Featured Stories

Ian Cope, senior visual effects producer at Australia’s Rising Sun Pictures recently celebrated his 20-year anniversary at the company. A significant accomplishment in any career, Cope’s longevity is especially impressive for someone in the visual effects industry, where employment at one studio is often measured in months, not years. And, in that time he has worked on a long list of successful films, including Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Gravity, Ford v Ferrari, and Spiderman: Far from Home, to name just a few.

Who said April is the cruelest month? In its second week of release, Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2 received a major boost as it opened in the Domestic market with a massive $72.1 million, proving the suggestion audiences weren’t coming back to cinemas incorrect, they just needed the product. Sonic 2 opened 24 percent higher than the 2020 original, according to the British analytics firm Gower Street.

Understanding the undeniable power of voice, the global filmmaking and sound engineering communities are rallying around Safe&Sound Ukraine initiative to provide encrypted walkie-talkies and satellite phones for Ukrainians in disaster zones cut off from communication. The urgently needed devices will help coordinate medical, evacuation, and defense needs.

Art of the Hollywood Backdrop: Cinema’s Creative Legacy opens April 20th at the Boca Raton Museum of Art in Boca Raton, Florida. The exhibit honors the unsung heroes who created these monumental canvases for the camera, going back almost 100 years. These artists were the backbone of the film industry. This is the first museum show dedicated to Hollywood’s painted backdrops, the grandest illusions ever created for the movies. These rarely seen masterpieces were never meant to be viewed by the public this way. They were kept secret by the Hollywood studios, meant only for the eye of the camera lens.