Press Releases

Bobbie O’Steen Podcasts on the Editing Life

These one-on-one interviews with Bobbie are a good backgrounder if you want to delve into the editor’s world…

Tim Squyres & Bobbie O’Steen Discuss Editing Altman’s Gosford Park

It might be the worst fever dream any editor could have…

Aaton Penelope in Production

Not all shoots take place on comfy sound stages. Currently in production, Thunder Perfect Mind takes place almost entirely on an ice-breaker ship off the coast of Antarctica.

All Mobile Video To Build New 3D Truck With Sony

New York-based mobile production vendor All Mobile Video announced Monday that it will build a 3D-capable HD production truck that will be ready to shoot 3D sports and live events this summer.

Nvidia Shows New Product Lines at CES

For anyone involved in graphics and animation—or if you’re an avid gamer—Nvidia’s Fermi GF100 was the draw.

ASC Honors local Sol Negrin

ASC Awards Committee Chairman Richard Crudo praised Sol’s “dedication to educating the next generation, exemplifying the ASC’s motto: Loyalty, progress, artistry.

Media Distributors Moves Further into Production & Post

This looks like a solid attempt at how best to handle a crucial task. Backup isn’t sexy, but smart producers know this belongs as an integral part of their next shooting budget.

Need a Free Ad? Donate Some Money.

Who doesn’t like free? Whether your creative effort ends up on broadcast, cable, or shows up in a local movie house, finding a new way to save on ad dollars makes sense.

Applying for the ASC Awards?

Some of you might not think applying for professional awards is worth the bother.

Two Decades and Growing – Abel Cine Tech

Time to celebrate a pioneer: if you do production in New York or LA (or as of last August–Chicago), you know that camera rental/sales house Abel Cine Tech long ago became one of the top go-to facilities for indie productions.

Kami Asgar and Jessica Parks are post-production heavyweights who work with major studios, namely Sony. As a sound designer (Asgar) and as a post executive (Parks), their collective resume touches on everything from Apocalypto to Grandma’s Boy to Venom.

Parks has recently shifted her focus from supervisor to hands-on sound design, and we talk about how it’s never too late to pivot on your career path and find the thing you love doing wherever you are in life.

Click on this link to read the rest of the article on No Film School’s site.

The coronavirus relief package that Congressional leaders agreed to this week includes grant money that many small proprietors described as a last hope for survival.

For the music venue owners, theater producers and cultural institutions that have suffered through the pandemic with no business, the coronavirus relief package that Congress passed on Monday night offers the prospect of aid at last.

To read the full article on The New York Times’ site, click here.

Phase 4 production guidance is available on the Film Permit website. All production activity, whether it requires a Film Permit or not, must comply with New York Forward Industry Guidance.

For more information see, please refer to the State Department of Health’s Interim Guidance for Media Production During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. Please review the guidelines and FAQ before submitting permit applications. The Film Office is operating remotely, so please allow additional time for Film Permit processing.

The above paragraphs contain links to the various FAQ – just mouse over the relevant words.

NVIDIA Research has invented a way to use AI to dramatically reduce video call bandwidth while simultaneously improving quality

What the researchers have achieved has remarkable results: by replacing the traditional h.264 video codec with a neural network, they have managed to reduce the required bandwidth for a video call by an order of magnitude. In one example, the required data rate fell from 97.28 KB/frame to a measly 0.1165 KB/frame – a reduction to 0.1% of required bandwidth.

To read the rest of this article on Petapixel, click this link.

Law360 (October 9, 2020, 5:22 PM EDT) — The Motion Picture Industry Health Plan’s board can’t be sued under ERISA for allegedly flouting its duties when it relaxed plan rules in response to COVID-19, a California federal judge has ruled, nixing a proposed class action filed by two cinematographers who still couldn’t qualify for benefits.

In an order entered Thursday, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner granted the board of directors’ motion to dismiss Greg Endries and Dee Nichols’ Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit accusing board members of breaching their duty to treat all plan participants fairly.

Endries and Nichols, members of Local 600 of the International Cinematographers Guild, said in July that the board left them and others “out in the cold” in its attempts to address the problems COVID-19 caused for plan participants.

But Judge Klausner agreed with the board’s contention that the case, which alleged a fiduciary breach, should be tossed because plan administrators don’t act as fiduciaries when they amend health care plans.

Read the full article on the Law360 site by clicking here.

Anthony Russo and Joseph Russo photographed at the PMC Studio in Los Angeles for the Variety Playback Podcast.

The Russo brothers, directors of the all-time top grossing film “Avengers: Endgame,” quietly secured a roughly $50 million cash infusion for their production company AGBO from Saudi Arabia earlier this year, multiple sources tell Variety.

In a deal brokered and closed at the beginning of the pandemic, the Russos received the investment from an undisclosed Saudi bank in exchange for a minority stake in the brothers’ Los Angeles-based shop.