It's been a while...

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But I've been busy.  I have opened a new studio in Shreveport Louisiana, and and I expect to start getting useful work from them soon.  We still have our main studio in Bulgaria, but it's nice to have another location to work from. In the meantime, here's a trailer for a film we are finishing this week.  "Ninja"

Directed by Issac Florentine and starring Scott Adkins, this one had us pulling long hours.  For those of you who liked our work on "Rambo", enjoy.

OFFICIAL NINJA TRAILER! from Hunger Pains Magazine. on Vimeo.

Lionsgate acquires "Train", rated NC-17

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Bloody Disgusting is reporting that one of our films has been picked up.  From their website'

"... Lionsgate has acquired Gideon Raff's TRAIN, the quasi-remake of the Jamie Lee Curtis starrer from 1980 TERROR TRAIN. No word yet on if the film will hit theaters or go direct-to-DVD/Blu-ray, but what we did learn is that the MPAA awarded the film with an NC-17. Raff, who also penned the film, will be heading back into the editing bay to trim the film for an R-rating. I guess we can expect an awesome unrated DVD release in the future?"

No telling when the film will be released.  We'll keep you posted.

Finding Rin Tin Tin

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This one slipped by me. "Finding Rin Tin Tin" is a film we worked on a couple of years ago. It got a small theatrical run in France and then... nothing. Well, word has just gotten to me that this movie was just released on DVD in the States on Sept 16. Our shot count for the movie - 72

To spice things up a bit, the owner of the dog lineage has decided to sue First Look, the distributing studio.  They have even set up a protest page to organize their efforts.  Only 250 people have visited the page.  Personally, I don't think they have a case, but then, I'm not a lawyer.  Anyway, this review likes the film, so check it out if you can.

And it starts to come home...

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Finally, some mainstream press is begining to catch onto one of the most under-reported trends in film of the last couple of years, the return of Hollywood production to America.  USA today has a story on the rise of production in unlikely places, including our own Shreveport Louisiana. Written by  Alexandyr Kent, "Hooray for locations outside Hollywood" in USA TODAY succinctly describes the various tax schemes and financial incentives used to attract film productions.  It's a good read, I recommend checking it out.

Tax Credits and rebates were all that was needed to take production out of America in the first place.  Other countries put up hard cash to attract film production, and we came.  Now the states have figured out that they can attract the same producers with the same tactics, and guess what, it works.  Most of the returning productions are not going to California, but to other states, but at least its a start.

More and more, I am needing to send vfx people from Bulgaria to America, and now I am actually able to hire Americans again to work.  Whatever you may think about the financial constructs used, this is good.

The entire world declared war on Hollywood years ago and the industry has been far too slow to react.  But the mix of dollar devaluation, recession, European economic slowdown, and a newly flexible industry have begun to change things.  The other states are fighting fire with fire and are able to bring the work to their own backyard.  The next battleground will be between the states as they start to compete with each other for the same films.

Seagalogy

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I'm currently reading "Seagalogy - A study of the ass-kicking films of Steven Seagal" by Vern.  Finally, someone writes about the subject with the love and affection Seagal's films deserve.  Vern is there to provide insightful commentary on one the most amazing careers in film today.  As someone who has worked on five (5) Steve Seagal movies, I am reading with page turning earnest.   Vern contributes regularly to AICN, and is pretty much the best thing there.  Vern's website is here.

By all means, pick up this book.  It's hilarious and tragic, and makes the best case for why I still love my job, and why its still the best job in the world.

Major Movie Star trailer

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For some reason, trailers are coming out, even if the movies aren't.  Another one showed up in my inbox today, "Major Movie Star".  This film stars Jessica Simpson and is directed by our sometime collaborator Steve Miner. The plot revolves around a hollywood star joining the army.  Old idea, but fun.  86 was our shot count for this one. A lot of the work was wire removals, but we did have one challenging sequence where we had to change the make and model of a car after it was shot...........while it was moving. Uggh.

Gene Generation heats up

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I haven't really been posting about this, because the work was completed so long ago.  But it looks like one of our favorite projects will finally see the light of day!  Lionsgate has picked up "The Gene Generation" for distribution.  Here is the new red band trailer:

We have a ton of additional stuff on our youtube channel, and I will try to keep an eye out for new material as it surfaces.

It's Alive screened in Germany

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"It's Alive" screened at the Hamburg Fantasy Filmfest and a review is in.  Here's a translation from Google, I'm not sure if it's a good or bad review.. "Director: Josef Rusnak Screenplay: Larry Cohen, Paul Sopocy, James Porto Reading Writer: Larry Cohen, more ...

with Bijou Phillips, Skye Bennett, James Murray, Raphaël Coleman, Ty Glaser, more ...

The Lenore lands pregnant with strong labor in the district hall. Your child is only six months already and will be fully developed by Notoperation born. When she wakes up from the anesthesia, like the circle room of a chamber of "Hellraiser": the walls are wallpapered massacred by the medical profession. But a lucky, the baby slumbers peacefully in Lenores poor. Together digest she and her husband Frank the shock at home, finally, Schnulleralarm and their attention is devoted to the putzigen infant. Fiese flashbacks to the murders OP-baked fresh squeezed the mother skillfully and certainly that their offspring unusually early (Reiss) gets teeth - and powerful appetite for meat. So it stacks animals in the dustbin, until suddenly aufkreuzt visit. Also good, then they are piling corpses."

I don't know...you tell me.

We completed 61 shots on "It's Alive", and until the film is officially released, here is a trailer:

Righteous Kill screening tonight!

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I finally get to see one of our movies on the big screen tonight!  It's only a press screening, nobody below the line was invited to the premiere, but I still am looking forward to this.  We completed 440 vfx shots on this movie.

Will post my thoughts after.

Edit:

OK, saw the movie.  Much better than the earlier rough cut version we were working on.  The 440 shots were all in the movie, btw.  The shots were things like adding buildings in backgrounds, fixing lens flares, removing crew members...etc.

As for the movie, it was great to see these two stars together, and it's not often we get to work on a movie like this, so that was good.  But that said, I couldn't escape the feeling that something was missing.  I could bring myself to care abiout the characters, and then there's the ending... The ending, as has been noted elsewhere was fairly easy to figure well in advance.  I knew the ending already, so I brought our LA vfx superviser with me to the screening to get his opinion, knowing he knew nothing about the movie.  He had the twist guessed early on, so it's not just me.  Nevertheless, the movie is very entertaining and will do huge business I'm sure.  It's scoring a terrible 22% on Rotten Tomatoes right now, and that's not justified in my opinion.  But what do I know?  I'm just the fx dude.

Ninja starts...

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We finally have started work on a movie we shot earlier this summer.  "Ninja" is a martial arts film directed by our old friend Isaac Florentine.  Currently the movie is being edited, but we have now started work on the visual effects.  Expected are 150-200 shots in the movie, and they should be done in November.  I will try to post some images when possible.  It's also nice to see that fan sites have picked up on "Ninja".

To add a little content to this post, here is an interview with the star, Scott Adkins, on Bulgarian television.

Off to LA and then LA

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Gustav Not that LA.  I'm leaving for Louisiana.  I was originally supposed to fly on Tuesday, but a little thing called Gustav got in the way.  I spoke to the office yesterday, and they assured me that Shreveport did not blow away, and everybody was at work.  The movie is called "Leaves of Grass".  I'm heading there to meet the VFX supervisor and get everything rolling.  I'm also sending a Bulgarian supervisor, as she will be  heading up the show in BUlgaria when the actual compositing begins.  After that it's off to the other LA, Los Angeles, to take care of company business.