Featured Project: Room for One More

This week's featured project comes from last semester's DVA442 HDV Production class, written and directed by Shon Major and with stellar cinematography by Ryan Loveland.

Room for One More from UAT Digital Video on Vimeo.

After Effects Tutorial Roundup

Topher Welsh of AE Tuts+ has recently published a roundup of 30 great After Effects tutorials, ranging from simple motion graphics tricks to amazing visual effects feats. Check them out here!

Featured Project: Polarity

Here's a project from last semester's DVA241 class, produced in HD by student Chris Erickson. This one has it all - great cinematography, editing, and visual effects - and a compelling story. Check it out!

Polarity from UAT Digital Video on Vimeo.

Reinventing Star Trek's VFX

From StudioDaily.com:

How J.J. Abrams Demanded, and ILM Delivered, More Story from Every Shot
By Barbara Robertson
May 13, 2009

We’re sitting with Paul Kavanagh in a screening room at Industrial Light & Magic, watching director J. J. Abrams’ early cuts for the film Star Trek. Kavanagh was the animation supervisor at ILM, which created 864 visual effects shots for the spacefaring adventure. Abrams’ reboot of the venerable franchise scored big over opening weekend, raking in $76.5 million at the North American box office amidst galaxies of critical acclaim. ILM’s Roger Guyett, who was also the second unit director, supervised the visual effects, which also included work by Digital Domain, Evil Eye, Lola, Svengali and Kerner Optical.

Read the rest here!

New DVA101 Finals Now Online

Last semester's crop of DVA101 Final Action Movies are now on YouTube. Here's one of them... check out the rest here.

Lessons and Advice from Top Editors

From StudioDaily.com:

The AlphaDogs Editors' Lounge in April featured a panel of four seasoned editors with diverse backgrounds talking about the craft of editing and how it has changed since they got in the business. In this series of videos, feature film editor Billy Weber, reality TV editor Glenn Morgan, trailers editor Carol Streit and jack-of-all trades editor Terry Curren discuss the lessons they have learned in decades of work and offer bits of wisdom not found in any film school or editing manual.

To watch and learn how these editors forged their careers, click here.

To watch video of these editors discussing the lessons they've learned in decades in the the business and the advice they have for aspiring editors, click here.

New DVA101 Commercial Spoofs Online

Last semester's 30 Second Commercial Spoofs are now online on YouTube. Here's one... the rest can be found here!

Featured Project: A Day For Tea

During the 2005 Summer semester, DVA441 Competition Shorts was run for the very first time, and the students were tasked with producing a number of short films that would be "competition ready" - for submission to film festivals and to competitions like IFP/Phoenix's "Screen Wars." Here's the second film produced by that class (the first one presented here as a Featured Project was "Bad Whiskey" back in March). This one is called "A Day For Tea" and is a good example of how DV students can use the UAT campus in creative ways to double for other locales. Watch it on YouTube.

Video: Adjunct Professor Webb Pickersgill wins Arizona Filmmaker of the Year

Here's a follow-up to our April 7 story about UAT Digital Video adjunct professor Webb Pickersgill winning the coveted Arizona Filmmaker of the Year Award at the 2009 Phoenix Film Festival. Bivas Biswas (2008 Arizona Filmmaker of Year) has posted an on-the-scene video of the event here on YouTube. Watch for appearances by other UAT Digital Video faculty - adjunct professors Steve Briscoe and Chris LaMont throw their 2 cents in. And yet somehow Professor PD was missed? Hmmmm....

Oh, and a little warning about NSFW language... filmmakers + free drinks = mayhem indeed.

This is why we teach Avid...

Avid has posted their new demo reel for 2009, highlighting their entire product line, their new logo, and footage from some of their biggest and most visible customers. Check it out here!