The film and television industry's top priority since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the health of its employees. Companies have moved quickly to find ways to adapt in-house staff to work-from-home scenarios that minimize health risks. But that’s how VFX Legion has worked since 2013.
The COVID-19 crisis is hitting many markets and industries hard. The cinema market, and specifically theatre exhibition is experiencing a big impact. Being the home of large crowds, flocking together to enjoy a fun social experience, going to the movies was put in lockdown across the world. The impact of this is not to be underestimated, because typically cinema exhibition is close to a 24/7 activity. In this article, we’ll take a forward-looking stance and focus on things to consider when starting up projection booths and re-opening cinemas again.
Even as the COVID-19 pandemic has curtailed production activity in much of Hollywood, Vortechs, an independent supplier of post-production technology, is implementing novel solutions to help its clients stay on track with motion picture and television projects. Vortechs-supplied projects, now working remotely, include the upcoming Warner Bros. features Suicide Squad 2 and In the Heights, directed by John Chu and edited by Myron Kerstein.
Crises bring out the worst and the best in people. The history of B&B Theatres began in 1924 when a man named Elmer Bills opened his first theatre in Salisbury, Missouri. A decade later he hired a boy named Sterling Bagby as a concessions clerk. Bagby eventually went on to start his own theatre company and for the next roughly forty years the families were friendly competitors. In 1980 the two families merged their companies into what is now B&B Theatres – Bills and Bagby – and the business is now run solely by the Bagby family. One thing that remained constant throughout the past century in both of those companies was the idea of family, which included their employees.
Watty Piper’s The Little Engine That Could, the first episode of Goodnight With Dolly, Dolly Parton’s series of bedtime stories for children, exceeded all expectations over the weekend, garnering nearly six million views across Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and The Imagination Library’s own website. Since its inception in 1995, the Imagination Library has gifted more than 135 million books to children and is currently gifting books to 1.5 million children around the world each month.
The Ymagis Group today announced that the reporting of its full-year 2019 earnings has been delayed until May 28 at which times its board of directors will convene to approve the financial statements. Ymagis Group’s first quarter 2020 revenue will be published at the same time.
The Film Expo Group, organizers of ShowEast, have announced that the event’s 2020 edition will go on as scheduled October 19-22 at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel in Miami, Florida.
Cooke Optics has added to its wide range of motion picture lenses with the introduction of the 300mm S7/i and the new 180mm Anamorphic/i Full Frame Plus lens. In addition, Cooke is announcing a new branch of the S7/i family by introducing three 1:1 macro Full Frame Plus lenses: 60mm, 90mm and 150mm.
Construction has halted on the Academy Museum in Los Angeles in the wake of the global pandemic but its organizers still expect to be able to meet their previously announced opening date of December 14. "We are keenly aware that we're working towards the opening of the Academy Museum during a time of great challenge," said Bill Kramer, director of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
The Global Cinema Federation, a consortium of the National Association of Theatre Owners, the International Union of Cinemas and eleven leading cinema operators, issued a statement today in response to the COVID-19 crisis. The statement reads:
