Aug 23

Jeffrey Katzenberg bids adieu to DreamWorks Animation as Comcast’s $3.8 billion deal seals

Posted in: Animation

There’s a law of nature which states nothing in this world is permanent and someday or the other it will change. Seems the time to bid adieu to DreamWorks Animation has finally arrived for Jeffrey Katzenberg. On Monday, the deal which was initiated less that four months ago has finally been sealed. The $3.8 billion deal between Comcast and DreamWorks Animation, is closed. The animation studio, which has so far given hit franchises like Shrek, Kung Fu Panda and How To Train Your Dragon, is now part of NBCUniversal’s Universal Filmed Entertainment Group — a movie-related catch-all that also includes Universal Pictures, ticketing site Fandango, and NBCU’s own Brand Development arm.

Jeffery Katzenberg

Jeffrey Katzenberg

The staff at DreamWorks Animation will always remember the day 22 August as DWA, CEO, Jeffrey Katzenberg bade farewell to the company he founded. He sent out a letter to one and all as Monday was the final day in which the animation studio’s shares traded on the Nasdaq stock market. Investors will receive $41 in cash for each share of DWA common stock.

Katzenberg will now be handling DreamWorks New Media which includes property like AwesomenessTV, as a chairman. Apart from $400 million in cash from the deal, he will also  become a consultant to Universal-parent company Comcast.

Here’s what the letter says:

As I’ve said to many of you over the past week, my work is my happiness. And for 22 years, my happiness has been DreamWorks. But DreamWorks isn’t the beautiful campus, the fountain, the panini maker or even the movies, TV shows and incredible entertainment we’ve created together.

To me, DreamWorks is all of you, the people, who have made it all happen over the years, and who will continue to do so after I drive through those gates for the last time.

But, as Jakob Jensen, a longtime colleague of ours recently reminded me (via Dr Seuss): “don’t cry because it’s over, be happy because it happened.” I couldn’t agree more, and I will happily take with me memories of working with incredibly talented individuals from around the globe, united by an amazing goal: to bring joy, wonder and laughter to the world.

So, thank you for this remarkable place of green ogres, fighting pandas, swashbuckling cats, stranded zoo animals, prehistoric cave people, six-legged aliens, flying dragons, and so much more. I may be heading out the door, but these are the real stars of DreamWorks, and they will remain. And their numbers will continue to grow, soon to be joined by electric-haired trolls and an extremely bossy baby.

Looking down the road, I can’t wait to grab my popcorn and watch DWA keep raising the bar in the years ahead.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you all so very much for so very much.

With this, Comcast now has plenty of potential hits from DWA under its pipeline as DWA is working on two projects; Trolls that’s set to release on 4 November, 2016 and The Boss Baby scheduled to hit the screens on 31 March, 2017. Along with these, the sequels to the hit features – The Croods, How To Train Your Dragon and Shrek are also in the pipeline.

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Aug 23

Epic Games forums have been breached, over 800,000 accounts at risk

Posted in: Animation

Epic Games, the creator of titles like Unreal Tournament and Fortnite, has confirmed that their Unreal Engine, Unreal Tournament Forums and even some of the legacy forums have been breached by an unknown hacker. According to a post from the company, the attack has left email addresses “other data entered into the forums” compromised.

According to a breach notification site, LeakedSource, which obtained a copy of the database, the attack was carried out on 11 August. The attack potentially puts an average number of 800,000 users at the risk of credential exposure including IP addresses, usernames, email addresses, scrambled passwords, user activity data, private messages, posts and birth dates.

The hacker allegedly exploited a known SQL injection vulnerability generally found in outdated versions of vBulletin forum software.

However, Epic Games said in a blog post that passwords on the Unreal Forums have not been compromised, “We believe a recent Unreal Engine and Unreal Tournament forum compromise revealed email addresses and other data entered into the forums, but no passwords in any form, neither salted, hashed, nor plaintext,” the blog post further noted, “While the data contained in the vBulletin account databases for these forums were leaked, the passwords are stored elsewhere.”

But the company also notified users that their legacy forums for their old Unreal Tournament, Gears Of War and Infinity Blade have also been breached, which places data such as email addresses and passwords at the risk of exposure and so they have advised that, “If you have been active on these forums since July 2015, we recommend you change your password on any site where you use the same password.”

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Aug 23

Jam Filled Entertainment takes over Arc Productions’ assets

Posted in: Animation

On 4 August it was official that Toronto’s leading animation and visual effects studio, Arc Productions has pulled its shutters down and entered receivership under Deloitte Restructuring. Now, it’s learnt that Boat Rocker Media’s latest acquisition, Jam Filled Entertainment, a leading full service animation company in Canada, has purchased the principal assets of Arc Productions. This acquisition leads to Jam Filled’s expansion into Toronto, effective immediately, with the new office opening with approximately 200 employees, adding world-class 3D pipelines to Jam Filled’s capabilities.

jam-filled-entertainment“With Jam Filled, we collectively recognised the merit and potential for expansion within the premium animation space. By adding incredible talent with 3D expertise in Toronto, Jam Filled is now in production on select 3D projects as of today, while also retaining the ability to take on additional properties immediately,” said Boat Rocker Media, co-executive chairmen, David Fortier and Ivan Schneeberg, and CEO, John Young. “We are extremely excited to expand Jam Filled’s unique culture of professionalism and creativity with a new team, new partners and clients from around the world.”

The executive leadership and oversee production will be provided by Jam Filled Entertainment, president, Kyle Mac Dougall, and creative directors, Jamie Leclaire and Phil Lafrance. Boat Rocker will continue to provide capital investment, business support and guidance to the entire Jam Filled team.

“Jam Filled, with the support of Boat Rocker Media, is committed to creating great animated content and we are excited by this new stage in the company’s growth,” said Mac Dougall, Leclaire and Lafrance. “We knew Boat Rocker’s investment would create new opportunities to do what we love while paving the way for us to create big waves in the family and animation space. The acquisition of these new assets allows Jam Filled and its growing team of extraordinary animators to show off our animation service capabilities, as well as expand our staff to work on new and exciting projects in the kids and family sector.”

Arc Productions, which rebranded from Starz Animation in 2011, was tapped to produce the animation for Guillermo del Toro’s new Trollhunters series for Netflix, as well as the forthcoming Kody Kapow, which is set to air on Sprout in 2017. The studio was currently in production on an original animated feature, Blazing Samurai, which is scheduled for release by Open Road Films in August 2017.

Boat Rocker Media, a global entertainment company that creates, produces and distributes premium content and brands, recently acquired Jam Filled Entertainment as a strategic investment to grow its family and kids content. Founded in 2008, Jam Filled is a full-service digital animation studio headquartered in Ottawa, employing over 150 artists and animators working with a Toon Boom pipeline.

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Aug 23

Nintendo NX gets a brand new name and a release date

Posted in: Animation

Nintendo’s upcoming console has been the talk of the town for quite some time now. With a lot of speculations doing rounds throughout the web, the specs of the console, nicknamed ‘NX’ cannot be deciphered clearly, yet.

Nintendo’s previous console, Wii U didn’t manage to excite the fans and somewhat faded with almost no galore in sale numbers. So, NX would be an absolute redemption attempt for the company. From E3, it was pretty clear that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild would definitely be one of the games in NX. Now, some of the other games have been revealed that will launch with the console.

Legend of Zelda

Now, according to 4chan, titles including The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, Super Smash Bros., Super Smash Bros. Melee, F-Zero^2, Pokemon Gold and Pokemon Silver will be integrated in the console. However, their official announcement will be made on 21 September, this year. Apart from this, five other game titles will have launch windows with the release of the game, namely Super Mario Focus, Animal Crossing Election Year, Pikmin 4 Pokemon Sun and Moon and Pileow. Dragon Quest 11 has been confirmed for NX.

The report also suggested the console will not be named Nintendo NX but Nintendo Focus and would be launched on 10 March, 2017.

While the reports from the anonymous source are nothing concrete, we’ll have to wait for Nintendo’s official statement to get something to look forward to.

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Aug 23

After two live action tremors, ‘Godzilla’ to receive animated feature avatar

Posted in: Animation

The monster film that reverberated terror on the entire earth with its monstrous effect still has an indelible mark on the minds of the audience. Godzilla, the monster which created tremors both on land and sea, is a movie often treated as impeccable as the Jurassic Park franchise. The sea inhabitant monster will get a new avatar as the Japanese film producer-distributor Toho is planning the first-ever feature-length animated Godzilla.

The full length animated feature is being produced by digital animation house Polygon Pictures (TV’s Transformers: Prime, Star Wars: Clone Wars and Ronja the Robber’s Daughter). It will be directed by Kobun Shizuno (Detective Conan series) and Hiroyuki Seshita (Knights of Sidonia), from an original story and screenplay by Gen Urobuchi (Psycho-Pass: The Movie).

Toho’s Godzilla franchise has already had both theatrical and animation treatment as two feature length live action films have been released in the past- one in 1998 and the other in 2014 with the same title Godzilla.

GZL_STV_RGB_A587x330

Also, an animated television series Godzilla: The Series was originally aired on Fox Kids in 1998 in the United States. Toho had previously collaborated on this TV animation series as a follow-up to the 1998 film.

Both the live action movies were based on heavy use of VFX and CGI to create the humongous monster and its stings. It would be interesting to see how the character is created in animation bearing in mind that it is a full length feature.

Toho mentioned, “We’re aiming to make a big-scale animation entertainment that people who love Godzilla and people who know nothing about him can both enjoy.” The movie is expected to hit theatres next year.

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Aug 23

Seventynine announces ingame branding campaign for Parle G with Nazara Games

Posted in: Animation

Seventynine, part of the digital media platform SVG Media, today announced an in-game branding campaign for Parle G as part of a special edition of Chhota Bheem mobile game developed by Nazara Games. It has broken all records in users reached and duration of game play for an activity of this kind.

Nazara Games integrated Parle G brand inside Chhota Bheem Jungle Run, the most downloaded game of Nazara with over 10 million downloads. The brand campaign was experienced by over 3.4 million gamers since its launch in November 2015, overshooting the original target of reaching two million users. Players consumed a whopping 1.2 billion virtual Parle G biscuits in this time frame.

Chotta Bheem Parle G

Seventynine, business head, Siddharth Kelkar said, “Parle G’s goal was to build a strong brand connect and engage with their core audience of children. We’re thrilled to have delivered them a campaign that not only met all its objectives and gave Parle G a fantastic and innovative medium to connect with their customers, but in the process set new benchmarks in demonstrating how successful in-game branding can be.”

Parle Products, deputy marketing manager, Mayank Shah said, “We are delighted that this campaign came out as a win-win for both the marketer as well as the consumer; the spectacular results including 367 years of game play and consuming a whopping 1.2 billion virtual biscuits are proof that the audiences we were targeting totally loved the game and the associated Parle G branding.”

Nazara Games, CEO Manish Agarwal said, “The partnership with Seventynine and Parle G demonstrates the marketing magic that is possible when a creatively-conceived concept brings together hugely popular app and a brand that is directly targeting the app’s users.”

Parle G’s association with Chhota Bheem was earlier seen in the 2015 winter release animated feature film Chhota Bheem: Himalayan Adventure and with this game, it seems like Chhota Bheem and Parle G’s collaboration is bearing fruitful results. In the original version of the game, a player has to collect laddoos to score higher points. With the idea of integrating Parle G into the game, it seemed like a fresh idea to introduce Parle G biscuits along with ladoos using SVG technology. Thereby, by achieving brand integration while making it interesting for the young players. We are delighted that the marketing campaign by Seventynine achieved its targets ahead of projected timelines.

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Aug 23

Vidnet 2016: India’s First Focused OTT Conference

Posted in: Animation

vid16MUMBAI: In today’s mobile-first-with-the-young-generation scenario, content creation, distribution and consumption is constantly evolving.

Capturing the rapid emerging mood of innovation is Indiantelevision.com’s breakthrough conference, Vidnet 2016: Content on the Go which is to be held on 24 August at the swanky Westin Hotel in Mumbai’s Goregaon suburb.

Indiantelevision.com’s Vidnet is a day-long congregation of the OTT ecosystem to discuss business models, tech trends, revenue streams, content creation and consumption patterns, success stories within the ecosystem and the way forward for its various constituents.

The morning will begin with the Vidnet 2016 Summit, which will be followed / accompanied by a closed door VOD / OTT / broadcast CTO conference called Vidnet Tech.

Vidnet Tech is chaired by Broadcast Media Consultant and Project Specialist,  Vynsley Fernandes, Castle Media Pvt Ltd.

Industry biggies and who’s who of the media and entertainment fraternity are set to attend the event in different capacities. Some confirmed attendees are Ajit Mohan, CEO, Hotstar, Neeraj Roy, MD and CEO, Hungama Digital, Uday Sodhi, Executive VP and Head, Digital Business, Sony Pictures Network India,  Abhimanyu Singh, CEO, Contiloe Entertainment, Ajay Chacko, Co-Founder, Arre, Archana Anand, Business Head, DittoTV, Shamsuddin Jasani, Managing Director, ISOBAR, Mahesh Narayan, Managing Director, Saavn, Salil Kapoor, Managing Director, Hooq India, Vivek Bhargava, MD & CEO, iProspect, Tushar Vyas, CSO, GroupM, Baskar Subramanian, Co-founder, Amagi, Gautam Mehra, Data Stack, Aparna Joshi, Radioandmusic.com.

Vidnet will begin at 10.30 am with an introductory note by Anil Wanvari, CEO, Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Indiantelevision.com Group.

It will be followed by Presentation on OTT trends in the APAC Region by Vivek Couto, Media Partners Asia.

The sessions and individual key notes will address holistically many pivotal issues and questions pertaining to the OTT and VOD ecosystem and usher new knowledge paradigms which will set industry trends in time to come.

For full information on the agenda and list of speakers, visit http://vidnet.in/

Speaking on the initiative, Anil Wanvari said: “There’s disruption in the video ecosystem, with viewers wanting to consume content wherever and on any device – at home or on the move. The industry has responded through independent or broadcaster affiliated on-demand offerings –either through an ad model or through subscription. Nobody knows what will work, what is needed to make it work and for how long. We hope that Vidnet – Content on the Go will help OTT players, content creators, advertisers, media buyers and planners, brands and the ad delivery measurement guys go a little further in their understanding of the way ahead.”

In attendance will be major OTT players, individual content creators, advertising and media professionals, tech gurus, writers, journalists among others.

Akamai is the CDN Partner for the event, Summit Partners include Hotstar and Voot, Elemental is Associate Partner and Amagi is Support Partner. Animationxpress.com, Tellychakkar.com and Radioandmusic.com are Online Partners. The event is executed by ITV 2.0 Productions.

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Aug 23

Myer Give Registry with Salvation Army

Posted in: Animation

Myer and Salvation Army Australia have launched the Give Registry, a collection of essential items for survivors of family violence. Awareness of family violence being a pervasive national problem is growing, but practical solutions to help victims of abuse remain limited. A rarely discussed reality of family violence is that most women who suffer at the hands of their partners end up having to flee their homes, often leaving with nothing but their lives. Promotion of the Give Registry, developed at Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, is running on television, social media, out of home, print and digital channels. Films, “Towels”, “Plates” and “Kettle”, featuring the voices of family violence survivors, are helping raise awareness of the initiative and underline the importance of belongings that most take for granted. In the first week over 2,000 items have already been donated and a number of Myer customers have already decided to disband their Wedding Gift Registry in favour of asking their friends and family to donate to the Give Registry instead online at myer.com.au/c/give-registry.

Myer Give Registry Window

The Give Registry works in a similar manner to a traditional gift registry, with pre-selected items that customers can choose from. All items have been selected by women who have experienced abuse and understand first-hand the most important items needed when rebuilding their lives. Through the Give Registry, customers are able to choose an essential item from any Myer store to donate to women and their families who have been affected by family violence, with Myer matching each product donation. All items will go to women and children supported by The Salvation Army’s crisis accommodation and women’s refuges.

Myer Give Registry poster
Myer Give Registry poster

Myer Executive General Manager – Brand & Marketing, Michael Scott said the Myer initiative provides practical support to victims of family violence. “Myer is standing up to family violence, an issue we know that our customers and team members feel very passionately about. The Give Registry means that we can work together with our customers to help make a difference in these women’s lives. We’re really proud to launch the Give Registry which provides practical support through the provision of much needed essential items.”

Elle Bullen, Senior Creative at Clemenger BBDO said “A Gift Registry is a well-understood staple of any department store, and by twisting its meaning we have created a new way of charitable giving. It took a brave client, one with a history of philanthropy, to believe in an idea and not just create ads, but an entire range.”

James McGrath, Creative Chairman at Clemenger BBDO said “Instead of making a corporate donation to charity like so many organisations do, Myer have created something lasting and meaningful. It’s a brave and unconventional approach that we hope will make a real impact.”

Myer Give Registry Anything that can be picked up is a potential weapon
Myer Give Registry What you give we give

Give Registry Credits

The Myer Give Registry campaign was developed at Clemenger BBDO Melbourne by creative chairman James McGrath, chief creative officer Ant Keogh, creative directors Evan Roberts and Stephen De Wolf, creative team Elle Bullen and James Orr, design director Jake Turnbull, group managing director Simon Lamplough, senior account director Sam McConnell, operations director – Myer Sharon Adams, executive producer Sonia von Bibra, señor producer Karolina Bozajkovska, working with Myer brand and marketing executive general manager Michael Scott, marketing strategy and communications general manager Natalie Warren-Smith, retail events marketing specialist Natalie Riley, and community relations advisor Kate Driessen.

Filming was shot by director Angie Bird via Flare with producer Selin Yaman, director of photography Shelley Farthing-Dawe, art director Ben Bangey, composer Matt Gurry and editor Sam Coates.

3D / CGI production was done at Cream Studios by managing director/partner Steve York and producer Jennifer Stone.

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Aug 23

Dick’s Sporting Goods Gold in US

Posted in: Animation

Dick’s Sporting Goods, sponsor of TEAM USA at the 2016 Rio Olympics, is airing “Gold in US”, a commercial showing athletes everywhere that we all have gold inside of us. Scenes of athletes in training are shown alongside powerful nature scenes. A voiceover makes the point that gold, the most coveted element of the games, is actually a part of every human body, with everyone containing 0.2 milligrams of gold. Only some have the strength to dig it out. Athletes starring in the Gold In US ad include beach volleyball player Kerri Walsh-Jennings, boxer Claressa Shields, fencer Daryl Homer, gymast Danell Leyva, Paraympic long jumper Lex Gillette and current Dick’s employees Laura Ryan, a diver, and Kristin Smith, a hammer throw athlete. The campaign is linked in with the social media hashtag #GoldInUS.

Dick's Gold In Us Beach Volleyball

“When we first heard the stat that gold is naturally found in the human body, we knew there was a special story to tell,” said Dick’s Sporting Goods Executive Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer Lauren Hobart. “The athletes featured in this spot showcase the strength and determination it takes to tap into the gold found within us all.”

Gold In Us Credits

The Gold In Us campaign was developed at Anomaly New York by creative directors Johnny Dantonio and Seth Jacobs, creatives Matt Kalish, Zach Myrow, and Matt Beck, producer Amy Bonin, account director Ji You, business director Damien Reid, project manager Sharon Shang.

Filming was shot by director Eliot Rausch via Stink USA with director of photography Chayse Irvin, managing director Jeff Baron, executive producer James Cunningham, producer Mark Walejko.

Editor was Peter Johnson at Consulate with assistant editor Jeremy Huff, executive producer Lisa Binassarie, and producer Alan Lopez.

Visual effects, design and colour were produced at The Mill by executive producer Sean Costelloe, producer Michael Scarcella, production coordinator Kristy Chooi, shoot supervisors Jimmy Bullard and Eric Pascarelli, 2D lead artist Kieran Harrahan, colourist Mikey Rossiter, colour producer Natalie Westerfield, colour coordinator Evan Bauer.

Sound was produced at AudioEngine by audio engineer Tom Goldblatt. Music was supervised at Search Party Music.

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Aug 23

Dove Girls Searching

Posted in: Animation

Dove is running a new self-esteem advertising campaign focused on the online searches of teenage girls. Developed for the Australian market, the campaign includes two television commercials highlighting online search questions, ranging from how to kiss a boy to can teens can get cosmetic surgery. It then asks parents a simple but significant question, ‘what is your daughter searching for?”. An online mini-documentary explores further the role of parents in exploring life questions with their daughters.

Dove Girls Searching commercial

“At face value ‘what is your daughter searching for?’ talks to girls’ online searches, but the real lesson is about their emotional needs,” explained J Walter Thompson’s ECD Simon Langley. “Dove’s research shows that girls use the internet to research body confidence issues rather than talk to their parents. As a result, this is a question that most parents simply don’t know the answer to. Australian teens and families are already bombarded with messages about beauty, so Searching was specifically developed to cut through that noise to generate some important discussion about low self-esteem – and present the reality in a way that hits home.”

Tessa Black, senior brand manager, Unilever said, “Dove is well known for its stance on Real Beauty challenging the perception of women in media based on the belief that beauty should be a source of confidence, and not anxiety. But few people know that Dove is also committed to ensuring that the next generation of girls grow up enjoying a positive relationship with the way they look. The Dove Self-Esteem Programme goes into school to help kids find greater self-esteem and realise their full potential. We hope Searching generates some important family discussions, and ongoing support of this important dove self-esteem programme.”

Dove Girls Searching Credits

The Dove Searching campaign was developed at JWT Sydney by executive creative director Simon Langley, copywriter Giles Clayton, art director Simon Hayes, producer Amanda Slatyer, executive planning director Angela Morris, general account directors Milly Hall and Ana Lynch working with Unilever chief marketing officer John Broome, senior brand manager Tessa Black and assistant brand manager Gillian Choo.

Filming for the TV commercials was shot by director Cybele Malinowski via Network Agency with director of photography Justin Malinowski, stylist Monique Moynihan, grooming stylist Jess Chapman.

The online film was shot by director Jack Naylor via Collider with producer Aineslee Littlemore.

Editor was Alex Feegans. Post production as done at Resolution Design. Audio post production was done at Sound Reservoir.

Media was handled at PHD.

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