From GearLog.com

“It’s like an omelet, everyone finds their own way to do it,” Adam Savage answers. It’s not quite the response I was expecting. I was thinking something more along the lines of ‘study hard and stay in school,’ when asking the MythBusters star how one goes about breaking into the special effects game.

Judging from Savage and co-host Jamie Hyneman’s extremely different resumes, however, the whole egg analogy seems spot on. “I wanted to work in special effects since I was 11 and Star Wars came out,” Savage tells me, seated across from me in his San Diego hotel suite. “I tried in several different ways in several different situations where the pay was really crappy and people were real jerks, and ended up forgetting about it until Jamie called me and working with people I liked, doing things that I enjoyed changed it.”

Jamie’s resume, on the other hand, reads like a plot summary of Factotum, having worked as a diving instructor in the Caribbean, lived on a farm, been employed as a cook, done construction, and even owning a pet store.

“In my case it I’ve done a lot of different things and at one point I sat down to decide what it was that I actually wanted,” he tells me. “By then I realized that it was actually possible to earn a living doing something that was fun. I learned that routines are not fun. I started looking around, and there aren’t that many vocations that meet that criteria. Special effects was one. I started methodically getting my foot in the door by cleaning the shop. I quickly rose to the top and had my own shop.” 

Hugh Hart – San Francisco Chronicle

Jeffrey Okun

Even though special effects provide a crowd-pleasing “wow” factor for most blockbusters, the artists responsible for such wizardry don’t get much respect in Hollywood, according to Visual Effects Society Chairman Jeffrey Okun.

“Visual-effects artists in general are treated like interchangeable parts,” he says, “and are not regarded as an equal to the cinematographer, the editor, the writer or the production designer.”

Okun, whose credits include “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and “Fantastic Four,” hopes to change that with the upcoming VES-sponsored conference Production Summit ’09.

“This conference is about the fact that visual effects are skewing out of control,” Okun said of the October event. “Schedules for creating effects are getting shorter, and lots of visual-effects companies are going under. When the studio doesn’t like one company’s answer they get rid of them and call in somebody else until they get to whoever will go ‘Yeah, we can do that’ at the price they want.’ ”

Okun reasons that, as filmmaking shifts toward an all-digital production pipeline, visual-effects houses deserve an equal voice in the decision-making process.

“The perception is that visual effects are driven by really smart computers with cool buttons that make things go faster or look better,” he says. “There’s a lack of understanding that the process is driven by artists.” The film industry’s faster-cheaper mantra has caused “tremendous stress and strain,” Okun says. “This summit will lead the discussion on how, by envisioning the future, we can begin to create it.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x59mazcpUdY]

The official trailer for the upcoming post-apocalyptic “The Book of Eli” movie, starring Denzel Washington,  Mila Kunis and Gary Oldman, is now online.
The story follows a lone warrior named Eli (Washington) who fights his way across the desolate wasteland of near-future America to realize his destiny and deliver the knowledge that can bring civilization back from the brink of destruction and save the future of humanity.

Release date: January 15th, 2010.
Allen and Albert Hughes (American Pimp, Dead Presidents, Menace II Society) are directing the post-apocalyptic drama.

Make Up Department

Gregory Nicotero… key special makeup effects supervisor
  Georgia Allen … key makeup artist
  Enid Arias … additional hair stylist
  Tarra D. Day … makeup department head 
  Pepper J. Gallegos … assistant makeup artist
  Vanessa Jaramillo… makeup artist: day player 
  Liz Lash … assistant makeup artist 
  Ashlynne Padilla… assistant makeup artist
  Geordie Sheffer… hair department head
  Justin Stafford … special hair pieces
  Khanh Trance … special effects hair: KNB EFX Group
  Sheila Trujillo … assistant makeup artist
  Teri Ann Uccan … hair stylist
  Corey Welk… key makeup artist

By Sara Morris – public relations coordinator  Abilene Christian University

Abilene Christian University alumnus Nelson Coates (’84), credits his attitude for landing him the job as production designer for this summer’s blockbuster comedy, “The Proposal.” Coates and his crew planned, researched and produced the entire visual content of the film, which was No. 1 at the box office nationally during its opening weekend.

“It’s all about the can-do attitude. Attitude can really affect a production. If you watch a film and think, ‘It looks like they had fun making this,’ we probably did,” said Coates. “The nurturing environment of the ACU community was a wonderful grounding experience that I carry through when I work with my crew. I feel responsible for creating that same feeling, changing daily the mental attitude of those who work with me.”

In Coates’ 20-year career designing motion pictures and television, he has created the concept and coordinated the execution of sets, props, costumes, hair, make-up, visual effects, creature effects, color palette, symbolism, locations and vehicles for more than 30 productions. Coates is the first ACU graduate to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He is also a long-time member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

“Dr. Charles Marler, who taught my Communication Law class at ACU, gave me skills and information that I use on a daily basis. When I deal with copyright laws and ownership rights, as well as just that attention to detail that the ACU journalism department instilled in me, I think of Dr. Marler,” said Coates. “There were several people at ACU who had a profound influence on my career, but I use everything I learned there. Nothing was wasted.”

For “The Proposal,” which is set in New York City and Sitka, Alaska, Coates chose to film in and around Boston. He simulated a New York publishing house in a vacant office tower in downtown Boston, changing out signage and bringing in New York City taxis and buses to shoot street scenes, and he created the feeling of southeastern Alaska by constructing a house for the main characters and modifying surrounding buildings.

“I describe my work as narrative design for the moving image,” said Coates. “In many ways I am a cultural anthropologist, creating and infusing a movie with visual clues to back history of the characters, as well as their current life status. Whether creating fake history, recreating exact events or forecasting a future yet to come, my job is to infuse the film with every visual detail to make the environments seem believable and plausible.”

Coates makes it a point to give others an opportunity to excel in the film business that they could not have gotten by themselves, he said.

“There were very few breaks given to me in this business, just because ACU didn’t really have any grads in the business, so I feel it’s incumbent upon me to give people a break. Every show I try to get people in and give them a leg up,” said Coates. “God has been taking care of me throughout my career, and I see an opportunity for good. We need more Christians in the entertainment industry.”

Johnny Caldwell – BBC News

A horror film shot on location in a picturesque Irish village last year will not get an official Hammer Films release, BBC News can reveal.

The Wake Wood, which was part-financed by the legendary British film company, was to herald its much anticipated return to the big screen.

However, the bigger budget The Resident, starring two-time Oscar winner Hillary Swank and Sir Christopher Lee, now looks set to be chosen as Hammer’s first official feature-length release in almost 30 years.

The Wake Wood will still be released by Dublin-based Fantastic Films later this year, but without full Hammer backing.

This would have no doubt assured a blaze of publicity and presumably resulted in die-hard Hammer fans putting Pettigoe, County Donegal, on their must-visit list.

Hammer Films, whose back catalogue includes Dracula, The Curse of Frankenstein and The Plague of the Zombies was not directly involved in The Wake Wood’s production, but has had a more hands-on role in relation to The Resident.

Hilary Swank plays doctor Juliet Dermer who is settling into a new life and a new loft apartment in New York when mysterious occurrences lead her to suspect that she is not alone in her new home.

The Resident was recently shot over six weeks in both New York and New Mexico. Its release date is scheduled for sometime next year.

The Wake Wood’s plot centres around attempts by a vet and his pharmacist wife, using a pagan ritual, to bring their only daughter back to life after she is ravaged by a dog.

Its cast includes Harry Potter and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet star Timothy Spall and Aiden Gillen, whose credits includes Queer As Folk and more recently, US crime drama, The Wire.

Pettigoe is one of only a handful of places which is bisected by the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, but is mostly in County Donegal.

(Reuters) – It seems the sun has barely set on the movie phenomenon “Twilight,” and already its sequel “New Moon” is rising with its stars promising a more emotional journey and more action than the first film.

Fans of the original that has raked in more than $380 million at worldwide box offices got their first glimpse of “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” at the giant Comic-Con International pop culture convention in San Diego on Thursday (July 23).

Michael Fleming – Variety.com

Veteran visual effects supervisor Matthew Gratzner is attached to make his directorial debut on “UFO,” the feature adaptation of the ’70s TV series.

Gratzner was visual effects supervisor on the upcoming Martin Scorsese-directed “Shutter Island,” and his vfx resume includes “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” “Hancock,” “Iron Man” and “Alien: Resurrection.”

The film was optioned from rights holder ITV Global by the Robert Evans Co., where producers Evans, Henri Kessler and Avi Haas will be joined by Gratzner’s New Deal Studios to move the project forward.

A script has been written by Ryan Gaudet and Joseph Kanarek. Gratzner’s studio has begun developing concept art and pre-visualizations; after they’re completed, the picture will be shopped for financing.

Like the Gerry Anderson series, the film will revolve around Shado (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defense Organization), a secret military operation hidden beneath a Hollywood studio, whose operatives battle an alien race that has been kidnapping and killing humans for decades and using the body parts.

“The story, characters and situations Mr. Anderson created in ‘UFO’ are timeless and engaging,” Gratzner said. “My vision is to utilize visual effects as a supportive storytelling device that draws audiences into this universe.”

Director James Wan (the Saw franchise) will co-write and direct the drama Castlevania for Paul W.S. Anderson who also wrote the script and is producing. Wan is replacing Sylvain White, who was previously set to direct the video game adaptation.

“The thing I love about what Konami did with Castlevania, was taking the iconic Dracula mythology and Eastern-European setting, and retelling it with a Japanese pop-cultural sensibility,” he continues. “That’s the East-meets-West tone I want to visually expand on for the film. I’m thrilled by the opportunity to make a highly stylized, fantasy, action film that focuses on the gothic storyline and the cool, anime-like characters. For once, the human hero is as sexy and dangerous as the vampire villain, and his weapon of choice was what attracted me to the project in the first place – The Vampire Killer Whip.”

Castlevania is based on the classic video game, and begins as a Transylvanian knight leads his men into a gothic castle to seek refuge from the Turkish army. The knights soon discover the castle is controlled by the original vampire. The script sets up a generational clash between Vlad the Impaler and the Belmont family, a clan that unleashed the original vampire and battles to defeat him.

source(s) Bloody-Disgusting.com, MovieWeb.com

from WorstPreviews.com

While promoting the theatrical release of “Watchmen,” director Zack Snyder was constantly asked about a “300″ sequel. His answer was always the same; he wants to do it, but will wait for Frank Miller to finish the graphic novel that the new movie will be based on. Now, according to THR, Miller has recently completed a draft of the graphic novel that will serve as a follow-up to the original story. Now that Miller has done his part, it is up to Warner Bros and Snyder to decide whether they want to proceed with the sequel. This will likely be a hot topic during Snyder’s Comic-Con appearance this weekend, where he will be to promote the “Watchmen: Director’s Cut” DVD.