American Cinematographer - August 2012 - 80

New Products & Services
Visual Effects Go “There”
Visual-effects and production veterans Elliott and Taylor Jobe
have launched There, a bicoastal company that specializes in the
capture and compositing of digital sets with greenscreen production.
The company provides an alternative to traditional locationbased
production, making it possible to capture locations that
would otherwise be impossible to shoot in an expedient and costcompetitive
way.
“We combine on-set technology with digital sets using
assets we capture or create, as well as existing assets we repurpose,”
explains Elliott Jobe, There’s creative director. “With digital
sets, we can give our clients access and control of lighting so it can
be magic hour all day.”
“Our studio is a hybrid of practical and digital technology,
which many live-action productions tend to approach separately,”
adds Taylor Jobe, the company’s development director. “You can be
inside the Louvre, Red Square or Grand Central Terminal in one
afternoon.”
There enables both director and cinematographer to interact
with talent on the greenscreen stage as if they were shooting in an
actual location. For example, the director can work with actors on
performance while referencing the digital environment as opposed
to having only limited contextual reference within the greenscreen
stage, and the cinematographer can choose which lens to use and
how to light a scene based on actual distances and images within
the digital set.
Among There’s recent projects are commercials for Virgin
America and Crystal Geyser, featuring digital sets of a plane interior
and a modern kitchen, respectively; and a “Rock Center” promo
with Brian Williams, featuring digital sets for seven floors of Rockefeller
Center-based productions (such as Late Night with Jimmy
Fallon, Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock) that facilitated shooting
with multiple celebrities.
There evolved from the company LiveLocation. R&D led the
Jobes to launch the brand more precisely as There. Additional clients
include Bravo, Lucasfilm, Geico, Warner Bros. and O Positive Films.
For additional information, visit www.hellothere.tv.
80
August 2012
State University science department to help set up remote render
farms and virtualization with our other studios.”
Pixomondo DTW, the new studio in Detroit, was formed
through the acquisition of boutique visual-effects company With A
Twist. It will focus on feature, television and commercial work,
handling both local and international projects.
With A Twist has a long-standing relationship with
Pixomondo as a sub-vendor on several features, including The
Amazing Spider-Man, Fast Five, Sucker Punch and Hugo. David
Burton, co-founder of With A Twist, notes that the company “had
reached the point where we needed to grow to remain competitive.
Pixomondo has already accomplished much of what we aspired to
do, and done it well, so it was a natural progression to join into their
team. Our cultures mesh well and the timing was right.”
“The visual-effects industry is such a worldwide market-
place,” adds With A Twist co-founder Pam Hammarlund. “It is a
tremendous asset to have access to [Pixomondo’s] global resources.”
With extensive experience creating visual effects for such
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Pixomondo Expands to Baton Rouge, Detroit
International visual-effects company Pixomondo has
announced the opening of its 12th and 13th facilities in Baton
Rouge, La., and Detroit, Mich., respectively. The announcement
follows the Academy Award win by Pixomondo’s visual-effects
supervisor Ben Grossmann and digital-effects supervisor Alex
Henning for their work on Hugo, which featured more than 800
stereo 3-D visual-effects shots created by Pixomondo artists around
the world.
“Opening an office in Baton Rouge fits perfectly with our
overall company vision,” says Thilo Kuther, founder of Pixomondo.
“Louisiana offers a very generous production tax rebate that we can
pass on to our clients to bolster our project load as well as our growing
teams in Los Angeles, London, Germany, China and Canada.
“Baton Rouge is a beautiful city with a wealth of resources,”
Kuther continues. “We’ve already connected with the Louisiana
http://www.hellothere.tv
American Cinematographer - August 2012

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