Hasta La Motion!

Toonz Media Group announced the third edition of Flying Elephant Animation and Short Film Competition. The competition will be held as part of the ‘Animation Masters Summit 2017’, a prestigious annual animation event to be held in May in Trivandrum. Animators of national and international repute will convene in Trivandrum to share their experiences and expertise with passionate professionals and aspiring young talent.

Toonz invites entries in four categories namely Animation Short Films, Animation Feature Films, Students Short Films and Live Action Short Films. The competition is open to individuals, studios and students. The last day for sending in application for the Flying Elephant competition is 10 April, 2017.

“The Flying Elephant is a symbolic representation of providing creativity wings to spread, fly and create the most innovative and interesting story in animation which can surpass any border and culture and reach out to one and all alike,” said Toonz, CEO, P Jayakumar. “It is with this aim we have announced the third edition of the Flying Elephant Awards and invited nominations from the passionate artists from the South-East Asia.”

The entries will be shortlisted by a 12-member panel to the top 12 entries (three in each category). The 12 shortlisted films will be then evaluated by the visiting masters during the Animation Masters Summit. The winners will be announced on 6 May, 2017 at the concluding ceremony of the Summit and the ‘The Flying Elephant Trophy’ will be awarded to the best films in each of the categories.

“The purpose of the Flying Elephant Competition is to bring to surface, evolution and new tendencies of the animation and entertainment industry and to showcase originality and excellence. The best forum to present this is one in which animation industry stalwarts from India and other parts of the world are here in God’s Own Country,” Jayakumar concluded.

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Rovio Entertainment, the creators of Angry Birds has sold off its animation studio to Kaiken Entertainment. Along with it, the company also sold its book publishing unit and some other “non-Angry Birds properties.”

Going by a statement released yesterday, this was a “part of the ongoing reorganisation of Rovio’s Animation Division,” the same one which worked on ‘The Angry Birds Movie’. The movie roughly made around $350 million while it was created at a budget of $73 million.

Rovio Entertainment recently announced an impressive surge in annual revenues of 2016, the revenues of the movie however would likely be included in 2017’s report.

Ex-Rovio, CEO, Mikael Hed has joined the company recently. Kaiken Entertainment will be based in LA, Helsinki and Vancouver. Hed would be taking up the post of executive chairman of the company and Kaiken Publishing, CEO, Laura Nevanlinna will be head of franchise and portfolio development.

“This team has been integral to building the hugely successful franchise around Angry Birds,” said Hed. “With this amazing team of experts and storytellers we are thrilled to be pursuing the next big hit.”

“We are happy to announce this transaction and look forward to a continued partnership with Kaiken in animation series productions and books publishing,” said Rovio Entertainment, CEO, Kati Levoranta.

Rovio has confirmed that the two companies would collaborate for ‘Angry Birds’ projects.

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Merck, the pharmaceutical company also known as MSD, is promoting the Merck for Mothers campaign with “Push”, a brand film giving perspectives of three different expecting mothers across the world. Launched to coincide with International Womens Day, “Push” serves as the launch film for Merck for Mothers’ “All for Mothers” campaign, which helps illustrate the crucial role of private sector support in public sector issues and aims to inspire new public and private sector partners to join the initiative. By giving a voice to the women affected by maternal mortality, and advocating for change, “Push” artistically reflects Merck for Mothers’ mission to combat this epidemic of what are often preventable deaths associated with pregnancy and childbirth.

Merck provides the thinking behind the Push campaign:

“This year on International Women’s Day, we are on a mission to remind the world that maternal mortality is not an issue of the past. In fact, every two minutes, a woman dies giving life. The United States is the only developed country where maternal mortality is on the rise… One in 10 women in the European Union do not have access to maternal health services during the first months of pregnancy… Every 10 minutes in India a woman dies due to complications during childbirth… Half of all births in Zambia are to mothers living more than 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) from a maternal health center. Maternal mortality hits close to home, no matter where that may be. Through Merck for Mothers, we align ourselves with the right partners to make a difference, and today on International Women’s Day, we are asking maternal health advocates everywhere to help us make a difference by sharing our video and bringing attention to the issue.”

Merck for Mothers Push Credits

The Merck for Mothers Push campaign was developed at Matter Unlimited, New York, by CEO Robert Holzer, managing director Alexandra Gordon, director of production Ashley Jamieson, creative directors Shabazz Larkin and Ahmer Kalam, director of strategy Jackie Prince and account executive Alison Kidd, working with Merck for Mothers lead Dr. Naveen Rao, director of communications Heather Stamatacos and director of strategic partnerships Mark Allen.

Filming was shot by director Spencer Craig via Whitelist with director of photography Dustin Lane, executive producer Jerad Anderson, editor Dan Carr, head of production Matt Griffo, head of creative Colin Moore, head of operations and finance Natasha Seubert, and producer Jefferis Gray.

Colorist was Arnold Ramm at Coyote Post. Music was composed by Trevor Doherty. Sound was designed by Michael O’Connor.

In this Motionographer exclusive we sit down with director Erica Gorochow to discuss her new collaborative film “Dear Europe” and what it means to do work outside the bounds of advertising.

Paper: http://groups.csail.mit.edu/drl/wiki/images/e/ec/Correcting_Robot_Mistakes_in_Real_Time_Using_EEG_Signals.pdf