On February 4, CARL ROSENDAHL, founder and chairman of Pacific Data Images,
announced to his staff that he is exiting PDI after 20 years "to pursue
other interests." Rosendahl's remaining stake in the visual effects house
has been acquired by DreamWorks. Previously owning 40% of the Palo Alto,
California-based facility, DreamWorks now commands 80% of the company. More
details are soon to be announced.
PDI has recently promoted DENISE MINTER to vice president of production.
Minter will now oversee all of Pacific Data Images' production efforts
around the world. Most recently, she was been senior producer on PDI
commercials for Sega Dreamcast and Coca-Cola. Since joining the company in
1993, Minter has also served as production manager on the DreamWorks and
PDI feature ANTZ.
ARNOLD RIFKIN, whose Cheyenne Enterprises, LLC, is currently partnered with
such talent as Bruce Willis, Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover, has joined
the Board of Directors of on-line entertainment company MediaTrip.com.
Rifkin was a founding partner in the talent agency, Triad Artists before it
was acquired by the William Morris Agency in 1992. Soon after Rifkin went
on head the Motion Picture Department at William Morris before being named
RAINBOW STUDIOS, a digital media company, announced DAVID STIPES has joined
Rainbow Studios' management staff. Stipes role will be to direct and
motivate Rainbow's team of award-winning producers, designers and artists
in current and upcoming projects. Stipes comes to Rainbow from Paramount
Pictures where he served as visual effects supervisor. Stipes designed
visual effects and supervised on-set live-action, motion control, CGI and
digital compositing for STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE, STAR TREK: VOYAGER and
SYCONET.COM, INC., a leading U.S. distributor of anime videos and DVDs,
announced that ANNELIESE CHANG will become their new director of marketing.
Chang will be responsible for the development of sales and marketing for
the company. Before joining SyCoNet.com, Chang held a management position
at Disney Consumer Products-Licensing, where she managed the product
development for over 20 toy licensees on various Disney properties
including TOY STORY 2, DINOSAUR, MICKEY MOUSE and WINNIE THE POOH. Prior to
REBECCA POOLE, a veteran Nickelodeon Movies exec, has been appointed to the
newly created position of VP, production, at Burbank, CA-based
AniManagement. Poole will help lead the company's new efforts in animated
and live-action film production. Her responsibilities will include managing
the division's existing client base and the acquisition and development of
original material. Most recently, Poole served as manager, creative
affairs, at Nick Movies. Before joining Nick, Poole worked at American
ACCLAIM ENTERTAINMENT INC., a leading worldwide interactive entertainment
company, has appointed JAY ANDRONACO as manager of public relations and
BRADFORD W. LOUCKS as vice president of sales. Andronaco will oversee
public relations initiatives for Acclaim's recently announced Extreme
Championship Wrestling (ECW) license, including the launch of the first
video game title on February 17, 2000, ECW HARDCORE REVOLUTION. In
addition, Andronaco will manage media relation initiatives for select
Mill Film announced that LAURENT HUGUENIOT and DAVID LOMAX have been
promoted to joint heads of Mill Film 3D. The promotion takes place with
immediate effect and follows on the heals of the recent announcement that
Mill Film will unite operations with sister company Magic Camera. Lomax
joined Mill Film in February 1997 from Pixar Animation Studios where he was
senior technical director for modeling and shader development on the
animated feature film, A BUGS LIFE. Since joining Mill Film, Lomax has
FILM ROMAN INC. has announced that veteran entertainment industry executive
LEONARD J. GROSSI has joined their board of directors and SIDNEY CLIFTON
has been promoted to director of television development. Currently, Grossi
is a partner in LSLG Associates, which owns a 49% interest in WHPN-TV, a
Madison, WS-based UPN affiliate. Grossi has recently formed and serves as
chairman and CEO of both Baseline Media and Entertainment Inc., a media,
communications and entertainment consulting firm, and Mile Square
Sharon Schatz interviews Brian Nilles on the newVicon 8 motion capture system and the future of the industry.
Ruth and Roger Whiter were lucky enough to meet Ray Harryhausen for tea and a chat about his career, the craft of stop-motion and the value of careful planning.
Husband of the late Mary Kay Bergman, Dino Andrade, has put out a call to
SOUTH PARK and Mary Kay Bergman fans to write to the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences in an effort to have Mrs. Bergman included in the
"In Memoriam" segment of the 2000 Oscar ceremony. Typically, the Academy
only honors higher profile talent who have passed away in the past year. As
reported [AF 11/23/99], Mrs. Bergman took her own life on November 11, 1999
The Emmy award-winning producer of THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, JUDE
BRENNAN, has joined the ever-expanding roster at OXYGEN MEDIA. Brennan will
occupy the newly created bi-coastal position of senior vice president of
programming. Brennan will helm the television programming schedule for the
network. The new Oxygen channel will launch nationwide on February 2, 2000.
For the last 20 years, Brennan has served as vice president of creative
BERNARD STOLAR was named president of MATTEL INTERACTIVE, the division that
includes The Learning Company and other software and high-tech products.
Stolar joins Mattel from Sega where he helped engineer the launch of the
Sega Dreamcast video game console in the United States. At Mattel, he will
try to mend the ailing Learning Company division, whose unexpected $105
million loss in the third quarter shocked investors and diminished Mattel's
OLIVE JAR STUDIOS has opened their doors to a new executive in charge of
special venue and theme park productions, MARK RHODES. Rhodes will help the
company's new West Coast branch increase business in both long format
productions and theme park attraction work, as well as aid in the
commercial division. When at Universal, Rhodes supervised two separate
animation projects produced by Olive Jar for Universal Studios' new Islands
of Adventure theme park, which opened in Summer 1999. Rhodes' other
INFOGRAMES NORTH AMERICA, INC. announced that DEREK QUACKENBUSH and RON
RUDOLPH have joined the interactive company's senior management team.
Quackenbush takes on the role of CFO for Infogrames' North American
operations, while Rudolph will head human resources and administration as
the company's senior vice president of administration. For the past three
years, Quackenbush served as Sony's 989 Studios' director of finance and
administration. Prior to 989 Studios, he held various finance positions at
Katie Mason profiles Art Scott, a man whose career took him to almost every major U.S. studio.
On January 24, 2000, Robert A. Iger was named president and chief operating
officer of The Walt Disney Co. as well as a member of its board of
directors. Previously, Iger served as chairman of the Disney-owned ABC
Group and president of Walt Disney International, Disney's overseas
business division. Michael Eisner, Walt Disney's chairman and CEO, also
announced the promotion of Chief Strategic Officer Peter E. Murphy and
Chief Financial Officer Thomas O. Staggs, to the positions of senior
Fantome, one of Europe's premier producers of 3D animation, was founded in
1985 by Georges Lacroix. Fantome has gained an international reputation,
and garnered more than 40 international prizes, including an Emmy. Its most
notable credits are: THE GEOMETRIC FABLES (50 x 3 minutes), the first
computer-generated animation series ever made, and INSEKTORS (26 x 13 min)
which has sold in more than 160 countries. In 1998 after being faced with
Assistant editor JESSE REISNER has moved up to editor at New York-based
EDITING CONCEPTS. Reisner holds a BFA degree in visual arts from Brown
University. Despite his impressive academic career, he credits the staff at
Editing Concepts with the bulk of his education and technical experience.
Reisner's first national spot "Puppy Love," for Casio via Della
Femina/Jeary and Partners, debuted recently. His earlier work includes
regional spots for Bob Stores (KGA Advertising, CT, Spencer Antle
CYBERWORLD INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION, a new-media company, has announced
that PAUL LYPACZEWSKI has joined the company as senior vice president of
strategic business & product development. Lypaczewski will oversee the
strategic business and product development group within CYBERWORLD to
further develop the company's software technology. Lypaczewski will also
help build strategic industry relationships to help make CYBERWORLD the
dominant provider of interactive Internet-based multimedia. Lypaczewski
CARTOON NETWORK has named TIMOTHY HALL their new executive vice president.
Hall will be responsible for integrating marketing to popularize the
network's brand in the U.S. and globally, and creating new business around
the world. Prior to Cartoon Network, Hall was senior vice president of
boys' toys marketing and product development at Hasbro, Inc. Hall was
responsible for the overall strategic direction, marketing and product
development of Star Wars toys and games, among other brands. He began his
CLAIRE ROBINSON has been named senior vice president, intellectual property
law, for THE WALT DISNEY CO. Robinson will oversee Disney's intellectual
property group, which is responsible for intellectual property matters for
the company and its subsidiaries worldwide. Previously, Robinson held the
position of vice president in the same department. Before joining Disney in
1989, she was with the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington,
QUICKBAND NETWORKS, a leading distributor of short-form entertainment, has
signed KIM ADELMAN as editor of SHORT, a compilation of award-winning
live-action, animated, experimental and documentary short films distributed
exclusively on DVD. The company also promoted CRAIG WELLS to director of
acquisitions. Kim Adelman joins QuickBand Networks from fXM: Movies From
Fox. At the Fox-owned movie network, Adelman launched the short film
division, fXM Shorts. During her tenure at fXM, Adelman produced 19 films,
METV.COM, a new Internet video-on-demand company, opens its feature film
licensing drive with the arrival of veteran film-buyer JOHN REWEDA as vice
president of content acquisition. "John's (Reweda) expertise will play a
key role in establishing contact with the leading movie studios and
independents as we move toward our June 2000 consumer launch date," said
Martin French, MeTV.com senior vice president. Reweda will help the
fledgling business develop and obtain content for its MeTV.com Web site,
