AWN Headline News

Design and cross media studio Miss Jones produced three 30-second spots for AT&T's new media services, which started airing during the Sydney Olympics. Against a white background in the first spot, "Pop," AT&T's familiar blue globe morphs into a pan of popcorn, at first popping slowly and then building to a crescendo while the globe swells to bursting. The second spot "Newton" opens on six AT&T globes lined up in a white field.

Stan Lee Media Inc. has eliminated 19 positions, deciding to outsource animation production to overseas companies. The move is part of SLM's deal with Toon Boom Technologies to use its U.S. Animation software on SLM productions. The Web content creator said in a press release that the decision would allow the company to maintain quality animation while reducing internal overhead costs.

* Monday, October 30 Friday, November 3, 2000. Trivandrum, India.

Animation Stock Ticker For Tuesday, September 19, 2000

Netcaster iCast, a subsidiary of Internet conglomerate CMGI, has purchased independent short film site Shortbuzz.com. As part of the acquisition, iCast has raised its library to 400 films. On Friday, September 15, 2000, the company, however, laid off 30 employees in its technical and editorial divisions. The Website will replace those positions with new employees with more entertainment experience. iCast VP of public relations told VARIETY, "We know the business we want to be in, and were streamlining. Were not shutting down. In fact, well be stronger as a result.

Quiet Man founder Johnnie Semerad handled the visual effects on the new GE Weathermate spot. Beneath the glow of fireworks, a group of workers applies GE Weathermate and a competing product to respective halves of the Atlantic City boardwalk. The next morning, the portion treated with Weathermate is ready for the crowds and the competitors half is still wet and fuses a boys sandals to the wood. "The first thing we had to do with the Weathermate spot was add fireworks and enhance the background," says Semerad.

* Sunday, October 29, 2000. Milan, Italy.

MIFED, the Cinema and Television International Multimedia Market, is a leading market for independent audiovisual productions. MIFED 2000 will focus on new marketing strategies to develop alliances and co-productions. For more information contact Elena Lloyd at: MIFED/E.A. FIERAMILANO, Largo Domodossola, 1, 20145 Milan, Italy; Tel.: ++39 2 48012912 48012920; or Fax:. ++39 2 49977020.

MessageBay, Inc.s VoiceAnimations.com has added a text-to-speech feature to its lip-synching animation Website. The new feature allows Web surfers to create Personal Puppetgram e-mails by typing in the text instead of having to use a microphone to add the voices. Visitors can even control the speed, pitch, accent and gender of the selected voice. Then using the VoiceAnimations plug-in, the text is lip-synched to a variety of different animated characters.

Corus Entertainment Inc. has announced the acquisition of Nelvana Limited in a cash and stock deal worth CA$554 million (US$372.5 million). Corus will pay 60% of the $554 million in cash and the rest in Corus Class B non-voting shares. "The opportunity to acquire an outstanding Canadian content company with exceptional international credentials presents itself very rarely," said John Cassaday, president and CEO of Corus.

* Thursday, October 26 Sunday, November 5, 2000. San Luis Obispo, California, U.S.A.