Monthly Archives: July 2015

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The Iron Giant is coming back to theaters!

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iron-giant

 

Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Warner Bros. and Fathom Events are putting a remastered “Signature Edition” version of The Iron Giant in theaters for a very limited engagement. The special-event screening will take place at 7:00 p.m. on Sept. 30, with an encore showing on Oct. 4 at 12 p.m. in participating theaters around the country. The new remastered cut will include two all-new scenes.

“We can’t wait to bring this family favorite back its home on the big screen,” said Fathom Events CEO John Rubey, in a statement. “The Iron Giant is meant to be seen and heard in movie theaters and this is a great chance for fans new and old to enjoy this classic, remastered with new scenes.”

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Jon Rennie

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Jon Rennie and I’m the Managing Director of Cloth Cat Animation.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Besides the usual stints in call centres and copy typing pools, the best job I had before animation was as a tester and writer for Bullfrog Productions. Bullfrog was a games company eventually purchased by EA but while I was there I got to work on titles such as Dungeon Keeper, Theme Hospital, Syndicate Wars and Populous: The Beginning. It was a fun creative place to work and a great place to learn how to develop my skills in the media industry.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I’ve had a diverse career so I’m proud of all the work I’ve been able to do. My favourite game at Bullfrog was working on Dungeon Keeper, but then I moved into VFX and animation and so Grandpa In My Pocket has been a major part of my career up to now.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from Cardiff in Wales and I came to animation from the VFX industry. I studied filmmaking at university in Newport but found I had an affinity for manipulating images and footage. I experimented with bluescreen and colour correction so, when I came to make my own short films, I was able to do a lot of the work myself. A local animation company needed a compositor to work on a Continue reading

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2D Wednesday “Brutus the Bound” from Exit 73 Studios

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A nice trailer for a series called Brutus the Bound from Joe Colson who we interviewed last year.

Very reminiscent of Samurai Jack (in a good way)… and it makes me want to see more!

Brutus, a great warrior from a distant planet, is ripped from his past and taken to the future of an evil Overlord. The Overlord holds Brutus’ family hostage, and binds Brutus in a temporal harness, forcing him to become an Infinite Gladiator, fighting opponents throughout time and space.

EXIT 73 STUDIOS
website: exit73studios.com
facebook: facebook.com/Exit73Studios
soundcloud: soundcloud.com/fox-5-1

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Production Credits
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Created By: Joe Croson
Animation: Exit 73 Studios

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Artists Alert: From the Illustrators Partnership The Return of Orphan Works

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Artists Alert: From the Illustrators Partnership
The Return of Orphan Works

Part 1: “The Next Great Copyright Act”
JULY 1, 2015
For more than a year Congress has been holding hearings for the drafting of a brand new US Copyright Act. At its heart is the return of Orphan Works.
Twice, Orphan Works Acts have failed to pass Congress because of strong opposition from visual artists, spearheaded by the Illustrators Partnership.

Because of this, the Copyright Office has now issued a special call for letters regarding the role of visual art in the coming legislation.

Therefore we’re asking all artists concerned with retaining the rights to their work to join us in writing.
When and Where
Deadline: July 23, 2015

You can submit letters online to the Copyright Office here.

Read the Copyright Office Notice of Inquiry.
Here are the Basic Facts

“The Next Great Copyright Act” would replace all existing copyright law.

It would void our Constitutional right to the exclusive control of our work.

It would “privilege” the public’s right to use our work.

It would “pressure” you to register your work with commercial registries.

It would “orphan” unregistered work.

It would make orphaned work available for commercial infringement by “good faith” infringers.

It would allow others to alter your work and copyright these “derivative works” in their own names.

It would affect all visual art: drawings, paintings, sketches, photos, etc.; past, present and future; published and unpublished; domestic and foreign.

Background

The demand for copyright “reform” has come from large Internet firms and the legal scholars allied with them. Their business models involve supplying the public with access to other people’s copyrighted work. Their problem has been how to do this legally and without paying artists.

The “reforms” they’ve proposed would allow them to stock their databases with our pictures. This would happen either by forcing us to hand over our images to them as registered works, or by harvesting unregistered works as orphans and copyrighting them in their own names as “derivative works.”

The Copyright Office acknowledges that this will cause special problems for visual artists but concludes that we should still be subject to orphan works law.

The “Next Great Copyright Act” would go further than previous Orphan Works Acts. The proposals under consideration include:

1.) The Mass Digitization of our intellectual property by corporate interests.
2.) Extended Collective Licensing, a form of socialized licensing that would replace voluntary business agreements between artists and their clients.
3.)  A Copyright Small Claims Court to handle the flood of lawsuits expected to result from orphan works infringements.
In your letter to the Copyright Office:

It’s important that lawmakers be told that our copyrights are our source of income because lobbyists and corporation lawyers have “testified” that once our work has been published it has virtually no further commercial value and should therefore be available for use by the public.

So when writing, please remember:

* It’s important that you make your letter personal and truthful.
* Keep it professional and respectful.
* Explain that you’re an artist and have been one for x number of years.
* Briefly list your educational background, publications, awards, etc.
* Indicate the field(s) you work in.
* Explain clearly and forcefully that for you, copyright law is not an
abstract legal issue, but the basis on which your business rests.
* Our copyrights are the products we license.
* This means that infringing our work is like stealing our money.
* It’s important to our businesses that we remain able to determine
voluntarily how and by whom our work is used.
* Stress that your work does NOT lose its value upon publication.
* Instead everything you create becomes part of your business inventory.
* In the digital era, inventory is more valuable to artists than ever before.

If you are NOT a professional artist:

* Define your specific interest in copyright, and give a few relevant
details.

* You might want to stress that it’s important to you that you determine
how and by whom your work is used.
* You might wish to state that even if you’re a hobbyist, you would not
welcome someone else monetizing your work for their own profit
without your knowledge or consent.

Because this is a complicated issue, we’ll follow up next week with some expanded thoughts of our own.
 
– Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner
for the Board of the Illustrators Partnership
The Illustrators Partnership has filed multiple papers with the
Copyright Office regarding this issue .

You can download them from the Copyright Office website:

Remedies for Small Copyright Claims

January 17, 2012

Orphan Works and Mass Digitization

Initial Comments, February 3, 2013

Orphan Works and Mass Digitization

Reply Comments, March 6, 2013

Orphan Works and Mass Digitization

Additional Comments, May 21, 2014

Please post or forward this artists alert to any interested party.

You can read the initial post here.

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Eva Bruschi

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My Name’s Eva Bruschi and I’ve just started working as 2d Layout artist for a feature film, that is “Iqbal – Tale of a fearless child” dedicated to Iqbal Masih. This is a co-production with Italian Gertie, Editions Montparnasse, Spectra Animation and 2d 3D Animation. I’m very honoured to be part of this team.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I used to work in a special archive made of lots and lots of audio and videos recordings which contain stories from italian popular music and traditions.  There we had to digitize all the old analogical recordings made by researchers all around Italy, from the 50s till our days.. and sometimes there were crazy weird things to listen to! I’ve been there for almost 4 years 🙂

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I’m proud of having been part first of all of “Ice Banana” team, the short film made by my class at Scuola Internazionale di Comics. Then I’m very proud about almost all the projects I’ve been working (yes, I’m an enthusiast!), starting from other feature films like Pinocchio by Enzo D’Alò in which I did animation assistant and Gladiators of Rome 3D by Rainbow cgi in which I was storyboard artist, until smaller one like some Italian TV series, with many drawings to do in a very few time! 😀 Those projects gave more certainty and awareness of my own work, even if the road has just started!

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from Florence, in the beautiful Tuscany and here I attended Scuola Internazionale di Comics like I said before. The school gave me the artistic and technical fundamentals and introduced me to Continue reading