Category: Visual Effects

At a screening of the Chinese blockbuster film HERO last week, the NSW attorney general Bob Debus announced that a NSW fund used to attract traditional film projects will now also be available to digital production. Animal Logic welcomed the incentive and applauded the government for recognizing the importance of digital production to the future of international filmmaking.

Animal Logics director of communications & public affairs, Greg

Jim Morris, president of Lucas Digital for 11 years, is heading south to produce computer-animated movies. Chrissie England, svp of production at ILM, has been promoted to president of ILM.

Jim, Chrissie and their team at ILM have been working hard over the last 18 months to implement sweeping changes in both the operations and structure of ILM, commented Lucasfilm Ltd. president Micheline Chau. Now that those initiatives have been launched, Jim is taking this opportunity to move on to other areas of the entertainment business.

Under the new leadership of exec director Eric Roth, The Visual Effects Society (VES) is looking to the film industry to beef up its star power in announcing the Honorary Committee for the 2005 VES Awards being held Feb. 16 at the Hollywood Palladium. Chaired by George Lucas, the committee includes Peter Jackson, John Lasseter, James Cameron, John Dykstra, Richard Edlund, Peter Ellenshaw, Roland Emmerich, Ken Ralston, Richard Taylor, Stan Winston, Dennis Muren, Ed Zwick, Doug Trumbull, John Swallow, Paula Wagner, Danny DeVito, Samuel Jackson and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

After tackling Scooby-Doo in CGI, Rhythm & Hues took on Americas favorite lazy, lasagna-loving fat cat in GARFIELD THE MOVIE (voiced by Bill Murray). The recent DVD (Fox Home Ent., $29.98) not only contains the feature that earned $110M worldwide Garfield plots Odies demise, what else?

Last week, 70 British companies, including most of the Soho post players, convened the first U.K. Showcase at the Renaissance Hotel in Hollywood. More than a chance to escape the freezing London weather for sunny L.A., the thriving vfx companies, in particular, were able to tout their recent successes and do a little off-site business with Warner Bros., Fox and Universal, who have outsourced the bulk of their tentpole vfx work to the U.K. over the last few years.

London-based vfx house, Double Negative, developed a series of CG shots for BRIDGET JONES: THE END OF REASON, opening Nov. 12, 2004, including one of the films pivotal sequences: The Lonely People. Alex Hope, co-founder, Double Negative, said: For both of these shots, the brief was to very subtly push the limits of realism to create an effect that bordered upon fantasy.