Meta (Data) Morphing

High-resolution workflows change the game at NAB 2013. By Valentina I. Valentini. All photos by Beth Dubber.

Two thousand less attendees at this year’s National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention in Las Vegas was an ironic reminder that anyone touting 2K gear ran the risk of being left in the entertainment industry’s technological dust. Read more

Souls on the Ledge

Paul Cameron, ASC, takes the shortest visual line between two lost characters for his newest feature, Dead Man Down.

All photos courtesy of Paul Cameron / John Baer / FilmDistrict.

When Danish writer/director Niels Arden Oplev called Paul Cameron, ASC to work on his new film, Dead Man Down, which was set to shoot last summer in Philadelphia, Cameron didn’t hesitate to take the call. The cinematographer had seen Oplev’s adaptation of the worldwide bestseller, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; and soon after he jumped on-board, Colin Farrell, Noomi Rapace and Terrence Howard confirmed their involvement. Read more

Tigers and their Tales

Life of Pi takes a huge slice of industry honors in our 2013 awards season wrap

By Valentina I. Valentini

It’s fun when predictions about Hollywood’s seemingly endless awards season – beginning in September with the Emmys and culminating on the last Sunday in February with The Oscars – do not pan out. There isn’t predictability in the rest of the industry, so why keep it dull with the lauding of prizes on its artists and crafts-people? Read more

Demystifying Social Media

Local 600 publicists get “linked in” for a special all-day workshop exploring the best of new virtual online tools.

By Pauline Rogers. All photos by Bonnie Osborne.

Some people naturally embrace social media, others get dragged, kicking and screaming, into a 24/7 online world. The issue is mostly educational, teaching publicists how to weather the avalanche of new communication tools. That’s why Local 600’s Publicity and Publications Committee, chaired by Publicists Guild President Henri Bollinger, reached out to Weissman/Markovitz Communications, which partnered with Gordon Paddison, CEO of Stradella Road, to produce a one-day seminar on social media. Read more

Laugh Out Loud

Cinematographer Ross Riege and director Jordan Vogt-Roberts put the visual fun back in stand-up in a groundbreaking new series for Comedy Central.

By Pauline Rogers. All photos courtesy of Comedy Central.

“I’ve been watching stand up on television for over 20 years,” says director Jordan Vogt-Roberts. “And it’s always the same boring camera placement. Drive an ENG truck up to a venue, unload, capture the routine, and then roll out. It’s the comedy equivalent of shooting live sports. Working with a group of Chicago-based comedians in the pre-YouTube days, I wanted to find a way to make stand-up more digestible for the Internet generation and I began to add visual elements.” Read more

Rough Trade

Philip Hurn goes deep undercover to help expose the horrors of the child sex trade industry in Trade of Innocents

by Pauline Rogers

“Don’t discount casual conversation in coffee shops; they can lead to the other side of the world,” describes Trade of Innocents writer/director Christopher Bessette. “I was having coffee with a friend who helps orphaned children in Cambodia. After hearing of the history of the Cambodian people, I felt something should be done to bring resolution to their suffering and two of my characters were born in that coffee shop.” Read more

No Debate

Making the political satire The Campaign was serious business. So why is Jim Denault, ASC, and his all-female support crew laughing so hard?

By Pauline Rogers. All photos by Patti Perret / Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.

America’s oft-mocked election process is played for big yucks in the recent Warner Bros release, The Campaign, because as the film’s director, Jay Roach, observes: “I think comedy is the correct response to politics these days. At least it makes the reality of [the process] easier to swallow, whereas if you just watch the news it can be pretty scary.” Read more

Bullseye!

An all-Union crew, led by Local 600 DP Brad Rushing, Aims High for new original online content from Warner Bros. By Pauline Rogers. All photos courtesy of Warner Bros.

These days, many households are bypassing cable and satellite pipelines for Web-based platforms like Hulu and Facebook, which in turn drive content to viewer’s iPhones, iPads, computers and big screens. Big-time Hollywood directors like McG and Bryan Singer are exploring such alternative delivery formats by creating feature-quality Web adventures. One upcoming example is Aim High 2, whose producer, Shea Kammer, says there is a huge range of product among New Media “and no good metric of what’s going to make something successful.” Read more

Let’s Get Real

New high-resolution capture systems highlight Local 600 panel at Cine Gear 2012. By Pauline Rogers. Photos by Bonnie Osborne.

Foot traffic on Paramount’s New York Street was light the Saturday morning of Cine Gear 2012. Perhaps because attendees had all clustered into The Sherry Lansing Building for this year’s ICG Panel: How Hyper-Reality is Transforming the Art and Craft of Digital Filmmaking. Read more

600 Voices Part 4 – Western Region

Don’t Fence Me In… By Pauline Rogers.

We’ve reached the end of our road trip with Local 600 members, hitching our virtual stagecoach this month in the Western Region, where we find things aren’t always what they seem. Los Angeles, for example, is not Mecca anymore. Some longtime Hollywood members now report needing to travel out of town just to keep the work flowing. Southern California does have location gems still to be tapped (more about that later), but the challenges are plenty. Read more

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