Music Video Render Farm

The CG Supervisor of the martial arts film is off to Japan for a month so he is lending out his render farm for use on the music video. My fiance' came home and said our dining room looks like an IT department. Linux network controller, PC server, and 5 rack mounted machines with various configurations.

It doesn't compare to ILM's roughly 70,000 procs with a another 70,000 coming in 2007, but it's better than a laptop in a coffee shop.

Music Video

For the next 6 weeks I will be supervising and working on a music video. The Director is very talented and easy to work with. We worked at ILM together on a few projects several years ago. He is going to the trouble of moving his operation from LA to SF for the duration of post. Unfortunately I can't say for what band or style until it's released. Look forward to the video early 2007. There will be a making-of shot as well.

Through the Looking Glass

I went on-set to a trailer shoot Sunday in Sacramento for an up and coming Director, Alexander Sadri. He graduated from the University of Southern California; same school as George Lucas. 40 shots in 12 hours. A few visual effects shots.

Before we finish the trailer feel free to check out the website:
http://www.lookingglassmovie.com/

Missing Pixels

I spoke today at THE ACADEMY of ART UNIVERSITY in San Francisco to the Missing Pixels club. As far as I understand it's a club that discusses the animation and visual effects industry. One goal of the club is to find projects for students to work on, hence the name.

I talked about my career, the industry, and showed various DVDs:
* Louis Katz 2005 reel.
* Design Reactor's latest virual marketing film, The One.
* Vladimir Leschinski's Visual Effects Supervisor reel for Dr.PICTURE in Russia including Night Watch, Day Watch and Wolfhound (HD series) visual effects work.
* Scott Leberecht's Natural Selection.

I asked the students to introduce themselves and what their major is emphasizing.

I spoke about the visual effects work we need for the film Origin. I have a feeling a few or more of the students present will volunteer to help out.

The President of the club, Patrick Johnson was an extremely nice guy. I believe he wants to become a Visual Effects Producer.

Please visit http://www.missingpixels.org to learn more...

Natural Selection on iTunes

Natural Selection, an award winning short film I worked on for my buddy Scott Leberecht is available on iTunes.

Open iTunes and go to Movies/Shorts Films/Shorts International/Natural Slection.
Starring Lee Arenberg (Pirates of the Caribbean, I, II, and III).

More about Scott:
www.midnightsonmovie.com

It's a BIG AD!

http://download.massivesoftware.com/client_work/cubbigad.lo.mov

Superman Returns DVD and SONY Blu-ray

Superman Returns releases to DVD and Blu-ray November 28. One day before my birthday! I can't wait to have a visual effects reel in Blu-ray, or ahemmm HDVD format. I will have Fantastic Four and Superman Returns shots added to my reel.

I remember when I was a kid my Dad showed me the first Sony CD player in 1984 I believe. He built a custom room in his stereo store in Marshall Minnesota just to show it off. The entertainment industry changed that day. I truly hope Blu-ray wins. Even if it's more expensive. And not because I worked at SONY.

-Louis

My Dad sent me this link:
http://www.cedmagic.com/history/sony-cdp-101.html

Martial Arts Film - Origin

Hello-

I am supervising roughly 60 visual effects shots for Origin. 20 easy, 20 hard, and 20 very hard shots. Stay tuned for updates on the project. Feel free to e-mail me and volunteer if you're interesting in helping out.

http://www.symphonyofthefallen.com/origin/

Thanks,
Louis Katz
katzfx@aol.com
www.louiskatz.com

Design Reactor :: Recent Projects

Design Reactor has recently completed several projects including:

- The One: An on-line film starring Hector Ruiz, CEO of AMD. This Matrix Parody is part of a larger virtual tradeshow experience that won Adobe's, flash site-of-the day award.
http://virutalexperience.amd.com

- Subaru commercial: CG car for an upcoming 30-second national spot.

- Modeling and animation for seven Motorola mobile phones.

- Modeling and animation for a new Palm Treo consumer product.
http://www.designreactor.com/palm/

Design Reactor :: Animation & Visual Effects

Design Reactor's Visual Effects Department

The increasing sophistication of visual effects continues to accelerate the convergence of entertainment and technology. High end animations and motion graphics are now becoming an integral and expected part of a brand's visual vocabulary. To meet this growing creative, technical, and cultural demand, Design Reactor's Visual Effects department provides premiere animation and visual effects services for the web, broadcast, and film.

Design Reactor's Visual Effects Department creates world class animations and effects for companies of all sizes. Bridging the gap between Hollywood and the web, we provide a team of experienced, industry-leading effects artists who can meet the most demanding creative and technical expectations, deadlines and budgets. Led by visual effects supervisor Louis Katz who worked on feature films such as Superman Returns, Star Wars Episodes I and II, and Men in Black, Design Reactor delivers world class digital content.

Please visit http://www.designreactor.com to learn more.

Welcome | Sales and Marketing Visual Effects

Welcome to the Visual Effects blog.

Sales and Marketing Visual Effects
Make no mistake. This is no easy task. Getting the work done in visual effects is not the hard part. Finding the work is. As you'll find out by reading this blog.

Cold calls. Most people would rather not make cold calls. I have to admit I was nervous and skeptical at first. Fortunately I taught classes a few years ago so I was fairly comfortable in front of a large group attempting to hold the attention of an audience for 3 hours straight. A cold call usually lasts about 30 seconds. It's not that hard.

What helps is a "yes, no" answer trail script. Just jot down bullet items of where you want the conversation to lead. One page. What's funny and interesting is the conversations never actually follows the predetermined paths. The conversations that last longer than a minute end up lasting usually 5 to 30 minutes. I always end up saying what I wanted to say regardless. The point is, "Now that I have your attention, we are available for work!" Luckily the folks I've been calling in my industry I already know so they don't hang up. So far...

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Look forward to more posts related to the Visual Effects industry as time goes on.

Thank you for visiting.
-Louis Katz
http://www.louiskatz.com