the Unseen Edits

http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/news/photographers_face_copyright_threat_after_shock_ruling__news_311191.html

The case, heard at the Patents County Court in London on 12 January, could have serious implications for photographers, according to photographic copyright expert Charles Swan, a lawyer at Swan Turton, who said: ‘His honour Judge Birss QC decided that a photograph of a red London bus against a black and white background of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, with a blank sky, was similar enough to another photograph of the same subject matter to infringe copyright.’

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2012/01/23/the-hobbit-andy-serkis-says-gollum-is-printed-into-my-dna/

“What’s fantastic is that there’s a real growing appreciation for performance-capture technology as a tool for acting. Over the years, people have asked me, “Do you think there should be a separate category for acting in the digital realm? Or hybrid sort of awards for digital characters?” and so on. And I’ve always really maintained that I don’t believe so. I think it should be considered acting, because it is. My part in it, what I do, as say the authorship of the role, the creation, the emotional content of the role, the physicality up until the point of delivering that for the director, it is acting.”

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/01/andy-serkis-oscars

For Rise of the Planet of the Apes, director Rupert Wyatt filmed Serkis in real-world settings with co-star James Franco and other members of the cast. “There’s no disconnect between the performance-capture actor and the live-action actor,” says Serkis. “One is in a costume and the other is in a motion-capture suit. Every single beat, every interaction between the characters, happens at the same time.”

also see a clip of Andy Serkis without CGI at

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/awards-campaign/posts/exclusive-andy-serkis-emotional-goodbye-as-ceasar-in-rise-of-the-planet-of-the-apes

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-machinima-20120124,0,6479926.story

With 125 million viewers watching more than 1 billion of its videos a month, Machinima may be the most-watched channel that’s not on TV.

The specialty channel devoted to video-game aficionados — which offers game walk-throughs, gaming news, exclusive trailers and original series — is the channel with the fourth most subscribers on YouTube, itself the world’s third most popular website, according to online measurement firm ComScore Inc.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.02/fxgods.html

Since 1977’s Star Wars, visual effects have come to dominate the Hollywood box office and bottom line. Of the 20 top-grossing movies of all time, three are totally animated, and the others include so many effects you can’t tell the real from the fake. Over the past decade, studio sources say, the typical wide-release feature film has seen its effects budget skyrocket from an average of $5 million to $40 million. “Even five years ago, we shot one or two movies a year with a significant number of effects,” says Hutch Parker, president of production at 20th Century Fox Film. “Today, 50 percent have significant effects. They’re a character in the movie.”

http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/21/2724289/boardwalk-empire-special-effects-vfx-hbo-brainstorm-digital

Remember the old days when you could easily point out something in a movie or TV show and tell your friends that it was all special effects? Well, it’s getting a bit more difficult to discern what’s what nowadays, so thankfully the Brainstorm Digital team — they’re responsible for the VFX in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire — has released a video peeling off the layers of effects from some shots in season two. Our favorites? Those showing how they brought Atlantic City’s boardwalk back to its glory days.

http://cinescopophilia.com/your-film-festival-by-ridley-scott-and-youtube-with-500k-prize

YouTube has announced a short film competition called Your Film Festival. You have until March 31st to submit a short, story-driven video. There’s no entry fee. It can be any format – short film, web-series episode, TV pilot – and any genre. In June, audiences around the world will vote, sending 10 deserving storytellers to open the 2012 Venice Film Festival where a Grand Prize Winner will be be rewarded with a $500,000 grant to create a new work, produced by Ridley Scott and his world class team.

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/01/pixomondo-hugo-vfx

Video wont embed correctly… view at either link

http://bcove.me/1tkxqg6q

Intense VFX shots layered upon the already-complex 3-D production made Hugo a challenge that could only be met with brute computer strength. That strength came courtesy of Pixomondo, the VFX shop that completed some 800 shots for the film in just over a year, employing 400 artists in the United States, United Kingdom, China, Thailand and Germany.

Side by Side: The Science, Art, and Impact of Digital Cinema, Documentary Trailer from @sidebysidemovie

sidebysidethemovie.com

facebook.com/sidebysidethemovie

The documentary investigates the history, process and workflow of both digital and photochemical film creation. We show what artists and filmmakers have been able to accomplish with both film and digital and how their needs and innovations have helped push filmmaking in new directions. Interviews with directors, cinematographers, colorists, scientists, engineers and artists reveal their experiences and feelings about working with film and digital—where we are now, how we got here and what the future may bring.

http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2012/01/13/iawtv-awards-names-winners-with-video-and-full-list

There’s nothing the entertainment industry loves more than an awards show, so it’s probably a milestone of some kind that the nonprofit International Academy of Web Television now has its very own. The inaugural IAWTV Awards event was held Thursday evening, appropriately as part of the 2012 International CES.

Full Awards Show

Inaugural IAWTV Awards Winners

Best Comedy Web Series:  The Guild

Best Drama Web Series:  RCVR/Web Series

Best Hosted Taped Web Series: The Web.Files

Best Hosted Live Web Series:  What’s Trending with Shira Lazar

Best Animated Web Series:  Red vs. Blue

Best Documentary Web Series: White Collar Brawler

Best Variety Web Series:  Kids React

Best News Web Series:  Tech News Today

Best Educational Web Series:  DadLabs

Best Writing (Comedy):  Felicia Day, The Guild

Best Writing (Drama):  Susan Miller & Tina Cesa Ward, Anyone But Me

Best Writing (Non-Fiction):  Rudy Jahchan, A Comicbook Orange

Best Directing (Comedy):  Sean Becker, The Guild

Best Directing (Drama): Chris Preksta, The Mercury Men

Best Directing (Non-Fiction):  Brett Register, What’s Trending with Shira Lazar

Best Female Performance (Comedy): Felicia Day (Codex), The Guild

Best Female Performance (Drama):  Rachael Hip-Flores (Vivian McMillan), Anyone But Me

Best Male Performance (Comedy): Jeff Lewis (Stan), The Jeff Lewis 5-Minute Comedy Hour

Best Male Performance (Drama): Daniel Bonjour (Luke Weber), RCVR/Web Series

Best Host (Taped):  Kristyn Burtt, The Web.Files

Best Host (Live):  Shira Lazar, What’s Trending with Shira Lazar

Best Cinematography:  Joost van Starrenburg, RCVR/Web Series

Best Design:  Greg Aronowitz, Dragon Age: Redemption

Best Costume Design:  Shawna Trpcic, Dragon Age: Redemption

Best Makeup/Special Effects:  Greg Aronowitz and Kimberly Graczyk, Dragon Age: Redemption

Best Visual Effects:  Chris Preksta, The Mercury Men

Best Editing:  Tony E. Valenzuela, BlackBoxTV: The Series

Best Original Music:  Rob Gokee, Night of the Zombie King

Best Supplemental Content:  The Mercury Men

Best Interactive/Social Media Experience:  What’s Trending with Shira Lazar

Best Web Site Design:  The Guild

Best Distribution Platform: Blip.tv

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/housingcomplex/2012/01/11/lights-camera-no-action

A few days later, though, the Washington Post uncovered a nasty surprise for the city. In Division G Section 1202 (a) of H.R. 2055, the space west of the Capitol that contains Grant Statue and the Reflecting Pool, known as Union Square, had been quietly transferred from the National Park Service to the Architect of the Capitol—so quietly, in fact, that the Park Service didn’t even realize the change had happened.

The Capitol Police said the shift was made for security reasons. Civil rights activists cried foul; land controlled by the National Park Service has been historically seen as grounds for protest, and it’s much more difficult to get special event permits within the Capitol complex. But some commercial filmmakers were even more alarmed. With the rest of the Capitol off limits, the statue has long been the place to get an establishing shot of the dome, the one scene that said, unmistakably and irreplaceably, a movie takes place in Washington.

I am attending the San Francisco Supermeet on Jan 27th… Looking forward to seeing you there #PostChat #EditingandPost

http://supermeet.com/

Everything I Learned In Film School In Under 3 Minutes, by @MikeyGleason

http://www.lockergnome.com/news/2011/12/23/boycotting-sopa/

SOPA Supporters

We don’t necessarily advocate a boycott as the best solution to making your voice heard. But, simply boycotting one company while continuing to buy from others is hypocritical – and one action doesn’t send a complete message. While you have valid concerns with Go Daddy’s initial support of SOPA, you may have unwittingly (or, worse yet, willfully) ignored the far-reaching economic impact of other SOPA supporters.

Dont know what SOPA is? Watch this video for an explanation?

http://www.biscardicreative.com/blog/2011/12/for-now-editing-is-a-commodity-not-a-craft/

http://www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/news/662-walter-biscardi-for-now-editing-is-a-commodity-and-less-a-craft

…after a three year internal review, CNN has determined that professional editors are not necessary to craft news stories any longer. Instead they are expanding their iReport section allowing for more user generated content to be provided to the network, at absolutely zero cost to the network…

So we’re at the point in the evolution of Editing (and videography for that matter) from craft to commodity. As CNN says in their release, high quality video cameras and editing software are available to the masses, so they don’t need the professionals any longer.