A quarter century after the international release of “The Last Emperor,” the film has finally realized its fate.

After serving as guest artistic director last year, Bertolucci returned to the AFI Fest today for the North American premiere of the new version of his nine-time Oscar-winning biopic (including best picture and best director). The film has received a complete facelift: a 3D conversion, 4K restoration and sound re-mastering.

“I think it’s a new life for this film,” he said. “The film is not the temptation that often filmmakers have with 3D to throw, I don’t know, noodles in the face of the viewers. … It’s a very innocent 3D, but I think it will make you feel very much inside the Forbidden City.”

via Bernardo Bertolucci: ‘The Last Emperor’ Destined to be Converted to 3D | Variety.

Just about every cinematographer will tell you the same thing: their work wouldn’t be half as good without the help of their most trusted gaffer. This can be attributed to the fact that lighting successfully for film and television is one of the most challenging aspects of production, and the larger the scale of a production becomes, the more intensive the lighting needs will be.

via Renowned Gaffer John Higgins Reveals Secrets Behind Lighting Some of Hollywood’s Biggest Films « No Film School.

But Blockbuster chiefs lacked the vision to see how the industry was shifting under the video rental chain’s feet

It will go down as one of the biggest missed opportunities in the boardroom: Blockbuster deciding not to buy Netflix.

But that’s what could have happened multiple times throughout the early 2000s when Netflix CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings courted a deal with Blockbuster-chief John Antioco to purchase the then DVD-by-mail rental company for $50 million (the company now has a market cap of $19.7 billion).

via Epic Fail: How Blockbuster Could Have Owned Netflix | Variety.

SIM/Bling (www.simdigital.com/bling/blinghome.html) helped Psych go fully digital in 2010, after having successfully established file-based workflows for two other Universal Cable Productions programs, Suits and Covert Affairs. Three years down the line, the elements of that workflow remain largely unchanged. SIM provides the show with Arri Alexa camera packages (as well as Sony and GoPro cameras for specialized use), on-set graphics and playback services. Bling handles near-set dailies processing and data services.

Camera media is processed in the near-set lab, which includes the production of media for review, editorial, post and back-up. Editorial files and Final Cut Pro ProRes proxy format files are delivered via high speed Internet connection to the show’s editorial team, located 1,300 miles away in Manhattan Beach, CA. Editors can begin cutting new material in as little as a few hours after its shot.

via Post Magazine – ‘Psych’ setting the standard for digital workflow.

As technology grows more advanced, the video game industry is expected to crush Hollywood movies — in popularity and profit. Globally, the gaming industry is expected to bring in nearly $100 billion in sales, while the Hollywood box office is only anticipating $10.8 billion in revenue.

via Video Games to Make $82 Billion More Than Hollywood Films.

Color is one of the most important and powerful visual tools through which filmmakers can convey ideas and emotion. Choices in the color palette begin with the production designer and the art department, continue through the work of the cinematographer, and end with the colorist.

via Everything You Need to Know About Color in the Digital Age « No Film School.

Filmtools Inc., a prominent Hollywood source of production equipment and motion picture making supplies, announced today that it has entered into a long-term strategic relationship with Paladin Capital Partners, LLC. Filmtools CEO Stan McClain said the move is designed to accelerate the company’s domestic and international growth plans.

via Filmtools Talks Expansion and Taking on America and Abroad:.

Argo won a pair of trophies, while Pacific Rim and Life of Pi collected one apiece, in the feature categories at the 8th annual Hollywood Post Alliance (HPA) Awards.

via 'Pacific Rim,' 'Argo,' 'Life of Pi' Win HPA Awards.

There are high hopes for Comet ISON, which will pass the sun this month and could put on a spectacular show in the sky in the process. The comet, making its virgin journey around our star from the Oort Cloud right now, could be one of the brightest comets to be observed from Earth in many decades, if not longer, or perhaps ever.

via ‘Comet of the Century’ ISON coming into view this week | Crave – CNET.

Nikon has followed the lead of companies like Fuji and has brought back physical dials to control major functions of the camera. Practically everything can be controlled just from the top dials

via Nikon Df: New Full-Frame DSLR Brings Back Manual Dials & Axes Video. Where's Our Cinema Version? « No Film School.

The Canon 70D announced earlier in the year included a new technology for the company called Dual Pixel AF that was designed to be excellent in both photo and video modes. Now Canon is working out a hardware upgrade for the C100 that will include this Dual Pixel AF technology and should give the camera similar performance as the 70D in video mode. Click through for more on this upgrade and how much it’s going to cost if you want to get in on the action.

via Canon C100 Getting Significant AutoFocus Improvement with New Hardware Upgrade « No Film School.

Time and again, Hollywood has met technological change with suspicion and attempted to suppress it. Yet in virtually all cases, once entertainment companies adapted to new technologies, the advances ended up expanding the markets for movies and television programs rather than destroying them.

via How Hollywood Can Stop Suing Downloaders and Capitalize on Piracy | MIT Technology Review.

The THR article covered a symposium of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (you probably know it as SMPTE). The professionals in attendence overwhelmingly declared that 4K, in itself, is not enough to lure consumers, but that a combination of more pixels, faster frame and refresh rates, and brighter, more colorful pixels would be the ticket.

via RedShark News – Why 4K is more important than you think.

Putting an exact date on when all Star Wars fans must now focus their attention, Lucasfilm announced today that Episode VII will hit theaters Dec. 18, 2015.

via Star Wars: Episode VII Finally Gets a Release Date | Underwire | Wired.com.

More great stuff from the ever excellent filmschoolthrucommentaries: “a rare commentary track from Ridley Scott in which the man gives his usual in depth and informative discussion on the craft of filmmaking. He covers such topics as casting, directing, camera operating, editing. I’m never disappointed in his tracks as they’re filled with quite a bit of information you’d always like to hear about if you’re making films yourself or are involved in any aspect of the craft.”

“Just fuckin’ do it.”

via More great stuff from the ever excellent….

To create the illusion that Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are floating in endless space, Gravity director Alfonso Cuaron used 3D — and thanks to Cuaron and other filmmakers such as Ang Lee and Baz Luhrmann, audiences are starting to see more examples of the format’s use as part of the storytelling and not as a gimmick.

via ‘Gravity’ Stereo Supervisor Reveals How 3D Was Used to Put Sandra Bullock in Space.

Zeiss is to supply aerial specialist Heliguy with cinemizer OLED head-mounted displays for their professional aerial photography platform, Ikarus. The cinemizer OLED acts as a remote viewfinder, using a wireless video-link from the octocopter.

via Zeiss Cinemizer OLED Provides Birds Eye View.

“123456” was the most popular password among the millions of Adobe users whose details were stolen during an attack on the company.

About 1.9 million people used the sequence, according to analysis of data lost in the leak.

via BBC News – Analysis reveals popular Adobe passwords.

 

Charlize Theron by Jean Francois Robert | FilmmakerIQ.com.

The tablet has stunning 3,840×2,560-pixel resolution and, according to Panasonic, its IPS Alpha LCD panel accepts “10-point multi touch” and has “a unique natural handwriting pen option.”

via Panasonic’s massive 4K tablet said to arrive in US in January | Mobile – CNET News.

Production is now under way in China on “Outcast,” a Chinese-themed action movie starring Nicolas Cage.

via Nicolas Cage’s Martial Arts ‘Outcast’ Now Shooting (EXCLUSIVE).

The Kodak brand has returned to lenses after a long time in the wilderness of inkjet paper and cheap AA batteries

via Kodak brand returns to lenses!.