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MAGAZINE
NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2017
STAFF Publishers:
Tia Powell (Group Publisher) Gary Powell
CONTRIBUTORS Christopher Campbell
Feature Story: Boots On the Ground, p.28
Christopher Campbell is a writer specializing in nonfiction film and television. He is the creator of the documentary review website Nonfics and an editor for Film School Rejects and Movies.com. He has also contributed to Indiewire, MTV News, Paste, New York magazine and Documentary Magazine. He has a Master’s degree in Cinema Studies from NYU and now resides in Georgia with his wife and children. www.nonfics.com
Editor-in-Chief: Gary Powell
Managing Editor: Neal Howard
Sales:
Michael R. Eilers Martha Ronske Kris Thimmesch
Contributors:
Christopher Campbell Zachary Vaudo
Creative Director: Kelvin Lee
Production and Design:
Bill Mayer
Cover Artist Bill Mayer is a multi-award winning illustrator who has worked with numerous Fortune 500 companies. He works in illustration, advertising, design, character development, editorial, consulting and has won hundreds of national and international awards. Mayer’s recent accomplishments include five gold medals, three silvers, and two bronze in Society of Illustrators events across the U.S. www.thebillmayer.com
Kelvin Lee Michael R. Eilers Ted Fabella (Oz Logo Design)
Cover Image: Bill Mayer
Zachary Vaudo
Cover Story: Free Your Mind, p.36
Zachary Vaudo is a writer and filmmaker, based in Atlanta. He enjoys long walks on the beach, comic books, and delving into the dark recesses of the human mind. Notable works include Talon’s Grasp: The Demon and the Drowned Girl, Stan the Zombie, and episodes of The Blood Crow Stories and the Uncanny X-Men webseries. zak.vaudo@gmail.com
film. tv. entertainment.
Oz Magazine
www.ozmagazine.com www.facebook.com/ozmagazine www.twitter.com/ozpublishing www.instagram.com/ozmagazine (404) 633-1779 Oz Magazine is published bi-monthly by Oz Publishing, Inc. 2566 Shallowford Road Suite 104, #302 Atlanta, GA 30345 Copyright © 2017 Oz Publishing Incorporated, all rights reserved. Reproductions in whole or in part without express written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited. This magazine is printed on recyclable paper.
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Oz Magazine - film. tv. entertainment.
Seeks Next Generation of Artists
See page 58
NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2017
CONTENTS
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46
A compilation of recent news and hot projects, from and about industry leaders.
46 GPP Mayoral Forum
Ozcetera
Oz Scene
06
28
48 FutureXLive: Engineered Consciousness 50 Atlanta Sci-Fi Film Festival 51 Women In Horror Film Festival
Feature Story
Boots On the Ground Building Georgia into a Creative Force
28
52 48in48 Atlanta 53 GP Studios Open House 53 SIEGECon 2017
34
48
54
How I Got Into The Business
36
Let Me Give You My Card
51
36
58
Cover Story
Free Your Mind Accessing the Alternate Realities of VR, AR and 360
Next Generation
46
50
Presenting Georgia’s emerging artists
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November / December 2017
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OZCETERA Donald Glover double-fists his dual 2017 Emmys for Atlanta
Georgia Shows Take Emmys, Glover Makes History By Zachary Vaudo
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eorgia took home seven Emmys from the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards, with local favorite Atlanta scoring two big awards and making Emmy history. The FX original Atlanta claimed awards for Lead Actor in a Comedy and Directing for a Comedy Series, with both honors going to Donald Glover. Glover makes history with these awards, clinching the first Emmy win by a black person for directing in a comedy. It is also the first time since 1977 (M*A*S*H) in which a director won for a show he acted in as well. Glover’s win comes for the episode “B.A.N.,” a show
within a show complete with its own fictional commercials. It has also been 32 years since an African-American won for Lead Actor in a Comedy, with Glover making history yet again. Glover lost out in Writing for a Comedy Series and Best Comedy Series, but he still claims the title of becoming the first person of color to be nominated for all top accolades in one year. “I blacked out,” Glover told E!’s Zuri Hall of his reaction to the directorial win. “I was not ready for that.” Glover went on to discuss his headspace while directing the episode for which he took honors: “I was doing a lot. I was
a new father. I was writing other episodes and directing and like cobbling this together,” he recalled. “I’m really astonished.” While other local favorite Stranger Things didn’t claim top prizes, the show didn’t come away empty handed. The Duffer Brothers supernatural drama claimed f ive awards. Stranger Things took home Emmys for Casting for a Drama Series, Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series, Main Title Design, Original Main Title Theme Music, and Sound Editing for a Series.
SCAD Film Festival 20th Anniversary Event By Nicola Breslauer
T
he SCAD Savannah Film Festival celebrated 20 years, with renowned special guests honored at the event. Salma Hayek Pinault accepted the Outstanding Achievement in Cinema Award. 6
Oz Magazine - film. tv. entertainment.
John Bodega received the Vanguard Award. Georgia-born Academy Award-winner Holly Hunter was presented with the Icon Award, and Robert Pattinson received the Maverick Award. Writer and director Aaron Sorkin accepted the
Outstanding Achievement in Directing Award, while Patrick Stewart was given the Legends of Cinema Award.
OZCETERA
“Hollywood's most elegant talent trailers and motorhomes� -Los Angeles Times
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November / December 2017
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OZCETERA Walker horde from Season 6. Photo credit: Gene Page/AMC
Walking Dead Executives Sue AMC By Nicola Breslauer
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xecutive producers of The Walking Dead have filed a suit against AMC Film Holdings and AMC Networks Inc. over alleged contractual obligation breaches and profit hoarding. The creators of the franchise—Gale Anne Hurd, David Alpert and Charles Eglee—claim that AMC has abused their “vertically integrated corporate structure” to keep a vast majority of the hit show’s profits. This case somewhat parallels original comic book creator (and TWD
executive producer) Robert Kirkman’s lawsuit, which claims similar injustices against AMC. As of this article, the plaintiffs have requested to consolidate their claims against AMC into a single suit in California. Eglee filed his suit in California a day before Hurd and Alpert filed theirs in New York. AMC calls the lawsuit “baseless and predictably opportunistic.” Hurd and Alpert responded with a joint statement: “While we
disagree with AMC on the merits of our lawsuit, we appreciate its statement that it will continue to work with us as partners on the continued success of The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead and Talking Dead. We also reaffirm our commitment to continue to make the best programs possible.” Kirkman agrees with this statement in regards to his now over $280 million suit against AMC. Still from the Church’s Loves Atlanta premiere
Arketi Named Best Place to Work
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rketi Group, a B2B technology digital marketing and public relations firm, has been recognized as one of Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 2017 Best Places to Work. Arketi Group earned a spot on the publication’s Small Companies list. “This award reflects our ongoing efforts to foster a culture of partnership, outreach and, most importantly, personal and professional growth,” said Rory Carlton, principal at Arketi Group. “But company culture cannot be imposed by management; it arises spontaneously from all the people involved. So, this award is a tribute to everyone at Arketi who makes the firm a great place to work.” The winning companies were honored during a ceremony at the InterContinental Buckhead.
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Oz Magazine - film. tv. entertainment.
Church’s Loves Atlanta
C
hurch’s Chicken recently sponsored and participated in Atlanta’s 2017 BronzeLens Film Festival, showcasing the fourth installment in Church’s ongoing Church’s Loves series—Church’s Loves Atlanta—which recently debuted globally on Nowness.com. “The story behind Church’s Loves Atlanta was the exact right fit for BronzeLens,” said Laura Reese, senior director of media and public relations for Church’s Chicken. Reese and her team worked closely with Atlanta marketing firm BFG Atlanta and videographers for the film, which traces the rich cultural history of Atlanta from its early roots to its modern-day grandeur. “We at Church’s Chicken have been in this community for decades and we believe the narrative here continues to unfold. So, we
commissioned our own documentary to help tell the story of the people who live here day in and day out.” Set against a backdrop of Atlanta’s many sides—from downtown to the suburbs and beyond—Church’s Loves Atlanta features real voices of the community and the ever-evolving culture of the urban experience. A history of music, education, civil rights, and of course food, are all highlighted in the short film, with meaningful commentary from long-time residents and city leaders. “We are proud to support the eighth annual BronzeLens event,” Reese added. “Church’s is excited to showcase the people, places, and stories that make Atlanta a city of hope and triumph. This film is our gift to the city.”
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Call (404) 633-1779 or visit www.ozonline.tv November / December 2017
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OZCETERA Peter Stathopoulos, Lance Krall, and Peter Siaggas
Picture It Productions Nails First Network Pitch By Nicola Breslauer
F
ox has bought the pilot pitch for One Call That’s All, a legal, scripted family dramedy from Atlanta-based Picture It Productions in a co-production with Lionsgate Television. Kathryn Price and Nichole Millard will write the pilot. One Call That’s All is inspired by real-life accident attorney Ken Nugent. The fictionalized story will revolve around his exploits in the courtroom and his highly entertaining family, who all work for him. This includes siblings, children, in-laws, and even ex-wives. Their script for One Call was acquired by Fox after competitive bidding. Picture It Productions was opened in June 2016, aiming at creating television content for markets outside of New York and Los Angeles. “It’s very exciting for us and for Atlanta as a community,” said Lance Krall, head of television at Picture It Productions. “It’s the first step in proving that Atlanta is a destination
for more than just cheap production. This has really changed the perception of our company, and it is beginning to change the perception of Atlanta.” Nugent will be an executive consultant on the project. The show will be executive produced by Krall and Peter Siaggas, Picture It’s heads of television and production respectively, along with Peter Stathopoulos. “When we met Ken Nugent and his largerthan-life family in Atlanta, we knew we’d hit TV gold,” said Price and Millard in a statement. “We love quirky legal shows and big, fun family dramedies, and the Nugents’ personal injury firm gives us both in one outrageous package.” The company is now working on creating a pilot script that Fox approves, and then to film the pilot. If all goes well, Fox will order a short season for the show. Fox did order a “script plus penalty,” meaning that they pay a
fine to Lionsgate if the pilot is not picked up. “That’s really Fox’s way of saying they have every intention of picking up the pilot,” Krall said. “It’s sort of an added layer of confidence.” It is not certain if the show will f ilm in Atlanta, but Krall admits it is a definite possibility: “Right now it’s based in Atlanta, and Atlanta is an easy place to shoot.” In related news, Picture It Productions opens their website to submissions and ideas from writers, and helps them pitch their work to major networks. They are currently working on over 60 concepts. “Development is the only missing piece of the puzzle in Atlanta, and we just broke that seal with our first scripted show,” says Krall. “I think a couple more wins before the end of the year will really cement Atlanta as a viable place for development.”
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Building Post Solutions
OZCETERA
November / December 2017
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OZCETERA Adam Driver and Channing Tatum, quite literally stealing the show in Logan Lucky
Richard Warner and Erica Arvold
Arvold Opens Atlanta Office By Zachary Vaudo
Logan Lucky for Georgia By Nicola Breslauer
L
ogan Lucky, the latest film from director Steven Soderbergh, brought big dollar signs to Georgia. Recent reports show Logan Lucky spent $18 million locally. The film began pre-production in June 2016, and production continued until the end of December 2016. In this time frame, they hired over 2,600 cast members and extras, as well as over 500 crew members. Notable locations for filming included Atlanta Motor Speedway, Georgia World Congress Center, and the Douglas County Jail.
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Oz Magazine - film. tv. entertainment.
The breakdown of Logan Lucky’s expenditures includes (but is not limited to): • Lodging: $886,993 on 5,217 room days • Catering: $333,111 • Hardware, lumber and supplies: $337,438 • Set decorations: $319,827 • Georgia cast and extras: $1.6 million • Georgia crew: $10 million The film follows two brothers and their attempt to pull off a heist in the midst of a NASCAR race. The movie boasts stars such as Channing Tatum, Seth MacFarlane, Katie Holmes, Hilary Swank, Daniel Craig, Brian Gleeson and more.
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rvold has expanded to Atlanta with a new office for production, casting and education. Meghan Apostoles serves as fulltime boots on the ground for arvold.atlanta. In conjunction with the new location, Richard Warner and Erica Arvold personally ran a series of classes, workouts and private coaching sessions in Atlanta recently. “We are honored to have the opportunity to collaborate with actors,” says Arvold, “challenging them to raise their own expectations, confidence and craft tools while working with fellow education studios Catapult Acting and Drama Inc.”
OZCETERA
November / December 2017
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OZCETERA
Brownieland Pictures Celebrates 10 Years
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ocal production company Brownieland Pictures celebrates a decade of partnering with nonprofit organizations with its continued 10-in-10 Volunteer Campaign. Since February, Brownieland has volunteered with a nonprofit each of the last 10 months to create emotionally compelling videos that illustrate the power of hope in communities. At year’s end, the company will donate a bonus one-minute video to one of these organizations giving them a greater platform to share their important mission with a wider audience. So far, the Brownieland Pictures Team has volunteered with Charity Benevolent Fund, Par tnership Against Domestic Violence, Chattahoochee Nature Center, the Ferst Foundation for Childhood Literacy in partnership with Woodward Academy and Rotary Clubs, the International Rescue Committee, and the Atlanta Community Food Bank. Brownieland Pictures’ Robyn Ellis Kranz describes the inspiration behind the 10-in-10 Volunteer Campaign: “We are so fortunate to partner with such amazing nonprofits. We are inspired by them every day, those who work tirelessly to serve their community by spreading hope and facilitating change in everyday lives. They’ve made us more aware of issues facing our city — our little corner of the world — and we are honored to work with them to enact change by sharing their stories with a wider audience.” Brownieland Pictures has been documenting the campaign through their website and social media. The lucky winner of the one-minute video will be randomly selected on Dec. 8, National Brownie Day.
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SIM Groups Unite!
T
he SIM Group has consolidated all eight of its founding companies under a single umbrella. The companies Bling, Chainsaw, Crossing Studios, Pixel Underground, Post FactoryNY, PS Production Services, SIM Digital and Tattersall Sound & Picture all now operate under the simplified name SIM. As a single brand, SIM will operate under four distinct divisions: studios, camera, lighting & grip, and post. “By streamlining the company names, SIM is providing clarity over its breadth and depth of services while continuing to develop and promote its dedicated award-winning talent that will continue to provide boutique support to our clients,” said SIM CEO James Haggarty. “The only thing that has changed is our name. Our culture, team and talent remain the same.” In related news, SIM has acquired Vancouver’s fastest- growing full-service studio and production facilities provider, The Crossing Studios, expanding SIM’s services to include approximately 400,000 square feet of first-class studio and production facilities. In addition to providing full service studio rentals, mill/paint/lockup space and production office space, The Crossing Studios also offers post production services including Avid suite rentals, dailies, color correction and high speed connectivity. Now that The Crossing has
become part of the SIM Group, the services available under one roof have expanded exponentially to make cameras, lighting and grip, as well as award-winning post production talent and facilities available to their extensive client roster. “What attracted us to SIM was our joint commitment and dedication to superior customer service through building and maintaining long-term relationships,” said Dian CrossMassey, Crossing Studios founder. “When I was a producer, I worked with SIM regularly and always felt they had the same approach to fair, honest work as I did. So when the opportunity presented itself to combine resources and support our shared clients with more offerings, the decision to join together felt right.” “The decision to add The Crossing Studios to the SIM family was a natural one,” said Haggarty. “Through our end-to-end services, we pride ourselves on delivering streamlined solutions that simplify the customer experience. Dian and her team are extremely well respected within the entertainment industry. Clients will have the option to package everything they need from pre-production through post for better service and efficiencies.”
DeKalb Entertainment Commission Launches
T
he new DeKalb Entertainment Commission off icially launched in October with an event welcoming hundreds of Georgia entertainment indus tr y leaders and inf luencers. A division of Decide DeKalb, the DEC is charged with stimulating economic growth across the country in film, television, music and digital entertainment. Upon the Commission’s launch, leaders from across Georgia’s enter tainment industries came together to celebrate and learn about DeKalb’s new initiative. The kickoff was followed up by an inaugural entertainment expo, which offered panels, networking and other resources for DeKalb businesses and residents.
“The new DeKalb Entertainment Commission will be about making connections, building collaboration and creating amazing content,” said DeKalb Entertainment Commission Chair Andrew Greenberg. “It will be the economic engine that drives growth for our county across the entertainment industry, encouraging companies to locate here while creating jobs and spurring construction, development and overall industry growth.” Greenberg added, “The Commission will be an important resource for DeKalb County as the entertainment industry continues to grow across Georgia. It has already had an enormous economic impact statewide, with $9.5 billion in film and television, $3.7 billion in music and almost $2 billion in digital entertainment.”
OZCETERA Otto Nemenz’ new camera gear
Otto Nemenz Launches New Site
M
otion picture camera equipment supplier Otto Nemenz has revamped its website. “The manner in which companies present themselves to and interact with their clients has evolved greatly,” says Andrea Young of Otto Nemenz. “Realizing that our old website had become dated, we sought to bring together the latest advancements in process and technology to create a new and improved presence on the internet.” Young redesigned the site to give clients ease of access, better navigation of Otto Nemenz’ inventory, interactive chat features, and a blog page to share new developments, events and more.
November / December 2017
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OZCETERA Brianna Martin, President Mark Becker, Provost Risa Palm and CMII Director David Cheshier cut the ribbon
Brianna Martin, a senior film major, spoke at the opening
Attendees experience VR
The Gleaming New Cube Georgia State University Launches the Creative Media Industries Institute By Christopher Campbell
G
eorgia State University’s new Creative Media Industries Institute opened with an Oct. 19 ribbon-cutting ceremony, marking a distinctive partnership between professional and academic interests in the creative media arts. Inside the “Cube,” as the 23,000-squarefoot complex is nicknamed, industry leaders and students can now work side by side and in collaboration with one another towards individual and industry-wide goals. “Our aim,” said CMII director David Cheshier, “is to bring the full interdisciplinary resources of this extraordinary university to bear, so that our graduates can build Georgia, and Atlanta, into a — or perhaps I should say the — global digital media arts capital.” Before inviting guests to tour the building, Cheshier explained how its three floors represent the three pillars of CMII’s mission to form a more direct bridge between media companies and educational partners. The first level is devoted to training GSU students in advanced creative technologies, such as virtual reality, augmented reality and motion capture, through which they are provided production
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Oz Magazine - film. tv. entertainment.
studio space and post production suites for hands-on experience. Next is a level dedicated to media and arts entrepreneurship, with incubation space designed to support student startups. Finally, on the third floor, are labs for research collaboration. Together they form a pipeline that “connects creative, tech-savvy and liberal arts trained students with industry experienced professors of practice, and puts them to work addressing real-world industry needs,” says Cheshier. “We believe these efforts will produce amazing results.” Joining Cheshier in the ribbon-cutting ceremony were GSU president Mark P. Becker, provost Risa Palm and film program senior Brianna Martin, who represented the student body’s excitement for what CMII has to offer. “You can already get a sense of the creative atmosphere and vibe,” she told the crowd outside the building. “Professionals and students will be able to create pretty much whatever they can imagine.” Martin is particularly looking forward to students being able to keep up with the media
industry. “I’m excited to walk that bridge that hasn’t been here before, to be able to speak with professionals,” she later told Oz during the reception. “The students get to be more connected and use technology that is used within the industry.” Associate Professor Ying Zhu, who has moved from the Department of Computer Science to CMII, was also attracted to the opportunity for interdisciplinary collaboration. “This is a place where science, technology and arts are truly integrated,” Zhu explained to Oz, adding that it fits his research agenda in the areas of computer graphics and data visualization, as well as his work with colleagues in the film and English programs and experts in VR. Following the ribbon cutting, Zhu was on hand in one of the third floor’s labs, demonstrating his sports-data visualization project to enthusiastic students. “We had been working really hard to prepare for the grand opening, and it felt great to see so many guests coming to the ceremony and showing interest in our facilities and projects.”
OZCETERA Marti Covington, Jason Winn, Mark Simon, Dennis Mill and Charlotte Stauffer. Photo credit: Teryl Jackson
Still from The Lavender Scare
AJFF Special Screening: The Lavender Scare By Nicola Breslauer
Creative Freelancing for Atlanta’s TV & Film Productions
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he Freelance Forum held a special assembly at Professional Photo Resources (PPR) on Oct 5. Guest speakers included Mar ti Covington (scriptwriter, executive producer and owner of Marchasco Productions), Jason Winn (award-winning independent film director and producer), Mark Simon (director and cinematographer based in Atlanta), Dennis Mills (director
of photography for Posey Media/Pictures Inc.) and Charlotte Stauffer (a screenwriter at the Georgia Film Academy) f ielded questions from attendees and provided insight into how to turn creative skills into entertainment industry gigs and qualifications.
Katz Broadcast Acquisition: $302 Million
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tlanta based Katz Broadcasting, LLC has been acquired by E.W. Scripps Co. for a whopping $302 million. Factoring Scripps’ five percent ownership in KBN, the net purchase totals $292 million. The deal includes four networks: Bounce, Grit, Escape and Laff. They are forecasted to generate nearly $180 million in revenue in 2018. These four networks reach
about 80% of American households and have been growing rapidly. The founder of Katz Broadcasting i s J o n a t h a n K a t z , p r e v i o u s l y a Tu r n e r Broadcasting programming executive. He will continue to run the business, which has its headquarters here in Atlanta and employs about 130 people.
T
he Atlanta Jewish Film Festival (AJFF) continued its select screenings with The Lavender Scare at Midtown Art Cinema. The documentary was presented in tandem with Out On Film, the creators of Atlanta’s LGBT Film Festival. Says A JFF executive direc tor Kenny Blank, “The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival is delighted to continue a longstanding partnership with Out On Film to present this timely and impor tant documentar y. This pow erful exposé revealing a shameful chapter of American history, and the partnership between our two unique film festivals, demonstrates our shared mission to explore themes and subjects relevant to all audiences — in this case, where the paths of injustice and inaction can lead.” The Josh Howard film is based on the award-winning book by historian David K. Johnson, which highlights the little-known campaign by the U.S. government to forcibly identify and fire all gay and lesbian employees. This treatment sparked the gay rights movement, which helped push back against the government’s abuse of power. Jim Farmer, executive director of Out on Film, says, “Out On Film is excited to be collaborating on this project with the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival and continuing a terrific partnership. The film could not be any more topical, and I look forward to sharing a piece of history with Atlanta audiences, many of whom might not know the full story behind the Lavender Scare.”
November / December 2017
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OZCETERA Bruce Kay
Behind the scenes with Bruce Kay and Judy Collins
Atlanta Arts Today with Bruce Kay
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tlanta Arts Today, the latest collaboration between Bruce Kay and the Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasters Network, launched in October. The new show includes candid interviews and special performances by a diverse group of nationally known figures recorded during their visits to Atlanta. This inaugural season features multiGrammy-award winning singer Judy Collins, Grammy-winning Cajun music star Michael Doucet from Beausoleil, comedian Suzanne Westenhoefer and her unique comedy, highlights from the 40th anniversary Atlanta Jazz Festival, and more. Atlanta Arts Today is slated for Thursdays at 7:30 PM on the AIB Network with multiple replays all week long and a live stream available on the AIB website. “During my interviews with Colonel Bruce Hampton last spring, he always advised me ‘keep it weird,’” says Kay about the new show, “and I will.” The crowd at Barbizon - guests mingle with Vitec/Litepanel representatives
Barbizon Rounds Out Summer Grilling Series
B
arbizon Lighting Company held its final Summer Grilling Series installment. The series was held to educate clients on new items from vendors Barbizon represents to the Atlanta film market. The last series date in September featured Mole Richardson and Vitec/Lightpanels. 18
Oz Magazine - film. tv. entertainment.
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OZCETERA Rebecca Shrager, Shay Griffin, Brenda Pauley and Fran Burst-Terranella
Shay Griffin and others receive the Women Who Mean Business Award
Shay Griffin Is a Woman Who Means Business
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he Atlanta Business Chronicle honored Shay Griffin, along with 20 other women, for their annual Women Who Mean Business Awards. Griffin has played a major role in pushing the tax incentives that have paved the way for Georgia’s booming film industry, which now boasts $8 billion in state film production revenue. She continues to grow her company, Chez Studios, by hosting training and workshop programs for actors, as well as performing top-tier casting work for both film and TV via her company, Chez Casting.
New Georgia Rules for Minors Working with Productions By Zachary Vaudo
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he Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) will implement a new electronic application for registration, certification and approval of minors working with casting directors and production companies. The change in the application process comes at the requests of several production companies and representatives of minors. It will provide all parties who employ minors in the entertainment industry with simpler and more expedient interactions with GDOL, including the ability to submit and track seven days a week. The new application goes online Dec. 1, 2017. Effective March 1, 2018 all requests for approval of employing minors in a production must use the application. Directions concerning the use of the application are available at dol.georgia.gov on Nov. 29, 2017. Predating this, the GDOL has completed a review to update its Rules for Minors in Entertainment, and is repealing and replacing the existing rules. The proposed rules may be reviewed at dol.georgia. gov/blog/notice-amendments-inspection-child-labor. This landing page will list the proposed rules to be repealed, as well as new rules.
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OZCETERA
16x9’s Latest Large Sensor Technology
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6x9 Inc. has launched exclusive U.S. distribution of IB/E Optics’s new large-sensor technology optics in North America. As larger image sensors have gained momen tum in t he indu s t r y, I B/ E O p t ic s designed the new optical extenders, the PLx2 Vista and VVx2 UMS, to cover imager diameters up to 52mm (larger than current full-frame sensors or even VistaVision.) Both products feature high-index, low-dispersion glass as well as multi-layer coating to ensure the highest possible resolution and contrast with minimal optical degradation. Magnifying the image to twice the input diameter results in a loss of two stops. The PLx2 Vista offers native PL and can be used with most PL lenses on cameras with PL mounts. The VVx2 features IB/E’s Universal Mount System (UMS) that can be utilized with cameras with E, EF, MFT, F or FZ mounts. The VVx2 was designed for the RAPTOR Macro Prime lens line and works hand-in-hand with the UMS PL from Raptor lenses. IB/E Optics has also engineered the new Velociter, which is an optical converter that reduces the focal length of RAPTOR Macro
lenses by 0.8x while increasing the lens speed by almost one stop. The Raptor 100mm T2.9 becomes an 80mm T2.3. The Velociter is compatible with PL Mounts cameras and can easily be assembled in place of the extension tube of the UMS PL adapter on Raptor lenses. The RAPTOR Macro Lens product line is now also available for general distribution from 16x9 Inc. PLx2 Vista samples will be available later this year with production model dates to be announced by NAB 2018. VVx2 featuring
the UMS to PL compatible with the RAPTOR line will be available Q4 2017. The Velociter will be available to preorder Q4 2017 with deliveries before the end of the year.
PLx2 Vista
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November / December 2017
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Revery Launches First VR Bar By Zachary Vaudo
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every, Atlanta’s (and America’s) Promotional art from Revery first VR bar, opened its doors this October. Located less than a half mile away from Ponce City Market, Revery is the nation’s first full bar that incorporates VR for the ordinary consumer, aiming for lounge appeal over arcade function. HTC Vive headsets and stateof-the -ar t gaming computers enable guests to engage in VR games and experiences. “I believe half the fun of VR is seeing people really let loose and submerge themselves in the experience,” says Vincent Wynn II, Revery co-owner. “The last thing we want is for customers who aren’t wearing headsets to feel like they are missing the party.” Revery also houses semi-private rooms for rent with live VR feed for guests, a multiplayer room, and plenty of non-VR space for those who don’t wish to plug in.
Johnnie Cochran Biopic Chooses Atlanta as Film Location By Nicola Breslauer
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ochran will be directed by Tay l o r H a c k fo rd; p ro d u ct io n s h o u l d b e g i n i n J a n u a r y 2018. Anthony Mackie will star as Cochran, and Elizabeth Banks will play Mary Neiswender, an investigative reporter. This biopic will focus on a case of police brutality resulting in the suspicious death of student and college football player, Ron Settles. In 1981, Settles was arrested for speeding and found hanging in his cell at Signal Hill Police Department (hence the biopic’s working title, Signal Hill). The film depicts Cochran and his work to disprove the ruling of a suicide as he seeks justice for Settles’ family. 22
Oz Magazine - film. tv. entertainment.
Johnnie Cochran. Photo Credit:Steve Granitz/ WireImage/Getty Images
OZCETERA Something Like Summer producer Carlos Pedraza, alongside lead actors Grant Davis and Ben Baur
Rich Eldredge, Happy director Michael Patrick McKinley, and Happy star Leonard “Porkchop” Zimmerman
Out On Film Celebrates 30 Years
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ut On Film, Atlanta’s LGBT Film Festival, h e l d i t s 3 0 t h a n ni ve r s a r y eve n t a t Landmark’s Midtown Art Cinema, Out Front Theatre Company, and the Plaza Theatre. “This is an exceptional, wide-ranging year
for LGBT cinema,” says Out On Film festival director Jim Farmer. “This is, by far, our biggest festival to date in terms of the number of films we are showing, the most diverse slate we’ve ever presented and the most venues.”
More than 120 features films, documentaries, short films and web series were shown, kicking off with Michael Patrick McKinley’s Happy: A Small Film with a Big Heart, and closing with Damon Cardasis’ Saturday Church.
Rentals Chairs • Stools • Tables • Desk Task lamps • Flat files • Easels • many more!
Production Supplies Foamboard • Gatorboard • Seamless Paper Wide format printing paper • Gaffer tape Masking tape • Markers • Dulling spray Adhesives • Spray Paint
1 74 5 P e a c h t r e e S t r e e t - 4 0 4 . 3 5 2 . 72 0 0 - s a m f l a x s o u t h . c o m
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OZCETERA Brennen Dicker with Clark Cofer
GPP booth Clark Cofer, Patricia Taylor and Kevin Langston
Governor Nathan Deal
GPP Makes a Splash at Jekyll Tourism Conference
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he Georgia Produc tion Par tnership’s Facebook feed was abuzz last month, asserting that it was “well represented during the 2017 GA Governor’s Tourism Conference on Jekyll Island” in October. The Partnership’s
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co-presidents, Trish Taylor and Clark Cofer, along with G overnment Relations Chair Brennen Dicker, embarked on a nonstop networking spree with attendees and lawmakers alike.
Also, in an homage to what has been dubbed the “Year of Film” in Georgia, Lee Thomas made a rather memorable presentation on the increasingly rapid, expansive growth of the state’s film industry.
OZCETERA Custom plants with Chris Pratt in Passengers
Cirque Du Soliel - LUZIA
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Cinema Greens Going Strong
his has been a very busy year for Cinema Greens, and 2018 looks to be even busier. The plant and decorative rental company expanded into the Metropolitan Warehouse & Arts District in July 2017, but quickly outgrew their new space in just a few short months. The company is pleased to announce they are joining forces with CAPS, owned by Bob Lucas, and moving into the Historic East Point Archive Building in March 2018. According to Jeff Brown, former HOD of Universal Studios Greens Department (Los Angeles), “We are aiming to have the doors open on our new 15,000 square-foot warehouse by April 1, 2018. It will be filled with huge silk trees, topiaries, Christmas décor, pot-
tery, vine, boxwood walls, and tons of other decorative elements for your greens and set decorating departments.” Cinema Greens has also recently announced their partnership with Autograph Foliages, based out of Cleveland, Oh, to become their vendor in Georgia for the film and television industries. “We will carry a full showroom exclusively filled with Autograph products, offer custom fabrication options, and pass along our wholesale relationships to help stretch your budget,” says the company’s art director, Bryan A. McBrien. “It will be a shop like no one has ever seen on the East Coast. Ever.”
Cirque Du Soliel - LUZIA
Wedding and event planners should take note as well, since Cinema Greens will travel anywhere at any time—much like their former careers as greens coordinators for the biggest budget films in the world. “We have covered about 75 percent of the country at some point or another, on such films as Fate of the Furious, Ant Man, Jumanji, War Dogs, Iron Man 2 and 3, and hundreds more. Our training and skills have been passed down over generations of Hollywood filmmakers, and we are very excited to offer them to private industry for the first time ever,” says McBrien. “Nothing is out of the question. If you have a concept, we will find a way to bring it to life.”
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OZCETERA Eli Roth. Photo Credit: Denise Truscello/Getty Images
Eli Roth Currently Shooting His Next Film in Georgia By Nicola Breslauer
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Largest Liquidator in the Southeast.
Over 250,000 Square Feet of High Quality Inventory. New, Pre-Owned , and Remanufactured Furniture for Administrative, Production Office, and for On Set Props! Film Friendly
idely regarded as today’s king of horror, director Eli Roth’s new film, The House With a Clock In Its Walls, began shooting in Georgia on Oct. 9. Specific locations had not yet been publicized at deadline. The movie is set to star Cate Blanchett, Jack Black, Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks), and Owen Vaccaro (Miyubi, Daddy’s Home). All will portray characters from the 1973 children’s novel by John Bellairs. According to early reports, the plot is as follows: Lewis Barnavelt, after losing his parents, is sent to Michigan to live with his Uncle Jonathan. He discovers that Jonathan is a warlock and, subsequently, finds himself immersed in a world of magic and sorcery. But this power is not limited to good people. Lewis learns of Isaac Izzard, an evil wizard who wants to cause the apocalypse simply so that he can see what will happen afterwards. To do this, he uses black magic to construct a mystical clock that will tick down to doomsday. He dies, however, before finishing his sinister project. But the clock is hidden in the house where Jonathan now lives. In turn, Lewis and Jonathan must find the clock before it’s too late—and before Isaac’s wife Selena gets to it. The House with a Clock In Its Walls is slated for a Fall 2018 release.
Short and long term rentals Quick Turn-around Delivery + Installation + Pickup
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Business of Film Event Comes to Atlanta
A AOLI ATLANTA OFFICE LIQUIDATORS, INC. PH: 678-429-0206 4350 Commerce Circle SW -Atlanta, GA 30336 www.atlantaofficeliquidators.com 3880 Oakcliff Industrial Ct. Atlanta Ga 30340
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tlanta will host “The Business of Film”, an industry-focused event, Dec. 7 at the Tabernacle. The event begins at 7:30 a.m. and will kick off with networking and breakfast. Afterwards, Georgia film industry insiders will host an interactive discussion until 11:30 a.m. To register, visit www. bizjournals.com/atlanta/event/161385/2017/ the-business-of-film#register. Both single tickets and sponsorship tables are available. Location: The Tabernacle, 152 Luckie Street NW, Atlanta, GA 30303.
OZCETERA
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ome creators, like Michael Lucker, are Georgia natives who have returned after making a name for themselves in the industry. “I got sick of L.A.,” admits the former assistant to Steven Spielberg and co-writer of such features as Disney’s Mulan II and Home on the Range. “I came back home to the green trees and the rolling hills and the friendly people and Lynyrd Skynyrd on the radio—things that made me feel healthy and whole.” Also initially attracted to the opportunities to do more directing and producing, Lucker worked on unscripted content for a while, but found it creatively unfulfilling. He started teaching screenwriting workshops and college courses in the area and published a book on how to write action movies (Crash! Boom! Bang!), finding it more rewarding to instruct and inspire Georgia’s content creators of tomorrow. Lucker also recently shot a short film in Cedartown titled Black Mountain that
he hopes to turn into a feature, one that will hopefully compensate the “wonderful community and wonderful folks who were very supportive, helping me with the cast and crew and locations and resources that I needed to do the pilot project on a shoestring.”
Staying local has personal benefits as well. “It's always nice when you can film in a location where the crew lives,” he adds. “It reduces your overhead, and also, frankly, it's safer. Beyond that, I think Georgia offers so much in terms of the hospitality of the people, the diversity of the landscape and the production resources that grow exponentially every day, making shooting here easier and ultimately more successful.” Matt Ackerman, who is originally from Marietta, came back to Georgia to set up the East Coast offices of UNHEARD/ OF, a sister company to the Seattle-based post production house World Famous. As a content creator specializing in ad spots, social media and music videos, UNHEARD/OF tends to go wherever the client wants to film, but Ackerman tries to drive business in Georgia when he can because of “the tight-knit film community” here. He sees a lot of talent in Georgia segue to commercial gigs in between jobs on features, and he recognizes the hardworking crews and great resources.
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Director Dan Brown of UNHEARD/ OF and Dir of Photography Damian Acevedo talk through the next shot
Matt Ackerman and Daniel Brown - Unheard/Of Productions
“I like the camaraderie I see on the set any time I’m working here,” Ackerman says, noting also that people from out of town definitely take notice. “I tell people, ‘Look over here, good stuff is happening.’” UNHEARD/OF, which created Wendy’s first ever Super Bowl spot this year, also works with local Atlanta clients in need of content, offering their services as a director-driven company. “I think a lot of people are looking for the one-stop shop,” he explains. “As budgets are in a steady decline, sometimes it’s the only way to go.” School of Humans, known for the series Stuff You Should Know and Adult Swim’s Daytime Fighting League, recognizes that there’s a particular benefit for outliers like them residing outside Hollywood. “It helps us to cut through the clutter,” claims co-founding producer/ director Brandon Barr. “We’re the weird guys from Atlanta who come up with crazy ideas they don’t normally see. They don’t get sick of us the way they would if we had an office in Santa Monica.” Plus, they just love shooting in Atlanta. “The community is extremely close-knit, and the production crew is on par with what we’d expect in California. It’s just a really friendly production environment. We rarely have any issues or problems with the local municipalities,” says L.C. Crowley, another co-founding producer and director who is originally from Georgia. “There are strategic advantages in competing with production companies from other places. We can streamline the whole thing and there’s an efficiency and effectiveness as we can make a series work at a more competitive cost. As post continues to grow, as editors continue to move out here, you'll see a
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growth in people like us who are making stuff from soup to nuts.” Another fairly new company, Reel Cool Entertainment, is creating content on a variety of platforms, starting with the popular steampunk web series Archangel from the Winter’s End Chronicles, which is being set up for a feature adaptation. Founder Dave Di Pietro is not from the area. He moved to Georgia 15 years ago following a long stint with the home video division of Paramount Pictures and “just watched the film industry grow around me.” Di Pietro says people are starved for product, and he is excited to be able to supply it from here. “You don’t need to go to L.A. unless you want an L.A. name,” he argues. “There so many talented people here, and it’s growing by leaps and bounds.” Di Pietro, who is also director of new props at Museum Replicas, believes that if you’ve got good content, it doesn’t matter where you are. But he recognizes a particular need in Georgia: With more and more studios and resources trying to cater to the big Hollywood productions, they may look to local product to fill in the gaps. “Original content is the way to go,” he says of what the industry is after. “Everyone’s looking for that next Stranger Things, those cool shows that are going to be popular and stay for three or four or even seven years.” Another word the industry loves right now, he says: franchise. “If they see something that’s not a single movie, that can possibly be turned into a TV series, or a series of movies, or a comic book series, a video game, have merchandising potential… That makes the ears pop up. And all of these areas can be done here in the state. If they can also be shot here in
Paul Jenkins - Meta Studios
Dave Di Pietro on set - Reel Cool Entertainment
Brantly Jackson Birthday Cake (photo by Joey Josephson Kopanski)
Daytime Fighting League Dave Di Pietro and orphans
"You can’t tell me it can’t be done outside Los Angeles, because I’ve done it my entire career." Georgia, I think we’re going to be golden for another decade, at least.” As they say, a rising tide lifts all boats, and the growth of Georgia’s industry isn’t just creating more demand for content; it’s also bringing more potential content creators. “A lot of people have moved to Atlanta to work for studio productions and also want to create their own content,” explains Brantly Jackson Watts, a filmmaker in residence with the Atlanta Film Society who also leads a program supporting women in the industry above and below the line. “The indie scene is being fed through the production that’s coming through.” Jackson Watts has a narrative short on the festival circuit this year titled Birthday Cake, which she plans to adapt as a feature. She’s not alone in wanting to see the scene grow and thrive, and she champions the way independent filmmakers help each other. “That’s one great thing about the Atlanta indie scene, there are a lot of people willing to work really hard for others to see something get made,” she says of the talent, including film students “who want to work on something they feel strongly about.” Education is one of the keys to building a greater content creator presence in Georgia, but people also need to establish relationships and network in order to have a better understanding of cinema and build a local film culture, according to Jackson Watts. She admits that Atlanta is lacking in those areas associated with “film community,” rather than those just associated with the film industry. “We’re a great production town, but are we a film town?” she wonders,
acknowledging that there are shifts moving in that direction toward the development of above-the-line talent. Others are pushing hard for this shift. “Don’t tell me you can’t do it,” says Paul Jenkins on building Georgia’s opportunities for success. One of the original trio who built the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles property into a gigantic enterprise, Jenkins is mostly known for his work in comic books and video games, and as a major advocate for creators’ rights. He also chaired an advisory committee for Governor Nathan Deal on the future of the industry. “I cut my teeth on creator-owned material. You can’t tell me it can’t be done outside Los Angeles, because I’ve done it my entire career. I’m here to remind everyone I’ve already done it. You don’t need to be in Los Angeles to succeed.” Jenkins originally came to Georgia from the northeast when an injury required a move to warmer weather. But he wasn’t about to go out to Hollywood. “I lived there for six months, and it was somewhat hellish for a person like me,” he admits. “I love it here.” His META Studios, located at the Atlanta Media Campus in Norcross, works with outside content creators but is primarily interested in local independent intellectual property creation “not just to make it, but to teach people how to do it.” Currently they are also raising funds for a slate of independent productions, "cross-collateralizing the content so we can provide investors with a more robust investment that's not reliant on one film.” META is an acronym for Media, Education, Technology and Advancement,
with the last word being stressed by Jenkins. He says Georgia needs more mentoring, more “leveling up” of talent. He wants to see more training for producers, directors and all-media creators. Jenkins also wants Georgia to stand out with all-media projects, which isn’t L.A. or New York’s strong suit. “Don’t just compete with L.A.,” he says. “You won’t win. Don’t compete with New York. Instead, complement and supplement what they do, and then you’ll compete.” While it’s not necessary to be based in Los Angeles, most content creators still have to travel out west and to New York for meetings and to pitch their ideas. Most of these Georgia companies have an office in L.A. because they are there all the time. That’s true for School of Humans’ Crowley and Barr, who were surprised to find even Atlanta-based companies like TBS and truTV required a trip to New York. “You have to have meetings where the buyers are,” says Barr, who says having an L.A. office is “increasingly an advantage.” He believes that as more editorial moves to Atlanta for the new post production tax incentives, more showrunners will relocate because it’s just easier. However, “I don’t foresee development teams ever moving,” he says. “Traveling to New York and L.A. for pitches is always going to be a part of our business life. "The biggest challenge is having to get to Los Angeles to pitch in the rooms to the buyers, without
Paul Jenkins presentation
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L.C. Crowley and Brandon Barr - School of Humans
Michael Lucker
"Everybody wants to know how they can write movies and not be in Los Angeles, including the screenwriters who are in Los Angeles." Mike Lucker Directing Black Mountain
a doubt,” agrees Lucker. “There's no lack of talent here. It's just that we all have to go through Hartsfield to California in order to pitch our wares—ironically, so they can get sold and funded and brought back to Georgia, a half-hour from where we wrote them.” You’d think that with communications technologies what they are today that you could do more of this from anywhere, but Jackson Watts stresses that “for development you’ve got to be in the room, and unfortunately the room is in L.A.” Lucker explains, "Everybody wants to know how they can write movies and not be in Los Angeles, including the screenwriters who are in Los Angeles. But the fact is it's a lot easier in Los Angeles. Even if you can type at your kitchen table in Chamblee, you've still got to get it sold. And if you are fortunate enough to get it sold, people are going to want to work with you developing the project. And if you don't get it sold, they might like your writing and want to work with you. Either way, you need to be in the room. You can
obviously jump on a plane or you can jump on Skype, but it's not the same, and it's not as easy. It's more challenging to build your career when you're across the country from all the guys who are having breakfasts, lunches and dinners every day developing ideas in Los Angeles. You can create content here, but it's easier to break out there. Hopefully more independent studios or larger studios will consider setting up content creation bases in Georgia." And it’s not just movie and television that requires personal interaction. “A lot of people who are in the sales world will kind of phone it in,” says Ackerman, “but I’m a little more old school in that I love to meet with people and chat with people, and get to know people on a personal and professional level. I love face time. I love to take people out to lunch and see what they've been working on. It's important in this business because really, at the end of the day, it's about relationships when it comes to your company’s growth and longevity.” Jackson Watts is optimistic that development will come as the film scene continues to grow. As more talent is developed here, more money will follow. “We won’t need to depend on L.A. to get things off the ground. As a community, we’re all responsible for helping each other grow. With our own growth, money and development will come here.” Otherwise, in five years she thinks Atlanta is going to lose a lot of its currently growing talent pool.
Dr. Symes & Mordecai
Skyrider landing
Dir. of Photography Damian Acevedo
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On set - Funny by Nature
Lucker also believes the post production incentive will bring more creatives to Georgia. “I think the agents and the funding will follow,” he says, optimistically. “As soon as one of the big talent agencies like ICM or William Morris sets up shop in Atlanta, that's when things will change in an instant." As a member of the Georgia Production Partnership, Di Pietro says he has the opportunity to work with investment companies such as the Ritz Group, which holds an annual summit for creatives and investors at Eagle Rock Studios. “There’s going to be other groups like that moving into the motion picture industry,” he says. “There’s money to be made here, even on these smaller productions. They need to see that if they shoot here, the money stays here.” “People are starting to understand that investing in entertainment can be just as lucrative as real estate,” adds Jenkins, “but they’re not familiar with it. So the challenge is explaining and getting them to understand it.” He admits this part of the Georgia industry has been slower than he hoped, acknowledging that writing that check is an emotional decision. “People are worried that they don’t understand entertainment.” But as long as Georgia gets traditional film financing from California, it’s always going to be a part of the California production system.
Jackson Watts realizes another challenge for content creation in Georgia is that while people are used to paying big money for training in New York and L.A., that’s not the case here. “Training is expensive, and Atlanta is just not at a point where people are willing to pay that much or are able to pay that much. There are no writers’ rooms here. There is no training for writers’ rooms here. How to be a writer. How to work with a full group of people in a room.” For Di Pietro, the biggest challenge remains the mentality of the industry as a whole. “They still, because of the buddy system, want to feed a lot of stuff back to L.A.,” he claims, calling such who-you-know allegiances that still give the work to California-based actors and post facilities “very silly and very sad.” He works directly with actors all the time because he also directs theatre here, and he witnesses local casting calls for movies and television that never end up filling roles. “There is talent here up the wazoo, but it’s just a thing. If they can’t give it to an L.A. actor, they’ll give it to a New York actor.” Ackerman agrees that the mentality of Hollywood traditionalists is a huge challenge: “Trying to overcome the consensus that L.A. is the only place you can go for good content creation, how do you overthrow that reputations and say ‘look over here’?" he asks. People in L.A. still look at Georgia as just another “runaway production” state, even though it’s no longer just the latest place with attractive tax credits. “We don’t have the expectation of excellence in what we do,” says Jenkins, who also sees an issue in the mindset here. “We’re still in the environment of ‘hey, we’re happy to make a film!’ But you should be happy to make a film that makes money and gets distribution. The primary
goal in sustaining a business is to make money repeatedly so you can do it again and again and again.” “I’m not willing to give up on Atlanta yet,” says Jackson Watts, who has discussed moving elsewhere with her filmmaker husband, AKA Blondie director Jon Watts. “I want to see it succeed and I want to be a part of that. It’s better to be a big fish in a small pond than a tiny minnow in a large ocean. But I also just like Atlanta.” “I have great hope for Atlanta becoming a hub for content creators,” Lucker says. “Then I think things will come full circle, where we're not only making things here 30 percent cheaper than they can in California, and not only posting content here 30 percent cheaper than in California, but also creating content here at 30 percent cheaper than California. Then our business will be selfsustaining and ultimately generate more and more opportunities for Georgians for many years to come." Yaya Han as Jasmin Synn in Archangel
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HOW I GOT INTO THE BUSINESS How did you get into the business?
Bo Hampton Storyboard Artist www.bohampton.net
Scott Moore Audio Engineer sbmbass@gmail.com www.thebloodcrowstories.com
Bret Wood Independent Filmmaker Illustrated Films / Kino Lorber, Inc. www.twd2d.com
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I got into the business by working my way through the comics industry into the comics based on animation (Batman: The Lost Years), and from there into the Extreme Ghostbusters cartoon show. After working as a storyboard artist on Extreme Ghostbusters, where they use the storyboards as literal set-ups for layout and animation, it was easy to transition to live features and TV because I didn’t have to account for every second of the sequence on paper as was the case with animation boards. My first live TV board work here in Atlanta was on the Powers TV show (Sony). I was also working on storyboards for ad agencies’ TV commercials during that time, which is much more limited but allows you to produce more finished color frames for presentation to the client.
What’s the best advice you can offer to young people in your profession? Learn to tell a story from the eye of the camera. I struggled for a while after drawing comics for so many years. But drawing well and FAST is what saved me while I gradually honed the rest. It’s really more about solving story-telling problems than it is about precise illustration. But I love
sketching and making bits MOVE on paper in glorious 2D. It also helps to live here in Atlanta or within a 30-mile radius.
What do you love about your job? I really enjoy working out of my studio for the bulk of the work, but coming in for meetings with directors and D.P.s is always worthwhile in order to get a solid sense of how they “see” what the writer wrote. I offer changes at times and overall they have been well received.
Do you have a word or quote or mantra you live by? Keep your eyebrows up. It keeps you in the wondering, learning mode as opposed to being a sullen cynic or angry, which is the reverse eyebrow.
If you weren’t doing this, what would be your dream job? Busking Beatles songs on a corner in Maui.
What makes your job cool or fun for you? Making a sequence really work before its ever filmed.
How did you get into the business?
What do you love about your job?
By complete accident. I’ve always been interested in all things audio. After spending 10 years in the Army and a failed career as a musician, I decided to pursue audio as a career and went to the Art Institute of Atlanta for audio production. At first my main focus was music, but then I learned about boom operation, post-production and sound design, and decided to explore those avenues further. That led me into running audio for the Gwinnett Braves and my first major gig on Spartan Race season 1.
The variety of it. I might be a boom op on one project, sound designer on another, etc. Being able to do different jobs helps keep things fresh for me.
What’s the best advice you can offer to young people in your profession?
If you weren’t doing this, what would be your dream job?
Show up on time, ask questions and work your butt off. Professionalism and work ethic trumps talent everytime. Asking questions helps you learn and show others that you’re willing to learn. Working your butt off is selfexplanatory.
Being a full-time musician. Part of me is still that kid playing guitar in the garage thinking about “making it big.”
How did you get into the business?
If you had to do all over again, what would you change?
Fresh out of college, I got a job in non-theatrical sales at the New York-based film distributor Kino International (now Kino Lorber). Over the years, I migrated out of sales and into design, learning the fundamentals of post-production, cutting trailers and interviews, and supervising film restorations. After moving to Atlanta, I got involved in the local film community through the Dailies film collective, which was a remarkably fruitful incubator of regional talent. In addition to my indie film projects, I continue to produce film restorations for Kino Lorber and manage some acquisitions, which allows me inside access to film distribution and marketing.
I wish I’d made my first film when I was younger. For years, I bought into the myth that someone has to hire you to make a film. Forget it. No one is going to let you make a movie. No one wants you to make a movie. You have to force it. You have to create your own opportunity.
What’s the best advice you can offer to young people in your profession? Stop watching Hollywood blockbusters. Choose protein over potato chips. Develop a sophisticated visual vocabulary by watching films from around the world, and spanning the entire history of cinema. Drawing from 120 years of cinema will enable you to cultivate a voice that is different from everyone else’s.
Do you have a word or quote or mantra you live by? Professionalism and work ethic beats talent. I’ve gotten the work I’ve gotten because I’ve always been the guy that shows up on time and works his butt off.
What makes your job cool or fun for you? Helping tell stories and create art.
What do you love about your job? The best part of my day job is being exposed to a wide array of filmmakers, whose work I otherwise might never have seen. And film restoration work forces you to look at a film in minute detail, almost through a microscope, and it’s amazing what you can discover about how a film is made by watching it frame by frame.
Favorite moment of the filmmaking process? Workshopping a scene with actors; the moment when they put down the script and slip into the roles and gradually the hidden meanings and complexities — and dramatic potential — of the screenplay start to emerge. It’s almost supernatural.
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ACCESSING THE ALTERNATE REALITIES OF VR, AR AND 360 By Zachary Vaudo
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hen our reality is not enough, we invent new ones. It’s the way of humans. We’ve imagined new worlds and scenes in art and literature and film, and as technology advanced we created immersive new realities to explore. “The goal of immersion isn’t new,” says Dov Jacobson from GamesThatWork, in his article 12 Steps Towards Immersion. “Renaissance painters achieved it by inventing perspective. Audiophiles pursue it by piling up speakers. Early 36
Oz Magazine - film. tv. entertainment.
movies, grainy, jumpy and silent, were stunningly immersive to their new audiences. People ran screaming from the theater when an oncoming locomotive was projected on the screen.” With the massive technological boosts of the 21st century, immersive alternate realities have taken a giant leap forward, allowing us to step out of our everyday reality into worlds and experiences specially crafted for our enjoyment. “We are like the dreamer who dreams and then lives in the dream,” as the story goes. While the paths for immersion are
ever-growing and boundless, they’re currently broken down into three major categories: 360 Video (360), Augmented Reality (AR), and Virtual Reality (VR). These three arenas often overlap with each other and with our everyday reality to form mixed-reality experiences for consumers and audiences. Separate or united, these three realms of alternate realities form the future of immersive content, and numerous Atlanta creators and companies are diving in to create content that gives viewers and clients a new perspective.
Mixed Media Bag team - Back: Kaylee Kehn (hair/MU), Jennifer Checkner (executive producer), Bryan Simmons (gaffer), Jon Milavec (director), Jim Threlkeld (producer), Valerie Love (talent), Rachel Woody (talent); Front: Matt Sisson (audio), Ryan Simmons (DP), David Robinson (editor)
Futurus team
Considered the kid brother of immersive content, 360 video is by far the most accessible of the immersive media to date, with users able to engage on headsets, mobile phones, or desktop/
Nathan Smith
laptop computers using point-and-drag navigation. 360 drops you in the center of the action, playing the scene out around you on all sides: you can’t move freely in the space, but you can pan and tilt and rotate to your heart’s content to take in the content around you. 360 video and photography became popularized most recently by Facebook, enabling users to spin around while holding their phones, taking in the content provided. For some, it may seem like a flash in the pan, but for others the data says otherwise. “I don’t want to say any of that’s a gimmick,” says Spaceman Digital’s creative director Nathan Smith. “If you look at Google’s metrics, the interaction numbers on 360 video are through the roof compared to traditional video. Shares are up, too. They tested the same spot in 360 and traditional video at the same time; the play-through was lower on 360, but earned action metrics and shares were above traditional.” The key to this number boost is engagement. When the content prompts the user to interact, they’re
more likely to stick around to explore. Interactivity breeds interest. But it doesn’t come without hard work. “The process is six times as hard,” says Annie Eaton, co-founder and CEO at Futurus. “We have to capture up, down, left, right, front and back. Whereas, in traditional filming, the camera person is only filming front.” Futurus works in both 360 and VR to create marketing, training and testing experiences that immerse the subject in their surroundings, allowing for a deeper learning experience. “We have to produce the experience more like a stage show, where the audience is watching and can look all around them. It’s up to the producer and development team to pay attention to every detail and create an environment that reacts as good, if not better, than it does in real life.” Jon Milavec of Mixed Bag Media can relate to the struggle. Making the changeover from traditional filmmaking to 360 filmmaking, he experienced the learning curve firsthand. “From a pure production standpoint, you can’t have all your gear and crew right by the camera,” he explains. “There’s an invisible wall, traditionally, that your stuff and crew can be behind. In 360, you see everything. November / December 2017
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Valerie Love and Rachel Woody of Mixed Media Bag with 360 degrees camera for Northside Hospital
Jason Drakeford
On our first big project there was a lot of choreography and blocking. ‘Where can the audio guy hide? What lights can we have? Where can people hide? Around corners?’ Lots of logistics for people and equipment.” Learning the challenges of 360 posed for interesting solutions, however. “Some cameras literally see 360 degrees, some see 360 in horizontal and 240 in vertical, so there’s dead space at the bottom,” Milavec continues, describing his experience creating a video for Northside Hospital as part of their Celebrating Nurses Sponsorship with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We used that dead space to our advantage. The camera was on a tripod, and we had our lighting director tied around the tripod holding a directional light (with another light mounted to the tripod) to light the talent.
The talent had wireless microphones. With all of that, everything looked like any pro production. It’s hard to shoot real places and make it look like traditional production, but it can be done. It’s just about reimagining your space.” For 360 filmmakers like Jason Drakeford, the challenge is both exciting and frustrating. “You have to take into account where the viewer is gazing, use different techniques to guide the viewer, such as motion graphics or user-interface animation,” explains Drakeford. “You lose a little of the magic of giving the audience your unique perspective, but I’m working towards changing that.” Drakeford (along with his long-time collaborator Thomas Nybo) uses the 360 medium for documentary features, dropping viewers into locations such as Syria and Afghanistan to tell the stories
of the countries and their citizens. “Not just watching, but experiencing the reality — this is what initially pulled me into it,” he says. For Drakeford and Nybo’s film Interrupture, the viewer experiences a mixture of immersive video and photography that follows two 11-yearold Syrian refugee girls. Drakeford’s approach is very narrative, coming from a filmmaker background. “It’s not interactive, and it’s more of a film-like experience,” he describes. “It’s passive VR. The director displays their vision and story, a unique perspective told in a traditional film structure.” Drakeford foregoes 360 camera rigs, however, choosing to “stitch” together footage and assets into an immersive experience. With companies like Nektr, though, taking the traditional approach can VR Film - Attenborough
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“Not just watching, but experiencing the reality...” VR Film - Interrupture
be intuitive. “There are simple ways to jump in,” offers Nektr’s innovation director, Jami Becker. “Get a cheaper 360 camera and experiment. Use your traditional software like Premiere to edit it with plugins like Metal. To do huge VR products you need some heavy firepower, but just to get started and have fun and learn you can use inexpensive things. Things exist that are just expansions of what traditional filmmakers use.” With a long personal work history in alternate realities (including The Sims and MechWarrior), Becker partnered with Jeff Levy to form Nektr. “We created a really cool 360 and VR tour of a cinemographic space of the Carlos Museum [at Emory],” Becker provides as an example. “We built a virtual gallery for them, because most museums have items they can’t show to the public. We wanted to apply the tech in a meaningful way, so the virtual gallery allowed us (and them) to show off art that’s usually just filed away in a box in a basement. We tour you through the museum in 360, but then you go into a virtual space for the other artwork — a space that doesn’t actually exist — so you can see it all.”
Nektr has kept it untraditional as well, though, experimenting with the parameters of 360. “There’s a group immersive experience, like projecting it on interior domes so we can all be in the 360 arena together. We’ve looked at that technology, we’ve done some displays on balls/spheres. We created a 360 experience that plays on a ball, and that’s a really cool evolution. It changes the concept of what a display is. You change the screen to be the room.” “Don’t be intimidated,” offers Milavec. “It’s not hard to buy a $500 camera and use the app on your phone to learn how to shoot and how the world of 360 works. 360 and VR is not for everybody, but it can be for a lot of people depending on needs. Depending on what you want a client, buyer, donor or student to see, it could be the perfect thing to use.” Smith from Spaceman agrees. He’s utilized 360 video on many behindthe-scenes segments to help viewers better explore the space of a set during productions. “Use the medium for what it is, don’t just pigeonhole the use of 360 or VR into every application. Use it when it helps your audience see something Virtual 360 Carlos Museum exhibit
Jami Becker
better. You’re going to get a lot of crap on the internet when people can just stand in a park and spin 360. That’s not the technology’s real future. Using it where it’s most beneficial is best.” Many creators and companies view 360 as a stepping stone to VR rather than a viable medium in itself. Disagreeing with this assessment, however, is Sprocket Creative, who believe so strongly in the 360 medium that they’ve dedicated an entire sector of their business to prototyping how 360 can work—and work for anyone. “The content matters more than the medium to folks,” says creative director Dean Velez. “You have to have content that people care about, first and foremost.” Making the move from broadcast to digital, Sprocket considered immersive content to be part of the digital medium, and saw 360 video sliding under everyone’s radar as “just a fad thing.” They began exploring the terrain with content for Cartoon Network Latin America, but to better learn the
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world of 360, they created their own proprietary content: Victoria Frankenstein. Serving as Sprocket’s research and development project, Victoria Frankenstein is “our sandbox,” according to executive producer Billy Reese. “Here we can experiment, we can make mistakes. It’s new, so there’s a lot of testing to be done.” The Sprocket team designed Victoria without the usual animation engines of Unity or Unreal, opting for more traditional motion graphics, then built a world to showcase the talent. “No one was biting, so we had to create a world of possibilities to show them the possibilities,” says Velez. “We built an already finished product and showed the clients the components. And it changed everything. Now it’s a finished product they can see and explore and understand. And then we took the whole experience and adapted it over four other pieces— children, travel, corporate, event—to show people that it’s not married to the narrative; the strategy can work with anything. The goal of Victoria was not to show off Victoria, it was to show off the mechanism and how it can work for anything you want.” Sprocket’s innovation with 360 prompted Turner Classic Movies to bring them on for another project: Noir Alley: 360° of Noir. “With TCM and the way we’ve engaged with folks for 23 years, 360 medium seems like a great opportunity to further connect and embrace fans in this world,” says TCM’s senior director of marketing, Steve Denker. “It’s exciting because you can both look all around AND be a part of the story. It feels like
as people are looking to tell better stories and experience more of the story, this is a great opportunity.” Sprocket made sure the opportunities were endless. “We gamified the video to keep audience engagement through social media posts,” recounts Velez, “and we built more social media strategy along with the 360 video to keep the engagement going. We pulled 2D movie posters from the 360 video, we pulled segments of video out for 2D on-air campaign — all of which saved money for TCM. TCM was more than willing to play in these theoretical parameters. They’re proof that if you do a strategy the right way, people will see what it truly is and latch onto it.” 360 can be more than just a look around you. it can be an entire world unto itself. Sprocket Team
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Differing from its siblings, augmented reality is the more fluid of the group, allowing the user to be half in and half out of normal reality. You don’t truly escape with augmented reality, you reshape the world around you instead. The concept has floated throughout human history since the early 20th Century with Sensorama, arguably the first augmentation of viewing entertainment. But AR began to gain traction in the 1970s, and really kicked into gear for the public in the 1990s-2000s. It’s been a part of weather shows and sports shows for years, but many are only just now beginning to grasp how AR amplifies the experience for the user. “Things in a scene can trigger AR experiences; movie posters can pop up AR trailers of the film,” suggest Becker. “It doesn’t have to just be marketing, it can be part of storytelling. Going beyond that: If
“2D is dying, it’s all about 3D.” FutureX Team - Jerry Hudson, Ivy Chang & John Rich
I want to share my story, I put out stickers about my story or a T-shirt or something, and the AR makes my film appear on your phone via my shirt. Now it’s a distribution method, too. AR is so much more.” Fervently behind that sentiment are John Rich and Jerry Hudson, vice presidents of future experiences at Moxie Interactive. “This watershed moment is about to happen,” says Rich. “Once Apple announced the AR kit, they became the largest platform of mixed reality. When everyone gets the new iPhone, there’ll be tens of millions of people in this marketplace capable of experiencing mixed reality. AR has been around for years now, but there’s a barrier of an app or limiting the experience to a moment. The effort it took to engage wasn’t a good value exchange. It put people off due to the quality of experience, but this mass audience will bring a shift. People will expect most things to have a mixedreality layer to it, like how everyone
expects things to be smartphone ready.” Rich and Hudson spend their days thinking of how to get clients to adapt to future technologies before they flood the market and become obsolete, or less cutting-edge (so that they don’t become “Amazon’d or Uber’d,” in Rich’s words). The duo built an AR poster for Moe’s Southwest Grill that allowed customers in line at the restaurant to interact with the art via their phones, playing music and viewing content. Hudson loves the potential for AR integration into the consumer’s everyday world. “You can consume a commercial or a trailer from a poster. Content gets attached to inanimate objects.” And as technology advances from phones to wearable glasses, the AR potential is boundless. “We’re hoping Apple’s glasses are wirelessly tethered to the phone, so you don’t need a high-end computer. That’s the next step into everything being on the
glasses. Flat rectangles are unnatural and suck compared to gesture cues, voiceactivation, and wearables. 2D is dying, it’s all about 3D.” For now, companies like Bark Bark are working within the available technologies to create AR content for users, but they’re happy to expand forward and beyond. “Frankly, it doesn’t matter what the platform or the technology is: We’re agnostic,” says Tabitha Mason-Elliott, head of production for Bark Bark. “We’re more interested in learning about new technologies to evaluate how we can apply it to the marketing goals of our clients. Ultimately, we have to focus on making content that achieves brand directives and connects to their audiences.” Bark Bark has worked with big names to create 360 and AR content, creating a second-screen interactive app
FutureX Vertigo VR plus biofeedback
John Rich
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Mountain Dew and The Walking Dead AR commercials for the two brands’ AR app game
Tabitha MasonElliott
for installations at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, and partnering with Mountain Dew and The Walking Dead to create AR commercials for the two brands’ AR app game. Users could scan the Mountain Dew commercials to unlock content in the game. It’s fun and exciting, but for MasonElliott, it’s about the quality of the content first and foremost. “You have to determine how to best use mixed reality as an effective storytelling tool that entertains audiences and accomplishes something for the brand," she says. "People create a lot of hype around new technologies, but mixed reality can’t fix subpar creative. The creative and execution will always be the main differentiator and having solid content is key to making technology last. In the long term, we still need to get more people exploring it and using it. I’m hoping to see a tipping point where it’s at least on the minds of our clients from the outset of thinking about a project.”
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The crown jewel of alternate realities, virtual reality makes the public the most excited. It feels the most like the future; the user puts on a headset to fully immerse themselves in a new world. The definition of virtual reality, to differentiate it from 360 video, can get a little hazy. Ultimately, it’s about user immersion — i.e. making the viewer feel like they’re really dropped into the content. The thing that appeals to most people about VR currently is its growing accessibility on the creation side. “VR is doing what the smartphone did: It changed how we interacted with the world and made everything accessible,” says
Laura Hall, a virtual-reality advocate who operates under the handle The VR Girl. “You have to get behind the technology before it’s controlled by people with more money. For $1,200, anyone can now own the tools to create content in VR. There are all kinds of apps for content creation and viewing. It’s catching up.” With the virtual-reality playing field opening up, the real question on the minds of content creators has been how to best utilize the medium. Is VR a standalone medium like 360? Does it serve best in conjunction with other media like AR? Or is it a combination of the two, and more? Every creator tackles it differently. “In the near term, I see companion programs with television and movie releases becoming commonplace,” says Eaton. “In the long term, I would hope that we would consume more Laura Hall & avatar
Hunter Hughes
full-length content on these immersive devices, creating a truer and more connected experience.” Evolved Cinema has taken VR as a chance to help build brands outside of the box. “It wasn’t so much a shift in the workflow as it was a shift in how we had to think about the content,” says Hunter Hughes, director and cinematographer at Evolved. “We didn’t know what we were getting into when we first jumped into it, but we kept a frank perspective with how we approached it. If you asked me a year and a half ago if I saw us producing a gaming-like experience, I’d say we weren’t equipped or positioned for that, but when a client came in with a need, we learned what we needed to learn to make it work.” Evolved recently tackled VR branding with a home improvement company, creating an immersive experience that puts the user on a forklift in the store, retrieving an item as the shelves collapse. “We used hi-res texture plates that we captured inside the store,” explains Hughes. “We used digital assets they provided like boxes and labels and CAD files. We went to one of their stores to capture binaural audio of the experience — human perspective audio with silicone ear receptors. It was extremely effective.” For Hughes, it was about creating the most realistic virtual experience possible. For Trick 3D, there wasn’t just one
OptiTrack - Motion tracking camera
Chad Eikhoff
route. They’ve created branded VR content and narrative VR content, but they’ve also worked VR into the preproduction side of the industry. “People say that there’s not a consumer base and that it’s mostly for gamers,” says Trick 3D founder Chad Eikhoff. “That’s still up in the air. We don’t know how consumers will ultimately use VR, or how that will shape the future of VR. But in terms of the technology, it’s capable of monumentally shifting the way content is created. It’s already happening; it doesn’t require a consumer marketplace. That’s true for us working with big brands like Delta and entertainment content like [the Make-aWish Foundation collaboration feature] Zayden’s Wish. You get value out of it as a production tool.” Using VR as a production tool, Trick 3D can mock up a scene for a production while the scene is still in its concept phase. This previsualization tool allows the directors and DPs to don a headset and step into the middle of a virtual rendering of their scene. Here, they can teleport around the area to get a sense of best camera angles and lighting before ever setting foot on location, potentially saving significant production costs by not having extraneous equipment. “This pushes everything up in the pipeline. The director or DP don’t just show up on set and figure it out while everyone holds on,” explains Eikhoff. “Everything’s planned out upfront, since the DP and director can
go into the environment and move around like they’re really there.” Eikhoff sees a solid future for VR, with the first step being integrating VR content as an extension of existing content. With the hit Christmas special An Elf’s Story, Trick 3D designed an entire virtual Santa’s Village in conjunction with the film. Fans of the film could explore the virtual village, getting a more in-depth look at the world of An Elf’s Story. The added bonus of creating this world, of course, was that Trick 3D now also had the setting for the film that they could navigate and shoot at any angle. Eikhoff wants this mentality to expand significantly. “Hollywood’s first big play is location-based entertainment. Get people into traditional theaters, but then in the lobby they offer an extended narrative experience. People come out of those movies and they want to experience those worlds. You see characters enter a new world and you want to do that, so the
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Rick and Morty VR Experience
Shawn Moore
burden is on the narrative to build that interesting world and entice people to want to get inside of it. They get the story through linear, traditional narrative, and then you give them an opportunity to further engage the world. It may be the same characters, it may be different characters.” Rich and Hudson are excited for the advancements in VR as companion
elements. “Tons of companies are jumping into this space,” says Hudson. “The major movie theaters are looking at it. We’ve seen full-length motion pictures put into VR. John Gaeta is doing VR for Disney and Star Wars. Companion pieces will turn into the main focus.” Adult Swim also feels similarly, creating VR content in conjunction with its existing intellectual property (IP), such as the Rick and Morty VR experience. “This furthers the narrative, too. We don’t just do it to do it,” says associate creative director Shawn Moore. “Most marketers and agencies jumped into VR because it was new, so you got VR test drives… Those were cool, but it didn’t really help sell cars, because the experience was just fun. It had no real connection; it didn’t persuade people any more than actually driving the car would. Right now you need an IP that can stand on its own well, then look at VR as an extension of that world.” Moore and Adult Swim have also used VR to create expanded experiences with music offered from the network. The Rick and Morty VR experience dropped
Jak Wilmot
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fans of the show inside the established world, while the characters guided them through the experience. “From storytelling, you need to learn how to get people to focus,” says Moore. “I need you to look behind you for this. Rick and Morty worked well in that experience because Rick prompted you and auditory cues prompted you. Having a guide is really beneficial. It makes looking around you natural and keeps the viewer on track.” Eikhoff agrees: “Being just an observer in a virtual space is awkward unless the narrative supports that notion.” To expand VR into a full medium of storytelling, the notion of narrative must be reimagined. One studio reimagining the narrative—and reimagining production— is Studio Disrupt, a fully-VR production company based in Atlanta. Fronted by Jak Wilmont, Disrupt is something new: a wholly-VR company that solely creates original content, not producing in other mediums or for other IPs and brands. Coming from a video game narrative background (known as machinima), Wilmont dove into the virtual world, producing immersive films like Please State Your Name and La Camila. “I want to provide the viewer the chance to completely escape into another world,” says Wilmont, “so the more they can look at and the more angles they can view, the more opportunity they can have to come back and re-watch or see things
differently from their friends.” When asked why Disrupt sticks to original content only, Wilmont replies, “I want to figure out how best to tell a story before I branch out to other people’s stuff.” Disrupt plays in the new medium well, learning as the art evolves. “The hardest part is pacing,” admits Wilmont. “When you write a story, you imagine how it plays out. But I had to throw it out and consider how someone actually ACTS it out or how they observe it instead. I think more interactivity will be key. The coolest thing is to have a story that is different based on your interaction. Right now, it’s just about figuring out the technical side, but down the road I want to build to that.”
mainstream. Everyone wants to know what VR can do for them, and it’s more than gaming and storytelling. You can create from VR as well; you have a tool of content creation. I put my goggles on and grab my controls and create a little thing. It’s easy to learn, easy to do. If industries don’t pivot into VR, they’ll be left behind.” Hudson agrees with the marketing issue. “Until you experience it, you don’t really understand it. It’s like Chris Milk said during a TED Talk: ‘Talking about virtual reality is like dancing about architecture.’” Seeing is believing, for users and for clients. “We created a VR experience called Stay Alive Live for the shared platform Twitch,” recounts Rich. “Each round you need to stay alive, but everyone in Twitch can participate. It’s the first Twitch-Plays VR game that we know of. The guys at Twitch thought it was far off in the future, that VR was a five-year plan…and now we’re aiming for this year. It’s sooner than you think.” Becker thinks that Atlanta is perfect proving ground for alternate realities. “The cool thing we’re seeing is high commercialization in Atlanta and lots of vision. So many industries are experimenting right now, and that wasn’t traditional in the past. They’re willing to do that here because there’s been an entrepreneurial slant to corporations. They realize what they’re missing out on, so they’re willing to jump into the technology boost because it’s more accessible.” So don’t be afraid to dive into these technologies. The beauty of their newness
Alternate realities can be overwhelming and scary to some, which breeds trepidation to adapt. “When I first got into it, I was kind of scared of it,” admits Spaceman’s Smith. “I thought it’d ruin society. But I found myself getting a good taste once in a while and not sitting with the headset on all the time. Now that it’s growing, the content creators will be in a shuffle for the next decade as technology evolves, trying to figure out how to make the best content for it. People think it’ll go away like 3D did in home viewing, but that’s from the early bad experiences.” “VR has a marketing problem: How do you get the rest of the world to see it?” asks The VR Girl. “If we want VR to go mainstream, we need to show how it can mesh with real life. Gaming has been a big factor, but that’s not how VR goes
Still from La Camila VR Film
is that everyone’s learning together. “Don’t get constrained by this being film or a game,” says Velez. “This is not a game, this is its own genre, and when we all really figure it out, it’ll be amazing. Everyone’s a professional the moment you touch it, though, because everyone’s still learning it. It’s scary, and if you’re stupid enough, it’s awesome to play with.” Wilmont agrees. “Just keep your mind open. It’s so early, people are trying to figure out what it can be instead of just experimenting with it. We have so much time still. There are no VR experts, so there’s no limit. I hope I never get complacent.” “And it goes beyond the film and television industry,” adds Hughes. “This is human evolution being impacted by this technology. You can talk about the experience, but you don’t fully understand it until you put on a headset and change your entire perspective. It’s unnerving. I gave this VR presentation speaking, and I told everyone, ‘Look, I have no idea what I’m doing and neither does anyone else. And if they tell you they do then they’re lying because no one is prepared for this totally different way of thinking.’”
Still from La Camila VR Film
“Talking about virtual reality is like dancing about architecture.”
Still from Please State Your Name VR Film
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OZ SCENE (L-R) Trish Taylor, Brennen Dicker, Cathy Woolard, John Eaves, Keisha Lance Bottoms, LaRonda Sutton, Mary Norwood, Clark Cofer, Peter Aman, Lewis Massey
October 3
GPP Mayoral Forum
T Candidate Ceasar Mitchell
he Georgia Production Partnership hosted Atlanta mayoral candidates at a special meeting before the November election. Candidates in attendance included former Atlanta chief financial officer Peter Aman, Atlanta City councilwoman Keisha Lance Bottoms, former Fulton County commissioner John Eaves, councilman Kwanza Hall, city
Candidate Peter Aman being interviewed
council president Ceasar Mitchell, city councilwoman Mary Norwood, and former council president Cathy Woolard. The group, moderated by LaRonda Sutton and Brennen Dicker, was asked how each candidate would be involved in attracting film industry businesses to Atlanta if they win the election. GPP Co-President Trish Taylor
Candidate John Eaves, GPP Social Media Director Malenka Warner and Myra Killings
GPP Board Member Lisa Ferrell and candidate Mary Norwood
Moderators LaRonda Sutton and Brennen Dicker
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OZ SCENE 2017 GPP Mayoral Forum for members
Candidates (L-R) Peter Aman, Keisha Lance Bottoms, John Eaves, Kwanza Hall, Ceasar Mitchell, Mary Norwood, Cathy Woolard
Alison Fibben and Mike Smith evaluate candidate responses
GPP Board Member Joan Karpeles with volunteers (L-R) Elisa Woods, Alexis Bushell, Mystie Buice, Cindy Southwell
Volunteers Aneesah Bray and Michael Jackson check in GPP Board Member Chris Escobar and Cameron McAllister
Candidate Kwanza Hall responds to question
Candidate Kwanza Hall
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OZ SCENE Dr. Michio Kaku talks with John Rich and Jerry Hudson
Dr. Adriane Randolph
October 5
FutureXLive: Engineered Consciousness
T
he second annual FutureXLive convened at the Woodruff Arts Center for a day of lectures and demonstrations in future technologies. Hosted by Moxie, this year’s FutureXLive featured over 20 presenters, discussing VR, AR, 360 video, holographic
content, AI, neurostimulation, and more. Discussions ranged from showcasing product to medical and psychological applications to theorizing the future, as well as a live VR performance. Daniel Sabio performs "Meld"
David Glass (moderator), Kelly Andresen, Tom Goodwin, and Cathy Hackl
Annie Eaton
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Paul Jenkins
Dave Beck
OZ SCENE Laura Hall (The VR Girl) sets up her robotic surrogate
James Martin of MobaCap demonstrates facial capture
An attendee immerses in Project Ghost
Chad Eikhoff
Dr. Grace Ahn
Gabriela Arp
Dr. Helen Papagiannis
Janet Murray
Jonathan Strickland
Rishad Tobaccowala
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OZ SCENE
September 29 - October 1
Atlanta Sci-Fi Film Festival
T
he Atlanta Sci-Fi Film Festival, presented by the Multicultural Sci-Fi Organization, celebrated its second run this year. A launch party at Google Fiber in Ponce City Market kicked off the festivities, with a full Saturday of curated and competing films from around the world at Georgia Tech, voted on by the audience in attendance. Saturday also featured two films from Neill Blomkamp (director of District 9), and the first-ever U.S. screening of The Beyond by Hasraf Dullul. The festival rounded out on Sunday with a screening of the 80s Ridley Scott classic Blade Runner: The Final Cut at Regal Atlantic Station IMAX theater, along with presentation of awards.
ActionVFX Team
Winner of Audience Choice Award-Grace Rowe Amanda Ray and her Husband
Winner of IMAX Young Filmmaker Award Michael Wright (film Amercon) with Amanda Ray Volunteer Staff GA Tech Library Staff with Dr. Lisa Yaszek of GA Tech
Laughing it up with Russell SimonGoogle Fiber Events Coordinator
Anna Westerstahl Stenport with Husband Olof Westerstahl 50
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OZ SCENE Jen Soska, Renaye Loryman, Melissa Lyons, Edward Lyons & Sylvia Soska
Filip Terlecki & Maggie Hickman
September 21-24
Aislinn Clarke & Duckie Rodriguez
Women In Horror Film Festival
T Maggie Hickman & Jason Winn
he 2017 Women in Horror Film Festival kicked off in Peachtree City as dozens of filmmakers and special guests converged on the opening night party and the weekend’s events. Over the course of three days, five features and dozens of horror shorts were screened to horror fans. Vendors from across the country presented and sold horror merchandise. Industry pros presented workshops and panels. Sylvia Soska remarked, “That fest was pure magic,” and Amanda Wyss said the weekend was “amazing and inspiring.” 19 Lizzies (the coveted custom award for Women in Horror Film Festival) were presented to productions and individuals.
Brian Ashton Smith, Kieran Pavlick & Jane Garvey
Vanessa Ionta Wright, Kathy Oliver, Gloria Ionta & Pasquale Ionta Jen Soska, Jack Tillery & Sylvia Soska Melissa Dewey & Collin Dewey
Jennifer Trudrung
Collin Dewey, Melissa Dewey, Trysta Bissett & Dave Wendleman November / December 2017
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OZ SCENE Carole Williams, Emily Schneider, Sima Parekh, Ethan Parrish, Gina Gentilozzi, Jeff Hilimire & Adam Walker
October 6-8
48in48 Atlanta
R Adam Walker, Ann Cramer, Tad Hutcheson, Carole Williams, Alicia Philipp & Irma Shrivastava
eturning for its third year in Atlanta, 48in48 helped build websites for 48 local nonprofits in 48 hours at Post-Office Cowork. Sponsored by Delta Air Lines, nonprofits this year included Kate’s Club, Atlanta-Fulton Public Library Foundation, Georgia Foundation for Public Education, Habitat for Humanity - North Central Georgia, and many more. Lexis Nexis sponsored a Student Emersion Trip with TagEd this year, giving high school students the opportunity to help build websites for some of the nonprofits.
48 Light Display, Created by Dagger Michelle Koufman, Joe Koufman, Radley Koufman & Joss Koufman
Group Shot
Crooked Wits - Stevie Jackson, Spencer Hardee & Maggie O’Connor
Team BKV
Jeff Hillmire & Adam Walker, cofounders of 48in48
Crowd
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OZ SCENE The open house crowd at Studio A
Georgia-Pacific creative director Walter Biscardi Jr. (left) talking to guests about the new DaVinci Resolve color grading system
Georgia-Pacific director of studio operation Brad Hinton (right) discussing new LED lighting coming to GP Studios
August 23
GP Studios Open House Senior engineer John Hilperthauser (left) talks with guests
The Tripwire Interactive portfolio review for aspiring game creators
G
P Studios held its open house at the tail end of August in its newly renovated Studio A. Over 300 attendees mingled, networked, dined, and toured the facilities.
UGA's esports team took home the trophies and $7,000 in scholarships
Chicago-based director of photography Gary Adcock (center) flew to Atlanta to check out GP Studios
Keynote speaker Jesse Schell of Schell Games
October 5-8
SIEGECon 2017
T The SCAD-Atlanta team competes in the Georgia Esports League state championship at SIEGE
Dungeons and Dragons art legend Larry Elmore tries out virtual reality
he 11th annual Southern Interactive Entertainment and Game Expo returned to the Atlanta Marriott Nortwest for workshops, meetups, an investment conference, college fair, parties, keynotes, panels, and lots of games. This year's keynote speakers included renowned game designer Jesse Schell, as well as Senior Xbox Software Engineer Gersh Payzer. The theme of "Climbing Your Skill Tree" was highlighted by such speakers as Robin Cowie, who went from producer of The Blair Witch Project to game producer on EA's Madden football game.
Trophies for the Georgia Esports League state championship
November / December 2017
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RMA has been providing security for the Television and Film industry since 1997. Our guards are equipped to handle specific production needs, including 24/7 monitoring and protection of the location, equipment, and cast/crew. Our guards are trained to handle crowds on location, as well as assess and react to any suspicious activity.
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Southern Tailors Fabric Imaging Established 1875
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Precision Machine Shop Since 1994
November / December 2017
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Oz Magazine - film. tv. entertainment.
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November / December 2017
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NEXT GENERATION
Derek Perez Derek Perez is an independent graphic artist and illustrator with a BFA in Graphic Design from Georgia Southern University. His portfolio offers a range of vibrant designs for the entertainment industry, with a focus on concert and movie posters. Derek’s bold color palettes and dynamic layouts create simultaneous feelings of discovery and nostalgia, taking inspiration from pop culture, street art, and his Latino heritage. www.peregoncreative.com
Ryan Hartley Ryan Hartley was born in Tampa, Florida and currently lives in Marietta, Georgia. He received his BFA in Painting and Drawing from Kennesaw State University in 2013. Ryan combines drawing, hand-cut paper silhouettes, and dramatic lighting into unique and dreamlike photographic images. www.ryanhartleyart.com
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Oz Magazine - film. tv. entertainment.