For client The Tombras Group, New York-based VFX house Gravity has produced the visual effects and graphics featured within a powerful, five spot campaign promoting Safe Driving for the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA). Gravity produced the spots
working with partners Believe Media and Director Bo Platt.

In the spot entitled “OMG” (both :15 and :30) we see three carloads of young people in separate cars, while the driver of each is texting or speaking on his/her cell phone. Concurrently, a meteor plummets to Earth, and crashes into one car, leaving behind the enormous letters “OMG.” Another car hits a debris pile, which turns out to be the letters “LOL,” while a third smashes into enormous letters on the freeway that read “L8R.” The end tagline reads, “One Text or Call Could Wreck It All.”

In the spot entitled “Bubbles" (both :15 and :30) we see a number of people driving cars, while their thoughts appear as “bubbles” over their heads.
These thought bubbles include “I’m unbuckled,” “I’m drunk,” “I’m speeding,” and “I’m distracted.” We see a female driver get pulled over by a cop, while the VO says, “Hate to burst your bubble, but if you’re not obeying the rules of the road, we will see you.” The end card reads, “More Cops. More Stops.”

The :30 spot called “No Worries” depicts a group of drunk teenagers leaving a party and getting into a car. The driver is encouraged to “not do anything to get noticed,” while he confidently replies, “no worries, I got this.” He proceeds to smash into a parked car and cause several ‘near miss’ accidents along the way, until he finally hits a fire hydrant and comes to a stop. A young girl says, “My mom’s gonna freak out,” and we then hear the VO say, “There’s no way to hide it. If you’re underage and you drive drunk, you will get caught.” The end card reads, “Underage Drinking = Adult Consequences.”

Gravity CEO/Chief Creative Director Bob Samuel said: “This job was a series of ‘firsts’ for us: our first job with Bo Platt and Believe Media, our first job with The Tombras Group, and our first job with Alex Postelnicu in place here as our creative director/VFX supervisor. We couldn't be more pleased with the outcome. Bo was incredibly collaborative, as was the entire team from Tombras. Alex and Yuval Levy [Gravity’s CD/head of CG] were able to quickly hone in on their direction and spend more time designing and implementing than de-ciphering. And of course, we always relish the opportunity to make cool stuff crash and blow-up.”

To view the spots, visit http://tinyurl.com/7ps4qg2.

32TEN Studios, a new company based in San Rafael, Calif., that provides stage rentals and both practical and digital VFX services, has signed three initial subtenant companies that will soon relocate into the historic site.

The studio, located at 3210 Kerner Blvd., was built by ILM in 1980 as it was expanding. It was built to house a sound stage, a screening room and offices to support the artists and technicians who were pioneering into the field of optical and digital imagery. This historic building is where the LUCASFILM COMPUTER DIVISON, now known as PIXAR, wrote, produced and animated their first short Andre and Wally B. 3210 also was  home to the EDIT DROID, one the first non-linear film editing systems and testing ground for Display / ImagePro, which was eventually renamed Photoshop.

RipplFX was the first outside production company to sign as a subtenant to 32TEN Studios. RipplFX is a mobile app developer and trans-media production company currently building a library of content for distribution across multiple platforms for books, games and films. "When I was introduced to 32TEN, I knew it would be the perfect environment to grow our operations. We are proud and excited to be part of this creative community and the legacy that has come before and continues today," said Nicole Lundeen, RipplFX CEO. RipplFX is currently producing a series of mobile apps and trans-media strategies for the publishing, education, and entertainment industries.
 
Jessen Productions also will be taking office space at 32TEN Studios. Jessen Productions’ commercials have been featured on "World's Funniest" TV programs around the globe. "32TEN is the ideal place for me," writer/director Charles Jessen said. “They have the facilities I need, and are creating a community of like minded people that will certainly help keep our creative juices flowing."

Commercial production company GB-Films also will be taking office and edit room space at 32TEN, starting on March 1st. " We love the creative atmosphere that is forming here at 32TEN, and of course the history in the building itself is inspiring," said Andy Hill, CEO and creative director, GB-Films. "I'm looking forward to bringing my clients to this legendary soundstage and creating engaging content for them.” 

“Our goal for 32TEN Studios is to add a sense of revitalization to the long-standing film production community located here in Marin, Calif.," said 32Ten President Tim Partridge. "Our soundstage is already fully booked up throughout the month of February with commercial projects, while our Practical Effects Team is already engaged in bidding for shots on three upcoming indie and studio feature films.”
 

A Miami, Fla., high school senior and his friends have written and self-produced a fantasy web series titled Hunted, which centers on humanity's inability to deal with the repercussions of discovering a genetic mutation that is giving people "magical" abilities. The creator, Antonio Oliva, says the supernatural thriller is about the human condition.

"Why do we hate what we do not understand, or, why are those different from us instantly demonized," Oliva asked? "It is clear from the series that there are those who choose to use their abilities for malicious acts, and those who prefer to protect. Then we have the humans who kill anyone with the ability at all; so who really is the bad guy in this entire series?"

To find out, check out Hunted on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/EnterTheDarkfilms.

All of the actors and crew for Hunted are volunteers; what's more, Oliva is a self-taught director and editor. "Everything that I know how to do, and am putting in the process I have learned myself," he said. "I have a notebook full of notes -- YouTube became my teacher -- and I watch a lot of movies, studying each angle and figuring out how something specific was shot."

"All in all, I can only hope for the world to be aware of this. I am only becoming more and more faithful each day in the series," Oliva added.

Learn more about the cast and crew on the production's Facebook page.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, directed by Stephen Daldry, is the first major studio production to shoot with the ARRI ALEXA camera in a Codex/ARRIRAW workflow. It also is the first digitally captured film for veteran cinematographer Chris Menges, ASC, BSC.

This new workflow provided the production with a number of distinct benefits. The uncompressed ARRIRAW data output resulted in unsurpassed image quality and maximum flexibility for post production processing. The solid state Codex data packs used to capture the raw camera data provided rock-solid reliability and a way to jump-start the process of preparing dailies, back-up media and post production deliverables. Codex technology also provided the means for collecting complex metadata, including camera settings, notes from the director and DP, and other vital production information, making it instantly accessible to downstream members of the production and post production team.

1st AC Gregor Tavenner, who had previously worked with ALEXA and Codex technology on the Martin Scorsese film Hugo, described the Codex/ARRIRAW workflow as both a boon to production efficiency and easy to integrate with traditional production practices. “Once you are familiar with the Codex system, it is very easy to use,” Tavenner says. “It is ergonomically designed and robustly built. For the war film World War Z, we carried nine Codex Onboard units across the ocean with great success.”

On Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, the dailies workflow was simple and straightforward. When Codex data packs were removed from the ALEXA, a technician reconciled the metadata with the camera reports and recorded backup copies to an on-set RAID. The data packs were then sent to Deluxe for dailies and deliverables processing. Deluxe also made LTO backups. The data packs then were returned to the set for reuse.

Tavenner notes that the emergence of raw camera media holds enormous creative promise for film productions, but requires the support of proven workflow technology. "None of the new raw technology is useful without the support behind it,” he notes. “We have had great service throughout the introduction of ARRIRAW, and we look forward to its further development. I am particularly excited about the possibility of 60 FPS ARRIRAW, which in my mind is quite a useful option that we’ve had with film cameras since the Nineties.”

Alex Postelnicu has joined New York-based Gravity as creative director. He brings extensive design and VFX experience to Gravity, a renowned branding and content creation company.

Zviah Eldar, Gravity’s CEO said, “Alex does not fit into a tidy little box, since he truly does it all – concept development, VFX, design, interaction/interface design, motion design, event design, live action directing and photography. In the past, he’s been a top gun for such companies as Humble, Digital Kitchen, Brand New School, Psyop, Stardust and Superfad, to name a few. We’re thrilled to add him to our Gravity team.”

Prior to joining Gravity, Postelnicu collaborated with some of the top visionaries at acclaimed creative design studios. His appetite for other creative and resourceful approaches for a broader range of mediums has seen him at ad agencies and creative solutions companies such as Publicis, AY&R, Sapient, and WeArePlus. In the international arena, he has worked on numerous, high-profile projects for such accounts as VW, Samsung, HP, Axe, Verizon, Ritz, Toyota, Dodge, Porsche, Chase, NYSE, Zurich Financial and MoMA, among others.

Birns & Sawyer has released the third version of it’s popular clamp-on and tray-less matte box: the MB-114. The tray-less matte box originated more than 10 years ago by Birns & Sawyer Owner/Cinematographer William Meurer and Lens Technician Stacy Strode. The need for a lightweight clamp-on matte box was improved by a unique design that accommodated glass filters without trays held in place by ball-plungers and delrin set screws.

The original MB-95 utilized 4x4 filters, the MB-105 used 4x5.65 filters and the new MB-114 comes in either a 2-stage or 3-stage version for 4x5.65 filters. The MB-114 has a 114mm clamp-on back and comes with four step-down rings to 110mm, 105mm, 95mm and 80mm. As a more affordable alternative to comparable tray-based matte boxes, the MB-114 can be used on most professional lenses from most Angenieux Zooms; Canon PL Zooms; Zeiss superspeeds, ultra primes, master primes and compact primes; Cooke S-4 primes; Illumina S35 primes; Leica Summilux C primes; Schneider Cine Xenar primes and most other lenses. More information is available at www.birnsandsawyer.com.