Netflix has ordered an eccentric dark animated comedy, titled The House, after partnering with animation firm Nexus Studios and a bunch of leading stop frame animation directors. The project centers on a house and the surreal tales of three generations of families who made it their home.

The House will be produced at Nexus Studios’ London unit. Nexus, which also has a studio in LA, is behind Academy Award-nominated short This Way Up and Emmy-nominated Back to The Moon.

“Nexus Studios has a remarkable history of working with the best animators from all over the world. We’re thrilled to partner with Nexus and their incredible directors to bring The House to life,” said Netflix head of adult animation Mike Moon.

(From left to right) -Paloma Baeza, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, Marc James Roels and Emma-de-Swaef

There are three different directors for the planned three chaapters. Belgian creators Emma de Swaef and Marc James Roels of This Magnificent Cake fame, will direct one chapter; Swedish director and animator Niki Lindroth von Bahr, whose short film received top prizes at Annecy and the Toronto International Film Festival, will direct another chapter, and Paloma Baeza, creator of BAFTA-winner short film Poles Apart, will direct another chapter.

Nexus Studios co-founder and producer Charlotte Bavasso commented, “The House is a collection of cinematic stories that are intelligent, witty, inquisitive, warm and yet packed with offbeat humour. For this project, Nexus are bringing together, for the very first time, three of the most unique and multi-awarded voices in independent stop motion animation today in Niki, Marc & Emma and Paloma. This production is an organic collaboration between brilliant and like-minded storytellers. We’re thrilled to have found in Netflix such a perfect home for The House.”

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HyperX, the gaming division of Kingston Technology, recently launched a new product to its lineup of gaming keyboards – HyperX Alloy Origins™ Core. Featuring HyperX Red mechanical switches, the new keyboard is built for performance and longevity with a shorter actuation point and 80 million click rating. The new HyperX Alloy Origins Core gaming keyboard is now available at leading retail and e-tail outlets at rupees 10,900. It is backed by a limited two-year warranty with HyperX support.

Alloy Origins Core maximizes desktop real estate with a space-saving tenkeyless layout for ultimate mouse movement. The keyboard features RGB exposed backlit keys for brighter illumination with radiant lighting effects and five adjustable brightness levels to enhance gaming, day or night. For added durability, stability and flexibility, Alloy Origins Core is built with a full aircraft-grade aluminum body and the USB Type-C to USB Type-A keyboard cable is detachable.  

 HyperX, “The Alloy Origins Core was designed specifically for TKL keyboard fans, offering gamers a high-performance HyperX RGB tenkeyless keyboard option. HyperX is excited to release the new Alloy Origins Core featuring HyperX red mechanical switches” 

 Alloy Origins Core features a Custom Game Mode, allowing users to choose which keys are enabled and disabled. Macro keys can be assigned and stored in the macro library and users can choose from three adjustable keyboard angles for perfect positioning. Equipped with HyperX NGENUITY software, Alloy Origins Core offers advanced customization features for lighting and macros, including simple customizable per-key lighting effects1. With on-board memory, users may save up to three of their Alloy Origins Core profiles for on-the-go gaming using HyperX NGENUITY software. The keyboard also includes 100 percent anti-ghosting and full N-key rollover. 

Specifications:

Keyboard 

• Switch: HyperX Red Switch
• Type: Mechanical
• Backlight: DIP RGB LED
• Light effects: Per key RGB lighting1 and 5 brightness levels.
• On board memory: 3 profiles o Connection type: USB Type-C to USB Type-A
• Anti-ghosting: 100% anti-ghosting
• Key rollover: N-key mode 
• LED indicator: Yes
• Media control: Yes 
• Game Mode: Yes 
• OS compatibility: Windows® 10, 8.1, 8, 7

Key Switches

• Switch: HyperX Red Switch 
• Operation Style: Linear 
• Actuation Force: 45g
• Key Travel Distance: 1.8 mm
• Total Travel: 3.8 mm
• Life Span (Keystrokes): 80 million

Cable

• Type: Detachable, Braided USB Cable
• Length: 1.8 m

Dimensions

• Width: 360.0 mm
• Depth: 132.5 mm
• Height: 34.5 mm
• Weight (Keyboard and cable): 900 g

1 Per key RGB lighting customizable with HyperX NGENUITY software

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Eclipsing the business of all movies released alongside the much-lauded period drama, Tanhaji the Unsung Warrior has crossed the 100 crore mark at the box office in short space of time. The movie is in its 6th day in its theatrical run and already garnered over a 100 crores at the box office. Over the past ten years, there’s been a raft of period dramas in Bollywood but Tanhaji has emerged as a groundbreaking project for the sheer scale both in terms of visual effects and storytelling.

Based on the life of Tanaji Malusare, a 17th-century Maharashtrian Marathi military leader.

Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior‘s collections continue to snowball in the various states. Confirming the same, film trade analyst Taran Adarsh wrote on Twitter on Wednesday, “Tanhaji – AjayDevgn’s 100th film – hits rupees 100 cr today in its sixth day… Chasing a big total today.”

“The studio also informed that they had spent almost three years in the pre-production of the film and perhaps their first film where they storyboarded and had concept work done for every scene.”

The movie showed a growth of around 20 per cent on Tuesday owing to Makar Sankranti partial holiday and collected around Rs 15.28 crore. This took the five-day total of the film to Rs 90.96 crore. This was higher than the five-day collections of Devgn’s last film.

Surely the movie being made tax-free in Uttar Pradesh which is India’s most populated state and perhaps also the most right-wing has provided a fillip to its collections.

Thank you Shri Yogi Adityanathji for making #TanhajiTheUnsungWarrior Tax-Free in Uttar Pradesh. I would also be delighted Sir if you watched our film @myogiadityanath #TanhajiUnitesIndia

— Ajay Devgn (@ajaydevgn) January 14, 2020

Recently AnimationXpress had reviewed the VFX-extravaganza where the visual aspect of it was discussed at length. Superstar Ajay Devgn who essayed the role of Tanhaji had shared, “When I was a child, we only had a chapter about Tanaji Malusare but his sacrifices for the country is something that made me want to share his story. He is an unsung warrior. We might plan to start a series of movies on the unsung warriors that this country has spawned.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by NY VFXWAALA Official (@ny_vfxwaala) on Jan 15, 2020 at 10:05pm PST

NYVFXWAALA, the VFX studio (A division of Ajay Devgn Films) also shared, “And it’s crossed Rs. 100cr just in six days and many more to go!! Thank you all for showing your tremendous love.”

The studio also informed that they had spent almost three years in the pre-production of the film and perhaps their first film where they storyboarded and had a concept work done for every scene.

Given the success and the hint about the unsung hero series, perhaps we might get more such VFX-rich period films about valorous heroes whose sacrifices we haven’t hitherto not heard about.  Along with regaling the audience, it serves as an answer to the beaten-to-the-hilt old question, “When will India’s VFX ever look at par with our Hollywood counterparts?”

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The Indian broadcasters urged the Bombay High Court, today Tuesday 14 January 2020, to suspend new government regulations on pay-TV charges they say would put some channels out of business and stifle consumer choice. 

The move came due to the New Tariff order (NTO) amendments by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), who defended its decision to curb excessive pricing by making broadcasters double the amount of channels offered in a certain fixed-price package and cap charges for additional channels, among other steps.

The concern was put forward before the bench of Justice SC Dharmadhikari and Justice RI Chagla on 13 January, and today’s court appointment was a part of a preliminary hearing, as per Reuters report. 

Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI), Star India, Disney India, ZEEL, Viacom18 and Producers Guild of India among others have independently filed written petitions before the HC. They also emphasised that they cannot meet a 15 January deadline to notify consumers of new pricing plans.

 “Many broadcasters have filed a petition. They have grievances against the tariff order. They will ask the court for injunctive relief until it’s fully heard,” reports Reuters.

At a press conference conducted earlier on Monday, TRAI secretary S K Gupta mentioned that he was not aware of any court hearing, but it would likely preclude talks. “There is no point for deliberations or discussions at this point in time if they choose to move to the court,” he said in New Delhi.

TRAI chairman R S Sharma addressed at the same press conference that the regulator had not curbed freedom to price the channels. “I don’t know how people can say that we have strangulated them or we have not given them freedom,” he said.

Left to Right : Punit Misra, K Madhavan, Punit Goenka, N.P.Singh, Uday Shankar, Aroon Purie, Sudhanshu Vats, Megha Tata and I.Venkat

IBF members had come together in a show of strength in the first of kind press conference on Friday, 11 January, to oppose the amendments, the second such tariff order in less than a year. and discussed threadbare how the recent amendments will negatively impact the broadcasting sector. The main grudge of the petitioners is that the amendments will have an impact on their right to do business.

IBF president N P Singh had highlighted four key issues about the new amendments that the broadcasters find problematic. These are :

1) arbitrary reduction of MRP cap to Rs 12 from Rs 19,

2) Imposition of twin conditions on bouquet pricing, 

3) restricting incentives only to a la carte, and 

4) impact of network capacity fee (NCF) on consumer pricing.

“The long term effects of this are going to be extremely destructive. I don’t see a case for the existence of the smaller channels … most of them will have to shut shop,” The Walt Disney Company APAC president and The Walt Disney Company India and Star India chairman Uday Shankar told the reporters.

Added Viacom18 Group CEO & MD and IBF vice president Sudhanshu Vats, “The other objective of NTO was transparency which it has also brought in. The question therefore, is “What is the fundamental need to change again? In my opinion there was no need. India is a heterogeneous country with different choices and abilities to pay. In every sector there is a wide spectrum and that needs to play out more in Indian media as well. This push for consistency shouldn’t come in the way of the industry’s and economy’s growth. In the M&E industry there is a lot of dynamism and flux and hence the broadcast sector needs to be able to settle down.”

TRAI also clarified in the press con that the amendments will address the teething issues faced by the consumers while balancing the interests of broadcasters as-well-as the distribution platform operators (DPOs) to create a level playing field.

It further stated that these amendments are to address certain anomalies in the market which necessitated review for achieving the orderly growth of the sector. The regulator said that the amendments will usher in better offerings, reduced NCF, more flexible tariff schemes, and more choices for consumers.

TRAI had issued amendments to the regulatory framework for the Broadcasting and Cable Services Sector on 1 January 2020. The amended provisions will come into effect from 1 March 2020. Broadcasters may publish revised MRP of a-la-carte channels and bouquets by 15 January 2020. Similarly, DPOs may publish revised offerings on their website by 30 January.

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