*Placement service

Two former Quantel employees are making it their business to see that the talent rubber hits the production road in the speediest and most efficient manner with their recently launched company International Creative Alliance.

Dwain Schenck and Brian Terr, former communications specialists at u.k.-based equipment maker Quantel, formed ica late last year to provide a global placement service for digital artists and technical support personnel seeking projects, and for producers in need of the aforementioned specialists.

The founders of ica call it the ‘world’s first premier alternative staffing company,’ whereby talent like freelance editors, cg artists and compositors, and technical support staff are matched with film, broadcast, post and audio post-production facilities for short- or long-term projects.

ica is developing a database of talent which it has screened based on experience, system strengths, interviews, reels and references. The company also manages payroll considerations and benefits packages.

Content creators who meet placement qualifications can register with the ica’s network via phone or Internet. Production and post facilities can then access appropriate talent quickly for short-term projects or use the resource to screen long-term employee prospects.

Schenck says the company, which has offices in Santa Monica, California and Stamford, Connecticut, will be actively targeting Canadian talent and facilities.

ica’s Website is located at www.ica-online.com.

*NFB Avant garde

The National Film Board in Montreal recently completed an overhaul of its Studio 3 operation, which included the installation of a Solid State Logic Avant digital film console.

Michael Drolet, consultant on technology development for the nfb, says the new studio configuration includes the Avant plus a bank of Tascam digital dubbers to supply tracks to it as well as recorders. The 32-frame, 128-input Avant console, which has two operator positions, will be used for multiple-format film and video mixing.

*Houthreeni

Toronto’s Side Effects Software has announced the beta release of its Houdini animation product in a Version 3.0 incarnation.

The company says the new version ups the speed and feature quotient and, with software enhancements as well as the evolution of hardware, offers realtime/ interactive capabilities.

The new release allows animators to make changes, like adding or deleting procedural operators while the animation continues to play.

The upgrade represents new realtime features in the software’s procedural channel operators (chops), including realtime puppeteering and the ability to process dat/cd-quality audio in realtime.

Houdini 3.0 will become available in the first half of ’99 and the company will announce further 3.0 enhancements at this year’s nab show.

*All this and Wolfman too

NAB update: The nab convention, to be held this year April 17-22 in Las Vegas, will kick off with a keynote by Sony chairman and ceo Howard Stringer.

On the multimedia side, nab has joined with industry associations like the Association for Interactive Media, the International Interactive Communications Society and the International Webcasting Association in the creation of its conference program for Multimedia World.

The Multimedia World show focuses on cd-rom, animation and graphics, digital video, Internet and online services, virtual sets, video compression and related technologies.

This year’s show will feature three conference programs: a New Media Professionals Conference, Internet Technologies and Applications, and HollyWeb, which allows attendees to brainstorm with some of the key players in the new media industry.

NAB 99 will also feature an all-day seminar from smpte on April 17 dealing with issues of control and automation of new technologies in broadcasting like digital inbound and outbound program streams, encoders and multiplexers, multichannel audio, multicasting and the like.

(Wolfman Jack will also be inducted posthumously into the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame.)

*New from Kodak

Kodak’s Professional Motion Imaging division has introduced a fifth Vision color-negative film, Vision 800T (5289). The new film is optimized for an exposure index of 800 in 3200 Kevin tungsten light and is particularly fast and extremely sensitive to low light levels. Vision 800T is currently available in 35mm format only.

Kodak has also introduced two new print films, Vision Color and Vision Premier. Vision Color print film 2383 is designed for use with the new generation of Vision negative film stocks. Vision Premier print film 2393 is designed for cinematographers, animators and directors seeking a ‘darker’ look, richer tones, brighter highlights and highly saturated colors.