Rick DeMott's Recent Posts

Visual Headline News

New Visual To Impact The Web

New Visual Entertainment, Inc., a 3D production company specializing in 3D

product development and distribution for special venue theaters, home

video, broadcast, and theatrical markets, has announced its completed

acquisition of Impact Pictures, Inc., a small San Diego-based multi-media

production house specializing in Web animation, streaming media and

high-end CD-ROM corporate presentations, in a stock for stock transaction.

New Visual plans to utilize the creative hardware and staffing assets of

Short Headline News

Quickband Broadens Roster

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,

Headline News

Metv.com Brings In Film-Buyer Reweda

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,

Effects Headline News

Sinagra Signs Radium

3D animator ANDREW SINAGRA has joined the computer graphics team at San

Francisco-based RADIUM. With specialties including modeling, particle

effects and volumetric effects, Sinagra will be involved in creating 3D

animation and visual effects for commercials and music videos. Sinagra

joins Radium from Midland Productions, a Berkeley, CA-based computer

animation house specializing in special venue films, feature films and

commercials. While at Midland, Sinagra created 3D animation for ROBOTS OF

Million Headline News

The $100M Mouse Slips To 2nd At U.S. B.O.

Sony's US$100 million plus grossing film STUART LITTLE couldn't hold off

the live-action comedy NEXT FRIDAY at the U.S. box office thus slipping to

second place. The mega-mouse flick, with primary visual effects by Sony

Pictures Imageworks, additional animation by CFX and Rhythm & Hues, and

miniatures by Thunderstone, grossed US$9.7 million bringing its grand total

to $106.8 million. THE GREEN MILE, with primary visual effects by ILM,

Rhythm & Hues, POP and Matte World Digital, fell to 5th place grossing $7.6

Cartoon Headline News

Cartoon Noir In LA

NEW! * Friday, February 25, 2000 - Thursday, March 2, 2000. Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.

CARTOON NOIR comes to LA. This multi-technique film is a feature-length

compilation of animated shorts from American and European artists. Featured

in CARTOON NOIR are: APE, Julie Zammarchi's darkly comic critique of

monogamy, meat eating and the daily pattern of human brutality; ALTAIR,

Lewis Klahr's collagist elegy on New York nightlife; CLUB OF THE DISCARDED,

Disney Headline News

TAIS Presents Disney Animator Peter Emslie

* Wednesday, January 26, 2000. Toronto, Canada.

TAIS, the Toronto Animated Image Society, will present "Creating Appealing

Cartoon Characters" with Peter Emslie. In the evening's presentation, the

long-time Disney animator will explain his personal theory on what makes

for good cartoon character design, by referring to videotape and sketching

on the spot to illustrate various points. Since 1979, Emslie has spent much

of his time drawing for the Walt Disney Company. On staff for 10 years and

Television Headline News

NATPE News

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, January 19, 2000 at 12:00am

NATPE is one of the leading television markets and conferences in the

world. The event in New Orleans offers animation and special effects

companies a rare opportunity to showcase their work to a global audience.

NATPE 2000 will offer a vast array of exhibitors gathered in pavilions such

as Animation/Licensing sponsored by KidScreen; Cable sponsored by ATVC

(Asociacion Argentia de Television por Cable); HDTV/Visual Effects

sponsored by SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers);

Disney Headline News

Disney's Imagine Finds New Home At Fox

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, January 19, 2000 at 12:00am

Imagine Television, the makers of THE PJS, is leaving Disney for its new

home at Fox. The three-year collaboration between the small screen arm of

production house Imagine Entertainment and 20th Century Fox Television will

take effect at the end of April 2000. Worth up to $30 million, the deal

also includes a two-year option extension. Imagine TV had been based at

Walt Disney Television since it was formed in 1997 by Imagine Entertainment

Disney Headline News

Disney Channel With A Latin Touch

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, January 19, 2000 at 12:00am

On Friday, January 14, 2000, Walt Disney International-Latin America

announced the launch of the Disney Channel Latin America and an exclusive

satellite television distribution agreement with Galaxy Latin America, LLC

for DIRECTV service in Spanish-speaking Latin America. "Launching the

Disney Channel in Latin America in 2000 is an exciting initiative for the

Walt Disney Company," said Diego Lerner, president and managing director,

WDI-Latin America. "As we have in other parts of the world, we will now

Headline News

V12 Births Blue Cross/Blue Shield Spot

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, January 19, 2000 at 12:00am

V12's director David Hwang created a "'50s sitcom spoof" commercial for

Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Produced for the Detroit ad agency DP + Company,

the 30-second spot features blue-tinted footage of a classic LEAVE IT TO

BEAVER-like family. As the family reads about the Selectcare program, the

commercial washes over in bright Technicolor hues. The voice-over

concludes, "Sometimes the answer can come right out of the blue." Jennifer

Lucero produced for V12.

Spot Headline News

Red Rover Raps Molson Spot

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, January 19, 2000 at 12:00am

Toronto-based RED ROVER's directors Andy and Linzi Knight created the

"subliminal" message for the Molson Export "Subliminal" spot. The 30-second

spot slyly transforms the bubbles in a glass of beer into the image of

three go-go girls dancing to "And the Beat Goes On." The spot was produced

for McClaren McCann of Toronto. Linzi Knight said, "This is the kind of

commercial people look forward to seeing because they're always looking to

see if they notice anything else going. That kind of viewer attention is

Animated Headline News

Class-Key Chew-Po Closes On 2 Spots

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, January 19, 2000 at 12:00am

CLASS-KEY CHEW-PO, the commercial division of Klasky Csupo, produced two

animated spots for Hasbro's "Together TV" and Tiger Electronics' "Find

Furby" game. Both spots were directed by Steven Dovas and were produced for

New York-based ad agency Posnick & Koklaer. The "Together TV" spot features

live-action heads placed atop animated bodies. The spot highlights parents

spending time with their children. The "Find Furby" spot brings animated

versions of the Furby dolls to life as they bounce around the sky from

Spot Headline News

Curious Pictures & Tomato Create RCA Spot

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, January 19, 2000 at 12:00am

London-based collective, CURIOUS PICTURES and TOMATO, created the blend of

type graphics and stock footage for an RCA spot entitled "Static." Graphics

weave together images of static, distortion and color bars, until finally a

crisp picture of the two RCA Dalmatian mascots appear to illustrate the

growth of television from its early days to HDTV. The spot ends with the

tag "RCA. Changing entertainment. Again." Graham Wood directed for Curious

Pictures/Tomato and Quiche Campbell produced.

April Headline News

Pajama Sam 3 Arrives In April

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, January 19, 2000 at 12:00am

Hitting the U.S. market April 2000, Humongous Entertainment will bring

families their new CD-ROM, PAJAMA SAM 3: YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT FROM YOUR

HEAD TO YOUR FEET. Pajama Sam is back to uncover the mysterious

disappearance of four Peace Delegates who have not arrived at the Food

Pyramid for a Peace Conference. The suggested retail price will be $24.99.

Series Headline News

Hey Monie To Debut On Oxygen

Tom Snyder Productions, the creators of DR. KATZ: PROFESSIONAL THERAPIST,

have been assigned to create a new animated comedy series for Oxygen,

Geraldine Laybourne's new network to launch February 2, 2000 to accompany

the Web site of the same name. The comedy series titled HEY MONIE is based

on the life and longings of a single African-American professional woman in

big city America. This is the first network animated series based on an

African-American woman and her friends. The show is scheduled to air on

Spot Headline News

Renegade Creates Trix Yogurt Spot

RENEGADE ANIMATION created their third in a series of 30-second Trix Yogurt

spots for New York-based ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi. The spot starts out

with a group of sad kids in a black & white colored world until they taste

Trix Yogurt. They use their spoons as magic wands to paint the world in

bright colors. The cel animated spot was directed by Darrell Van Citters

and produced by Jeff Poehlmann of Johnson Burnett Productions.

Visual Headline News

yU + Co Designs Graphics for AmEx Spot

yU + CO, in collaboration with Digital Domain, provided the motion graphics

design for seven new American Express "Blue" commercials. The titles appear

at the close of the spots as a grouping of light and dark squares, as in a

highly pixilated image, before coming into focus as letters. The titles

where designed to comment on the physical flexibility and the holographic

blue box center of the new card. Garson Yu was designer and director for yU

Headline News

Radium Raps Mervyn's Spot

RADIUM's Inferno artist Alaina Goetz created effects for two Mervyn's

California commercials. In "Yo-yo," Goetz takes live-action footage of a

dancer and puts them into a yo-yo that spins and jerks off the screen. In

"Kung-fu," Goetz creates the transitions between scenes by creating

rice-paper doors that slide in front of the camera. Radium's Andrea Mansour

produced the project for Minneapolis ad agency Martin/Williams.

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