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Linux powers The Spiderwick Chronicles
by Robin Rowe
SEATTLE, WA (Linux Journal) 11/14/07 —Linux software
on Macintosh desktops with Linux renderfarms creates Paramount
movie. A Linux-based production pipeline is a perfect choice
for a major motion picture like The Spiderwick Chronicles, with
it's many goblins and magical creatures. Hollywood has been the
realm of Linux since 1997, when the movie Titanic proved that
Linux can do big computer graphics jobs like rendering a sinking
ocean liner. With an industry tradition of using UNIX-based operating
systems for high computation jobs, and due to the better, faster,
cheaper, nature of Linux, every major effects or animation movie
today is produced using Linux. More in print... |
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British Sells at American Film Market
by Robin Rowe
SANTA MONICA, CA (British Weekly) 11/08/07 — "This
is a very efficient way for us to meet clients from all over
the world", says British sales agent Igor Sekulic with the
UK Film Export Office at the American Film Market (AFM). "For
me it's been a good year. There's Surveillance. That was
in Berlin and has Sean Brosnan, the son of Pierce Brosnan. It's
about the society of surveillance after 911 and what happens
when a gay teacher has affair." More... |
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Writers Tell Producers Include Us...Later
by Robin Rowe
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 11/05/07 — "Does
anyone have a bag of peanuts?" asks writer Howard A. Rodman,
"because there's an elephant in the room." That elephant,
of course, is the WGA writers strike that came on the same day
that the WGA had a previously scheduled panel presentation at
the American Film Market. Ironically, that panel is entitled
"Keeping Writers Onboard: The Business Case". Panel
moderator Rodman and five other writers, all WGA members, discussed
how producers and directors could better utilize writers during
production. After the panel, Rodman said he would be heading
to a WGA picket line at Sunset-Gower Studios. More... |
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Ugly Betty Showrunner Silvio Horta
by Robin Rowe
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 10/25/07 — Ugly Betty
creator-showrunner Silvio Horta, of Cuban heritage, brings a
fresh interpretation to a classic Cinderella story. The show
demonstrates the successful approach to American television in
the new century: ethnicity and universality. The ABC hour-long
dramedy is set in two worlds: the absurdly chic New York office
of the fashion magazine where Betty works and Betty's simple
home life in Queens with her widowed father, outspoken sister
and young nephew. In reality, the show is shot on the lot at
Raleigh Studios in Hollywood and has downtown Los Angeles doubling
for cosmopolitan scenes of New York. More in print... |
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Viva...LA Femme Film Festival
by Robin Rowe
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 10/17/07 — "LA Femme
is a fantastic film festival", says Rosanna Arquette ("Desperately
Seeking Susan"). "It's important that we're celebrating
the wonderful work of women filmmakers. There should be more
press here, not only Hollywood Today." Lea Thompson (Caroline
in the City) has four independent movies waiting for release.
"It is still very tough to be any kind of filmmaker in Hollywood"
says Lea Thompson. "But, women have the unique ability to
persevere and multi-task, which are precisely the qualities that
you need to survive in this business." More... |
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The Redford Factor at Skywalker Sound
Editors Guild Magazine
November 2007 Cover Story
by Robin Rowe
"I'm fascinated by what I call the 'Redford factor',"
says Lions for Lambs supervising sound editor Richard
Hymns. "When I first see the film, it's not there. But sometime
during the post process this evocative, sad, sense of loss comes
into the film. With each film I try to pinpoint where it comes
in and why, but I'm still baffled. This is the fifth Robert Redford
film for me." More... |
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The Editor of ‘Lions for Lambs’
Editors Guild Magazine
November 2007 Cover Story
by Robin Rowe
"Selecting the best take of a scene is a visceral choice",
says Lions for Lambs picture editor Joe Hutshing. "What's
the most believable take? Which take makes you forget you're
looking at an actor in a film? Does this take connect you with
the character? Is this the funniest reading? Is this the look
that gives you a lump in your throat?" More... |
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The Assistant Editor of ‘Lions for Lambs’
Editors Guild Magazine
November 2007 Cover Story
by Robin Rowe
One of the biggest challenges for assistant editor David Bilow––Joe
Hutshing’s right-hand man––in the post-production
work on Lions for Lambs was the film’s structure. “There
were three different, seemingly unrelated, storylines throughout
this movie,” says Bilow. “I don’t think we’ve
ever been on a movie where you could pretty much put any scene
in any location and one could argue that it worked.” More... |
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Balls of Fury...Ping-Pong Visual Effects
fx guide
September 9, 2007
by Robin Rowe
“The whole story is based on these characters playing
champion level Ping-Pong”, says Mr. X president and visual
effects supervisor Dennis Berardi. “It’s a very fast,
extreme sport with spectacular coordination. All the Ping-Pong
is digital. Based on our tests we had a high level of confidence
we could do it.” More... |
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The Editors of The Office
Editors Guild Magazine
September 2007
by Robin Rowe
You don’t find too many editors who work “office
jobs.” David Rogers and Dean Holland do, however. Only their
“office” is The
Office, the award-winning NBC comedy series depicting
the day-to-day lives of office employees at a Pennsylvania paper
company. More... |
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Michael Bay on Editing Transformers
fx guide
July 9, 2007
by Robin Rowe
The furious cutting in the first few minutes of the film, from
the huge alien robot attack on an American base in Qatar to Sam’s
everyday life in suburbia, keeps the story pumping. Unlike Spider-Man
3, there’s no slowing down to have a Peter Parker character
moping over breaking up with Mary Jane. Transformers is constant
trills. The rapid MTV-style of cutting is just what everyone
expects from a movie directed by Michael Bay. More... |
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Interview: Transformers director Michael Bay
MovieEditor Magazine
July 2007 Cover Story
by Robin Rowe
This summer’s next big action movie, Transformers,
directed by Michael Bay and produced by Steven Spielberg, hits
theaters on July 2nd. Back in 1995, after directing MTV videos
and commercials, Michael Bay directed his first feature film,
the action comedy hit Bad Boys produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.
Bay followed that with other Bruckheimer features including The
Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys
II, and The Island. Critics ravaged Pearl Harbor,
but the movie grossed $450 million, and it became one of the
top-selling DVDs of all time. Bay became one of the youngest
directors ever to reach the billion-dollar box office mark. More... |
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Transformers...Look! Robots!
MovieEditor Magazine
July 2007
by Robin Rowe
Transformers is the big summer action movie for 2007. If
you thought Spider-man 3 was fun, but just too damn long
and the same old story, you need to see this movie. In fact,
if you wouldn’t dream of going to see Spider-man 3,
you still want to see this movie. Transformers accomplishes
something that few high-testosterone movies ever do. Appeal to
chicks. My girlfriend sat open mouthed, grabbing my arm to whisper,
"Look! Look!", during the whole movie. But, that’s
jumping ahead… More... |
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Editing Transformers
Editors Guild Magazine
July 2007
by Robin Rowe
Transformers, director Michael Bay’s new film about
alien invaders, the rock ’em sock ‘em robots of the
21st century, explodes onto screens this Fourth of July. The
story of robots that can metamorphose from ordinary-looking machines
into intelligent, mechanical, biped creatures has gone through
many transformations itself. Originally a line of toys from Hasbro,
Transformers was next a popular television cartoon series
running 1984-87. Then came the animated feature Transformers:
The Movie in 1986, followed by some two-dozen international TV
shows and video games up through June 2007. More... |
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Shrek the Third: Reaching the Green
High Definition Magazine
July 2007
by Robin Rowe
Shrek the Third poses the question, can a bevy of ‘rescue
me’ fairy tale princesses transform themselves into Charlie’s
Angels to save the lovable ogre Shrek (Mike Myers) from the clutches
of evil Prince Charming (Rupert Everett)? How will a pregnant
Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz), the clean freak Snow White, the
narcoleptic Sleeping Beauty, and the other princesses led by
Queen Lillian (Julie Andrews) save Shrek? Why, with reinforcements
from Donkey (Eddie Murphy), Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas),
Merlin (Eric Idle), and a young King Arthur (Justin Timberlake),
of course. At a pre-release screening at the DreamWorks Animation
studio in northern California, director Chris Miller introduced
a rough cut of the film and talked about how the movie was produced.
Some parts required more explanation than others. More...
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Shrek the Third: Linux Feeds an Ogre
Linux Journal
July 2007 Cover Story
by Robin Rowe
DreamWorks Animation pushes the limits of CG filmmaking
with Linux. All the big film studios primarily use Linux
for animation and visual effects. Perhaps no commercial Linux
installation is larger than DreamWorks Animation, with more than
1,000 Linux desktops and more than 3,000 server CPUs. "For
Shrek 3, we will consume close to 20 million CPU render hours
for the making of the film", says DreamWorks Animation CTO
Ed Leonard. "Each of our films continues to push the edge
of what's possible, requiring more and more compute power."
More... |
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Charlotte's Web Spinners
Editors Guild Magazine
May 2006
by Robin Rowe
Editorial Team Weaves an Anthropomorphic Menagerie. In
Charlotte’s Web, the runty pig Wilbur, whose days in the
barnyard may be numbered, is befriended by Charlotte, the heroic
spider living in the rafters. The book Charlotte’s Web,
published by Harper Collins, written by E.B. White and illustrated
by Garth Williams, is the best selling children's paperback of
all time (45 million copies in 23 languages). While the story
may be a folksy one, the technology and post-production magic
required to bring this timeless tale to the big screen in the
21st century was a massive undertaking. More... |
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Superman Returns: Avid Does Heavy Lifting
Editors Guild Magazine
May 2006
by Robin Rowe
Superman was the very first superhero. Before Batman, Spider-Man
and even Captain Mar-vel, Superman debuted in Action Comics No.
1 in 1938. The new Warner Bros. epic action-adventure feature
film Superman Returns presents some firsts of its own, too. No
feature film had ever been shot with digital Panavision Genesis
cameras, nor used a daunting dozen Avid systems in post-production..
More... |
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Superman Returns in Super HD
High Definition Magazine
April 2006 Cover Story
by Robin Rowe
"An idea I've always had was telling a 'returns' story,"
says director Bryan Singer. "I wanted to take it forward,
not retell stories." Singer had cinematographer Newton Thomas
Sigel shoot a screen test with lead actor Brandon Routh, using
both 35mm and 70mm. "It woke us up how much more resolution
was available in 70mm," says Singer. More...
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Deconstructing Harry's Goblet of Fire
Editors Guild Magazine
November 2005
by Robin Rowe
Editor Mick Audsley and a Host of Effects Houses Unlock
the Chamber of Secrets. Harry Potter and the Goblet
of Fire, the fourth movie in the Warner Bros. series based on
the popular books by J.K. Rowling, features Harry and his Hogwarts
friends taking part in a competition with two rival schools of
magic. As part of the Triwizard Tournament, Harry must grapple
with a giant, fire-breathing Hungarian Horntail dragon and battle
underwater demons in the Black Lake. For the underwater sequence,
the Britain-based production constructed the deepest underwater
filming tank in Europe and the actors learned to scuba dive.
More... |
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Editing Frank Miller's Sin City
MovieEditor Magazine
June 2005
by Robin Rowe
Robert Rodriguez left the DGA so he could co-direct SIN CITY
with author Frank Miller. SIN CITY, a story of no-holds-barred
city noir based on three of Miller's books, was shot with Sony
F950 cameras on HDCAM SR format. SIN CITY was edited at Troublemaker
Studios in Austin, Texas, by Editors Guild member Rodriguez.
"When I read the books, I felt that they were fantastic
exactly as they were", says Rodriguez. "I loved that
the dialogue didn't sound like movie dialogue, that the visuals
didn't look like anything you usually see in movies." More... |
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