In a ceremony at the Ray Stark Theater on USC’s Cinematic Arts campus last Thursday, Dean Elizabeth Daley joined George Lucas in welcoming three USC film professors to their new endowed chairs. Made possible by a generous gift from Lucas, the three new chairs — The Sergei Eisenstein Endowed Chair for Cinematic Design, the George Mélies Endowed Chair in Visual Effects, and the William Cameron Menzies Endowed Chair in Production Design — are now held by Bruce Block, Michael Funk, and Alex McDowell respectively. Continue reading USC Cinematic Arts Professors Installed in New Endowed Chairs

Carolyn Giardina of The Hollywood Reporter forwarded us news that Industrial Light & Magic, the visual effects division of Lucasfilm, has major expansion plans including a new facility in central London, just outside of Soho, and a move for the Vancouver team to a larger space that will allow the group to double from 100 to 200 employees. Lucasfilm also recently opened an ILM facility in Singapore. The VFX arm is a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Continue reading ILM Has Plans to Open New Visual Effects Facility in London

At its CES press event today, Sharp unveiled its new AQUOS Quattron+ (Q+) series of LED televisions and a new SmartCentral smart TV platform. In 2014 Sharp will offer 19 different AQUOS LED TVs 60-inches and larger. The company claims its Q+ series offers the highest resolution Full HD TV. The SmartCentral platform helps viewers search, discover and share content, while the SmartCentral mobile app connects smartphones and tablets to Sharp TVs. Continue reading Sharp Introduces Quattron+ Series and SmartCentral Platform

Hshtags is a new search engine from developer Kim Goulbourne that is designed to help users easily navigate the mass onslaught of hashtags, which have become a nearly ubiquitous utility of the social Web. The universal hashtag search client, launched in September, provides access to all the content posted with a specific hashtag from an array of social platforms including Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, Vimeo and YouTube (support for Vine and Google+ is expected soon). Continue reading Hshtags Search Engine: The Google Search of Social Media

Since last year’s official launch of the re-imagined Myspace in June, its new owners — Tim Vanderhook, Chris Vanderhook, and Justin Timberlake —  have launched iPhone and Android apps while introducing a slew of musical artists to the service. This week, Myspace announced it now has 36 million users, dominated largely by musicians, millennials and artists including photographers and designers. Through Myspace, many are finding a home for music and art discovery and streaming. Continue reading Myspace Draws 36 Million Millennials, Musicians and Artists

The Getty Museum announced that its former policy banning access to digital images has been amended. Digital images are now available for free on the Getty website for anyone who is interested. Previously, the Getty granted access to an image for a fee and with special terms and conditions. While the Getty still asks for the reason an individual is requesting an image, the process of obtaining a digital image is now made simple for everyone. Continue reading New Getty Policy Allows Everyone to Access Digital Images

Kickstarter announced yesterday that the crowdfunding service has reached a new milestone by launching more than 100,000 projects. Nearly 44 percent of the projects have been successfully funded by a total of $535 million. The top categories for launched projects include Film & Video, Music, Publishing, Art and Games. If its current funding rate continues, the service could raise its first billion as early as sometime this year. Continue reading New Milestone: 100,000 Projects Crowdfunded via Kickstarter

Last week, filmmaker Steven Soderbergh dissected the business of making movies when he spoke on the current state of cinema at the San Francisco International Film Festival. Soderbergh, who has achieved success in both the Hollywood system and the independent arena, spoke at length about the challenges faced by today’s artists to get their movies screened in theaters. Based on unprecedented demand, Soderbergh gave The San Francisco Film Society permission to post his keynote video and transcript in its entirety. Continue reading Soderbergh Distinguishes Between Cinema and Movies

The Cleveland Museum of Art is introducing new technology to enhance the visitor experience. With a special application designed for the iPad and a 40-foot interactive touchscreen, patrons can personalize and share tours, bookmark their favorite art, and access special videos and behind-the-scenes information for different exhibits. In the process, the Cleveland Gallery One program may serve as a model for museums and other venues. Continue reading Museum Bridges Art and Tech with 40-Foot Collection Wall

The Supreme Court issued a pair of decisions last week that could have a significant impact on digital publishing and copyrighted products. The first ruling makes it potentially easier to import and sell textbooks from abroad, following a lawsuit involving a college student who was importing cheaper textbooks and selling them for a profit. The second decision makes it more difficult for plaintiffs in class-action suits to stay out of federal court. Continue reading Supreme Court Rules it is Legal to Sell Imported Textbooks

Great design and attractive products please the human brain, according to brain scan studies revealing that the mere sight of an attractive product can trigger the part of the motor cerebellum that governs hand movement. That means human beings instinctively reach towards attractive things, even if they don’t fully understand why while they’re doing it. Continue reading How Design Affects the Brain: What is Attractive and Why?

Mark Ury came up with the concept for the storytelling site Storybird in 2010 after working on a storybook with his young son. The website, for “art-inspired storytelling,” now has more than two million members. It “works with artists from around the world, who upload their portfolios onto Storybird’s platform. Users choose their art, sequence the images any way they like and add text to turn them into a story,” explains paidContent. Continue reading Storybird: Art-Inspired Storytelling Finds New Audiences

NPR interviewed David Hockney who has been using his iPhone and iPad to create drawings with the help of a painting app called Brushes. The 73-year-old artist recently held an exhibit of his new artwork in the Pierre Berge-Yves St. Laurent Foundation in Paris. Hundreds of digital works were displayed on 40 screens (20 iPhones and 20 iPads) during the “Fresh Flowers” exhibition that ran through January 30.

Hockney initially became intrigued by the process while observing the morning sun enter his bedroom in Yorkshire, England. He would dip his fingers into the virtual paintbox on the phone’s screen, “paint” some flowers digitally in the morning light, and email to friends. “Incredible little thing, really, because it was like a sketchbook and a paintbox all in one,” the artist says. “No cleaning up. No mess.”

When he made the switch from the iPhone to the larger iPad, Hockney was able to expand upon his work and found he could use more fingers to create his art. Now he travels with the iPad as a substitute for the sketchbooks he always had with him. Old habits die hard, though. “He says he sometimes gets so obsessed that when he’s going, he rubs his finger on his clothes to, like, clean his finger — as if he was using real paint.”