Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet’s operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind.

The highly anticipated new installment of The Terminator film franchise, “Terminator Salvation” is directed by McG (”Charlie’s Angels,” “We Are Marshall”). The screenplay is by Michael Ferris & John Brancato. Moritz Borman, Derek Anderson, Victor Kubicek and Jeffrey Silver are the producers, with Jeanne Allgood, Dan Lin, Mario F. Kassar, Andrew G. Vajna and Joel B. Michaels serving as executive producers.

Wishing to avoid comparisons with the Transformers franchise, McG has stated “Transformers is an excellent movie, but our film is not about big robots. I wanted it to have lots of hardware and velocity, but I didn’t want to hang the whole movie on it.”

Visual Effects for the movie were undertaken by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), with Asylum fx and Rising Sun Pictures bringing their skills to various sequences.

And in addition to the brilliant CG work generated for ‘Terminator Salvation’, McG contracted Stan Winston studios to create real life models of some of the terminator characters that the human cast could interact with.

Stan Winston, the special effects pioneer who designed the original Terminator endoskeleton, worked on Terminator Salvation prior to his death in June this year. McG intends to dedicate the moive to Winston’s memory.

The film stars Christian Bale as John Connor (”The Dark Knight”), Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright (”The Great Raid”), Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese (”Star Trek”), Bryce Dallas Howard as Kate Connor (”Spider-Man 3″), Moon Bloodgood as Blair Williams (”What Just Happened?”), Common as Barnes, (”Wanted”), Jane Alexander as Virginia (”The Unborn”), Jadagrace as Star and Helena Bonham Carter as Serena Kogen (”Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”)

“Terminator Salvation” will be released in the U.S. on May 21, 2009 by Warner Bros. Pictures. Sony Pictures Releasing International is distributing the film in most international territories between May 2009 and June 2009.

CREDITS:
Director: McG
Screenplay: Michael Ferris & John Brancato
Producers: Moritz Borman, Derek Anderson, Victor Kubicek and Jeffrey Silver
Executive producers:  Jeanne Allgood, Dan Lin, Mario F. Kassar, Andrew G. Vajna and Joel B. Michaels
Cinematographer:  Shane Hurlbut
Production designer:  Martin Laing
Editor:  Conrad Buff
Costume designer:  Michael Wilkinson
Visual effects supervisor:  Charlie Gibson
Animatronics supervisor:  John Rosengrant
Music: Danny Elfman

SOURCES & RELATED LINKS:
www.sonypictures.net/movies/terminatorsalvation
http://terminatorsalvation.warnerbros.com
Industrial Light & Magic: www.ilm.com
Rising Sun Pictures: www.rsp.com.au
Asylum fx: www.asylumfx.com

Directed by the award winning team of Pete Docter (“Monsters, Inc.”) and Bob Peterson; ‘Up’ is extremely funny and often poignant and is an animated tale that will lift the most down at heart.

Pixar’s Up hits theaters on May 29th 2009.

About Pixar:
Pixar Animation Studios is an Academy Award winning computer animation studio with the technical, creative and production capabilities to create a new generation of animated feature films. Pixar combine proprietary technology and world-class creative talent to develop computer-animated feature films with memorable characters and heart warming stories that appeal to audiences of all ages.

Pixar & Disney
In May 1991, Pixar entered into the Feature Film Agreement with Walt Disney Pictures for the development and production of up to three computer animated feature films to be marketed and distributed by Disney. It was pursuant to the Feature Film Agreement that Toy Story was developed, produced, and distributed. In February 1997, Pixar entered into the Co-Production Agreement (which superseded the Feature Film Agreement) with Disney pursuant to which Pixar, on an exclusive basis, agreed to produce five original computer-animated feature-length theatrical motion pictures for distribution by Disney. The five original Pictures under the Co-Production Agreement were A Bug’s Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Cars. Toy Story 2, the theatrical sequel to Toy Story, was released in November 1999, and is also governed by the Co-Production Agreement.

CREDITS:
Directed by: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson
Produced by: Jonas Rivera
Written by: Bob Peterson, Ronnie del Carmen
music by: Michael Giacchino
Distributed by: Walt Disney Pictures

CAST:
Edward Asner
Christopher Plummer
John Ratzenberger
Jordan Nagai

Updated Trailers:

About the Movie:

G.I. Joe will be a modern telling of the “G.I. Joe vs. Cobra” storyline and its compelling characters that Hasbro created 25 years ago. The premise of this fantasy is the story of the G.I. Joe team, led by Duke, and their “fight for freedom wherever there is trouble” against the evil Cobra Commander and his Cobra force. This storyline was an instant hit with kids in the early 1980s, spawning a highly popular 3-3/4-inch action figure line, comic book collection and animated series. The G.I. Joe team will not be based in Brussels. Instead, they will be based out of the “Pit” as they were throughout the 1980s comic book series. And, in keeping with the G.I. Joe vs. Cobra fantasy, the movie will feature characters and locations from around the world. Duke, the lead character and head of the G.I. Joe team, will embody the values of bravery and heroism that the first generation of G.I. Joe figures established.

Some of the visual effects post houses used in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra are MPC, Framestore, Digital Domain, Cafe FX and Pixel Playground. See the IMDB link for a full production cast/crew list.

About MPC
MPC creates high-end digital visual effects and computer animation for the feature film, advertising, music and television industries. With studios based in Soho London, Santa Monica LA and Vancouver Canada, this award winning facility has worked on many high profile projects including The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Quantum of Solace and the classic Cadbury ‘Gorilla’s Moment’.
For more information about MPC visit: www.moving-picture.com.

About Digital Domain
Digital Domain is an Academy Award-winning digital production studio with a reputation for innovation and artistry. The studio has created visual effects for 65+ movies that have collectively generated more than $12 billion in worldwide box-office sales, including most recently, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for which it won the Academy Award for Visual Effects. A creative giant in advertising, Digital Domain works with a stellar group of A-list directors including David Fincher, Mark Romanek, Joseph Kosinski, Carl Erik Rinsch and more. Industry recognition for Digital Domain’s advertising work includes many Clio, AICP, and Cannes Lion awards and other industry honors. The company is continually pushing into new territory and is being recognized for its pioneering work in photo-real digital humans and productions that bring the worlds of movies, games, advertising and the web closer together. Digital Domain is privately held and based in Venice, California. www.digitaldomain.com

About Framestore:
Framestore has been working in digital film and video for over 20 years now, creating original and astonishing work that has helped make it the largest visual effects and computer animation studio in Europe.

Among Framestore’s notable commercial credits are Smirnoff Sea (winner, 2007 VES ‘Visual Effects in a Commercial’), The Chemical Brothers The Salmon Dance, Casino Royal – Title Sequence, Vauxhall C’mon campaign, Sure to Go Wild, Guinness noitulovE, Johnnie Walker Fish, Levi’s Odyssey and Guinness Surfer.

Since 2004, Framestore NY has been flying the flag in the world of US commercials, landing work for clients such as GE, FedEx, Hoover, Pepsi, Nike, Smirnoff, and Coca-Cola, and winning top awards including both an Emmy and a VES in 2006.

Framestore’s movie portfolio includes work on such films as The Dark Knight, Australia, A Quantum of Solace, Wanted, Prince Caspian, The Golden Compass, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Children of Men and Superman Returns. http://www.framestore-cfc.com/

About Cafe Fx
CafeFX is an award-winning feature film visual effects facility offering visual effects production and supervision, CG character creation, and 3D animation. Founded in 1993 by Jeff Barnes and David Ebner, CafeFX is located in a 36,000-square-foot studio on an eight-acre campus in the heart of Santa Barbara County. The company’s credits include Spider-Man™ 3, Ghost Rider, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Departed, Eragon, Sin city, King Kong, Memoirs Of A Geisha and The Aviator. www.cafefx.com

About Pixel Playground:
Pixel Playground is a visual effects company dedicated to creating the highest level of visual effects for its clients. Pixel Playground offers a comprehensive list of services ranging from on set visual effects supervision to all visual post production needs. These services include 2D digital compositing, and a full compliment of CGI services. visit: http://www.pixelplaygroundinc.com

Related Links:

Visual Effects Credits from IMDB

Directed by: Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller
Starring: Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Elijah Wood, Bruce Willis, Benicio Del Toro, Michael Clarke Duncan, Carla Gugino, Josh Hartnett, Michael Madsen, Jaime King, Brittany Murphy, Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke, Nick Stahl, Marley Shelton.

After the actors filmed in front of blank backgrounds, the SIN CITY effects team painstakingly brewed up the worlds they inhabit taken straight from Miller’s books. It began with Robert Rodriguez morphing Frank Miller’s books – frame by frame, entirely as is — into animatic storyboards. He than started developing the film’s look in the early experimental footage – a look he would continue to adjust throughout production. The idea was always to blend the photo-realistic with the graphic, but the trick was in finding the balance. By finessing the lighting and photography, Rodriguez played with variations on silhouette, shadow and extreme contrasts throughout. He also decided to add a few splashes of color to the otherwise high-contrast atmosphere. Rodriguez: “I was just salivating to recreate these really tricky images that Frank had drawn. Everything is so stripped down, that we would do as Frank did in drawing his comics. We’d build a background, but when in doubt, we’d black it out.

By stripping the backgrounds to their essentials, you get an unnatural style that feels right. Since I shot in color, we’d take the color out and make it a stark black and white, but at any time in post I could bring a color back in. You could then use color as a weapon; a really strong storytelling tool. So you have a character like Goldie who pops out with real flesh tones and blonde hair or The Yellow Bastard with his mustard-colored skin. And when I wanted to heighten a character’s pain I turned the blood red, which really brings it into the foreground, almost like a color close-up. At the same time, we could temper some of the more gruesome images, by making the blood that very cartoonish white you see in the books, which keeps it from being overwhelming. It becomes very abstract.

The background environment of Sin City was forged early on by Rodriguez’s trusted crew at Troublemaker. Then, when it came time to hire an effects house, Rodriguez made an unconventional choice. Instead of one, he would hire three – one effects house for each story. This would allow each story to subtly develop its own strong, distinctive and consistent look. Ultimately, Hybride Technologies, who were involved in Rodriguez’s SPYkids series, worked on “The Hard Goodbye,” the tale of Marv and Goldie; Café FX, whose credits include “Sky Captain” and “Blade: Trinity,” worked on “The Big Fat Kill” or Dwight’s story; and The Orphanage, known for their innovation on “Sky Captain” and “The Day After Tomorrow,” provided visual effects for “That Yellow Bastard,” featuring the tale of Hartigan and Nancy Callahan. With more than 600 effects shots per story, each house devoted itself completely to SIN CITY alone. The film was shot with the brand new Sony HFC-950s cameras – which currently represents the leading edge in high-caliber digital imaging. The camera, also famously used by George Lucas for this summer’s “Star Wars: Episode III,” raises the bar for cinematographic versatility. Visual Effects producer Keefe Boerner explains the appeal of the camera. “There’s simply no way you could make a movie like this on traditional film.

Robert was able to constantly make changes on-the-fly, evolving the look to match performances and vice versa. You need that kind of flexibility to go this far out on the edge.” Because he was shooting in digital hi def video, Rodriguez shot in color using HD monitors – but tweaked one of his monitors so he could see the footage unreeling in black and white. Boerner: “We had the best of both worlds. Robert was able to create what is quite possibly the best-looking black and white film ever, but when we had need for color, we had the ability for that, too.” Each of the effects houses would have to dig deep to satisfy Rodriguez, notes Boerner: “He kept pushing each of them go further and further – to get deeper darks and bright whites. He wanted exciting effects but also for everything to remain very stark and graphic.” At various junctures, Rodriguez even subjected his footage to the ultimate examination. He took early footage to comic book conferences and fearlessly showed it to fans to get their reactions.

About Sin City (2005) – IMDB
“Sin City” is four stories inter-weaved telling tales of corruption in Basin City. The first story (The Customer is always right) is short, and is based on the depression of women that they need to pay a man to feel loved when they commit suicide. The next story is Part 1 of “That Yellow Bastard” about a cop who needs to save a young girl from being raped. The third story (The Hard Goodbye) features a man taking revenge on a heartless killer who murdered his one-night stand. The fourth story (The Big, Fat Kill) stars a man who must dispatch a cop’s body, but it will be a tough ride to do it. Following that are two conclusions to Sin City, the ending of “That Yellow Bastard” which is set 8 years later, and a short story that ends Sin City. Written by Jesse Hefford.

Related Links:

The Visual FX of Sin City

At the end of Crank (2006), professional assassin Chev Chelios took a deadly fall from a helicopter hovering high above Los Angeles. Miraculously, he survived. In Crank: High Voltage (which opened Friday from Lionsgate), the action picks up immediately after this fall as Chev is transported to an operation room in which his seemingly indestructible heart is replaced with a battery-powered ticker that needs regular jolts of electricity to keep working…

Despite the tone and even premise of the movie, directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor were adamant that Crank: High Voltage be absolutely real, visually, which meant that a lot of shots that might have been more easily accomplished via vfx were, at least initially, approached as shots to be done in-camera. Indeed, the total shot count in preproduction was… eight. However, despite all good intentions, not all that was planned to be done in-camera ended up being successful. Thus, the final shot count eventually reached 440, all supervised by Overall Visual Effects Supervisor (and Exec Producer) James McQuaide (Underworld: Evolution, The Cave, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans).

McQuaide has a strong track record of delivering hundreds of visual effects shots under tight budgets and tough schedules. Crank: High Voltage proved to be no exception. One of McQuaide tactics was to hold off starting work on any shot until the picture was locked. “On this type of movie, we cannot afford to throw anything away, so we wait as long as possible to start the work. On Crank: High Voltage, we had about two months to complete 400+ shots… but every single dollar that was spent on visual effects ended up on the screen. The exception to this strategy was the sequence where one of the main characters is on fire — because of the number of shots and the amount of CG required. Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor made it a point of editing this sequence first, which gave vendor Duran Duboi a whopping three months to complete these 21 shots,” he says sarcastically.

Another of McQuaide’s strategies was to rely on a network of proven vendors. “If you look at the credit lists of the 15 pictures I’ve supervised, you will see the same facility names again and again (i.e. Luma Pictures, Duran Duboi, LOOK Effects, Furious FX, Celluloid, etc.). First and foremost, it’s these facilities that make it possible to deliver work as ambitious and well crafted as anything out there, and to do so on budgets that are a fraction of what they could very easily be. Also, on every show, we do quite a bit of the clean-up work and basic compositing in-house. On all the pictures I’ve supervised, you will see a credit for a company called Sub/Par Pix, which is basically my longtime associate, Gary Oldroyd, and whoever else we can rope in to helping us out — we hire our runners based on whether they know Shake and/or After Effects.”

Crank: High Voltage presented the challenge of adapting a rigorous vfx approach to a freewheeling, almost documentary shooting style. Up to 12 cameras were constantly rolling, with the main cameras being usually handheld. “It was difficult to make sure we had accurate camera data — or as accurate as the digital cameras could allow for,” McQuaide observes. “And getting matching background plates for all the foreground plates was a challenge too. Even on the bigger shows I’ve supervised, like the Underworld movies, I have, philosophically, always tried to have vfx maintain as low a profile on set as possible, so production wasn’t hindered by our presence. On this picture, because of the way the directors shot, because of how fast production was moving, this was even more of an imperative but, at the same time, there were things we needed to have. So, finding and/or fighting for this balance was tricky.”

Fire Challenges
The most challenging sequence featured a character on fire. In a series of 21 back-to-back shots, the costume starts burning and the fire progressively spreads out until the whole body is engulfed in flames. All this occurs as the character is immersed in a deadly fight. The plan in preproduction had been for a stunt double to do almost all the shots. However, during production, the directors became frustrated having to try and hide from the camera the face of the stunt double in every shot. So, they abandoned this plan and simply shot the entire sequence with the actor wearing a bit of burn make-up, a sweatshirt with holes cut in it and tracking markers.

The shots were assigned to Paris-based Duran Duboi, which had already collaborated with McQuaide on Underworld 3. “The fire is entirely digital throughout the sequence,” says in-house Visual Effects Supervisor Thomas Duval. “The costume was never on fire. We had a lot of artistic decisions to make: Why is the character burning? Where does the fire start on his body? How fast does the fire expand and how? Is the skin burning too? If so, how far do we go in terms of realism? All these questions had to be answered. The sequence was especially tricky as it involved one of the main characters, and we needed to present a logical progression between shots.”

Continuity was Duran Duboi’s first concern, as the sequence had been edited for maximum impact, without consideration for the look of the actor in each individual shot. As often, shots that had been planned for the later parts of the sequence ended up being integrated at the beginning. As a result, the character looked dramatically different from shot to shot. “In some plates, he was wearing burnt prosthetics, in other ones, his skin was clean,” Duval notes. “His costume could be damaged or not, with tracking markers or not. So, our first task was to create a sense of continuity by painting out anything that was appearing too soon in the sequence, and adding patches to fill up unwanted holes in the costume or to cover the prosthetics.”

Duran Duboi’s team, which included VFX Producer Annabelle Troukens and VFX Coordinator Judith Bruneau, received a cyberscan of the actor’s head. The CG head was used to build a digital double that was precisely roto-animated to match the actor’s movements in every shot. CG Supervisor Julien Lambert and his team then placed flame emitters on the animated body to create the fire effects. The flames were generated via a FumeFX fluid simulation within 3ds Max, and rendered via V-Ray and proprietary tools. “The CG fire would naturally follow any move that the character would make, which created a very realistic motion,” Duval observes. “Early on, we looked into creating a visible progression within individual shots, such as showing the skin turning from white to red to black, but in the end, the shots were too brief for anything like this to read on screen. So, the progression was really created from one shot to the next. The skin was entirely recreated in CG and rendered via RenderMan.”

Duval says that a good part of the realism of the whole sequence relied on a very subtle effect. “There were about 15 burnt holes in the costume, and the fire was supposed to start there. So, we tracked those holes and created a matte for each individual edge. Then, using color correction tools, we turned those edges into a glowing orange that perfectly simulated incandescent fabric. It really blended the digital fire in the plate. We also did a lot of work on the CG smoke, using FumeFX again.”

Given the brutal nature of the effect, the team had to deal with a problematic gore issue. “The directors wanted a photoreal look for the fire itself, but something more stylized for the body injuries,” Duval explains. “We submitted a lot of iterations, trying different textures and maps, working on various levels of realism. It was clear that this was not a gore movie, and that the character should never become truly disgusting to watch. So, we eventually used a softened approach, using red and black textures, but avoiding really gross — but realistic — textures. In the final shot, the character’s face is entirely synthetic — and that’s in full close-up. The CG head was roto-animated to match the actor’s performance down to the most subtle facial movements.” Compositing Supervisor Cyrille Bonjean and his team assembled the various elements, included a 2D heat wave effect, using proprietary software Dutruc.

Duran Duboi also worked on a variety of 2D effects for the movie, including TV composites, Tazer electrical bolts, a cattle prod hitting a bad guy and even a horse penis for a humorous scene! Forty-one shots in total were produced in two-and-a half months with a team of 20. “We worked on a very tight deadline,” Duval observes. “For a sequence that involved complex fluid simulations and the digital double of a key character, that was rather tricky…”

When Plates Don’t Match
The other vfx-heavy sequence in the movie is a shootout in a limo — more than 100 shots assigned to LOOK Effects. In-house VFX Supervisor Max Ivins and VFX Producer Melinka Thompson-Godoy oversaw the project. Like with the rest of the picture, the sequence was shot handheld to give the audience the sense that they are part of the action. As a result, McQuaide and his team found out that it was virtually impossible to shoot background plates that matched exactly — at least technically — the foreground greenscreen plates. In the end, they shot as much background coverage as possible, from angles as similar to those used to shoot the foreground plates as possible, and then pieced it together in post.

McQuaide notes that, because of the aggressively handheld approach, the foreground and background plates could never match exactly. “Also, we had to deal with significant budgetary limitations, especially since the sequence required over 100 composites. Eventually, we decided to simply blow out the backgrounds, so that there was enough visual information left for the audience to understand that the limo was moving, but not enough that mismatched lenses/angles would be apparent. The interesting thing is that blown out windows are completely appropriate given the picture’s Los Angeles setting. So, while this approach was taken to save money, it actually ended up enhancing the sense of reality.”

LOOK Effects used Shake and Flame for 2D compositing software and Maya for 3D software.

The shoot-out sequence, among similar scenes, involved a great deal of blood squirts and projections, an effect that was originally intended to be realized practically. But a recent experience led McQuaide to surprisingly opt for a fully-CG approach. “If you had asked me 18 months ago about doing CG blood, I would have said, without hesitation, that practical blood was the only way to go. At that point on various pictures, I had tried compositing blood elements, as well as using CG blood, and the final results had always felt artificial. However, on Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, I started working with a Berlin-based company called Celluloid. They were able to achieve CG blood that looked remarkably spot-on. In fact, their quality was so good that the directors, who are strong proponents of doing everything in-camera, are now talking about using CG blood exclusively going forward. It will save them the production time required to set the blood packs and clean up the resulting splatter — particularly on wardrobe — while still providing the reality they require.”

All CG blood was simulated using Next Limit’s RealFlow, creating defined shapes of flying liquid rather than just a particulate spray. After simulating, the liquids were rendered using Chaos Group’s V-Ray renderer, which provided the opportunity to simulate accurate sub-surface effects and reflections. The finals were then output as multi-layered Open EXR files in unclamped float using The Foundry’s Nuke, which gave Celluloid complete flexibility to create the final look of the blood.

Additional visual effects were created by FAUV: title sequence and motion graphics (41 shots); RIOT: clean-up work (116 shots); Therapy: motion graphics (nine shots); Max Erdenberger: motion graphics (five shots); and Sub/Par: wire and signage removal (145 shots).

Going the HDV Route
One of the most intriguing aspects of the project was that it was entirely shot on “prosumer” digital cameras, most notably the Canon XH-A1 (along with the Canon HF10). “It was truly a revelation,” McQuaide says. “The picture easily looks as good as what you are used to seeing (if not better), but was shot with very little lighting and on cameras that cost less than $3,000. The image quality — even using the HDV format at resolution of only 1440×1080 — was such that it had no impact on how we dealt with vfx plates. It gave the directors the ability to cover the action in ways that the use of pretty much any other camera would have precluded. I believe this is the first time a major feature film has been shot on the HDV format and, given our results, can’t imagine it will be last.”

Alain Bielik is the founder and editor of renowned effects magazine S.F.X., published in France since 1991. He also contributes to various French publications, both print and online, and occasionally to Cinefex. In 2004, he organized a major special effects exhibition at the Musée International de la Miniature in Lyon, France.

Race to Witch Mountain is a sci-fi adventure about two alien visitors and their search for their lost spacecraft. For the main title sequence, yU+co.’s concept was to tell the story of UFO’s from early sightings in the U.S. to present day, using archival newspaper headlines, film footage, photos and eyewitness accounts of UFO sightings. Set to a pulsating orchestral score, the tension-filled sequence immediately pulls viewers into this mysterious world with fast-paced editing of astonishing UFO imagery coupled with a subtle, yet powerful type design that animates on and off as if emanating from an extraterrestrial transmission signal.

For example, yU+co treated some of the clips with film scratches and burns to simulate aging film stock from the 50’s. They also added microfiche animations on the sections that covered the1980’s, and overlaid TV scan-lines to many of the clips that belonged in the 1990’s and later.

”Race To Witch Mountain represents the third time we worked with director Andy Fickman,” says Yu, who previously worked with Fickman on The Game Plan and She’s the Man. ”I’m proud of the fact that so many top directors like Andy, Zack Snyder, Ang Lee and many others continue to come back to us for titles. It says a lot about both the creativity we bring to each project and the collaborative nature between yU+co. and the director. This project was especially challenging, but we’re proud we could bring Andy’s vision for the titles to life.”

”The main title sequence started in the editing room by researching hundreds of pieces of archival UFO footage that would help us tell the story,” says Synderela Peng, yU+co.’s Art Director. ”We delineated decades of UFO discoveries, beginning with the 1950’s to the present day. We also spent a lot of time on details like treating the headlines and the film footage so they reflect the time period they were supposed to be from.”

”The main title went through several transformations,” Peng adds. ”Andy [Fickman, the director] was very specific about what he wanted in the final. He asked for a title sequence that built the mystique and the history of UFO’s and uses the wealth of footage that have been captured throughout time, mixing it with newspaper and magazine headlines to help inform the viewers on seminal UFO sightings. Typographically, we went with a classic font that was reminiscent of what you would see in 1920’s tabloid newspaper headlines.”

While the creative challenges were many, for David Garber, yU+co.’s Executive Producer, the approval process for using the archival footage proved to be extremely complex, requiring a coordinated effort with Disney’s legal team.

”There were some incidents where we had fallen in love with a piece of footage and how it fit into the whole piece only to find out Disney couldn’t secure the rights and we had go back and find something different,” Garber says. ”There was a lot intricate legal footwork happening. In the end everyone was happy with the way it came out and I think audiences are going to be struck by it.”

In addition to Race to Witch Mountain, other yU+co. projects include the re-teaming with director Zack Snyder (300) for the main title sequence of Warner Bros.’ Watchmen, and the overall visual design and motion graphics applied as visual effects for Lakeshore Entertainment/Lionsgate’s upcoming futuristic thriller, Game. yU+co. also created the cinematics for Capcom’s new release of the popular video game franchise, Resident Evil 5.

About yU+co:
Recognized as an industry leader in visual design and motion graphics with offices in Hollywood, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, yU+co specializes in digital content for all media platforms as well as for title design for film and television, visual effects and animation, theatrical logos, game cinematics and commercials. For more information, contact: Dianna Costello (feature film and television); or Michael Bennett (gaming/game cinematics and commercials) at 323-606-5050.

Web Resources:
Click here to view Race To Witch Mountain titles.
Click here for more info about yU+co.

Click here for more info about Race To Witch Mountain.

Creative Credits:
Project:“Race To Witch Mountain” main title sequence
Client: Disney

Design/Animation: yU+Co., Hollywood, CA
Creative Director: Garson Yu
Executive Producer: David Garber
Art Director: Synderela Peng
Production Coordinator: Annie Chen
Title Editor: Nikita Kleverov
Editorial Assistant: Brandon Muse
Layout Artist: Edwin Baker
Animator: Gary Garza
Animator: Alex Yoon
Animator: Danielle Leiser
Shake Artist: Alan Boucek
Roto Artist: Merlin Carrol
Roto Artist: Miljohn Ruperto

The Damned United plays out the humorously dark story of Brian Clough’s doomed 44 day tenure as the manager of the reigning champions of English football in the 70’s, Leeds United.

Starring Michael Sheen (The Deal, The Queen, Frost/Nixon) as the legendary Brian Clough, Timothy Spall (Secrets and Lies, Harry Potter, Sweeney Todd) as his friend and assistant Peter Taylor and Jim Broadbent (Bridget Jones, The Young Victoria, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince) plays the Derby Chairman, Sam Longson, Clough’s former boss.

Will Cohen, Group Director Mill Film, said; “We have a great working relationship with Tom and we were incredibly excited to have the opportunity to be involved with The Damned United. It was a fun and challenging experience to recreate the interior of the iconic Wembley Stadium from the early 70s as well as creating the Massive Crowd scenes”.

The animation, which features the voice of Reece Witherspoon, saw the weekend’s ticket sales up 39% compared to 2008. Cinema sales in 2009 are beating the recession, according to analysts.

3D success
“The recession offers a framework from which movies can do well for people looking to escape,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of Media By Numbers, which tracks US box office performance.

“But they have to want to escape to these movies. The appeal has to be there, and it clearly was for Monsters vs. Aliens,” he added.

The film won four VES Awards including ‘best visual effects in a visual-effects-driven motion picture’ and ‘best single visual effect of the year’. All four prizes were awarded for work central to the title character’s head, which featured Brad Pitt’s face acting on an all-digital head and neck.

Even those people with knowledge of CGI work are surprised to hear that for approximately one third of the movie Benjamin Button is a 100% computer-generated head on a live actor’s body.

“There’s 325 shots — 52 minutes of the film — where there is no actual footage of Brad,” says Steve Preeg, a character supervisor at Digital Domain, the studio that created the majority of VFX for the film. “He’s not in any of the shots.”

A complex, multi-layered mystery adventure, “Watchmen” is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society, and the Doomsday Clock (which charts the USA’s tension with the Soviet Union) moves closer to midnight.

When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the outlawed but no less determined masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes.

As Rorschach reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion (a disbanded group of retired superheroes, only one of whom has true powers) he glimpses a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future. Their mission is to watch over humanity …. but who is watching the Watchmen? ……

This is the world of “Watchmen,” the big-screen adaptation of the most celebrated graphic novel of all time, brought to life for the first time by visionary director Zack Snyder.

“People always said Watchmen was the unfilmable graphic novel,” says Zack Snyder. “The story itself is a pretty straightforward mystery, but inside of that, there’s this huge plot that has international intrigue and a super-villain and everything you want from a superhero story. It doesn’t owe anything to any specific genre; it’s just its own, true to itself and all of its characters.”

‘The Terminator’, released in 1984 and directed by James Cameron, was followed by two film sequels and a TV series: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Now with talk of two further instalments in the pipeline and Christian Bale signing up for a total of three Terminator films; things look promising for a second Terminator trilogy.

‘Terminator Salvation’ is set in post-apocalypic 2018, where John Connor is the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of terminators. But the future that Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marucs Wright, a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past.

As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet’s operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind.

According to Ian Hunter, NDS Co-Founder/Visual Effects Supervisor, this sequence required exact precision of the burning flames to match principal photography. “Our flame effects needed to be controlled and choreographed to the production’s pre-vizualization,” he explains. “A rooftop and a partial wall with windows was built and plumbed with propane lines for the fire effects. One shot required that the camera move around the entire miniature building and pass over the roof through the fire, so the flames had to be very controllable. The balance of the building below the rooftop was extended digitally.”

The planning of the photography for this sequence was crucial because of the pyrotechnics. The NDS art department sent CAD accurate models of the backlot and miniature to the digital department where Supervisor Robert Chapin and CG Artist Jeff Benoit positioned them along with models of effects equipment, huge screens, articulated camera crane and track. Using camera moves from the production provided previz, the NDS team created a real-viz version of the shot.

Camera moves as well as model, crane and screen placement were exported and used by production for the set-up of photography. “We had an extremely difficult camera move which had to cover 180 degrees over the width of the entire set which was going to be engulfed in flames. Not only did we want to match our previz on set, but we needed to make sure our camera rig didn’t go up in flames,” said Chapin. Having real information of all the elements involved with photography matched with the previz allowed the effects and photography team to plan out the difficult photography, saving time and money.

The digital models created of the miniature in the design phase were then used to generate blueprints which gave the fabrication crew the exact measurements needed to construct the 1/3 scale tenement roof and wall. Leading the design and miniature fabrication was crew chief, Forest Fischer. Fischer’s team built the 16 ft. x 40 ft. long rooftop and 4 ft. diameter by 8 ft. tall water tank within a nine week period. The model had substructures built of lumber double-sheathed with a drywall fire barrier. Model makers laminated walls with sheets of brickwork cast in hydrocal, then lined the roof with sheet metal and cut fire pits into the roof for the propane jets that would provide the fire effects.

Lead pyrotechnician Kelly Kerby led a team of four to lace the miniature with propane lines and over 30 gas jets that would be timed to camera for the flame elements. There were additional fireboxes used to simulate the flames from unseen windows that were later created digitally. Each propane jet was equipped with a valve so that the height and intensity of the flame could be controlled. This allowed the fire effects team to bring the flames up to the desired performance level when the camera rolled and then to a safe “idle” position between takes.

The big finale of the sequence was the water tower collapse. NDS’ Mechanical Effects Supervisor, Scott Beverly, designed and engineered the effect in the software program Solidworks, which allowed him to run simulations of the action and find any weaknesses in the design before moving forward with fabrication. The water tank had a steel frame lined with bender board and waterproofed with sprayable urethane with one side of the tank made of breakaway material so that it would crush when it hit the rooftop. The tank was mounted on a hydraulically controlled weak knee which allowed the mechanical effects team to choreograph the movement and control the fall rate of the tower to provide a performance as designed in the previz by the Director and VFX Supervisor.

The camera rolled at 54 frames per second and Director of Photography, Tim Angulo, covered the tank collapse with a Technocrane move that swung the camera toward the tank. Two additional cameras were used to capture a close-up and a higher angle. NDS Supervisor Ian Hunter triggered the button that collapsed the tank and sent thousands of gallons of water across the set in a split second. And that’s how a few unseen visual effects heroes used a bit of movie magic to save the day.

About New Deal Studios:
New Deal Studios was founded in 1995 by Matthew Gratzner, Ian Hunter and Shannon Blake Gans. This artist owned and operated, independent company is housed in two buildings in Marina del Rey, California. NDS has developed over the years into a full-service production and visual effects studio unlike any in the world. NDS contributes to each project by using a diverse palette of artistic tools that range from the art department, workshop, production, to the digital department and DI suite. Creativity and solid management practices are the foundation upon which NDS has grown over the years and why all major studios continue to entrust NDS with high-profile projects such as Iron Man, Hancock, Batman: The Dark Knight and upcoming films Night At The Museum 2, Whiteout, 2012, Alice in Wonderland, Terminator: Salvation and Shutter Island.

www.newdealstudios.com