Ascent.

The next logical question would be that in this economic downturn — do the benefits also include cost savings such as artist or staff layoffs? It’s a question we posed to Ascent. “The primary goal of bringing Riot and Method under one name is to streamline services and provide a consistently high level of service to our clients,” says Stefan Sonnenfeld, Senior Vice President, Ascent Media Group and President & Managing Director, Company 3. “We will also continually look for ways to improve efficiencies, however, we are not yet in a position to discuss any staffing changes that may arise as part of the consolidation.”

For the full press release, click through….
(more…)

Mike is currently having a blast in Singapore at the inaugural SIGGRAPH Asia 2008, which started today. The original SIGGRAPH show has got to be our favorite of the year, with its mix of creative and intellectual stimulation. But one thing that was missing in action this past year was the Electronic Theater — always a highlight of the show. Back in the day, Jeff Heusser even used to put the Electronic Theater together at Editel Chicago. That’s how close to it we are.

Now we totally understand the need to tinker and change and test things. Hell, we do it all the time at fxguide and fxphd. But the idea was tried and it didn’t really work. In speaking with other artists, we found that it was a nearly unanimous sentiment that everyone missed the Electronic Theatre. We sure did.

So to show our support for ACM SIGGRAPH , we’ve started a grassroots online petition to let the SIGGRAPH organizers know how much we and others missed the event. Please take a moment to sign the online petition and help sway the organizers to bring it back to New Orleans. And while you’re at it, reserve August 3rd through the 7th on your calendar for SIGGRAPH 2009.

If you really want to help out, click through and download image badges you can put on your blog or web site to help promote the cause.

(more…)

Beverly Hills, CA — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 15 films were selected as semifinalists for Achievement in Visual Effects for the 81st Academy Awards®.

In early January, the members of the Academy’s Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee, who voted the semifinalists, will narrow the list to seven. On Thursday, January 15, all members of the Visual Effects Branch will be invited to view 15-minute excerpts from each of the seven shortlisted films. Following the screenings, the members will vote to nominate three films for final Oscar consideration.

The list is after the jump.
(more…)

This week in Red Centre we discusses the Dec 3rd news from RED for Scarlet and Epic. We break down the deal for current RED ONE owners and also discuss our final section on Tripods in the RED ROOM.

Visit our red centre page to listen or subscribe via RSS or iTunes. This week’s Episode is  #23.

Email comments at email us at Red at fxguide.com or follow us via, twitter.com/mikeseymour or twitter.com/wingrove