Hasta La Motion!

BIF live at Moers Jazz Festival with Dean Blunt and many more – May 2015

Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty is a film objectively about terrorism – specifically, the decades long hunt for Osama Bin Laden. It follows CIA agent Maya (Jessica Chastain) as she works relentlessly in order to find the infamous terrorist. Her work is a model of perseverance and determination, and moreover the film looks to frame this task through the lens of possible justice and catharsis, and what this could look (and feel) like post 9/11. Kenneth Lonergan’s Margaret is not focused on political terrorism, however it nonetheless reverberates with the effects of 9/11. It follows teenager Lisa (Anna Paquin) as she deals with guilt and looks for justice following her involvement in a horrific road accident. In its own narrative way Margaret seeks to explore the consequences of trauma and the potential catharsis to be found through such violent acts. Both films deploy a central female protagonist as a means to explore their particular concerns. Zero Dark Thirty’s Maya, and Margaret’s Lisa represent the journey towards justice, passing the stages of obsession, guilt, anger, and frustration respectively. Beyond considering both films to be the work of complex and necessary auteurs, I always felt there to be an intrinsic relationship between the two films, a relationship between their thematic and technical qualities. They both are expansive and cover one woman’s struggle to seek justice and resolution. Moreover, both films deal with many issues that reflect a post 9/11 landscape: death, (survivors) guilt, paranoia, the struggle for justice, and a shifting sense of political – and specifically American (and in Margaret’s case, a New York City based) – identity. This video essays focuses on four scenes from each film that depict: • The instigating act of terror (also both films’ opening sequences) • A sense of its impact • A confrontation regarding the impact of the event on the journey towards resolution • The final conclusion, tinged with catharsis (also both films’ final sequences) By reframing these scenes, exploring different comparative edits, and highlighting their thematic, aesthetic, and narrative similarities, I aim to tie Margaret to a post 9/11 dialogue, and create a piece that encourages the viewer to think of these films in a new way – one that supports a appreciate of these films somewhere between their textual and sub-textual meanings. NOTE: this is a work in progress.

Inverse had me ask a bunch of visual effects supervisors what the best direction was they had received from directors they’ve worked with. Check out their responses for some pretty cool insights from directors like Sam Raimi, Barry Sonnenfeld, Ang Lee and others. And thanks to Todd Vaziri for the idea behind this one. Link to the story.

Arguably, one of the most anticipated game releases of this year, No Man’s Sky left the fans with a bad taste in their mouth. With disappointed buyers venting out their frustration through negative comments and complain over platforms like NeoGAF and Reddit, it seems a post on the No Man’s Sky forum on Reddit gave them a ray of hope. The post reached the top of the forum and it claimed that players can get a refund from Steam, no matter how long you have played the game. According to Valve’s policy, you can only avail a confirmed refund of the game if you have played the game for less than two hours and owned it for less than two weeks.

While many jumped on the bandwagon that they will get refunds for Hello Games’ open world explore-adventure game No Man’s Sky, no matter the time played/owned, in real, Valve’s refund policy still remains the same for this game. The confusion must have spawned as Valve mentioned that anyone, regardless of play/ownership time can “request” for a refund.

Valve seems to have looked into the matter and updated the Steam page of No Man’s Sky in order to give everyone a clear idea that the refund policies are the same for this game, just like any other.

The page reads, “The standard Steam refund policy applies to No Man’s Sky,” further adding, “There are no special exemptions available.”

The update also includes a link where the company breaks it down for the users saying, “Valve will, upon request via help.steampowered.com, issue a refund for any reason, if the request is made within fourteen days of purchase, and the title has been played for less than two hours. There are more details below, but even if you fall outside of the refund rules we’ve described, you can ask for a refund anyway and we’ll take a look.”

We hope this clears a lot of things for players of not only No Man’s Sky, but also other users who purchased games from Steam and/but are seeking refund from the company.

The post Valve clears the air on No Man’s Sky’s refund policies with an updated notice appeared first on AnimationXpress.

There’s a new member on-board at Spin VFX and the announcement comes from the mouth of Spin VFX president / executive producer Neishaw Ali himself. Andrew McPhillips joins the studio as the CG supervisor.

“Talented and resourceful with an infectious enthusiasm is how I would describe Andrew. His child-like curiosity is fuelled by his passion and love for the craft. His dedication to creating quality imagery is second only to his problem-solving approach and yet another reason why Andrew fits in at Spin, like a dirty shirt. It is my privilege to be working with Andrew and I welcome him to our talented team,” commented Ali.

Andrew McPhillips

McPhillips comes with over 20 years of experience in the industry, and has CG supervised both feature animation and visual effects centric films. He recently worked at Sony Picture Imageworks on Hotel Transylvania 2 and previously at Method Studios on The Maze Runner and Night at the Museum 3: Secret of the Tomb. His skill set includes lighting and look-development in various renderers and pipelines.

“I am extremely happy to be joining Spin VFX at such an exciting time in its history. The development the studio has gone through over the last few years, for technology, staffing and projects is really impressive,” said McPhillips. “From a personal standpoint, the opportunity to be able to move back to Toronto, to work in such an exciting studio, has been a goal of mine for a long time.”

McPhillips other work credits Shrek 2, Minority Report, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, White House Down, Angry Birds and The Great Gatsby.

Andrew will join the Spin team to deliver visual effects for Niels Arden Oplev’s upcoming remake of the 90s cult classic Flatliners and Disney channel’s creature driven movie, Lair.

The post Andrew McPhillips joins Spin VFX as CG supervisor appeared first on AnimationXpress.