CineSource Magazine

Crew Call Jul/Aug Gala Issue 2010

We promised a Gala Issue and here it is: one of a kind, perhaps a collector's item. With thirty articles, over twice a regular CineSource, there should be enough to stimulate conversation in anyone. Please let us know your opinion

The Loop Jul/Aug 10
by CineSource
Video Arts' 'Pre-Viz' 3D model of Nintendo's E3 2010 trade show booth. Video Arts was in the game for Nintendo at E3 2010. Video Arts, working in conjunction

Calendar June 10
CineSource Staff
This column has been suspended as of June 2010, although it may be revived.

The Loop Jul/Aug 10
by CineSource

Video Arts' 'Pre-Viz' 3D model of Nintendo's E3 2010 trade show booth. Video Arts was in the game for Nintendo at E3 2010. Video Arts, working in conjunction with long-time client Ralph Miller Productions, designed, produced and delivered all the media for Nintendo's 2010 mega-booth supporting the launch of Nintendo's revolutionary new 3DS platform which provides 3D stereoscopic gameplay without the need for special glasses. Nintendo also launched "The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword," the latest installment in the Zelda franchise. For 2010 the Nintendo booth relied heavily of projection to create environments supporting the games and provided branding for Nintendo products and lifestyle imagery. Ben Kopman was VA's design and technical lead for E3, developing a fully realized 3D model of the booth which provided pre-visualization of 7 projection areas employing over 20 HD projectors. Scott Harris, Dave Murray and Kopman provided design and animation with Zac Pineda as the lead editor.

Video Arts Kicks Off the World Cup for Adidas. VidArts teamed with Isobar San Francisco, an international communications agency headquartered in London, to provide editorial and post-production management for the Adidas World Cup Facebook Fan Site. Adidas has brought together four U.S. sports stars: Reggie Bush, Dale Earnhardt Jr., B.J. Upton and Dwight Howard, who are all big soccer fans to help promote the US team in the World Cup. VA staffer Loren Sorensen was the editor for all of the videos on the site which runs throughout the World Cup.

One Union Recording Senior Engineer Joaby Deal worked long hours with hard working producer Paul Golubovich from Duncan-Channon on television spots for Esurance's new live action campaign. Deal also

worked with producer Cathy Carolan for AAA on new spots featuring everyday people who have utilized the companies roadside assistance program. Lastly Deal began working with Curt O'Brien from BBDO West to create spots for 8th Continent soy milk. The spots cracked us up, and gave Deal creative freedom for his sound design work!

One Union Recording Senior Engineer Eben Carr, along with producer Misha Louy of BBDO New York, worked on stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes for Gillette. These 3-D commercials will air on TV during the World Cup. Carr worked around the clock with producer Kat Friis of Butler, Shine, Stern and Partners on TV spots for Colombia's new line of Jackets. These ads will air internationally in the UK, Russia, Switzerland and Korea. Lastly, Carr continued his work with veteran producer Jim Vaughn from Goodby, Silverstein and Partners with work on the Nintendo TV campaign creating new spots to be aired at future dates.

One Union Recording Senior Engineer Andy Greenberg continued work with Jay Cortez and Ted Meyer from Hoffman Lewis on the latest McDonald's campaign. These ads include both TV and radio spots. Greenberg created TV spots for EA with Brian Coates from Heat. This new MMA Kickboxing game is narrated by Andrew Anthony, the voice of EA, and will be released at the E3 video game conference. Greenberg continued with Chris Weldon with Eleven, Inc. for Callaway, mixing 5.1 TV spots, entitled Winners Play and Irons. Lastly Greenberg worked on the Roundtable campaign along with Kerry Ko from Young & Rubicam. These spots will be airing soon.

One Union Recording Engineer Matt Zipkin completed ADR with Connie Nielson for the upcoming film "Last Word" starring Ewan McGregor and Eva Green. This indie film, still in production, tells the story of a city where people are slowly losing sensory perception. Zipkin also worked with talent Robert Wu on a new TV series, on Fox, called the Good Guys. The episode is called "The Dim Knight." Lastly, Zipkin worked to promote clean energy along with DDB SF producer Jess Manning. They worked hard promoting SunPower, which highlighted the already existing efforts of the California Academy of Science, the Delmonte Cranberry fields, Sierra Nevada Brewing and San Francisco Families.

Polarity Post Productions Senior Engineer Patrick Fitzgerald mixed new TV spots for the Chevron Talking Cars campaign with Debra Trotz of The Bravo Group. Kaleidoscope Productions worked on a series of spots with Fitzgerald for Hewlett Packard and Pepsico. Producer Josh Hittleman, of Beyond Pix Production Service, was in with Fitzgerald to mix a few tutorials for Baking Arts. Producers Patti Bott and Peter Meyers, of Stand & Deliver Consulting Group, recorded and mixed an audio book titledVision. RJ Berg of Spicy Horse Games teamed up with Fitzgerald to do a VO Patch with London for a new game titled "Alice in Wonderland 2." Producer Brian Bratt, of Roy Cox Productions, was in with Fitzgerald to mix online tour videos for Apples new iPad.

Seth Seidel, of Seidel Advertising, was in with senior engineer Eduardo Mendoza to mix a new radio spot for client Any Mountain. Mendoza worked with producers Kristen Hamblin, Sara Forrest, and Sara Irvin of Eveo Inc., on a number of medical projects. Financial guru Suze Orman was in with Mendoza to record a series of radio segments for General Mills called "Money Minded Moms." Mendoza also recorded Orman for a few radio spots for "Select Quotes with producer Ron Phillips of Luminaire. Producer Mark Dwyer, of Dwyer Productions, mixed a number of TV Spots with Mendoza for Lennar Homes. Producer Freddie McKenna, of Schule Media & Marketing, Inc., worked with Mendoza to mix a few radio spots for the Women's Medical Center in Washington D.C.

Engineer Erik Reimers worked with produc-er Alex Vuksanovic, of Kaleidoscope Productions, on a video for Hewlett Packard. And producer Michael Rost, of Lateral Communications, recorded VO with Reimers called "True Love." Engine-er Ryan Frias worked with producer Carlyn Stuart, of Eveo, Inc., on a medical video for Prolia.

"Water Baby: Experiences of Water Birth," produced, directed, shot and edited by Karil Daniels, was selected as a co-feature for May 2010 Ironweed Film Club (a progressive version of NetFlicks, see p21). Daniels' Point of View Productions co-produced a TV spot for Pre-Paid Legal Services, along with Ingrid Robinson and Mimi Lawrence,; spokesman Steven Delianides.

Evolve Media Productions won four Communicator Awards, an annual competition honoring the best in advertising and corporate communications, which received over 7000 entries. "It is especially an honor to have received them for our documentaries regarding the fair trade coffee farms in Brazil and Colombia," said Tommy Maples, president of Evolve. "Our team did an amazing job, and this award is ultimately for them and the farmers who shared their stories." Evolve is known for its strategic full-service film and television production focusing on biotech companies, venture capital start-ups and pharmaceutical companies in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Crew Call Jul/Aug Gala Issue 2010

All's Well That Ends Well

We promised a Gala Issue and here it is: one of a kind, perhaps a collector's item, considering what's been happening to newsprint - although from 16mm to 3D IMAX, and even print, every medium has its place. Come to CineSource's townhall meeting, Thursday, September 16, 6-9 p.m. (see invite right), and we'll sign it, if you'd like, although our preferred transaction is to discuss it.

You are invited to a CineSource Townhall/Open House from 6-9pm on Thurs, Sept 16

With thirty articles, over twice a regular CineSource, there should be enough to stimulate conversation in anyone. Please let us know your opinion, in person at the townhall, or by email, or any other conveyance, because this is the theme of the issue: communication between the vast diversity of Northern California's cinema scene.

In order to decipher the complex relationship of the Bay Area's various media workers, CineSource developed this map, which also serves as an advocacy ad. illo: D. Blair

This has always been our assignment, as the local film/vid mag/web (indeed, the only one north of Hollywood), but now we're making it into a science. We've identified 15 film "families" (see illo, left), which includes CineSource, to symbolize those of us who write about it. From Kerner Starts Studio System, our lead story, to art filmmaker Lawrence Jordan, from the postproduction perspective of Salyer's Midterm Report to the Gamer's Report, from a story about falling in love with silent movies to the troubles at Current TV, we have documented some very separate local realities.

Some articles had to stretch mightily just to cover a single protagonist, like Diane Baker: she's a Hollywood actress, a world-travelling indie and the dean of the Academy of Art film school, our largest; or Celik Kayalar, who is a scientist and an indie writer/director; or Dennis Hopper, who was a wild man, yes, but also an original artist, fine as well as film.

Isn't that nature of filmmaking? Don't we need the dreams of poets and the sharp pencils of producers (Debbie Brubaker), the beauty of bodies and the machinery of cameras (Milan), the director's will and the actor's vulnerability, in equal measure? Much like the genders, which join in balance to beget life, filmmakers must marry opposites. It is through the synergy of difference that we alchemize dramatic gold.
Northern California is in a unique position - we have it all! What other cinema center has such a Hollywood presence, outside the place itself? Or so many world-class festivals, like the SF International or Telluride (see Gary Meyer) Or such a robust avant-garde? In addition to Jordan, see our article on Canyon Cinema or the new book "Radical Light." Or so much venture capital?

It's hard to fix a dollar value, but if we aggregate all aspects of our moving image community, including Silicon Valley, the creators of our software and hardware, not to mention the content engines of YouTube and Facebook, we have a ten plus billion dollars-a-year industry, well over Hollywood, and with an even greater potential.

At the Kerner Group, the sharp new CEO Eric Edmeades has partnered to co-produce a thriller - "Golden," coincidentally - with an opposite, the bubbly artistic writer/director Dean Yurke. But more than that, Edmeades wants Kerner to become an actual Hollywood North studio, the first of its kind. And they've cracked the code on high-quality, lower-budget 3D!

"3D movies have proven to be economically viable," Edmeades told me, "But there is something we have that 'Avatar' and 'Up' didn't. A secondary 3D market. There are 3D TVs. That means there will be an ongoing market to acquire 3D content. If we move quickly - and if Northern California moves quickly - we can really establish ourselves in that world!"

Hurray! And if we hook up Brubaker for production, or Meyer for feedback, or Jordan for dream sequence, or Baker to touch base with a few Hollywood buds, or her school's top students - the possibilities are endless! But we must move quickly! Indeed, we need to get cracking on new stories and interpretations as well as new technologies, at which we are so adept at (this is the problem plaguing Current TV).

Like it or not, we're creating a new world here, in terms of environmentalism, multiculturalism and freedom (medical marijuana, anyone?) but also regular pharma, biotech, Silicon Valley and green tech. And where Northern California goes - it is well-known - so goes the rest of the country (medical marijuana? 14 states thus far). Which means, we're not just hustling film jobs to feed our families and buy Priuses: We're writing the narrative of a new civilization! A crazy as that may sound, Jordan notes, "Pure art does have a function. From the beginning of civilization, [that] was what kept the spirit of the race alive."

If we are, in fact, creating a new civilization, then we are obliged to create the art that empowers it - political correctness or the surfeit of pleasure be damned! Like any aboriginal society, we must investigate our site specific issues, with penetrating art and critique, simply so our culture can stand up, get a leg up, and evolve.

Even as our infrastructure and economies collapse, we are racing into a future of connectedness, luxury and life extension - surely, that's a dilemma in need of deciphering. Or our new morality: In a time of tribalism, postmodernism and ambidextrous sexualism, we need flexible metaphors - but where do they actually break and destroy our narrative? Or that perennial question of romantic love: What is our interpretation? Despite our immense capacity for innovation and dream realization, we haven't really fashioned an operational understanding of this ancient and magical endeavor.

Translate those themes into powerful moving images - Hollywood, indie, doc, Web or personal film, or all in one - and I guarantee you a bright future for our new civilization not to mention Northern California film/video. Don't and - as Brubaker or Salyer would say: "We won't have diddly-squat!"

PS Hence our Gala Issue, intended to celebrate as well as critique. Join us to do the same for CineSource at our townhall meeting/fundraiser with libations, Thurs, Sept 16 (see ad at top).

Calendar June 10
CineSource Staff

This column has been suspended as of June 2010, although it may be revived.