Sarah Baisley's Recent Posts

Haim Saban, billionaire entrepreneur who ran Saban Entertainment and Fox Family Worldwide before selling off those assets, reportedly will make a binding offer for bankrupt Kirch Media in Germany according to DAILY VARIETY. He is meeting with creditor banks with his chief strategy officer Adam Chesnoff and examining Kirch Media's books. Media conglomerate Kirch owns one of Germany's largest broadcasting groups, ProSiebenSat 1, as well as a vast film library. German publisher Heinrich Bauer is also interested in buying the group.

Paul Golden is onboard at Vinton Studios in Portland, Oregon to spearhead its commercial division as the new president of advertising. Golden's mandate is to encourage the advertising community to turn to Vinton Studios for its variety of abilities including CGI, cel animation, live-action and motion graphics. "I want to correct the general misperception that we're all about clay," said Golden. He also plans to emphasize the individual directors and their unique styles rather than the studio as a whole.

The upfront season has started with Cartoon Network first out of the toon gate as it unveiled its substantial new programming slate for 2003 in New York City. All the networks are embarking upon the annual dog and pony show (upfronts) to attract potential advertisers and sponsors to support their season slates. Highlights include three new series, 20 shorts with Lucasfilm Ltd. and new episodes of returning series that will provide more than 400 new half-hours of programming.

Toy giant Mattel, Inc. has commissioned Vancouver-based Mainframe Entertainment to produce a series of animated videos based on Hot Wheels storylines and characters created by Starlight Runner Entertainment to promote the 35th anniversary of the toy car products. The CGI toons, HOT WHEELS HIGHWAY 35, will follow five Hot Wheels race teams as they compete across the challenging terrains of parallel universes thwarted by a cadre of villains.

Burbank, California-based Craig Murray Productions has brought on board Richard Redfield as president/executive creative director of CMP/West, to oversee its operations in West Los Angeles. CMP and CMP/West specialize in creating motion picture trailer, TV and print campaigns. Redfield is a veteran trailer producer with more than 200 campaigns to his credit. Most recently, Redfield was a creative director at Harley's House where he directed the advertising efforts on such films as OCEAN'S ELEVEN, AUSTIN POWERS IN GOLDMEMBER and TWO WEEKS NOTICE.

The recipients will be announced at a ceremony on March 6, 2003, during the Game Developers Conference (GDC), March 4-8 in San Jose, Calif. Produced by the Gama Network, the GDC is the largest annual event exclusively for game development professionals. Nominations were free and open to all professional game developers, regardless of membership or affiliation, so that nominees reflect the international development community's opinions.

PS Creative, based in Birmingham, England, has finished off a commercial spot and a sting (British broadcasting jargon for an interstitial or bumper in the U.S.) for its U.K. clients S4C and Drayton Manor. Welsh broadcaster S4C commissioned the company to produce a :10 animated sting. PS Creative director Nicola Scurlock used a handheld Super 8 to shoot nature footage he digitally combined using Adobe AfterAffects and Photoshop with a hand drawn animation overlay to create "Spectrum," which explores the delicate touches of nature, light and colors of spring.

This Summer Kids' WB! has added a new anime series, MEGAMAN: NT WARRIOR, to air in the U.S. Saturday mornings this summer 2003. Currently airing in Japan on TV Tokyo since March 2002, MEGAMAN: NT WARRIOR is a top-rated animated television series produced by ShoPro Entertainment. "We are excited to be working once again with the creative team that helped bring POKÉMON to Kids' WB!," said John Hardman, SVP at Kids' WB! "The newest incarnation of this beloved and time-proven character is sure to captivate kids and delight audiences everywhere.

A free version of Softimage's 3D nonlinear production software SOFTIMAGE|XSI v.3.0 designed for training purposes, is available to download for use with the Microsoft Windows XP and Windows 2000 platforms. The upgrade to SOFTIMAGE|XSI v.2.0 Experience CD, offers a wider range of capabilities for both professionals and 3D novices.