New York, NY - A hi-tech home is not just for Bill Gates anymore. Todd Broder’s B3 Productions, along with New York marketing agency Campfire, has created a technology-centered home makeover special called My FiOS Home as part of Verizon’s branded entertainment campaign. Mechanism Digital was the chosen studio to design and produce a graphics package and 3D pre-visualizations for the show, which are now airing on the FiOS1 channel in New York and New Jersey. more

NEW YORK, November 10, 2009 –This summer, HBO Archives retrieved over 13,000 videotapes of never-before-cataloged footage highlighting all facets of the world of Entertainment dating from the early 1980’s to the late 1990’s. This newly available material now joins HBO Archives vast Entertainment News Library, covering the 1970’s to the present, all of which are offered for clip licensing. more

3D title at end of show-open designed and animated by Mechanism Digital. This model is also used in lower thirds and bumpers during the special.

New York, NY - As we near the next decade of the twenty-first century, we approach the prophetic end of the Mayan calendar and experience an increased awareness of the coming date of December 12, 2012. To address the buzz and rumors surrounding that day, Rebecca Ratliff of Peacock Productions produced a television special for Syfy that will air November 8, 2009 at 9pm EST. Because this is a show that blends the indefinite with fact, they partnered with animation studio, Mechanism Digital, to design a graphics package that accentuates the unknown while maintaining the integrity of the truth. more

Santa Monica, CA (November 3, 2009) – Film, television and commercial visual effects company Entity FX congratulates the makers of Michael Jackson’s This Is It on the film’s powerful worldwide debut. The documentary movie, directed by Kenny Ortega and distributed worldwide by Sony Pictures, is a behind-the-scenes look at Michael Jackson as he rehearses for his final concert. It includes complex visual effects sequences originally part of a series of mini-movies directed and VFX-supervised by Bruce Jones. These mini-movies were ultimately intended to be displayed — some in stereoscopic 3D — on a giant screen behind the live performers. Entity FX helped to create a number of these moments. more

Venice, CA— 3rd October, 2009—Lightcraft Technology has announced the successful long term rental of a Previzion® realtime on-set VFX compositing and tracking system by Zoic Studios. The time and money-saving system is being used in Zoic’s on set and post work with profoundly beneficial results to VFX aesthetics and budgets. more

EXII 0.75X Wide Converters

16×9 Inc.’s new EXII 0.75X Wide Converter is designed with flexibility in mind, fitting more cameras and lenses than the first-generation converter. And, continuing 16×9 Inc.’s aggressive pricing structure for the EXII series, the EXII 0.75X is priced well below the original EX 0.75X (which retailed for $995 U.S.), yet still offers unsurpassed HD-quality optics.

Featuring four glass elements, the compact and lightweight EXII 0.75X Wide Converter provides 25% more extreme angle of view over the stock lens and maintains full zoom-through capability with cameras that have auto focus. Cutting-edge optics reduce geometric (barrel) distortion and improve off-axis performance, particularly chromatic aberrations and flatness of field. more

Chicago, Illinois: You won’t find a printer, post-it-note or scrap of paper at Cimaglia Productions (www.cimagliaproductions.com), a Chicago-based, full service production company. This forward-thinking production company operates more efficiently by incorporating sustainable business practices. Its seasoned staff of media professionals has created one of the leading high tech, energy-efficient production offices in Chicago and Boca Raton—completely paperless, completely sustainable. more

Culver City Facility Completes All Shots in Stereoscopic 3D

Culver City, CA: Oct. 27, 2009… I.E. Effects completed key visual effects sequences for the highly-anticipated Michael Jackson concert film “This Is It.” While the theatrical release will be a standard 2D presentation, the Culver City-based postproduction facility delivered all of its VFX work in full stereoscopic 3D, opening the door for a stereoscopic version of the film in the future. Originally, the facility was contracted to produce 15 stereo 3D shots for Jackson’s widely-publicized concert tour, but following the untimely death of the King of Pop, the project was put on hold. The upcoming feature film, and the special edition Blu-ray that will follow it, allowed I.E. Effects to complete the project and fulfill their role in Michael Jackson’s final show. more

Director/Cinematographer Jerry Simpson on location at Tanglewood Music Festival with Panasonic AJ-HPX3700

SECAUCUS, NJ (October 26, 2009) — Veteran Director/Cinematographer Jerry Simpson, principal of production company Simpson Films (Long Island City, NY), has recently shot a pilot for a documentary profiling drummer Steve Gadd with the VariCam 3700, Panasonic’s premier solid-state P2 HD VariCam camcorder.

Offering the ultimate in image quality, the VariCam 3700 (model AJ-HPX3700) advances the art of high-end cinematography by teaming VariCam’s renowned filmic-look, variable frame rates, and subtle tone control with master-quality, 10-bit 4:2:2 AVC-Intra recording as well as Dual link RGB 4:4:4 output. more

Final Frame Post, a New York City based post production service provider announced that it provided the digital intermediate services for “Peter and Vandy,” a feature written and directed by Jay DiPeitro and based on his award-winning play. Peter and Vandy is about a young New York couple’s relationship that unfolds in a non-linear fashion and told in non-chronological order. It opened in limited release on Friday, October 9, 2009.

Will Cox, Final Frame Post co-founder and colorist, conformed, graded and digitally color corrected the material on their Digital Vision Nucoda Film Master system and Rising Sun Research’s CineSpace for color management. The data-centric workflow of the DI and the use of LUT’s, allowed frame-by-frame interaction and great control over the look of the feature ensuring precise calibration of the post production process. more