http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-31036857

This article is a devastating incident that occurred on the set of Martin Scorsese's upcoming film called Silence. A Taiwanese construction worker (Chen Yu-Lung) was killed after a ceiling collapsed on top of him and two other men during pre-production of the film in the Chinese Culture and Movie Center. According to a spokes person for the film, the incident occurred after a specific building on CMPC studios backlot was said to have been unstable. The whole plan was to hire and independent contractor in order to reinforce the building and make it "safe". It is apparent that idea didn't work out all for the poor two men who suffered head and leg injuries along with the death of one person. The Taiwanese spokes man for the film also mentioned that the accident was not expected to affect the filming schedule and they must try their hardest to keep moving on. Martin Scorsese regrets the fatal accident as well, but knows that he must continue with his work. The film is due to be released by next year 2016. This is important to me as a filmmaker and student because it really makes you strongly think about how little mistakes can turn out to be deadly ones. In this case, simply choosing location for the film, but taking the risk knowing that the building was pronounced unstable. It was a dangerous decision to be made that ended badly. Everything you do in Film must be properly planned out and safety should always be your first concern. This could have taken the lives of many more if the ceiling hadn't decided to fall that early on those three men. That's why you must always take precaution when it comes to location selection and think about the cons. As a consumer, this makes me feel really bad about the families of those three men. It felt as if the incident happened, but everyone had a brief moment of sadness and then it was back to work from there. It's the sad truth, but things like these aren't supposed to stop the planning of an entire movie in the film industry. They can't afford to lose time, which is why Martin Scorsese told the public the film's schedule wouldn't be affected.This raises questions like: Are the amount of deaths on set high? Will this continue to be an issue in the future? Will dangerous location sites for action films be avoided?

DreamWorks Animation Restructuring

http://deadline.com/2015/01/dreamworks-animation-restructuring-to-cut-500-jobs-with-290m-charge-1201355918/

Last week it was reported that Dreamworks was in the verge of laying off some of it's employees. That time has come. 500 people will loose their jobs in the new restructuring of Dreamworks Animation who is closing down one of it's studios and bringing everything to the Studio in Glendale, CA. This comes after a series of failures at the box office. The studio was once producing hit after hit but recently, the hits have been few and far between. The restructuring involves a lot of people loosing work, mostly from the top of the company. Vice Chairman Lew Coleman is retiring and COO Mark Zoradi and marketing chief Dawn Taubin will leave the company. As a consumer this affects me in a big way. Dreamworks will no longer be able putting out as many movies but I suspect the quality of the films will rise again. As a filmmaker this affects me because this is proof of the consequences of not making money in a studio. The last few films for dream works were terrible and now people are getting fired. The money comes first and that is an important lesson. As a student this gives me insight to the economics of the film industry and it shows me how a company reacts to having poor results. Because it was once so successful, I can see the kind of steps they take to get back to success. Some questions that come up are: Can Dreamworks get back to making hit after hit or will this change be for nothing? How important were the top executives to the creative process if there is no change to the company?

Dreamworks Animation Layoffs

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/layoffs-underway-at-dreamworks-animation-1201409054/

This article is about Dreamworks Animation planning once again another round of Layoffs due to disappointing box office number with films, such as Rise of the Guardians, Turbo, and Mr. Peabody and Sherman. “Three of our last four films have not delivered in terms of audience turnout or financial performance,” Katzenberg told analysts. It is clear that Dreamworks Animation has been dealing with a big decline in the company, with no award winning films for the past 3 other than How to Train a Dragon 2, which did manage a nomination for best picture animation for the Academy Awards after winning in the same category in the Golden Globe Awards. It was rumored that the most affected by the layoffs are going to be the animators, storyboard artists, and production personnel. I chose this article because I haven't been really happy about how their turnouts have been going with films. I  rarely watch Dreamwork Animation films because they are no longer what they used to be. I've heard nothing but bad in their work, and i didn't bother watching. This news is probably important to the customer because, even though it's a sad thing to do for those who have been working hard, it has been disappointing lately and a change needs to happen. It was said that the company will reduct production budgets, so theres no telling what the future holds for it. The customer wants a better Dreamworks Animation. It's important to me as a filmmaker and student because it shows me that you can't get away with just making films out in the real world. People expect greatness and that's what you should shoot for all the time. If not, then you bring about disappointing numbers which in turn can get you laid off and lose your job for good. Filmmaking isn't just about making movies. It's about being creative and loving what you do. Making a bad film doesn't get you recognized and only hurts you more instead of growing into a better/experienced filmmaker. Questions that might come up from this can be: Will Dreamworks lower production budgets continue to hurt the company even more than it already is? Will new animators, storyboard artists, and production personnel be given a chance at working for the company?

Risks of 'The Interview'

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-sony-hack-north-korea-the-interview-20141210-story.html

This article is about the upcoming film The Interview and the risks it hold behind its release. Before Sony Pictures Entertainment was hacked, there were skeptical debates on whether they should actually release the film for theaters and the audience around the world. There were in fact threats made by North Korea concerning the film, calling it "an act of war." It was said that the studio executives were constantly being warned about possibly provoking retaliation by the Homeland Security. Then again, it was a film based on a fictional assassination attempt on Kim Jong Un. Rumors have it that the North Koreans had some sort of contribution to the hacks on Sony, but but no one truly knows the real perpatrators who were to blame. As a filmmaker and student, this helped me realize that film is much more than just a picture on a screen. It's what people around the world use to send a message. Theres always a moral or central message behind a film that can really change a person's life. It just so happens that with The Interview it was a strong political statement against the North Koreans. It was sort of like a growing sense of pride saying that Americans aren't afraid of anyone. It was a statement against the cruel doctor who brain washes his very own people. It was in fact a powerful act to continue, even after the threats came in. As a consumer, it's sort of a scary thing to do, because you never know how serious of a problem this was until North Korea decides to retaliate. Let's say they were involved with the Sony hacks; that just means they were warning us about what was to come if we ignored their wishes. It was an attack on our people's freedom of speech because of all the private information that was released. Obviously this made people feel afraid and less free, which is why there were debates on whether the movie should continue to screen in the first place. This raises a lot of questions on not only film, but political issues as well: Will the film continue to screen even after all the problems have gone through? What will North Korea's reaction be? Was this film ever intended to make North Korea angry ( act of war) in the first place?

Doha Film Institute Launches Fund for Qatari Filmmakers

http://deadline.com/2014/12/doha-film-institute-film-fund-qatar-1201309105/

This article is about the announcement made during the Ayjal film festival that the Doha Film institute will fund Qatari filmmakers. The Ayjal Film festival is known as a community based program that allows all ages to get together to talk about cinema and things that have inspired their creative interactions. Their main goal is to inspire the creative, young film enthusiasts of all ages in Qatar. Along with that news of the Doha film institute, four features and eight short films will be supported by the Qatari fund as well as one feature film from the fund will also receive production funds in the next two years. More specifically, 50,000 dollars will be offered by the development fund to the feature films and the other 50,000 dollars combined as a development/production award to the short best short films. As a student, this makes me glad to hear that other children, teens, and adults from another part of the world now have the opportunity to see and follow the path of a filmmaker. Unlike us, some film enthusiasts around the world just hope to one day get a glimpse of what a camera looks like. Now that institutes like Doha, are starting to fund filmmakers, theres hope for undiscovered talent. As a filmmaker I can expect working with different cultured filmmakers, bringing more ideas to the table and different feels with new material for the audience. As a consumer, this might benefit me because maybe films will start to take a multi-cultured turn with different stories because of personal experiences from the foreign filmmaker's country. This certainly raises questions like: Will film become more multi-culture based? What kind of new talent will we see in the future? Will more film institutes help fund filmmakers all around the world?

Light Project Reflection

This has been my hardest group project I've experienced so far this year and it's not over yet. My group has gone through very difficult situations to the point where we are constantly changing our schedule, which is very frustrating. There have been both ups and downs throughout this project, but there is one that concerns me more than all the others in particular. I feel that sometimes the group chemistry isn't there at all and it's something we have to work on as a team. I know we could work together better than the way we have been. I don't blame anyone in the group of course. I just think not ever working with each before on previous projects had a lot to do with how we communicate while on set. Like i mentioned before, constantly changing our schedule times have been a huge impact on us. A lot of our group members are involved in sports activities so we try our best to work our way around it. Although, I love how the group has been able to work through the adversity , such as our teacher actor having to leave the country for emergency reasons, rooms not being accessible for our shooting days, and a whole lot of reshooting because of lighting problems. A camera can be a really tricky thing, and that's definitely a hard lesson we have learned so far. There have been times where we set up our lights and check it on the mini screen of the camera to see how it looks and the picture seems just about right to us. With this in mind, we shoot our entire scene only to come back and see how terrible it looks on the computer. This was extremely frustrating and was a problem for several days, because we couldn't figure out how to get the right lighting on our set. Not until farther into the film, where we got the hang of it and how it was supposed to look on the mini screen in order for it to look good on the computer as well. Sometimes it's just plain and simple our faults, where we forget a piece of equipment or forget to dress for the scene. Once again, this is our lack of communication that we have to improve together. What I'm liking so far is how our sound crew is ahead on their work, so that won't be such a big problem in the future when it comes to editing all that in. Another thing I think my Dp and I should work on is how to use our surroundings better. What I mean by that is lighting wise, and how we can use the already present light and our own to make the shot even better than what it was intended to be. I hate how sometimes I find myself taking away the camera because I can't really explain to my Dp what I want the shot to look like.I need to work on my ability to be more understanding with her. Although we've gone through a lot of downs and knowing that we're probably the group that's the most far behind, I still believe that by the end of this project our film will turn out good. The way we've been handling situations like that and how our communication has somewhat improved since the beginning, I can already foreshadow a good future for us.

First IMAX Theatre To Open In Japan

http://variety.com/2014/film/news/top-japanese-exhibitor-toho-to-open-first-imax-theater-1201356158/

This article is about Toho, Japan's leading cinema operator and distributor, and their future plans for Downtown Tokyo. The plan includes opening the first Imax theatre in Tokyo as it has had huge success all throughout Japan. Some movies that hit it big in Imax Japan included Transformers and Godzilla, meaning the experience was very powerful and different causing more audiences to attract. In fact, this deal stands as the first one being made with Toho, but Imax has already contracted for 23 theaters in total throughout Japan. Only 17 were able to successfully open and the one in Downtown Tokyo will be adding onto that list. The screen is said to be a part of a complex that has already been in construction, located in a district called Shinjuku. This complex will also include hotels, restaurants, and retail. I chose this article because I wondered how successful Imax was in other countries and how it would attract its audience. As a filmmaker and student this impacts me in a way where in the future I might want to think about shooting a film in that sort of format. What I mean by that is, filming a movie as if it were only screening for an Imax theatre. That means I would have to really pay attention to the picture, sound, etc in order to release that even more powerful experience the audience is expecting to have by the end of the film. As a consumer, I notice now that Imax theaters are becoming worldwide and very successful. You never know, maybe in the far future Imax will replace the standardized theatre. This surely raises questions like: Will Imax ever become so successful to the point of just having Imax theaters? Do Imax screenings do better than regular theaters? What impact will this have on future filmmakers?