Networks commits to top cable series for seasons five and six

By STUART LEVINE

USA Network has given a go-ahead for seasons five and six of “Burn Notice” — continuing a noticeable trend of cablers showing confidence by reupping shows before having significant ratings data to consider.

Season four is still two months away from launching. But USA says the series — the No. 1 show in cable — will continue to be a ratings juggernaut and wants it to remain in the lineup for years to come.

“Once ‘Saturday Night Live’ makes fun of you,’ how can you not commit to extra seasons?” president of original programming Jeff Wachtel told Daily Variety.

Wachtel is referring to a skit on the venerable NBC latenight franchise in which gameshow contestants were quizzed about “Burn Notice.”

Network execs say seasons five and six will run a minimum of 15 and 18 episodes, respectively. Season four is shooting in Miami and season five will begin production in about a year. (continue reading…)

We at Cineworks congratulate the New Orleans Saints, the city of New Orleans & all of Louisiana for the best Super Bowl in memory.

The Saints overcame a 10-point deficit last night at Sun Life Stadium in Miami for the first National Football League title in their 43-year history.

Cineworks is proud to have full service facilities in New Orleans & Miami.

Now we are in the record books. Burn Notice gets better and better and this season finale made the USA Network a happy camper since it became the most watched series telecast on the USA Network. Burn Notice had the largest audience for a cable show at 9:00 pm according to the Nielson Media Research data.

7.6 million viewers. And that included me, Tony Maiorana and Vinny Hogan and off course our whole staff but especially senior colorist  Ralph Perez, who has, for the last four seasons labored over every super 16MM frame of this show by making it look terrific when it leaves our house and travels via digital uploads to their editors in LA to be followed up by an HDCAM for their weekly conform and color correction.

We at Cineworks have been really proud to have been part of the unsung process, and are looking forward to next years challenges.

Burn Notice will be starting its fourth season next year on your TV screens, but we are slowing coming to a close of their shooting season and we ask our Miami film community to do everything they can to ensure another season for this mavericki show.

Jeffery Donovan spy on.

Media Contacts:
Kelly Mandarano
Eastman Kodak Company
585-724-0903
Email kelly.mandarano@kodak.com

Cineworks Becomes First US Lab Accredited in KODAK IMAGECARE Program

Fifty-first laboratory to meet demanding standards of Kodak worldwide program

(Rochester, USA, July 07, 2009) Kodak today announced that Cineworks Digital Studios in Miami Florida became the first US laboratory – and the fifty-first worldwide — to successfully complete KODAK IMAGECARE Program certification. Since the Kodak program began in 1996, it has now been adopted in 31 countries – from Argentina to
Turkey and from the United Arab Emirates to the Russian Federation.

“Our goal is to be the highest quality front end lab on the east coast,” said Vincent Hogan Jr., laboratory manager of Cineworks. “We participate in Kodak’s monthly laboratory quality assurance survey, in addition to our stringent in house quality control procedures. Our accreditation in the KODAK IMAGECARE Program is further proof to our customers that they can trust us to deliver the highest standards in motion picture developing.”

Kodak established the IMAGECARE Program in recognition of the fact that the processing of motion picture film is a sophisticated process. There are complex cycles, intermediate film stages and other steps to create optical and digital sound tracks. With the high stakes involved in every film project, the negative must be protected, processed correctly, and handled carefully. The Kodak program sets standards that cinematographers – and the industry — trust.

“We’re delighted to welcome Cineworks Digital into the Kodak program,” said Diane Carroll-Yacoby, worldwide manager of the KODAK IMAGECARE Program. “Their film processing operations are really first-class and we’re proud to accredit them as the first IMAGECARE Camera Negative Processing Laboratory in the United States.”

In the Kodak program, labs can be accredited for camera negative film processing, release printing, or both. Each of the three accreditations has its own requirements. And once the lab has passed an initial screening, reassessment is repeated every year, with self-assessment – and other informal Kodak involvement — in between.

“People are a key component of the program,” said Carroll-Yacoby. “The laboratory has to commit to assigning resources to the stringent testing and monitoring of all the different facets of operation, as well as to developing the people in both skills and knowledge, through an aggressive staff training program. Cineworks’ commitment to all
aspects of the program has positioned them well to meet the expectations of even the most demanding filmmakers.”

Cineworks’ equipment is state of the art, maintained meticulously by the laboratory staff, which is one of the most experienced group of lab technicians in North America. Each tech brings no less than twenty years of experience in developing motion picture film. The company’s president Vincent Hogan Sr. is a veteran of 30 years in the motion picture laboratory and post production business.

Over the past years, the lab has handled nearly one hundred feature films and TV productions for which they’ve provided a wide range of processing and post-production services, including dailies, color grading, mastering, digital intermediate production, and telecine transfers.

“We see ourselves as members of the filmmaker’s collaborative team,” said Hogan. “All of their vision, creativity, and hard work go into creating the negative they entrust to us. It’s up to Cineworks to help them bring all that to the screen and our membership in the KODAK IMAGECARE program says they can trust us to do that reliably, every time.”

# # #

For more information on the KODAK IMAGECARE Program,
visit www.kodak.com/go/imagecare.

For immediate release
Media Contact: Amber Havens, 225.342.5580 amber.havens@la.gov

LOUISIANA LEGISLATURE CLOSES 2009 REGULAR SESSION WITH STRONG SUPPORT FOR ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY

Baton Rouge, LA, June 29, 2009: When the Louisiana Legislature closed its 2009 Regular Session, it had demonstrated strong support for the state’s developing entertainment industry by passing a package of bills designed to support programs and strengthen incentives for motion picture production, sound recording, live performance and digital/interactive media. Significantly, legislators raised the film production incentive to 30% and increased the digital interactive media tax credit to 25% for the production of media such as video games, simulation software, and social media internet sites. Despite a $1.3 billion drop in state revenue, the Legislature has made permanent these tax incentives that are helping the entertainment industry catapult into a thriving contributor into the state’s economy.

“It’s clear that our legislators consider this industry a vital part of Louisiana’s future,” said Sherri McConnell, director of the Louisiana Economic Development Office of Entertainment Industry Development. “We’re very gratified by their support during a very challenging economic period for both our state and the country.”

The package of entertainment bills now goes to Governor Bobby Jindal for signature. The governor expressed his support for these programs as important economic drivers prior to the start of regular session.

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Miami, Feb.12, 2009

Miami Agency La Comunidad and creative director Jose Molla wanted to introduce their latest  MTV International campaign using  the newest technology and asked Director Nelson Cabrera to deliver three spots shot with the Red Camera.

The campaign, Let Idols be Idols, features look-a-likes for Bono, P. Diddy, and Robert Smith in various locations acting very unlike their namesakes. Cabrera brought the spots to Cineworks based on their successful track record with other Red Camera projects.

Cineworks’ Post Production supervisor Bradley Greer, using established work flow of Assimilate/Scratch, completed the conform, color grading, titling and the final output to HD and digibeta for all three spots.

Creative editing  credits on the project go to Alejandro Santangelo of Upstairs/Miami and the Cinematographer was Andre Sanchez. Other credits on the spots go to copywriter Gustavo Lauria, and art Director Philip Bonnery of La Comunidad and special effects designer Wally Rodriguez of Upstairs/Miami .

Vinny Hogan, president of Cineworks, believes that the Red Camera post work flow is an important service that Cineworks offers its clients. Cineworks has developed a strong niche in the Digital Intermediate Market offering film mastering and film outs from Red, Panavison’s Genesis, Arri’s D-21 or film originated projects.

Handsome Harry, experimental Director Bette Gordon’s new feature, played the Tribeca Film Festival to a sold out house this past week.

The Master HDCAM of the film had been shipped just a few days before the screening by Cineworks Post Production Supervisor Bradley Greer who had headed up in the 2K conform and the final color correction.

Handsome Harry brought producer Jamin O’Brien back to Florida since his successful Boynton Beach Club was processed at Cineworks Digital Studios in 2003 and exposed Bette Gordon and her Australian based cinematographer Nigel   Bluck to their Digital Intermediate process that Cineworks has perfected in the last few years.

Handsome Harry was shot in 2K Arri Raw data using the Arri D21 camera.  Bradley Greer, having dealt with two major data projects back to back, is looking forward to his next one,“Something that I can really sink my teeth into.”

“Searching Paradise” was a surprise hit at the improvised student film festival in Lakeland Mall in Sarasota on Friday May 15, 2009.

As students of Bradenton Preparatory School filled the theater to see some of their own in a senior project, which began innocently enough as a film about conservation, thinking green and saving the planet, they were propelled into a dark world created by Harrison Sanborn, 17, the film’s actor and director, filled with deceit, nuclear landscapes and toxic dumping.

The picture finds Harrison and a few of his fellow students are on route with their teacher on a senior project to learn more about a fictitious phosphate plant that promises it will return the mining site to its pristine origins. Camera and microphone in hand the investigative reporters plan to interview the management of the plant and ask some very pointed questions.

They have been taken on a helicopter trip around the plant by the local EPA Official and shown that the plant is really polluting the land and doing little to restore it. Their plan to get to the bottom of this starts the ball rolling, not knowing how connected the town’s politicians are with the plants ownership. And the underlying question of how many jobs it is providing. After high speed car chases leading to crashes in town and on the highway, train collisions with cars and trucks all caught by helicopter rigged cameras, the students barely survive to tell their story.

Shot in HD and edited to a throbbing rock music track also written by Sanborn, the film had it first rough cut screening to an ecstatic audience of student, parents, teachers and also local Senator Vern Buchanan.

Under the time limitations of a screening set to coincide with the students graduating day the following day, Cineworks’ post production supervisor Bradley Greer conformed the HD project in final cut pro, Lenny Rabinowitz helped with the sound design and rough mix and Matt Perrin color corrected the 60 minute film all in less than two weeks. Digital Projection was supplied by Ron Spiegel of Astoria Communications.

The air date was met with thunderous applause.