Oz Magazine's Dec/Jan Ozcetera

Lights! Action! Camera Ready!


Governor Nathan Deal and the Georgia Film, Music & Digital Entertainment Office, a division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD), designated 23 Georgia counties Camera Ready at the annual Governor’s Tourism Conference. The state’s Camera Ready Community Program supports the growing film and television industry and now
includes 112 counties across the state.

“Our aggressive tax incentive, new infrastructure and expanding crew base make Georgia the leading lady for film and television production,” said GDEcD commissioner Chris Cummiskey. “At any given time you can find multiple productions providing jobs and investment in numerous communities across the state.”

Camera Ready was put in place by the state to offer film and television production companies access to local resources and information. Local economic impact from productions can be significant, including hiring of local residents, hotel stays and purchases of goods and services. A Camera Ready Community must designate one point person who can assist film and television production companies on a local level.
The 23 Georgia counties that received the ‘Camera Ready Community’ designation during the Governor’s luncheon were Chattooga, Catoosa, Dade, Johnson, Troup, Polk, Jackson, Liberty, Bartow, Union, Bacon, Clinch, Murray, McIntosh, Sumter, Evans, Cook, Colquitt, Spalding, Randolph, Wayne, Clarke and Putnam.

Georgia had 327 productions shot in Georgia from July 2010 through June 2011, bringing in more than $683.5 million in investment to Georgia.

These projects have generated an economic impact of $2.4 billion. Georgia-filmed movies slated to hit theatres include a remake of “Footloose,” and “Wanderlust” starring Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd. Georgia can also be seen on television sets across the world with multiple television series now calling Georgia home. Season 3 of the CW’s “Vampire Diaries” and AMC’s record-breaking “The Walking Dead” started new seasons this fall.

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Picture Picks Affix

Warner Brothers Pictures recently chose “Amante Del Vino” by Michael J. Thomas from the Affix catalog for the new Matt Damon action-thriller “Contagion.” The Steven Soderberg directed film centers around the threat from the outbreak of a deadly disease and the CDC team chosen to deal with problem. The star-studded film includes Lawrence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Winslet.

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Good Cause for Directorial Debut

VoiceToday.org shot two PSAs last month in Atlanta to launch the VOICE Movement – vowing to break the silence of child abuse. VoiceToday.org, based in Marietta, GA and founded by Angela Williams, is a non-profit organization and grass roots movement to break the silence and cycle of child sexual abuse through awareness, prevention and healing programs. Jaye Jackson-Pniewski, a veteran make-up artist and actor in Atlanta and Los Angeles, directed the PSAs. This is Jackson-Pniewski’s directorial debut. Director of Photography was Steve Ingold of INGO Studios, a full-service HD production company. The PSA was shot with the Canon 5D MKII and post was completed at INGO.

Casting was held with Houghton Talent and Atlanta Workshop Players.  The campaign launched in the fall.

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Gold Davey for Timbuktoons

Timbuktoons was awarded a 2011 Gold Davey Award from the International Academy of the Visual Arts for creative excellence in the commercial category. “The Davey Award honors creative work from small firms with big ideas. That fits us perfectly,” said Timbuktoons owner and founder, Todd Hampson. This year’s Davey Awards competition had nearly 4,000 entries from the US and around the world. The judging is by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, a “who’s who” in media, marketing and advertising.

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 PC&E Needs Full-Time Shelf Stocker

PC&E now offers the Sony RGB 444 software upgrade for the Sony PMW-F3. It enables S-Log gamma mode, Dual Link 444 RGB video output, 3G-SDI output, and includes four pre-loaded LUTs (look up tables) along with five custom user LUTs. The firmware allows the F3 to output full RGB video in S-Log opening up the true potential of this camera. S-Log ups the dynamic range of the camera to 800%, effectively increasing the ISO to 1600. Dual-Link SDI or 3G-SDI (dual-link on one cable) gives you full RGB 444, and the LUTs allow you to monitor video normally while shooting in S-Log. Finally, the five custom LUT options mean that you can create your own looks in the same manner. The firmware upgrade is now available for rent at PC&E as a great addition to the PMW-F3.

The camera, lighting and grip firm added Mole-Richardson 2K Spacelites to its inventory. This smaller version of the popular 6K spacelite comes equipped with two hubbell plugs that can be plugged into the wall, and the smaller size makes it perfect for smaller stages and spaces with less ceiling height.

Hit the easy button with their increased inventory of Easy Rigs. These rigs cover cameras weighing 33-44 pounds such as the Arri Alexa and most 35mm motion picture cameras, as well as for cameras weighing 17-22 pounds such as the Sony PMW-F3 and RED ONE.

PC&E’s 30” JEM Ball replaces a conventional paper lantern for a durable, soft surround lighting effect with fewer shadows than conventional lights. This one comes with a tungsten lamp as well as an adapter for Jokers. The kit includes three different covers: rip stop, bleached muslin, or unbleached muslin, as well as a black skirt.

The camera department now offers a Mac Pro Cart stocked with two 2.66GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon Processors, Dual Channel 4Gb Fiber Optic Channel, and an Atto Express SAS H680 Card. That’s topped off with a stunning 27” LED Cinema Display, battery backup, rain cover, 10” wheels, and a lockable drawer for cables or paperwork. While this cart is designed to travel in conjunction with the Codex Desktop Download station, it can be used for any production with onset downloading or coloring.

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SOMETHING FISHY ABOUT AWARD

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) awarded the Georgia Aquarium with the Excellence in Marketing Award, which recognizes excellence in marketing campaigns developed and executed by its AZA member institutions. The Aquarium’s campaign, Where Imaginations Go to Play, took home top honors in the $175,000 budget or higher category.

The campaign was brought to life through a full integration of the new brand look onsite at the Aquarium and carried throughout all advertising. The campaign’s messaging and creative focused on new and returning animals, new experiences and new activities for guests to enjoy. Congrats to Ames Scullin O’Haire, Georgia Aquarium’s advertising and marketing agency, and to Georgia Aquarium Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications, Carey Rountree.

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Rompel Joins Kilgannon

Kilgannon hired Katie Rompel as senior art director. She will supervise and execute layout, design and concepts for a number of Kilgannon’s clients, including: Cleaver-Brooks, Manheim, NYCM Insurance and SouthernLINC Wireless, a Southern Company.

Most recently, Rompel was a designer at Moxie Interactive where she worked on a number of high-profile brands, including: Coca-Cola, Cartoon Network, Maybelline and Verizon. Prior to that, Rompel served as an art director at JWT where her client list included: CDW, Texas Instruments, BMC Software, Citrix, and Brother. Rompel is a graduate of the Portfolio Center and Michigan State University. She has earned several awards for her work, including a One Show Bronze Pencil and an Addy Bronze award.

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Placement Music Garners Music in Media Nomination

FOX Sports commissioned Placement Music to create an original instrumental composition for its global Super Bowl salute to U.S. Soldiers that aired right before kick-off. “Declaration Anthem,” became the soundtrack that led directly into what would become the biggest event in television history with 162 million viewers worldwide.

Right after kick-off, the full version of “Declaration Anthem,” as well as a radio edit and ringtone were made available as a charity download on iTunes and Amazon.com. A portion of the proceeds goes directly to Wounded Warrior Project, a non-profit that helps the hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers who were wounded during duty and are now recovering back home.

”Declaration Anthem” was composed by Placement Music creative team member Steve Dancz, co-produced by Tammy Hurt, founding partner, and engineered by multiple GRAMMY-winner Leslie Ann Jones.

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Trends with Benefits on North Avenue

The team at North Avenue Post has completed shooting 10 segments for the Trends with Benefits series. The first segment, Chocolate Pairing, aired during Tin Cup on TBS. North Avenue Post also partnered with Luminary Artists, LLC to produce the video montage that was shown at the 19th Annual Ronald Reagan “Victory” Celebration Dinner this year. The team has also been busy over the past few months on some turnkey projects. They are also currently working with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Disney, National Geographic, CNN, and J. Walter Thompson.

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Second Voiceover Studio and Expanded Staff at CSA

Creative Studios of Atlanta added another voiceover studio while expanding the staff and its array of diverse classes. CSA now boasts five top voice coaches and producers.

Producer and voice coach Deborah Richards has made a huge splash since joining CSA, producing daily for The Weather Channel, producing demos for local talent and training new talent to work in the voice industry. With so many actors booking jobs as they learn the business and the techniques of voiceover, the studio time was quickly booked up, creating a need for another studio and more producers and teachers.

Recently, voice talent/producer/teacher Eileen Kimble joined the staff to produce in the new studio as well as train the voiceover for audio books class. September Day-Carter and Bob Carter teach the Intro to Voiceover class monthly, a 6-hour, intensive day about the business of working in the industry. Day-Carter also teaches a workshop on how to navigate voice123.com, an online voice casting services with voice jobs from all over the world. And Adam Drescher, formerly of KABC in Los Angeles, teaches audio editing, produces auditions and runs the voiceover support teams, where actors come in weekly to work in the voice booth to practice their copy interpretation and presentation. Beginning in January 2012, Bob Carter will add his animation and gaming classes.

Even the youth, kids and teens are learning the craft. One talented 10-year old, Brett Cooper, who drives in from Tennessee to train specifically with Richards, booked a voiceover job. 9-year old Morgan Burch has booked multiple voice jobs since starting voice training 2 months ago.

In May of 2012, CSA welcomes Bob Bergen back to the studio, a voice animation teacher from Los Angeles. Bergen voices Porky Pig and Tweety Bird and has worked in many major animated projects including, Cars, Finding Nemo, Lilo and Stitch, Curious George, Tarzan, Wall-E and more. Bergen will teach an advanced intensive class for animated voice actors in a working 2-day class for a very small group of experienced voice actors.

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NEW CASTING AGENCY LAUNCHES

Jen Kelley, a talent agent for the last 19 years and Rita Harrell, a former Fox casting associate, team up to create a premier casting company, Big Picture Casting, Inc. Georgia now ranks in the top five for film and TV production, necessitating new casting resources to service both existing clients and incoming productions. Big Picture Casting offers a fresh professional perspective to the Atlanta and regional markets. Says Kelley, “We have broad knowledge of the talent pool and strong relationships with top talent agencies. New York and Los Angeles affiliates extend the reach of our clients for particular roles.” A full-service casting company, Big Picture Casting handles union and non-union film, television, commercial, industrial and print projects. BPC leverages cutting-edge technology to deliver high-quality auditions at competitive rates.

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Take Your VCS Daily

In the world of film and television production, dailies are one of the most important parts of a shoot, and delivering them has historically been an arduous task. The need for dailies to be delivered quickly and efficiently, often to different places around the globe, has been a never-ending challenge.

With the increase in Georgia film and episodic TV production, VCS was seeing a great increase in calls for dailies solutions. VCS President George Helms and Clark Cofer, Vice President of New Business Development, agreed that finding a dailies solution seemed to be a natural fit with the VCS mission to provide content solutions. To resolve their dailies issue, Helms and Cofer began travelling directly to the place where dailies began: Hollywood.

“Clark and I went to Los Angeles in September of 2010 to meet with Disney, ABC, Paramount, as well as other studios,” says Helms. “We wanted to see what type of dailies work flow was being used as well as what solutions were available.” In June of 2011, during their sixth visit to Los Angeles, VCS learned of a company called Light Iron and their new dailies system: the OUTPOST Mobile
System®.

“After meeting with the folks at Light Iron, seeing how OUTPOST works and learning of the impressive credit list it has already,” says Cofer, “we knew this was the ONLY dailies solution for our customers.” In fact, the team at VCS was so impressed with the system they negotiated to become Light Iron’s East Coast Affiliate for
the OUTPOST.

OUTPOST Mobile System® is a full-service on-site data laboratory made mobile as compact wheeled carts placed on-set or in a near set office. It is designed for the most efficient turn-around of dailies and available in 2D and 3D configurations. OUTPOST Mobile System® enables all departments, regardless of location, to have same-day accessibility to dailies. In addition to serving as the primary data download and backup station, OUTPOST delivers verified data back-up in triplicate, audio syncing, color correction, 3D convergence, transcoding, editorial deliverables, PIX/DAX streamable dailies and iPad-based Todailies®.

Hollywood is embracing OUTPOST, as proven by its use on the hit CBS series “Criminal Minds”, Columbia Pictures “Total Recall”, “The Amazing Spider-Man” and “The Green Hornet”, along with Walt Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean 4” and “The Muppets”.

VCS quickly invested in four systems to rent to productions in Georgia — two of which are currently in use on the Robert Zemeckis film “Flight,” starring Denzel Washington, which is currently in production in Atlanta. Helms adds that everyone at VCS is excited about being able to extend their 25 plus year history of service and solutions to Georgia’s growing film, motion picture and television production industry.

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Of Champions and Awards

Ada Hatzios has been awarded the Chapter Champion award of the Georgia Chapter, Public Relations Society of America, in recognition of her outstanding volunteer work for the chapter. Hatzios is a senior account executive with Cookerly Public Relations, a multi-disciplinary PR firm celebrating 20 years in Atlanta.

She has been involved with the Georgia Chapter for several years, serving on the College Relations Committee for the past four years; she co-led the Student Recruitment effort for the Chapter’s Shadow Day program for two years and the Professional Recruitment effort three years ago. She was also on the Student Relations Sub-Committee for the annual Real World for four years and is an active participant in the Young Professionals Special Interest Group.

PRSA|GA also honored its top local public relations professionals and programs for 2011, presenting a record 155 awards for outstanding public relations work in 86 program and project categories from some 210 entries. The Awards Celebration drew 370 persons at the Cobb Energy Center in suburban Atlanta.

Mickey Nall, APR, Fellow PRSA, and managing director of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide in Atlanta, was inducted into The Order of the Phoenix, the Chapter’s highest honor, and thus also enters the PRSA|GA Hall of Fame at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at The University of Georgia. At the induction, the 25th anniversary of The Order of the Phoenix was observed including recognition of the living charter members. Nall was also just elected to be PRSA’s 2013 chair and CEO at the national organization’s conference in Orlando, FL.

The individual awards below recognize outstanding Chapter members:

- Judy Wicks, APR, vice president of Fiserv Inc.; Radiant Star Award in memory of Dyar Massey.
- Don Rountree, president of Rountree Group Integrated
Communications; Luminary Star Award, for a member with 13 to 19 years of experience in public relations.
- Neil Hirsch, APR, manager, North American Communications at Novelis, Inc.; Shining Star Award, reflecting six to 12 years of experience in public relations.
- Morgan Sapp, an advancement associate at the Swift School; Rising Star Award, given to a member with five or fewer years of experience.
-Julie Ralston, communications director of the Atlanta
Regional Commission; George Goodwin Award. This award
recognizes a Chapter member for significant contributions to the community through volunteer service.

The Best of Phoenix award, judged from the four highest-scoring entries, went to Primrose Schools and its agency Jackson Spalding for the “Primrose School Family Dance-off” campaign.

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Work is BERRY Yummy

Gena Berry has been busy staging food scenes for films shooting in Atlanta. She and her Culinary Works team’s work can be seen on the big screen in Life as We Know it, and three new films coming soon:  The Odd Life of Timothy Green (Disney), The Three Stooges (20th Century Fox) and Parental Guidance (20thCentury Fox). Berry is also wrapping up a major recipe editing project with former “Top Chef ” competitor Chef Kevin
Gillespie of Woodfire Grill.

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Tube Squeezes Out App

Tube just finished up a few rounds of projects with TNT and TBS, working with Senior Producer Nick Pride to
release instructional videos for the networks’ TNT and TBS apps.

Creative director Chris Downs worked with freelancer Ben Frank to rebuild mock-ups of the apps in After Effects. They then reanimated the apps within a 3D model of an iPad in Cinema 4D and accented them with three-dimensional kinetic typography. The videos will be posted on the networks’ websites, YouTube channels, and supporting cable provider’s websites to be used as an online tutorial for the use of the app.

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Good Stuff for a Good Cause

Goodwill Industries of the Southern Rivers in Columbus’ 2010 Goodwill Annual Community Report won two Silver Flame Awards from Atlanta’s Chapter of the International Association for Business Communicators. The Golden Flame Award ceremony was held at the Fox Theater. Goodwill Industries (GWISR) was recognized along with large public relations firms and well known businesses, including: Edelman (Public Relations), UPS (We love logistics!), General Electric, Turner Broadcasting, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (Casting Light on a Heavy Issue: Childhood Obesity) and many others.