Following the lift of the first lockdown in London caused by the COVID-19 outbreak in early July, cinematographer Matteo Bangrazi and filmmaker Alfred George Bailey immediately jumped on set with the rest of their team to film the dance documentary I Still Breathe. The film is about a group of socially aware young adults who give extraordinary and deeply emotional testimonies of being black, mixed race, and white in London, England.
The Kinepolis Group reported on its third quarter financial status last Friday and, despite the ongoing challenges of the global pandemic, CEO Eddy Duquenne remains confident that his company and the cinema business as a whole will survive. “This global crisis is hitting us hard both directly and indirectly,” he said. “On the one hand because of the restrictive measures inside our cinemas and, on the other, because almost all blockbusters have been postponed. I remain positive about the future, as we are seeing that many movie lovers keep coming in spite of everything and feel safe inside the cinema. The fact that the studios are constantly postponing the vast majority of their films until a moment when they can secure their income, proves the importance and value of a cinema release. We are currently in pause mode, but the intermission of this film is lasting longer than foreseen. Fortunately, Kinepolis is in good financial shape.”
Technologist Jack Watts began his career in post-production in the Republic of Ireland. In 2013 he joined Technicolor in London where he was head of technology and development. He moved to Deluxe in London is 2015 as part of the joint venture between the two digital cinema business units at both companies. There he primarily focused on mastering solutions for digital cinema, and then eventually, the interoperable master format. There he acted as an internal consultant to the technical operations, client services and business development teams. Externally, there was also the need to consult the business’s premium studio clients.
Muvi Cinemas is celebrating the inauguration of its 103rd screen in Saudi Arabia this month with the opening of its new theatre in the Mall of Dhahran. The site is the tenth for Muvi Cinemas in 14 months since debuting their first location, having entered the market in 2019 as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s first homegrown theatre chain
Film & Kino, Norway’s alliance of cinema providers is retrofitting 51 screens across the country with Christie RealLaser RGB projection systems. Integrator Unique Digital Nordic is handling the installations.
One of the victims of the global pandemic was Vulcan Video in Austin, Texas. The store opened in 1985 and quickly acquired a worldwide reputation for its vast curated collection of rare and hard-to-find VHS tapes, DVDs, and Blu-Rays. Alamo Drafthouse has acquired the collection and, once the COVID-19 crisis is over, the lobby of Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin will be the home of Video Vortex South Lamar, powered by Vulcan Video South.
Director Angel Manuel Soto's powerful award-winning coming of age drama, Charm City Kings won the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Prize for Ensemble Acting at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Inspired by the dirt-bike culture revealed in the documentary 12 O'Clock Boys, the film is the story of Mouse (Jahi Di'Allo Winston), a boy who desperately wants to join an infamous clique of bikers that rules the inner-city streets of West Baltimore. It centers on the 14-year old's emotional struggle between a strait and narrow path and the thrill and fast money of a biker's world filled with violence.
The Society for Motion Picture and Television Engineers has unveiled the program for its annual fall conference SMPTE 2020: Game On, an interactive and immersive remote technical conference experience running November 10-12. Throughout the three-day conference experience, attendees can join live technical presentations, practical hands-on training, keynote presentations, partner programming, product and technology demonstrations, moderated roundtable discussions, and virtual panels, with continual access to a host of on-demand content. This year's event also will feature one full day focused on the convergence of eSports/gaming and media technology and the unique requirements of the thriving eSports industry.
Set in modern-day Brisbane, Australia, Bite Club follows a young werewolf, Adron, on his search for his missing brother in a world where supernatural beings hide in the shadows. Tapped as composer, producer and sound designer for the film, Dana James Presson knew he wanted to create an explosive theatrical presentation.
Catherine Meininger is a color scientist at Portrait Displays in Edmonds, Washington. She graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2018 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Motion Picture Science. “I’ve always had an interest in audio and video post-production and thought for the longest time that my career was going to be video editing,” she told me in a conversation via email. “However, while attending college, I discovered an industry where I could use my skills in math and science alongside my creative interests, and ended up finding a career that pleased both the left and right sides of my brain. I still practice audio and video editing on the side, but my main passions now lie in color science and psychophysics.” She is also already a longtime member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers and is a SMPTE volunteer and two-time presenter at the associations' annual Fall conference.
