Oz Magazine Feb/March 2012

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hi james feb/march 2012 film & tv • print • new media • lifestyle the next cool event 2012

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Atlanta-based B2B magazine showcasing film & tv, print, and new media, with a dose of lifestyle added in.

Transcript of Oz Magazine Feb/March 2012

Page 1: Oz Magazine Feb/March 2012

hi james

feb/march 2012

film & tv • print • new media • lifestyle

the next cool event 2012

Page 2: Oz Magazine Feb/March 2012

HAVE YOUR PEOPLE

CALL OUR PEOPLE*

*please

The Georgia Film & Television Sourcebook is filled with highly skilled entertainment industry personnel and scores of local vendors, so for cryin’ out loud, at least give them a call.**

**thanks

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Page 3: Oz Magazine Feb/March 2012

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Page 4: Oz Magazine Feb/March 2012

OZ M A G A Z I N E S TA F FPublishers: Tia Powell - Group Publisher, Gary Wayne Powell - Publisher

Editorial: Gary Powell - Ozcetera Editor

Allison Williams - Research Contributors: Nichole Bazemore, Andrew Duncan, Mike Clark, Scott Mikus, Diane Lasek

Sales: Diane Lasek, Mukari Butler, Monique McGlockton

IT/Database Administrator: John Cleveland Sherman, III Design: Christina Wills - Art Director & Designer

Sarah Medina - Production Artist & DesignerTed Fabella, Logo Design

I N T h I S I S S u E

C O Lu M N SOzcetera p. 8

Behind the Camera w/ Drewprops p. 22

Bring Your Camera - The Next Cool Event p. 28

Oz Scene p. 40

Voices - The Evolution of the Client Relationship p. 41

How I Got into the Business p. 42

Per Diem - Decatur p. 44

Let Me Give You My Card p. 49

Unconventional Art - Floral Design p. 50

FEB/MARCh 2012

F E A T u R E SFeature Story - The Death of 3-D p. 18

Cover Story - Tinsel or Sham p. 24

hi james

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Visit us on the web at www.ozmagazine.com, www.ozonline.tv, www.facebook.com/ozpublishingOz Magazine is published bi-monthly by Oz Publishing, Inc • 2566 Shallowford Road • #302, Suite 104 • Atlanta, GA 30345 • (404) 633-1779Copyright 2012 Oz Publishing Incorporated, all rights reserved. Reproductions in whole or in part without express written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited. This magazine is printed on recyclable paper.

C O V E R A R TDigital Manipulation/Coloring/Design:

Christina Wills © Oz Publishing, Inc., 2012

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D I G I TA L P R O D U C T I O N • E D I T O R I A L • M O T I O N G R A P H I C S • A U D I O

WE'VE CREATED A MONSTER… Check out the ree l : V imeo.com/magick lantern

Artwork by Dean Ve lez, Sen ior Mot ion Graphics Des igner at Magick

Page 6: Oz Magazine Feb/March 2012

C O N T R I B u T O R S

Nichole Bazemore is a freelance writer and blogger. She is also the host of the show, Say It With Style, on Blog Talk Radio. Her company, Simply Stated Solutions, provides market-ing materials for coaches, consultants, and small businesses. Learn more about Nichole and her company via her website, www.simplystatedsolutions.com, or connect with her on Facebook or Twitter @nicholebazemore.Cover Story, p. 24

Diane Lasek has been involved in the film and television industry for 20+ years, most of that time as a marketing and salesperson. She is currently working as a sales consultant on the Oz Publishing team and enjoys getting to know all of the hard-working creative folks working across Georgia. In her spare time she is a bee keeper, master gardener has a little worm castings company for your organic gardening needs. That can be found at www.smartdirtorganics.comBring Your Camera, p. 28

Scott Mikus is a principal and creative director for Crawford/Mikus. His expertise includes corporate brand identity development and employee communications. With more than 24 years of experience, Crawford/Mikus has received more than 227 nation-al and international awards for excellence in communications. Since 1993, Crawford/ Mikus has called Suite T-101 at The King Plow Arts Center home.www.crawfordmikus.comVoices, p. 41

Michael Clark, Longtime “Oz” contributor Michael Clark has written for over 50 national and international publications and has completed three screenplays. Since 1996, he has been the sole film critic for the Gwinnett Daily Post and has just finished his first novel. He can be reached at [email protected] Story, p. 18

Andrew Duncan, known in the motion picture industry as “Drewprops”, has been writing about the craft of fi lmmaking from the inside out since the mid-1990’s. His confusing and often embarrassing stories from behind the scenes provide a unique insight into the craft of fi lmmaking from the perspective of the shooting crew, artists, and designers who bring your favorite films to life on the big screen. www.drewprops.comBehind the Camera w/ Drewprops, p. 22

There are times when a man has to step forward to do what’s right, and sometimes the right thing to do is to get weird. And sometimes the weird sticks around longer than it ought to. And sometimes it gets written down...

FLASHBACK : Saturday, December 8, 2001It was nearly midnight in the forsaken town of Crawfordville when a voice rang out in the chill November air:

I’m not sure where Jimmy went after his very �rst show, but he returned most unexpectedly two years later for the �lming of Sweet Home Alabama during a punch-drunk tour of Georgia, from Atlanta to Rome to Crawfordville… only this time Jimmy wasn’t there to make trouble, he was just having fun. Even better, the 1st AD on this new show (Louis) had an entirely di�erent reaction to Jimmy: he loved him.

By the time our crew had rolled into Crawfordville Louis would ask over channel one “Where is Jimmy?? I love Jimmy!! Jimmy, where are you?”. Sometimes Jimmy would reply, sometimes he wouldn’t. Some of the PAs on the crew had started doing their own versions of Jimmy, confusing things further and leading Louis to put out a bounty out for the true identity of Jimmy eventually leading back to that showdown in Crawfordville: the 1st AD of the movie calling Drewprops out on channel one for being Jimmy. My cover appeared to have been blown.

The following Tuesday our company had moved south of Craw-fordville to the taxidermy-enriched climes of Heavy’s BBQ and I went onto set to take something to my co-second, George Lee, who was preparing pink umbrellas for actress Jean Smart. I sat down on a bar stool next to Louis and before he could turn around I quietly issued a signal into my radio on channel four then quickly switched back to channel one, stealthily turned up the volume on the Walkie and placed the Walkie onto the bar, aimed toward Louis.

As soon as he turned and saw me sitting beside him Louis began grinning; his eyes twinkled with the satisfaction of a French revolutionary who’d just nabbed the Scarlet Pimpernel (or like Barney Fife after catching Goober jaywalking, for those of you whose knowledge of literature ended with the Illustrated Tale of Two Cities). I began to list the reasons that it just wasn’t possible for me to be Jimmy but Louis was having none of that, like Deputy Fife: he knew when he had his man.

That’s when channel one suddenly exploded into life with the unmistakable warbling of the real Jimmy, nattering on with some sort of gibberish about a completely needless lock-up inside the honeywagon.

“Jimmy’s in the poo-poo hut!!!”Louis’ satis�ed grin evaporated instantly into the most hysteri-cally shocked look I’ve ever seen on a 1st AD’s face. Everything Louis knew about the world had been turned upside down… he kept looking back and forth between his radio and me with his jaw wide open. With an air of righteous indignation I stood up and snarled, “See?? I told you I wasn’t Jimmy!”, before snatching my radio from the bar and stalking o� set.

“I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart.”

Our First Assistant Director, Louis D'Esposito, was quoting Michael Corleone over channel one and every time the process truck made a swing past the courthouse Louis would smile and point at me in a way which made it clear that I should not be surprised to discover a horse’s head tucked beneath the sheets of my hotel room.

This was of course entirely Jimmy’s fault; if I was going to �nish this picture in one piece I would have to take care of Jimmy permanently, which was going to be a bit of a problem since Jimmy only existed inside the Walkie-talkie.

What Louis didn’t know was that two years prior to this �lm I’d been on a big show where the 1st AD turned out to be a rotten bully to his own crew and was constantly berating and belittling them on channel one, which was embarrassing and unnecessary and didn’t sit right with the rest of the crew (but what could anybody do?). After one particularly scalding public outburst to one of his hardest working ADs I felt a twinge of rebellion stirring in my soul and from some-where deep within my psyche a fresh-faced PA named “Jimmy” sprang forth onto channel one, the realm of the 1st AD.

Jimmy was always enthusiastic and eager to report the condition of his (extremely remote and absolutely unnecessary) lock-up to the tyrannical 1st AD and Jimmy’s muppet-like speech impediment was underscored by a simpleton’s innocence. Jimmy the nonexistent PA would typically “appear” on channel one to make his reports any time the 1st AD began raking his team over the coals, peppering the 1st with questions and occasional opinions about shots. Though Jimmy was a lovable anarchist and gained instant adoration from some of the crew, time and experience make me realize what a juvenile act it had been and I do (mostly) regret loosing him on the world.

Still, how could anyone not love hearing the excited burble of “Go Foh Jeemy!!” over channel one from time to time?

The terms “walkie” and “radio” are used interchangeably in the motion picture industry.

I allowed Louis to puzzle over the mystery of Jimmy for more than a week before explaining to him how I’d given our prop truck driver, Johnny Poucher, a tape recording full of Jimmy’s crazy ramblings and told him to listen for my cue before playing the recording over channel one.

As far as I know that was the last show I worked on with Jimmy, though I did hear that some of the PAs had taken Jimmy with them to their next shows. I shudder to think what sort of calami-ties that might have caused.

You see, I’m older and I �nally understand that the walkie is a crucial tool of the motion picture industry and should never be misused, regardless of the circumstances.

To make amends for my past walkie misdeeds I am now urging my production friends around the world to begin training current and future production assistantss on proper radio etiquette and to expedite the process I have created a paper model of a walkie talkie to allow for inexpensive training sessions. Simply cut out the “On-Set Activity Playset #5 : Walkie-Talkie” and slide the tabs into the corresponding slots. If you are inexperience at using scissors please as a prop person or a responsible looking producer for help. Please take particular care when assembling the antenna sub-assembly and don’t forget to attach the belt-clip (since the paper is so light you will have to simulate the weight of the radio pulling your pants down by tugging at your pants with one hand).

Please consult the sidebar “WalkieTalk 101” for some of the general terminology your PAs should incorporate into their train-ing. Make sure that they know the di�erence between “10-20” and “10-200” - lives will hang in the balance.

• Teach your future Spielbergs how to change channels on their radios and how to turn down their volume if they are near camera and are operating without a headset.

• Simulate changing batteries.

• Put a cement block into a backpack and have them carry it around all day to simulate being in charge of spare batter-ies.

• Drill them on the procedure for switching to channel 2 and then back to channel 1.

• Teach them to ANSWER the $#!*@!! radio when the 1st or 2nd AD calls out for some assistance.

• Show them how to bounce a radio on the pavement like a frustrated 1st AD when no PAs respond to an all-call.

Most importantly, make sure that they have FUN!!

O§cers, release tra§c.

Andrew Duncan, known in the motion picture industry as “Drewprops” has been writing about the craft of filmmaking from the inside out since the mid-1990s. His confusing and often embarrassing stories from behind the scenes provide a unique insight into the craft of filmmaking from the perspective of the shooting crew, artists and designers who bring your favorite films to life on the big screen!

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Page 8: Oz Magazine Feb/March 2012

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OpEN CALL for Photo Media

Atlanta Celebrates Photogra-phy (ACP) has an open call for proposals for its 2012 Public Art Project. Now accepting your creative ideas, proposals should explore the intersection of pho-tography and public art in At-lanta. The 2012 Public Art Project has a $9,000 budget, and it’s free to apply. Your proposed project must involve lens-based or pho-tographic media as an integral part of the piece. This includes images or video captured by a lens, or media in which light sensitivity is a primary element of the material, or reimagining the uses of photography, or pos-sibilities of imagery made with light. ACP Public Art Projects from past years including work from Monica Cook, Karen Brum-mund, Beth Lilly, McCallum/Tarry, Jason Fulford, Matt Haffner, Amy Landesberg & Peter Bahouth. You can learn more and submit your proposal via callforentry.org. The application deadline is February 12th.

Keith Adams, Senior Partner at SPINVFX recently completed ani-mation and visual effects for the NBC premiere of “Game of Your Life,” a made for TV movie. The movie premiered in December.

The Partnership of Atlanta was named agency of record by ATC Financial, an Atlanta-based tax preparation company. The Agen-cy will execute retail advertising campaigns leveraging television, radio, and digital media to help the new company expand. One of the Southeast’s largest orna-mental plant growers, Young’s Plant Farm, tapped The Partner-ship to lead market research, strategic marketing and channel support advertising campaigns.

a SpIN friday Night

pARTNERShIp Nabs New biz

William Wages, ASC has been honored by his peers at the 26th American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Outstanding Achievement Awards celebra-tion at the Hollywood & Highland Grand Ballroom. Wages received the Career Achievement in Televi-sion Award.

Known to most as Bill Wages, Wages has been nominated for two Emmy Awards and eight ASC Awards, winning twice. One of his first major narra-tive credits was “Resting Place,” the first of many Hall-mark Hall of Fame productions Wages would photo-graph. In 1988, “Gore Vidal’s Lincoln” was nominated for an ASC Award, with additional nods for “Caro-line?,” “Voices Within: The Lives of Truddi Chase,” “I’ll Fly Away” (pilot), “The Moving of Sophia Myles,” and “Miss Lettie and Me.” Wages won consecutive ASC Awards in 1997 and 1998 for “Riders of the Purple Sage” and “Buffalo Soldiers.” The latter also earned an Emmy nomination, as did “Into the West” in 2006. Wages became a member of the ASC in 1992, and counts more than 50 narrative television projects, commer-cials and documentaries among his credits.

hollywood hoNors BILL WAGES

LOWdEN leNses outreach caleNdarScott Lowden recently photographed representatives from twelve area organizations that are

making a real difference in Atlanta. The photos will be used in a calendar for The Atlanta Resource Foundation, which is headed by Allen Bell. The ARF fosters relationships between charitable orga-nizations and those with the resources to help.

The 2012 ARF calendar will be used to raise awareness for Heritage Village, Inc., Juvenile Justice, Atlanta Mission, Wellspring, StreetGrace, Clifton Sanctuary Ministries, Kroc Center: Adult Literacy, CIS Westside Academy, Charis Community Housing, Odyssey III/Community Concerns, Inc. and City of Refuge Youth Outreach. The calendar, brainchild of local ad agency House of Current, highlights a different local charity each month.

The two-day shoot was held in Lowden’s midtown studio with a large chalk drawing of Atlanta serv-ing as the backdrop. The backdrop was drawn by local artist, Kyle Brooks, and was customized for each month. After each shot was finished, Kyle would swoop in and change the drawing to reflect the changing sea-sons.

“We knew Scott Lowden was the perfect choice for shooting these portraits because he did such a great job shooting ‘real people’ for a cam-paign we did for Natick Mall in Bos-ton, and because he is a long time in-town Atlanta resident himself,” ex-plains HOC President, Lisa Maloof.

Lowden, and everyone who donated their time and talents, was honored to work with an Atlanta group that makes a difference for so many people on a daily basis. Lowden added, “My favorite part of this shoot is meeting the incredible people who are focused on the day to day work of helping people change their lives. It was an honor to give back to the community that I’ve called home for so many years.”

cetera

L to r: Scott Lowden and Allen Bell on a pro bono shoot for The Atlanta Resource Foundation.

Bill Wages, recipient of ASC’s Career Achievement in Television Award. (Photo courtesy of Philip Wages)

Page 9: Oz Magazine Feb/March 2012

KSC Kreate, a creative agency that specializes in digital con-tent for some of the nation’s largest retailers, has expended their Atlanta branch. The new office is more than 15,000 square feet and triples the previous footprint to house the growing staff. The studio offers turn-key photography and video production services in house. The expansion will streamline the content de-velopment process. The Atlanta office acts as the branding and design team of KSC Kreate and is equipped to aid clients in cre-ative projects such as campaign development, print and digital content, ecommerce and mobile experiences, in-store signage, packaging, direct marketing and advertising initiatives.

Atlanta Film Studios Paulding County (AFSPC) has entered into an exclusive vendor agreement with Los Angeles-based Paskal Lighting to provide lighting, grip and expendables to the recently opened facility. This marks the first announcement of production partners for Atlanta’s newest full service production complex.

Nick Smerigan of RoadTown Enterprises, which manages and operates the studio exclusively, said, “Partnering with Paskal is a perfect fit for AFSPC.” Paskal President Evan Green added, “It is my pleasure and privilege to be teaming up with Nick and Jeremy (Hariton) at Atlanta Film Studios, with their decades of experience in the studio business and Paskal Lighting’s vast expertise in the lighting and grip business, we will have formed a perfect partner-ship that will service all production needs in the Atlanta area.”

“Even while being at the forefront of technology, KSC is still a very local, community focused business, and we want to bring that personal feel to Atlanta,” said Tere Robinson, Vice President of Operations for KSC Kreate’s Atlanta office. The Atlanta branch of KSC officially opened in February and works with clients such as Newell Rubbermaid Décor Division, Graco Baby Products Divi-sion, Benchmark Brands, Case-Mate, Johnston and Murphy and Park N Fly. The agency added multiple full-time and contract-based jobs.

The 2012 Sundance Film Festival announced the world pre-miere of Producer Linda Burns and Director David Bruckner’s new film, “Amateur Night,” as part of the Park City at Midnight program. The pair is no stranger to midnight movies. In 2007 the indie hor-ror film, “The Signal,” premiered in the same program. It sold to Magnolia Pictures and received a theatrical release. Bruckner di-

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New Gpp officers

The Georgia Production Partnership (GPP) installed its new of-ficers and executive board for 2012. The new executive board members for 2012 are Steve Mensch (Co-President) Turner Stu-dios, Craig Miller (Co-President) Craig Miller Productions, Bill VanDerKloot (Immediate Past President) VanDerKloot Film and Television, Trish Taylor (Vice President) Actor, Randall Franks (Sec-retary) actor/musician, Clark Cofer, (Membership) Video Copy Services, Michelle Kabashinski, (Fundraising/Communications) Actor, Shay Griffin (Governmental Affairs) The Chez Group, and Brennen Dicker (Internal Governance) Crawford Media Services.

Page 10: Oz Magazine Feb/March 2012

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Craig Miller Productions has launched its new and redesigned company website. Easy to navigate and elegantly designed, the new website showcases the company’s best work in the areas of film and video production, interactive video development, audio production, project management and more. Visitors can view award-winning projects produced by the company, which include ‘Amur River Basin,’ ‘Pass It Forward’ for The U. S. Army and ‘Heroes,’ a 30-second spot for the Ronald McDonald House Chari-ties. The website also has a page dedicated to a list of stellar cli-ents including The Coca-Cola Company, AGCO Corporation, Mc-Donald’s, Massey Ferguson and Novelis, Inc.

“Keeping in touch with our clients is the most important thing we do,” says Craig Miller, owner of Craig Miller Productions. “Of course, nothing replaces a visit with our corporate partners or a good meal together,” he adds.

GOOd Guy lauNches GOOd SITE

For the seventh consecutive year, Atlanta ImageArts was tapped by the Friends of Georgia Music Festival to produce the 33rd presentation of The Georgia Music Hall of Fame Awards. Held at the beautiful Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, ImageArts produced and directed the entire show and the Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) live broadcast.

A multi-generational crowd of fans gathered to cheer on a diverse group of performers, ranging from Justin Bieber and Usher to Mothers Finest, Jasmine Guy and Billy Joe Royal. In addition to the live crowd, the broadcast netted an additional audience of nearly two million viewers.

ImageArts’ president, Jody Danneman, was the producer for the entire show. Danneman also wrote the script and directed the live event. Bob Briggs produced and directed the live broadcast with Harold Simmons serving as the broadcast’s technical director. Shannon Sullivan served as the associate producer for both the live event and the broadcast.

cetera

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Superlux has wrapped work on TNT Latin America’s broad-cast graphics package for the 54th Grammy Awards. Superlux’s design team submitted multiple concepts for the package (which included a branded look for the Grammy Nominations show.) AD Eric Carros conceived the winning design.

Both packages were built around a dynamic rhombus grid that exudes classic Deco elegance for the nomination show, which for the Grammys became a brighter, perkier environ-ment built of faceted 3d crystal.

The 54th Grammy package is Superlux’s 6th major awards show collaboration with  TNT-LA  in the past year. Superlux designed and shot live-action components for the American Music Awards, Latin Grammy Awards and Miss Universe Pag-eant, and built graphic looks for the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show and 53rd Grammys.

PreseNtiNg: the SupERLux awards shows!

Partnering with Crazy Legs Productions, Eclipse Post helped launch the new, original hour-long series, “Hidden City,” which premiered in December on the Travel Channel. Host and ac-claimed novelist, Marcus Sakey, travels the country, city to city, to dig up the less-than-pristine history and reveal the untold story behind each locale, serving as a personal guide to each city’s unique past.

Creator, director & executive producer, Tom Cappello and the whole Crazy Legs Productions team, collaborated with Eclipse for completion of the 12-episode series. Eclipse han-dled all the post production work, including off-line and on-line editorial, audio, and post management. The Eclipse team also turned around 24 webisodes in 6 months. The creative team consisted of off-line editors: Jesenko Fazlagic, Nancy Rosette, Scott Wiley, Azita Morris, Will Eccleston and Greg Ward. Alex Foege assisted. On-line editors included Resette, Jay Hunt, Lee Davidson and Fazlagic. Audio work was com-pleted by Juan Baez and Dan Schaefer and post management included AnChi Laster and Jennifer Mador. The series will run every Tuesday for 12 weeks.

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Page 12: Oz Magazine Feb/March 2012

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The 2012 Sundance Film Festival announced the world premiere of Producer Linda Burns and Direc-tor David Bruckner’s new film, “Amateur Night,” as part of the Park City at Midnight program. The pair is no stranger to midnight movies. In 2007 the indie horror film, “The Signal,” premiered in the same program. It sold to Magnolia Pictures and received a theatrical re-lease. Bruckner directed Transmission 1, and Burns was one of the producers.

With this premiere, they find themselves once again part of a collaborative effort. “Amateur Night” is pre-miering as part of the feature entitled V/H/S, a found-footage style anthology by genre directors David Bruckner, Adam Wingard (You’re Next, A Horrible Way to Die), Simon Barrett (You’re Next), Ti West (The Inn-keepers, The House of the Devil), Joe Swanberg (Uncle Kent, Art History), Glenn McQuaid (I Sell the Dead) and introduces YouTube sensation Radio Silence (Matt Bet-tinelli–Olpin, Chad Villella, Justin Martinez, and Tyler Gillett).

The collaboration came together as part of BloodyDisgusting.com’s new venture into production and distribution. Looking for a horror short with a hard R rating, they contacted writing team David Bruckner and Nick Tecosky, who conceived the original treat-ment. “Amateur Night” is the twisted tale of three spring breakers’ disastrous attempt to shoot a porn film with unsuspecting coeds, told in the found-footage and POV-style. V/H/S follows a group of petty criminals hired to retrieve a VHS tape from a rundown house in the middle of nowhere. They realize the job isn’t going to be easy when they find a body and a hub of old television sets, surrounded by stacks upon stacks of tapes. As they search for the right one, they uncover horrifying videos, each stranger than the last.

aMateur Night at SuNdANCE

coloriNg big at VTA/pLAy

The past few months have been a busy time at VTA/Play for color correction and lead colorist John Yancey, including major promo-tional campaigns for TNT. Yancey utilized the new daVinci Resolve for a number of series promos including ‘The Closer,’ ‘Rizzoli and Isles,’ ‘Leverage,’ ‘Memphis Beat,’ ‘Franklin and Bash’ and ‘Falling Skies’. These projects involved matching and grading footage from a va-riety of media and formats such as film, 5D, Alexa and Phantom sources.

VTA/Play recently provided color correction on promos for the Turner Classic Movies show “TCM Essentials” with Alec Baldwin and Robert Osborne. “It’s been a pleasure working with John for the past six seasons,” says TCM studio production manager Anne Wil-son. In addition, Yancey was colorist on the CNN International Free-dom Project “Nepal’s Stolen Children.” Partnered with Demi Moore, the story follows 2010 CNN Hero of the Year Anuradha Koirala and her organization, Maiti Nepal, which has rescued more than 12,000 stolen Nepalese children from sex trafficking since its founding in 1993. VTA/Play also recently wrapped up color work on producer Justin Springer’s documentary “Along Recovery,” which deals with the plight of U.S. soldiers who are victims of IED’s in Iraq and Af-ghanistan.

Play, VTA’s branding and marketing communications agency, is set to launch the website for Marina Papagayo, Costa Rica’s first and only luxury marina, and part of Peninsula Papagayo, a premiere 5-star resort that is home to a Four Seasons and an Arnold Palmer-designed golf course. Creative Director Brett Player travelled to Costa Rica to art direct the photo shoot for the site.

Play is also launching an e-commerce site for acclaimed interna-tional sports-fisherman Captain Roddy Hays and recently launched Auctionbids.com. Player and his creative team are additionally creating brand communications for a variety of clients, including: Friends of Bobby Jones (through The Imlay Foundation), Montes-sori Intown, People Making Progress, Historic Oakland Cemetery Foundation, and Popeye’s Chicken.

The VTA side of the company has also started the New Year full tilt with projects for The Weather Channel’s “Coast Guard Alaska,” FX Channel’s “Archer,” Turner Classic Movies, as well as projects for local production companies including Authority Films and The Creative Network.

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Science Nation is 100 episodes and counting! Created for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and produced by a crew of seasoned former CNN Science and Technology producers, “Sci-ence Nation” brings the excitement of science to viewers around the world and features NSF funded projects around the United States. Featuring correspondent Miles O’Brien, the series is pro-duced by Kate Tobin. Field Producers include Jon Baime, Ann Kel-lan and Marsha Walton. Biscardi Creative Media (BCM) is proud to have delivered post production for all 100 episodes . . . and counting.

ABCNews.com is featuring “Haiti’s Silent Killer” about the rav-ages of malnutrition in that country. The story was produced by David Lindsay of Global Health Frontline News with executive producer Gary Strieker, and edited by BCM’s Trey Haney.

BCM principal, Walter Biscardi, Jr. has started pre-produc-tion on a new documentary featuring pilots from the ani-mal rescue group, Pilots N Paws. To be co-produced with Su-zanne Jurva and hosted by Bruce Burkhardt, the project is being produced both for an independent television release and for use by animal rescue groups nationwide. Biscardi is a member of the Board of Directors of Pilots N Paws, and BCM’s company mascot, Molly, is a rescued Labrador mix.

Page 14: Oz Magazine Feb/March 2012

ShIpSKy NaMed VP at TuRNER

Susan Shipsky has been named vice president, production for Turner Broadcasting’s Animation, Young Adults and Kids Media’s (AYAKM) Creative Group, it was announced today by Michael Ouweleen, senior vice president and group creative director for AYAKM’s Creative Group, which encompasses both on-air and off-channel creative departments.

In her new role, Shipsky will be responsible for overseeing all video, print, special event and digital production and post-production for Cartoon Network, Adult Swim and Boomerang sponsorship and collat-eral material. She also will supervise all on-air branding, promotion pro-duction and post-production for Cartoon Network and Boomerang. Shipsky will serve as communication point-person between depart-ments for all production-related requests involving marketing, public relations, research, advertising sales, Turner Studios, Williams Street Studios and external production companies. Additionally, she will ana-lyze and manage budgets, track spending trends and oversee booking, production and post-production for live shoots for all network priority promotions, specials and weekly packaging.

Shipsky will be based in Atlanta and report directly to Ouweleen. “Susan has great production chops in both live action and animation, combines TV and digital experience, has great management skills and has actually served as an informal mentor to many of our staff for more than ten years,” said Ouweleen. “We’re very excited that we now get to work with Susan day in and day out.”

Shipsky comes to Turner Broadcasting from MaxMedia, a full service creative digital studio where she served as vice president of business development. There, she helped create a broadcast division for the company, leading a team of motion designers and animators to pro-vide strategic, creative and technical expertise in interactive marketing across all digital platforms. Prior to this, Shipsky was partner and ex-ecutive producer at Primal Screen, a design and animation studio that primarily serves on-air departments at cable networks. While there, she hired, supervised and trained all staff producers while working with creative directors and art directors on all phases of production. She also handled business development, securing new clients to execute branding initiatives for new and existing cable networks, create origi-nal content for broadcast and on-line applications, and design original interstitial and marketing campaign content.

Earlier in her career, Shipsky was an account executive at Magick Lantern, a full service production facility offering editorial, design, CGI and audio services. There she developed new business and col-laborated with creative teams on new project strategies. Before this, she was a sales executive at Crawford Communications, a full service post-production house offering editorial, audio, film transfer, design & special effects, satellite transmission, production stages and graphics.

Shipsky earned a bachelor’s degree in radio/TV communications from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. She is an active member of Wom-en in Cable & Telecommunications (WICT) and of PromaxBDA, the in-ternational association of entertainment marketing professionals.

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Page 15: Oz Magazine Feb/March 2012

RIOT at soul traiN awardsFor the third straight year, New York and Maryland-based pro-

duction company Concert Support Services chose RIOT Atlanta, a Deluxe Entertainment Services Group company, to provide mul-tiple post production services for the 2011 Soul Train Awards show. RIOT produced a promotional package and provided all the post production services including editing, finishing and sound for the show which was taped and aired in late 2011.

“The Soul Train Awards is an incredibly challenging production and we were extremely pleased that BET and Concert Support Ser-vices selected RIOT for the project again this year,” said Chuck Brock producer and VP of creative services at RIOT. Prior to the live taping, Brock worked closely with senior editor Willie Giles to create three tribute pieces honoring legendary artists Earth Wind & Fire, Gladys Knight and Ashford and Simpson. “We wrote, produced, and edited each tribute in their entirety,” offered Brock. RIOT was on site during the live event to assist where needed and to experience the big event first hand.

The live show was captured as a non-linear production in HD to a large media drive. RIOT received the material in the form of a line cut, recorded live during the event, along with all cameras’ ISO recordings. RIOT edited the show down to time and, using mixes of the live recordings provided by Music Mix Mobile, provided the final mix for the final broadcast. The video editing was done in multi-camera mode in RIOT’s Final Cut Pro suites. A combination of Fairlight and Digidesign Pro Tools workstations were utilized for audio editing, mixing and sweetening.

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North Avenue Post has partnered with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Fitzgerald+CO on a hard-hitting new ad campaign that urges Georgia parents to stop sugarcoating their children’s weight problems. Georgia has the second highest childhood obe-sity rate in the country, but Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta says a lot of parents just don’t recognize the problem. The campaign has been controversial, and it has garnered wide national media atten-tion. Keep your eye out for more to come.

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Page 16: Oz Magazine Feb/March 2012

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aaa: ARKETI awards accouNts

Arketi Group was recognized for its exceptional work in the B-to-B PR arena, earning a MarCom Gold Award for Publicity Campaign for its PR campaign for Cbeyond, an IT and communications com-pany serving small businesses. The MarCom Awards is a creative competition for any individual or company involved in the con-cept, writing and design of print, visual, audio and web materials and programs.

Arketi’s work with Cbeyond secured more than 550 placements and generated more than 38 million impressions, with articles in InformationWeek, American Express OPEN Forum, Bloomberg Busi-nessWeek, Investor’s Business Daily and Reuters. The program also garnered significant local media coverage in 40+ local media out-lets and 30+ placements in chamber of commerce publications. The companion thought-leadership webinar series generated nearly 1,000 leads. Cbeyond has worked with Arketi Group for more than five years on strategic public relations programs designed to reach various audiences, including small businesses in Cbeyond’s 14 markets.

On the account front, Arketi has another win as they are cho-sen by Semprius, an innovator in high concentration photovoltaic (HCPV) solar modules, as its PR and marketing agency of record.

“We have been extremely impressed with Arketi Group’s strate-gic planning and integrated approach to building PR and market-ing programs that are designed to accelerate growth and generate revenue,” said Joe Carr, chief executive officer of Semprius. North Carolina-based Semprius delivers a unique, HCPV module design that begins with its proprietary micro-transfer printing process. This process enables the company to use the world’s smallest solar cell - approximately the size of a pencil point - to create solar modules with unmatched cost and performance advantages.

With a steadily growing client base, Arketi’s Carolinas office is taking lead on this account. Arketi will lead branding initiatives and launch an aggressive PR and digital marketing effort to posi-tion Semprius as the leader in the production of high efficiency solar modules. “Semprius has developed truly innovative technol-ogy that has attracted strategic investors such as Siemens Venture Capital, and is poised to make solar energy a leading source of re-newable energy globally,” said Ann Revell-Pechar, Arketi Group vice president and general manager for the Carolinas.

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oz MagaziNe dEC/JAN OOpS! Correction: Biscardi is also Post-Production Supervisor for Science Nation, a production by Kate Tobin Productions / National Science Foundation, which is hosted by Miles O’Brien, and produced by much of the old CNN Science Unit.

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lifetiMe achieVeMeNt for SAMI JAJEh

TAG Marketing, a society of the Technology Association of Geor-gia (TAG), has presented Arketi Group principal, Sami Jajeh, with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Jajeh was recognized for his out-standing contributions to Georgia’s technology community at the recently held Tech Marketing Awards Ceremony. TAG’s Tech Mar-keting Awards acknowledge individual achievements in the use of technology to drive marketing strategies, generate standards of excellence and achieve profitable results for the companies for which they work or their clients’ organizations.

“For more than 25 years, Sami has delivered honest counsel and strategic guidance to help internal and external clients execute marketing initiatives that generate awareness and drive sales,” said Rory Carlton, principal at Arketi Group. “Our firm and our clients benefit greatly from Sami’s vision, creativity and focus on building long-term relationships.”

Jajeh began his career in computer science, a background that gives him a deep understanding of the technology landscape. He worked in various senior-level marketing positions for companies including XcelleNet and Ross Systems before co-founding Arketi Group. He is extremely involved in the technology community where he serves as president of the Technology Executives Round-table and on various boards.

“The high technology, business-to-business sector has played a significant role in Georgia’s growth and rising prominence as a ma-jor technology center,” Jajeh said. “I’m honored to be recognized for doing what I love and working with the creative and energetic people who are part of this community.”

Arketi Principal Mike Neumeier is a contributor to the recently published PRNews Digital PR Guidebook, Volume 4, one of the in-dustry’s leading resources on digital PR.

Authored by top-tier digital and social media experts, the guide-book presents valuable information, actionable tactics and best practices to employ when managing digital campaigns. Topics range from social media measurement and media relations to on-line customer service and brand management.

In chapter six, Neumeier shares “Five Essential B2B Video Ele-ments,” stressing that video’s popularity and proven ability to drive engagement make it a must-have tool for savvy communicators. Video gives BtoB companies a competitive edge and way to share their story and humanize their brand. Charles Askew, senior visual developer at Arketi Group, also offers production tips that video newbies and experts alike can incorporate into any project.

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A t around this same time a year ago, about the only people bemoaning the state of 3-D feature films with regularity were film critics. In the wake of “Avatar,” the highest grossing motion picture of all-time, every major studio girded their loins and chose to fully embrace the technology that would supposedly cure all of their economic ills. There was just enough box office return to legiti-mize the huge gamble, and the numbers of audiences warming up to 3-D continued to increase, albeit at a snail’s pace. What none of these short-term memory studios considered was the history of this seemingly jinxed format and its checkered past.

A year later, paying audiences – the ultimate jurors and the life-blood of the movie industry – are starting to grumble louder and are avoiding 3-D releases in increasingly larger numbers. The techno-geeks, the ones paying upwards to 30 percent more per ticket, are enamored with the process from the get-go, are more than happy to part with their disposable income and would pay to see anything in 3-D. For Mr. and Mrs. Joe Lunchbox and their 2.5 children, the extra cost simply can’t be justified. Many of them cite what critics have been saying for a long while now: watching a 3-D movie is a largely trying and unpleasant experience.

Apart from director James Cameron, the guy behind “Avatar,” no filmmaker until recently had anything positive to say about 3-D. Directors of 3-D movies that came out after “Avatar” stated (almost all of them anonymously and/or off the record) that they had been pressured by the studio footing the bill to use 3-D . . . whether

they liked it or not. Not since the advent of the talkie had so many creative types voiced such opposition to an art-based technology.

This force-fisted dictate on the part of short-sighted studio suits lead to a string of box office and critical disappointments includ-ing but not limited to: “The Last Airbender,” “Clash of the Titans,” “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore,” “Piranha 3D,” “My Soul to Take,” “Gulliver’s Travels” and “The Green Hornet.” In addition to tanking, all of these films were filmed in 2-D and converted to 3-D in post-production, lending them an even more artificial look and making them more of a chore to watch. “Alice in Wonderland” was the only one of these conversion films that was both a box office and critical success, but even its success comes with a caveat. Al-though the 3-D edition of “Alice” made more money, more people chose to watch it in 2-D. Like bankers during the housing bust, studio bean counters mistook quantity for quality and started be-lieving their own twisted logic. It was built but they did not come; at least in the numbers they had wanted.

The future of live-action 3-D got a huge boost in 2010 when four filmmaking legends announced separately that their next proj-ects would be in 3-D: Martin Scorsese (“Hugo”), Steven Spielberg (“The Adventures of Tintin”), Werner Herzog (“Caves of Forgot-ten Dreams”) and Ridley Scott (“Prometheus”). Studio executives sighed, cheered and danced a jig while film critics (me included) decided to wait and give the technology another year to prove itself and legitimize its existence.

The DeaTh of 3-DThe DeaTh of 3-D

by Michael clark

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As Herzog’s beautifully shot film was an art-house documentary, you can’t hold its poor box office performance against it. As of January 11, “Tintin” had done over $330 million world wide, but only around 20 percent of that was earned in the US. It should be noted that “Tintin” was based on an age-old Belgian comic strip that never caught fire in the US.

“Hugo,” my favorite movie of 2011, cost roughly $150 million to make and has done only $64 million thus far. About 80 percent of the gross came domestically, but it too is based on story set in Europe. Was it the non-US setting that killed these films or is it the audiences’ escalating apathy?

Scott’s movie doesn’t come out until July, but he is already on re-cord as saying he’ll never make another 2-D movie again after see-ing the capabilities 3-D offers. Let’s see if Scott feels the same way if “Prometheus” fails to make a healthy profit (its budget has been reported to be as high as $250 million). Like “Avatar,” “Prometheus” is sci-fi action flick (and a prequel of sorts to Scott’s “Alien”) and should delight the highly desired 18-25 year-old space-nerd male demographic, lovingly referred to as “fanboys.”

Back to “Hugo.” You might wonder why I would pick it as my fa-vorite movie of the year since I detest 3-D so much. Truth be told, I have few gripes regarding the 3-D technology . . . provided it’s handled with care by people (Cameron, Scorsese, Herzog) who know what they’re doing AND that it’s part of the production process from its inception. My problem is that it’s being applied in post-production without any kind of forethought by people whose principal concern is milking the audience dry rather than delivering a superior film. The studios are force-feeding it to con-sumers for the sole purpose of artificially inflating ticket prices and

to theater chains that have no choice but to purchase very ex-pensive projection equipment that could be antiquated before it’s even paid for in full. And doing all of this during one of the worst economic stretches most of us have ever experienced only adds insult to injury.

Someone else who knows what they’re doing with 3-D is Dream-Works co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg. Having headed that stu-dios’ animation wing since its start in 1994, Katzenberg made big news in 2008 by declaring that all future feature-length animated DreamWorks movies would be presented in 3-D. With the lone exception of the (2-D) “Road to Eldorado,” all of DreamWorks 23 animated films have landed in the black with its six 3-D produc-tions generating the highest percentage of profit. So, what does Katzenberg know that other studio chiefs don’t? Not much really.

What Katzenberg (and John Lasseter of Pixar) realized early on is that 3-D is a perfect fit for animation. Because the visuals are drawn (either by hand or by computer) the images can be manipulated without limitation and they look perfect all of the time – some-thing live-action movies can never do. That’s why “Avatar” looked so good. Yes, it used human actors that provided the motion-capture blueprints but the bulk of the film’s visuals were created from scratch on equipment Cameron had designed specifically for that film. If Cameron had lavished the same kind of meticulous at-tention to his derivative, just so-so screenplay, “Avatar” would have been a hands-down classic instead of what it is now: a technical marvel with a weak story. I referred to it in my original review as “Pocahontas” meets “Dances with Wolves” in outer-space.

There are huge issues facing the movie industry right now regarding 3-D, a couple with easy solutions, the others not so much.

The first thing the theater chains need to do (with co-op finan-cial support from the studios) is to stop overcharging audiences to see 3-D movies. If the live-action titles were as uniformly excel-lent as their animated counterparts, paying more for most people wouldn’t be an issue. But they’re not. Most of them are slapped together after the fact, and not only do they look bad, they fre-quently make viewers ill with motion sickness via skewed and arti-ficially altered depth-perception.

Number two: stop manipulating 2-D into 3-D, especially with years-old titles most fans of these films already own on DVD or Blu-ray. Cameron was an early conversion opponent but has since changed his tune. His next release is a 2-D to 3-D version of “ Titanic.” So much for innovation.

In addition to “Prometheus,” there will be 31 major studio 3-D re-leases in 2012 and this is great news . . . for fanboys. “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace” (probably the worst title in the double trilogy) is the highest profile back-catalogue title. The bulk of the remainder includes mostly action/adventure, horror and animated titles including, and I’m not making this up, “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.” Ahem.

For non-fanboys, the pickings are slim (which is probably a good thing in the long run) and they’re all slated for December release. “Life of Pi” is director Ang Lee’s adaptation of the Yann Martel novel and “The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey” is the first installment in Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” prequel trilogy.

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The most interesting title of the bunch has to be “The Great Gats-by” from whiz-bang Australian director Baz Luhrmann. Hopefully it will be less like his last film – the sleep-inducing clunker “Australia” and more like his crackling “Romeo + Juliet” and “Moulin Rouge!” It was shot in 3-D and stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Toby Maguire and will either be a spectacular success or an impossible-to-look-away-from train-wreck.

Studios and filmmakers also have to start being more selective about which movies they make that could significantly benefit from a 3-D pre-sentation. in the case of “hugo,” the decision to go 3-D was a wise one on paper and it looks great and might even win some Oscars. but it’s also going to lose a boatload of money. This will also loosen the screws somewhat on the theater chains that are investing money they don’t have on equipment with an iffy shelf life. it’s becom-ing more clear that the market for these films lies mostly in action and animation.

The studios also need to consider what’s taking place outside of the theaters. Not only do people have a practically endless supply of where they can spend their entertainment dollars, they now have the option of watching 3-D in their own living rooms. While still too costly for most, 3-D home entertainment systems are go-ing to continue to go down in price while the quality steadily in-creases. It wouldn’t be going out on limb to predict that within the next five years, most US households will have 3-D systems. Add to that the industry’s regular practice of releasing titles on DVD and (2-D and 3-D) Blu-ray mere months after the start of their theatri-cal runs, and you’re sinking your own ship before it even leaves the docks. Impatient studios’ that cannibalize their own produc-tions results in a more frugal, discerning and patient consumer.

The big question for movie fans who could fully embrace 3-D un-der the right conditions is also the one without a clear-cut answer. Considering how much money can be made – and conversely how much can be lost – why is it so hard to make a truly good-looking live-action 3-D movie? In order to do it right (“Hugo,” “Ava-tar”) you have to sink boatloads of cash into the budget and most studios just aren’t willing to do so in this tenuous economic cli-mate. They’ll have to wait until human talent can line up with the technology, and based on history, that could be a long, long time.For those under the age of 30, this current 3-D wave is the first they’ve ever seen of the medium, and like email, texting, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, they consider it a new creation that’s still crawling and just needs a little time to iron out the kinks. For those of us a tad older, we’ve seen the 3-D fad come and go before, some of us more than once.

If you don’t think it’s a fad, consider this: the initial technology for 3-D was invented in 1890 by British film pioneer William Freise-Greene. The first time an audience paid to see a 3-D movie (“The Power of Love”) in a theater was on September 27, 1922 using the anaglyphic image projection method. This is the process where rose and cyan color images are offset on the screen from two pro-jectors, and the 3-D appears while the viewer wears cardboard glasses with thin red and green plastic “lenses.”

The anaglyphic presentation went through several fits and starts before “improvements” via the “natural vision” camera rig were made in the early ‘50s. Studios began releasing more movies, the majority of the titles being B-grade horror flicks and virtually all of them were 2-D to 3-D conversions. If 3-D was so great, why didn’t studios and directors use it for their “prestige” titles? The closest 3-D ever got to respectability was when Alfred Hitchcock used natural vision (under studio pressure of course) for “Dial M for Mur-der.” By the time the movie was released in 1954, it was shown in 2-D because the demand for 3-D was too low to warrant the ad-ditional distribution costs. It wasn’t even seen in 3-D until the ‘80s, and then it was only at film festivals.

every couple years, there would be an in-termittent crush of titles and then another lull and by 1989 everyone regarded 3-D as officially dead.

The first indicator that 3-D may again be on its way out yet again came last summer with the release of “Kung Fu Panda 2” and “Cars 2” whose box office takes from 3-D were only 45 and 37 percent respectively. That is a far cry from the 60 percent ratio enjoyed by “Shrek Forever After” just a year earlier. Add to that heap the “Tin-tin” and “Hugo” receipts and it doesn’t take a math genius to figure out in what direction all of this is headed.

This isn’t an obituary or a proclamation or even a wish. I want 3-D to succeed in a big way. I hate to keep harping on “Hugo” but it really is the only (mostly) live-action 3-D movie ever made to fully utilize this medium to its maximum potential. If the studios can find a way to produce quality films, and do it with artistic dignity and in a manner that isn’t financially suspect, I’m all for it. In this era of the dying print medium, my future as a film critic is largely dependent on the 3-D medium succeeding.

This coming year will likely decide the future of 3-D once and for all. if one too many 3-D titles (pay extra close attention to “Prometheus” and “The amazing Spider-man”) fail to deliver big returns, or just break even, more high-profile directors will abstain from making them, and 3-D might not be able to dodge any more bullets.

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the production designer on the film Black Dog sent a guy out to

2nd Unit to decorate the interior of one of our stunt cars. He care-

fully dressed the ashtray with cigarettes, ashes and toothpicks. He

arranged trash on the floorboard then took a bunch of polaroids

to document the layout of the messy tableau before driving back

to the office, mission accomplished. Of course, when the stunt

guys hopped into the car they stepped all over the art-directed

trash and punched the accelerator. By the time the car hit 90

mph the contents of the ashtray had swirled around the cabin

and out the windows, but not before going into their eyes. Those

stunt guys were ready to kill everyone in the art department.

Thankfully, the prop department isn’t part of the art department.

Well that’s not entirely true. On paper, the prop department

is absolutely part of the art department and reports directly to the

production designer. But in reality, most propmasters will tell you

that their boss is the director, and their primary job is to keep the

director happy and to come in under budget. No mention of the

production designer. In all but the most artfully conceived films

the designer is unable to be on set to filter the director’s on-set

changes, so the sway they hold over the prop department is gen-

erally quite weak.

As a graduate of Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture, I

was trained in the language and art of design, from theory to

practice, and I’d grown to wonder if most film designers had any

understanding of what happened on a film set.

What I didn’t realize was that after several years of work-

ing in props, I’d turned into a technician with a special familial

resentment toward anybody working in the art department. As

a prop guy I only cared about getting the shot done. I didn’t

have time to care about the art. Like the crew of a clipper ship,

the shooting crew sweated and froze together, rode out storms

There I was, crouched in the street, watching a team of

moving men unloading boxes and furniture from an old-fash-

ioned truck. They were doing a good job until suddenly, one of

the men strolled down the ramp carrying a wicker chair painted

robin’s egg blue. Before I could yell, “Where did THAT come from?”

a guy to my right erupted into a muttered litany of impassioned

profanity. It was okay: he was a propmaster and it was his job

to quote from the International Bible of Creative Expletives on a

somewhat regular basis.

As the 1st AD yelled “cut,” my propmaster jumped to his feet

and began stalking toward the naughty extra, the volume of his

profanity increasing with each stride. Before he’d made it five feet

there was a new, louder stream of profanity coming down a drive-

way to my left. It was the movie’s director and he was hopping

mad.

“Who Told you To bring ouT ThaT &!@# chair?” he screamed.

“It was THAT lady,” said the extra, turning to jab a finger in the

direction a fidgety British woman standing over on the

curb pretending not to be there. Ah. “That lady” was our

production designer, in essence the “architect” of our film’s look.

Unbeknownst to anyone she had arrived on set and quietly

directed this unfortunate extra to tote a blue chair out of the

moving truck, matching nothing that had been shot so far.

Turns out that while she was really into the color blue, she didn’t

know much about the concept of continuity or the terrible fury

of an editor who has been sent footage that doesn’t match.

The blue chair incident didn’t surprise me because I’d become

accustomed to the art department being out of touch with what

happened on set. A great example of that disconnect is the time

behind the camera with drewprops

-redheaded basTard- ProPchildren The SilenT ShaMe OF The arT DeParTMenT

Page 23: Oz Magazine Feb/March 2012

and schlepped through 18-hour days. Our captain was the direc-

tor; the designer was just some faraway functionary who had

no bearing on my day-to-day business. Rubbing shoulders with

the Hollywood crowd had made me confident and cocky. I was

proud to be ‘Drewprops’ on set, convinced that I understood the

craft of filmmaking better than most of the out of touch folks

in the art department. buT occasionally i Would noTice liTTle Things on-seT ThaT undermined my faiTh in my coolness. A gaffer would turn to me and ask, “Hey Drew, will this

couch be for sale at the end of the movie?” The couch was a set

piece, I was a prop guy… shouldn’t the gaffer know what my job

entailed? Then I began to notice that the prop department would

show up much later in the credits than the rest of the shooting

crew, even though we had been an integral part of the action.

What was up with that? Who’d brought the guns? We did. Who’d

made sure the briefcase of money was on set? We did. Where was

our respect? I was beginning to realize that other people might

not appreciate my department as much as I thought they did.

About ten years into the business an art director friend

invited me to work for him as an additional set designer on a

feature film in South Carolina. My dormant design skills were

reawakened on that project, and on the day I returned to Atlanta I

was called for a set design job on another project. The production

designer was a delightful Peruvian woman who’d hired me after

looking through my sketchbooks, and I soon found myself being

given artistic control over all the signage and the design of a lot of

wonderful sets and set pieces. It was one of the most exhilarating

experiences of my life to look down on the shop floor and see all

my sketches being converted into life-size bits of reality by skilled

carpenters, welders, propmakers and scenics.

By then I’d largely let go of my earlier prejudice toward the art

department. They had massive deadlines, tight budgets and fitful

flows of information from production. We might not be shooting

the movie, but it couldn’t get shot without the toys we were mak-

ing. One night I was having drinks in a swanky Buckhead hotel

bar with the production designer and the set decorator when

something really weird happened. The decorator started talking

about our show’s prop department, and it wasn’t nice.

“bunch of lazy bums,” she grumbled, folloWing uP WiTh a laundry lisT of reasons ThaT The ProP deParTmenT had been a PerPeTual Thorn in her side. As she and the designer laughingly traded stories

about the failings of prop departments on other movies, I

smiled thinly and glanced toward the door, on the lookout for

soldiers with machine guns because I was smack dab in the

middle of my very own spy thriller. I had infiltrated enemy lines

and was overhearing state secrets. Surely it was only a matter

of time before a guard would discover the real set designer

trussed up in a closet where I’d left him after stealing his uniform.

Caught unexpectedly between two worlds, I could see the

bigger picture for the first time in my life. designers and ProP guys, like archiTecTs and conTracTors, are ofTen aT odds, yeT boTh are There To Produce The same end ProducT. They’re boTh on The same Team. boTh are righT (and boTh are Wrong), simulTaneously. Their

worlds are so different that they’re unlikely to appreciate all the

challenges their counterparts face. Not all designers are clueless

about what happens on set, and not all propmasters are deaf to

directions from the art department. But as long as they’re sepa-

rated by place and by duty, the prop department will continue on

as the redheaded bastard stepchildren of the art department and

the shooting crew, because that’s what they do best. b

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ProPchildren The SilenT ShaMe OF The arT DeParTMenT

a b c d e f g h i j k l

m n o p q r s t u w x y z1111111

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PaY Up: the BiggesT Scam GoingTwenty-four year old Ashley Roberson and her twin sister, Mandy, have what it takes to be models. That’s what the Atlanta woman, who claimed to be a talent agent, told them after the sisters were selected for what was ostensibly a BET photo shoot and com-mercial. “We got a call saying we were finalists,” Ashley recalls. “This was major for us, since we didn’t have any prior modeling experiences and were just getting started.” But that excitement took a different turn when the sisters went to the agent’s office to fill out some paperwork. “We had to pay $80 for photos and to hold our spot,” Ashley says. “The agent stopped returning calls or answering her phone and never replied back to emails. We never got the pictures, portfolio, comp cards, or anything we paid for.”But while this scam artist’s antics were new to Ashley and Mandy, legitimate talent and casting agents say making promises and asking for money up front are tactics scam artists have used for years. “Agencies that tell you they’ll take your photos or teach you how to act are not legit,” says Sarah Carpenter, President of Atlanta Models and Talent, a 50 year old boutique agency that last year booked talent for hundreds of voice-overs, commercials,

So, you want to be in pictures. If you live anywhere near Atlanta, booming right now with motion picture and televi-sion production, there’s no reason you can’t. According to the Georgia Economic Development Authority’s 2011 Annual Report, more than 327 feature films, TV series and commercials were made in Georgia last year alone, making an unprecedented $2.4 billion impact on the state’s economy, and leading film industry publication P3 to name it the number three place in the world to film. This blitz of production activity has proven to be a proverbial goldmine for aspiring actors and actresses hoping to get their big break. But it has also created a fertile environment for scam artists who masquerade as talent and casting agents and leave Hollywood hopefuls with little more than empty wallets and shattered dreams. So, we wondered: in a city and state that are bustling with Hollywood glitterati, and productions popping up at every turn calling for fresh, new talent, how do you know when you’re walking into the opportunity of a lifetime, or simply taking the bait that unscrupulous “agents” or “casting directors” are throwing out?

tinsel

or

sham?

By Nichole Bazemore

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TV series, and feature films, including Army Wives, The Game on BET, Coma, a four-part series on A&E, The Vampire Diaries, and Flight, starring Denzel Washington. “What a good agent does is refer you. We’ll say, ‘Here are some legitimate photographers, or ‘here are some reputable classes. Go audit a class. Check out vari-ous photographers’ websites and rates. A good agent gives you an opportunity to audition, then they collect their commission from the jobs you book,” she says. “A legitimate agent will never ask you for money up front.” And yet, stories of people who paid talent agents hundreds or thousands of dollars—only to end up empty-handed—abound. How are scammers able to get away with it? Well, simply because they can. “Actors are so eager to get into the industry that they’re not thinking straight,” says George Pierre, an independent cast-ing agent in Atlanta, who has casted talent for hundreds of roles, mostly recently, Teen Wolf on MTV and the upcoming feature film Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, based on the best-selling book by comedian Steve Harvey. Pierre says if actors want to avoid being scammed, they have to be proactive. “Do your home-work with the online tools that are available. Google people. Check IMDb. But if anybody ever asks you for money, turn around and run. Don’t give your agent money, don’t give your producer money, don’t give anybody money,” he says.

Taking Parents For a RideLike Pierre, Carpenter has seen her share of scams in the twenty-five years she’s been in the business, but she says what’s especial-ly appalling is when scammers take advantage of parents hoping to make their children stars. “What’s really heartbreaking is when parents spend money putting kids through school and they learn nothing, or they’ve paid for pictures and comp cards that aren’t good and have to start over again,” she says.

Catherine Fein, a photographer based in the Northeast, knows this scam all too well. Fein, whose own daughter is signed with a modeling agency, says she gets calls from parents all the time wanting to know how much her agent costs. “Um…it doesn’t cost anything!” she quips. She recalls working with one parent who had paid a talent school a large sum of money and needed photos for an audition the following weekend. “She said she came to me because of the price,” Fein remembers. “The ‘agency’ wanted to charge her an additional $800 for a photo session,” she says. And that wasn’t the end of the deception. “The child arrives and is not a sample size for child modeling, which is a size 5 or 10-12. Instead, she was about a size 14-16 and 7 or 8 years old.”

When Fein tried to explain to the mother that she was probably being scammed, her good intentions fell on deaf ears. “The mom was adamant that the agency had convinced her her daughter would be the perfect model for the audition,” says Fein.

Carpenter says this, too, is a scam she’s heard before. In fact, there’s little in the way of scams legitimate talent and casting agents haven’t heard. That’s why, when they hear of something that doesn’t sound quite right, they sound the alarm. “When we think something funny is going on, we’ll pick up the phone and let each other know,” says Carpenter, describing what she calls a “friendly competition” among Atlanta entertainment agents.

Get BookeD: the Right WayBut if you’re not in the loop, so to speak, how can you know if something is a scam or not? More importantly, where can you find legitimate acting opportunities? Most of the time, it boils down to relying on good old common sense and instinct, backed by a healthy dose of research. “Check references and word of mouth, the Screen Actors Guild and the Better Business Bureau. See what they say. Do your homework,” says Rebecca Shrager, Owner/Agent of The People Store and Hot Shot Kids Talent Agency, in Atlanta. Shrager, who has booked talent for the TV series Necessary Roughness, Teen Wolf, and the feature film Footloose, says her firm gets inquiries from actors every single day. Normally, she says, the process works like this: an actor sends in a resume. Shrager’s team gives them a “cold” read and they talk for a few minutes to answer any questions the actor might have. If the actor is a voice-over candidate, Shrager asks that they put together a reel, or digital sample of their work. She calls them when an audition is available. The actor auditions and if they’re booked—and only then—Shrager gets paid.

“Check references and word of mouth, the Screen

Actors Guild and the Better Business Bureau.

See what they say. Do your homework.”

“A legitimate agent will never ask you

for money up front.”Sarah Carpenter, President of Atlanta Models and Talent

Rebecca Shrager, Owner/Agent of The People Store and Hot Shot Kids Talent Agency, in Atlanta

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But what if you don’t have an agent? How can you find legitimate acting opportunities? Well, you can start by ruling out those newspaper ads inviting you to go to your local mall to audition for a big Hollywood agency. Those are probably not legit.

Pierre, who works exclusively with talent agents when he’s cast-ing principals or main actors for roles, says the only time agents tend to deviate from the process Shrager described above is when they’re looking for dozens or hundreds of extras for a film scene. He says for those occasions, he’ll sometimes hold open calls for talent, often posting notices on Facebook or websites that specifically deal with extras. But even then, determined scammers sometimes corrupt legitimate postings in order to lure

people looking for fame. Pierre says it happened to him once when he was casting for a film. “We needed a certain look, so we placed a mass call. Someone reposted that status on another site, removed my name, and had people submit their information to a scam artist. They were getting people’s bank account numbers and taking their money,” Pierre remembers. “It’s crazy and it’s so sad. This is the actors’ passion. It’s kind of like love. They’re blind-ed. Sometimes, they’re willing to do anything, even compromise themselves,” he says.

To avoid being taken for a ride, and to learn exactly how the entertainment industry works, every talent and casting agent I spoke with offered this advice: take a class. Shrager says, “Do research on classes, take a six-week class. It should literally be a few hundred dollars.” Carpenter, whose agency only works with actors and models with at least five years’ worth of experience, agrees. “If you don’t have experience, the next best thing is train-ing. Get yourself some training.” That training can come in the form of community theatre or a more traditional class setting.

But beware, because here again, scammers know how to get to you. Roberson, one of the twins who forked over money to a tal-ent agent in hopes of becoming a model, also enrolled in a class that was run by a scammer. “We attended classes every other Saturday,” she said. “We had to pay for every class we attended but after we told them we weren’t coming back, they sent our names to a collection agency, saying we owed them money. They claim we took out a loan for our classes, but we paid out of pocket for every class,” she said. Pierre knows the scam well. He says scam artists will often advertise talent “showcases,” where they invite actors to pay for classes with instructors or producers who are not from here and are not legit. “Research which actors and producers these schools are affiliated with. You’re only as good as your last project,” he says.

But Carpenter takes it a step further. She says if you’ve done your research, checked references, taken classes and still aren’t confident that you can spot a scam when you see it, there’s only one way to go. “If they want to do it properly, they need to get an agent,” she says. “The right time to get an agent is when you say, ‘I’ve done as much as I can by myself, but I want to do more.’” Pierre agrees. “Let the agent do the work for you. That’s what they do. Always know that you’re the talent. You’re the reason they’re making money.”

Always know that you’re the talent. You’re the reason they’re making money.”

George Pierre, Atlanta independent casting agent

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Picture a building the length of a football field and add half a length more. Fill it with 40+ creative exhibits representing the film & television industry, the interior design industry and the event design industry. Attract 13,000 industry professionals for the weekend, mix in great food and flow-ing bars and what you have is THE NEXT COOL THING . . . last year. This year ’s event, with more than 70 creative exhibits, 30 catering companies and 25,000 attendees expected over the two days, required a space the size of three football fields! With the need for a larger building, Barbara English of TO THE TRADE ONLY and creator of the event, partnered with Scott ’s Antiques Market for the North Building of the Atlanta Exposition Center. The event will take place on February 17 & 18, 2012.

The Georgia entertainment tax credit plays a major role in bringing more of the entertainment production industry to Georgia. Since its implementation, industry professionals have been eager to prove that the infrastructure is already in place to support the exploding film and television production market in Georgia. Creating awareness of the available resources is the event’s mis-sion. For production companies to take full advantage of the Georgia tax incentives, local suppli-ers of goods and services must be used. Georgia has a huge interior design industry, and many suppliers to that industry are now looking to tailor their inventory and policies to become “film friendly” and to capture this growing market.

Rather than a standard tradeshow, THE NEXT COOL EVENT is designed to inspire industry profes-sionals to see the possibilities of the creative process in action. Each participant is creatively chal-lenged and positioned to show off their talents and wares. This requires prop houses, artisans, design and furnishing show rooms, construction resources, and suppliers to bring their booths to life as the set of a fantastic movie or television series.

Some of this year ’s themes come from both film and television, like “Marie Antoinette” and the HBO’s hit series “ True Blood.” There will also be “Sherlock Holmes,” “ The Wizard of Oz,” “Hugo,” “Hook,” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. This is just a sampling of over 70 collaborative exhibits. Members of the residential design/build community as well as several set designers who already work in the entertainment industry completed the set construction. Suppliers typical of the interior design industry as well as suppliers whose standard market is the event design industry furnished them. Many union and non-union set decorators and dressers were also involved; as were prop houses and creators of specialty lighting, sound and effects.

To see this amazing collaboration of talent come together from all of these various industries to show what Georgia has to offer is truly an incredible experience. This two-day affair starts with a Red Carpet Cocktail event Friday, February 17th. On Saturday, February 18th, the event will be open to the general public during the day. Tickets are available on-line at www.thenextcoolevent.com. The VIP Gala on Saturday, February 18th is by invitation only. For more information visit www.nextcoolevent.com.

Barbara English,

To The Trade Onlyby Diane Lasek

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MArC HAMpToN-reNDeriNgS ArTiST

I t ’s been quite a winding road to 2012’s THE NEXT COOL EVENT for Marc Hampton, the artist chosen by many of the exhibitors to create a hand rendering of their design.

“In the last two weeks I’ve drawn tornadoes, a designer gun arsenal, a chandelier made from dryer ducts, a topiary elephant, a garden of dead trees, a deconstructed Savannah mansion, and a giant set of angel’s wings. Not exactly the things you find in most interior design renderings!”

As owner of M J Hampton Design, a “100% Autocad-free” company dedicated to providing hand-drawn renderings to designers, architects and real estate agents, Marc is used to having a handful of drawings on his to-do list. But this event has required ten times in a very short period.

“It ’s not a process that ’s easy to rush. I test out several angles to find the best one and research all sorts of details most people may never even notice. For the It ’s a Wonderful Life rendering I studied 1940s department store Christmas ads so I could get just the right feel.”

Marc Hampton has a degree from the New York School of Interior Design and trained under New York designers Vicente Wolf and David Kleinberg. In addition to his rendering business, he runs his own design firm, MJH Interiors.

His favorite place to be is at his drafting table with a tin of pencils, a pot of coffee, and his two rescue dogs sleeping at his feet. “I love that it is not a lost art – and that there are still a handful of us that use the process. The feedback from the exhibitors has been amazing!

JAVier SANToS-reNDeriNgS CoLorizATioN

Pink Frog Studio is a small shop with big ideas. I t is owned and operated by Carolina and Javier Santos, who offer a wide range of services such as custom illustration, digital illustration, logo design, software icons, web ads and print collateral. Javier has produced numerous hand-drawn conceptual illustrations, all in a diversity of media. Pink Frog Studio’s colorization of the work of other illustrator ’s is featured in The Next Cool Event’s exhibitor ’s renderings.

The Sherwin-Williams design team chose “King Kong”, with the theme of “Kong Covers Atlanta”, inspired - at least in part - by the iconic Sherwin-Williams “Cover the Earth” logo.  Their design features a very riled-up King Kong, perched atop a ledge overlooking the city.   In his hands are large paint buckets, from which a glorious stream of colors cascade down upon the Atlanta City Skyline. The team that put this together consists of Sherwin-Williams Eva Casey, a sales representative and expert in architectural coatings, Kass Wilson, owner of Walls Treat Studio, who is a renowned decorative artist who specializes in faux-finishes and Robert Kauffman of Kauffman Design, who served as the structural and logistics advisor. The colors represent the very latest in design-industry trends.  And Kong represents the ability of S-W to “cover” the artistic and logistic demands of the television and film industry in this city.

SoMe oF THe 2012reNDeriNgS:

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We invite you to experience Georgia Public Broad-castings (GPB) studio production facility through the southern flair that is Margaret Mitchell ’s lega-cy. Step onto the set from the GPB original docu-mentary  Margaret Mitchell: American Rebel  and re-imagine yourself as Margaret Mitchell, fast at work advancing her art form, unhampered by the constraints of the status quo. Envisioned by set designer  Rip Potter, this space emulates the path clients take from reception, to makeup, to our brightly lit studios. Inspired by Mitchell, we at GPB forge onward, blazing the client production trail in a manner not always consistent with the industry. State-of-the art production amenities combined with genuine hospitality create an experience pro-duction professionals aren’t soon to forget.

“ To live would be an awfully big adven-ture.” So says Peter Pan! You may not learn how to fly, but you will get far superior grub and ale than was served on the Jol-ly Roger, when you visit the  Hook  bar sponsored this year by Team Worldwide, a global logistics solutions firm that spe-cializes in high fragility and high value freight (ie. film equipment). They ’ve collaborated with  Epting Events  and  All About Props to bring you a spot to whet your whistle and grab a bite, in the com-fort of the ship’s deck. But remember, if someone asks you, “Give me a hand!”  Make sure to reply as Captain Hook al-ways does, “I already have.”

Tessa Jones, PPG Porter Paints Col-or Palette Designer, Matt Hoots of SawHorse Remodeling, Maggie Sweeney of The Cake Hag and REDS-Restaurant Equipment De-sign Supply take you to “Pleasant-ville”, where all things black and white are not what they seem. Especially when you see what a little color splashed on the scene can do to bring your film to life!!! Enjoy the vintage diner where you can sample delicious 1950’s style malted cupcakes, pepper-mint patties and Mom’s apple pie!

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Accountant, turned Interior Decorator, Jessica Ferguson, of Signature Piecez,  finds inspira-tion in the most unusual places. In her hands, dryer ducts turn into fabulous lamps, PVC morphs into stylish entertainment centers, and gutter guards mixed with tissue paper become gorgeous, frilly, chandeliers. A mod-ern take on “Sanford and Son” was the natural choice for Jessica’s space. These are eclectic, elegant, and somewhat whimsical pieces that arise like a collection of glamorous phoenix ’s from what others see as junk. “When the time came to redecorate my home, I wanted art but didn’t want what everyone else had. A trip to my local home improvement store unexpect-edly sparked that creativity. Glancing at dryer duct, I thought, ‘oh, shiny!’   I think this can be turned into art. My home is a shrine to the beauty of the unlikely.”

Dawn Dyer of Dyer Studio sat perplexed. She needed to create a space for one of her friends who happened to also be the ultimate “Reality Star Diva”. Ms. Diva, as we will call her, was in need of a space to escape from paparazzi, fans, and yes, family.  Dawn usually created more modern designs but wanted to help her friend. Voila! With the help of IKEA, A Glam Girl “Designing Women” space was born. A space with no TV, Paparazzi and yes, no family. Imagine having all that right in the comfort of your own home? What a life! With a alluring wooden desk stained in red and an elegant two piece sectional covered in cream twill fabric, topped off with two gorgeous art canvas prints, this place drips with glamour!

RSZ Interiors’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ” is anoth-er example of set design as an integral part of the story, with Interior Designers Rosa Santiago Zimmerman and Deborah Bent-ley designing their exhibit to highlight two major themes running throughout the film; Brick ’s obvious drinking problem and Mag-gie’s repressed desires to reunite intimately with her husband. The lusty glamour of the infamous brass bed is central to the design. Yet, RSZ thought it only fitting to depict Brick ’s alcoholism on a scale proportionate to its importance to the film. “ The availabil-ity of alcohol in the bedroom with a beauti-ful bar, kept Brick from being intimate with Maggie,” says Deborah, “We think it ’s neces-sary to visually nail that point home.”

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Fans of the HBO hit show “ True Blood” will delight in the opportunity to walk through “Fangtasia.” Local decorative artist and aspiring prop stylist, Tinsley Dempsey of Pattern Design and props and set designer Loree Marshall will be showcasing their talents by recreating the macabre atmosphere of the famous vampire haunt that is “Fangtasia.” Swathed in blood red with eerie lanterns, the vam-pire has left his throne. Will he return?

Redefined Home Boutique, Penny Dreadful Productions and Sam Flax are a perfect partnership to bring a creative twist to such an iconic film like “ The Wizard of Oz.” Inspired by the theater production of “Wicked,” Re-defined Home Boutique takes an out-of-the-box approach to their set design. They were delighted that Penny Dreadful Productions provided their set building expertise. Penny Dreadful won best in show at Dragon Con’s professional costume contest for their post apocalyptic take on the “Wizard of Oz” cast! Rather than recreat-ing any single scene from the film directly, they designed a set representing the dark, wicked aspect of the film juxtaposed with a colorful, good side of the film. The majority of the set centers on the farmhouse. Look closely at the room and you will find Tin Man, Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion all represented. The yellow brick road stretches from inside the farmhouse to outside where it is lined with hundreds of paper poppies. Finally, a dark and gloomy sky serves as the huge backdrop wall to three twirling tornados touching down from the heavens. You can almost see Dorothy being ripped from her reality into the Land of Oz!

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“Marie Antoinette” was young, smart, decadent, a little punky, and had a good time - all of the things that Paris on Ponce, the unique bohemian shopping and prop rental shop in the heart of midtown is too! Their in-house design team consisting of Skip Englebrecht, John Gibson, and Nicolette Valdespino, along with Nancy Couture of My Knot Couture created a scene with models and dress completely made of paper products. You will see an indulgent and careless Marie attempting to pick away with a fork at her cupcake livery boys as she is “bee”-headed. Her enormous bouffant is being carried away by a flock of bees! The queen bee picked apart by her minions! She, being the bourgeois dilettante, barely notices. Plus, if ever you’ve been to Paris on Ponce, you know that those people are a little nuts. The challenges were not only in making complete opulence out of the most ordinary medium, but also in creating an artistic rendering that tells the story simultaneously of flippant mischief and merrymaking while showing the inevitable consequence without being in any way gruesome. They just may have pulled it off!

TLC Rents proves once again they are Atlanta’s premiere event provider as their china, fine table-ware and lustrous table linens serve as the centerpiece for the tea party that graces Brad Brooks’ set, based on “Alice In Wonderland”. The most fanciful tea party in town will feature a huge chan-delier inspired by The Mad Hatter ’s top hat, a delicate tea service and appropriately mismatched tables and chairs to top it off and give the set a quirky feel. Everyone knows a tea party is never complete without delicious treats, and The Silver Platter will be on hand offering pastries influ-enced by Lewis Carroll ’s tale of whimsy and adventure.

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Come and unwind in “Sherlock Holmes” very warm and cozy masculine Den. “We felt this is a perfect film to showcase some of the styles we carry” says Englishman’s President of Marketing & Design, Anita Vreeland. “ The very British feel of this movie is very close to our hearts as many of us are originally from the London area and we hope to do it justice with our furniture”. They used a rich mixture of textures and showcased the hand-crafted European Antique reproduc-tions that Englishman’s is so popular for. You’ll see an inviting button tufted chesterfield couch, occasional tables, chairs of many styles, bookcases, and a leathered topped oak pedestal desk. You can just imagine Detective Holmes relaxing as he shares an absinthe and pipe with Watson and they take in this rich and relaxing room, allowing their minds to wander off before embark-ing on to the next unsolved case.

In “9 to 5”, Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda dream of accidentally killing their boss. Today, many dream of ditching the boss and working from home. Interior de-signer Debby Hall, who specializes in office design, has teamed up with Wes Stone of John Wesley Hammer Construction to bring us a very cool loft office that displays great function plus style. I t features antique business materials from vintage lumber and iron designer/artist Andrew Crawford’s artistry in iron adds an element of the eclectic to the mix and showcases what is possible in today ’s appealing home office environments.

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Georgia’s Historic Heartland is a 19 county region that includes Athens on the top end, over to Conyers, down through Madison and Macon then all the way down south to Perry. I t is filled with breathtaking natural vistas, eclectic trails, botanical gardens, and a vibrant music scene, and certainly makes a location scout’s job easier. The Historic Heartland decided to go with the iconic movie “Fried Green Tomatoes”, as it was actually shot within the region. Little Bucket Pro-ductions, a creative collaboration between Lisa Duncan of Art by Archen, Jay and Alan Marsh of Legendary Designs, and Rip Potter of Rip Potter Design Studio recreated the inside of the Whistle Stop Café from the film, as well as included a large diorama of the Heartland to give attendees a true sense of the region and all of its wonderful amenities.

“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” is a Chinese proverb that means talented or dangerous peo-ple hidden from view or the hidden mysteries and qualities underneath a person. How ever we reveal our passion or contain it in discipline; one thing is for sure, the journey to self-discovery is always rich with layers of possibilities. Come and explore the world of Meclina Gomes-Priest-ley ’s artwork as it reveals rich depth of color and words and allow yourself to be drawn into her massive trees constructed of words on canvas. While focusing on storytelling through visual art, she balances abstract acrylics with word imagery and creates the atmosphere to share our life stories, allowing us to travel to a poetic moment in time to reflect or just escape for a moment. Come see how her use of words, colors and textures creates the ambiance of “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.”

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Interior designer Roya Devries puts her own twist on the story of “Little Red Riding Hood” by bringing the wolf inside. Teaming up with Steve Ball of Atlanta Intown Renovation, CeCe Loft and other collaborators, they bring us alluring imagery and colorful costumes sure to make you feel like you’ve been plunged into the middle of the action! See how the use of colors and unusual materi-als makes the scene, and prepare to experience the dark, mysterious and sensual with a visual experience you won’t forget!

What could a landscaper and a hair salon have in common? Plenty! Dixie Speck, CEO of Soltera Landscape and Angela Dugard of Bernard Dugard Atelier de Beaute come to-gether to create a topiary garden space in line with Edward’s garden that includes linear, low boxwood hedging to border the space, and accents of whimsical topiaries such as tall spirals, animal characters, and fun geometric shapes. In the center of the garden will be Edward, busily creating unusual hair styles on models, and some of the hair styles will be topiaries themselves. The models will then walk the event floor to show off their fanciful styles! Oh what fun!!!

Known as “Georgia’s Antebellum Capital,” Milledgeville was the capital city during the Civil War and still maintains much of that history and charm. The historic downtown boasts of antebellum homes, museums, art galleries, quaint shops and local eater-ies. Walking through the historic buildings and viewing the elaborate architecture is like stepping back in time. Milledgeville has chosen the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou” for their theme in order to highlight the history and culture that is still in place over 200 years later. Little Bucket Produc-tions, a creative collaboration between Lisa Duncan of Art by Archen, Jay and Alan Marsh of Legendary Designs, and Rip Pot-ter of Rip Potter Design Studio, dreamed up an ole-timey jail cell for attendees to grab a photo opportunity, and designed the inte-rior of a train station and other pieces with the look and feel of this movie.

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bring your camera

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1. Left to Right: Norm Bielowicz, Screen Gems’ Executive Vice President Kris Bagwell, GA Film Office’s Craig Dominey

2. Producer Ken Feinberg with Producer Sue Ellen Chitunya, Actress Gloria Phillips Weber, Actress Patricia Hammett Taylor, Ken’s wife, Actress Dixie Light and Photographer Imoto Harney

3. Atlanta Film Festival Director, Chris Escobar, welcomes everyone to the party

4. Director Chiken Green with AFF intern Tiffany Kindred & Jennifer Griffin

5. Vanquish crowd 6. Make-up Artists Caroline Dieter Bush, Elizabeth Young, Sorrell Sanders and friends

7. Actor Greg Savage with his wife and Actresses Kathleen Batson and Jyn Hall

8. Charles Judson with Sue Ellen Chitunya - Indie Producer

9. Director Anthony McHie with Producers Puja Chaudhari and Sue Ellen Chitunya 10. PC&E guys Left to Right: Stephen Kirkpatrick, Josh Olds, Bill Villarinho and Mark Wofford

scene

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GEORGIA INduSTRy hOLIdAy pARTy @ VANquISh LOuNGE

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Page 41: Oz Magazine Feb/March 2012

Every now and then, I think back to when we were first setting up shop in 1989. If you’re like us and have worked in the creative industry for a decade or two, you’ve seen a lot of changes in your career. For us, one of the most striking changes is in how we look for and manage client relationships.

Back in the early days of Crawford/Mikus Creative Market-ing & Design, collaborating with clients was the name of the game. We were constantly on the road, meeting with clients about campaign strategies, discussing new proj-ects, sharing layouts and doing press checks.

Fast forward to 2012 and it ’s a very different world. We’ve gone from face time to Facebook. Now, days or weeks could go by without seeing a client in their offices or in our King Plow studio. Initial inbound and outbound mar-keting strategies are still developed face to face. How-ever, from there on out, individual projects rarely involve face-to-face meetings. Instead, projects proceed through a series of follow-up calls and emails. Reason being, many clients are time crunched, struggling under heavier work-loads and trying to do more with less.

For several of our larger corporate clients, receiving a new job consists of getting an e-mail “ping,” we go out and pick up the job in a project management app, do the job and then post it on a server. From there, client associ-ates from around the globe give input and mark up the layouts. Then, we make revisions and wrap up the job. Some projects might not involve a single one-to-one call. And we are not talking one job here; we can be managing as many as 20-30 jobs in this capacity.

From an implementation and execution perspective, working like this leaves the door wide open for assump-tions, generalizations and miscommunications. In this

environment, it ’s a never-ending challenge to manage expectations and client communications – not to men-tion, the technology hiccups that can occur internally and externally throughout the process.

In terms of flexibility, we don’t have to be tied to the of-fice all day, every day. But it also means we’re tied to our work for longer hours and we’re expected to be electroni-cally accessible virtually all the time. Have you ever tried to conduct business at the zoo or aquarium with your child? Do you ever get frustrated when you lose your mo-bile signal inside a Target store (it ’s the concrete walls!)?

However, the upside is we’re finding more opportunity (and profit) in collaborating with strategic partners and offering a wider breadth of services. We’ve also been able to extend our client base well beyond Atlanta. We now find ourselves day-to-day in places like New York, New Jersey, Chicago, California and Florida.

What we have learned from our 20-plus years running an award-winning studio is that change demands adapt-ability. We have to be willing to reach out proactively to clients, immerse ourselves more than ever in their cor-porate culture and make sure we completely understand their business needs and goals. As project managers, we need to keep an eye on the details. In understanding the client and utilizing both inbound and outbound market-ing strategies, we are better able to position ourselves for the long term with a client. We become a partner, not just a vendor.

All in all, it ’s been a wild and exciting ride, and the one thing I can say is, it ain’t over yet!

Beth Crawford and Scott Mikus are principals of Crawford/Mikus Creative Marketing & Design in Atlanta.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE CLIENT RELATIONSHIP: What a Long Strange Trip It's Been

By Beth Crawford and Scott Mikus

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Voices

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how i got into the business

SCOTT FELDMANProp Builderwww.atlantaprops.com

How did you get into tHe Business?

I have always been creative and worked with my hands. When I was half way through my photography courses at The Art Institute, I met Arington Hendley and several other commercial photographers. They discov-ered right away that I was handy and I found myself building props, miniatures and sets. Before I knew it, I had a thriving business called Feldman’s Props. I met my wife, Susan, who worked at a local production house. We began building props and sets for photographers, production companies, advertising agencies and corpo-rations. Many years later, our company, known now as Atlanta Props, is still creating one-of-a-kind items.

wHAt do you LiKe Best ABout Being A PRoP BuiLdeR?

I like being able to have a client describe an object and see it in 3D. Rarely do you build the same thing twice. Sometimes it takes a lot of research and ingenuity to come up with the right solution and other times it is a simple fix. I love the challenge of figuring out the best process and materials to use. I like it when an ad agency gets an account using my prop ideas. I enjoy the strange calls asking questions like, “Have you ever made a giant blood bag?” Most of all, I like being an artist and crafts-man.

wHAt ARe soMe oF youR FAVoRite PRoJeCts?

I did three commercials with Ridley Scott. One of them was for “Miller Genuine Draft” at Atlanta Motor Speed-way. For several years I was an Art Director for Nascar. That was fun.

Last year I created an Over-sized Big Green Egg Smoker that is on display in their Showroom. This prop was quite a challenge, but it is one of my best replicas.

I have recently completed a series of unusual Props for RJ Reynolds including a six foot tall, 3D Camel covered in sheet metal, a six foot camel collage, and a large interac-tive “Science Table” for events.

TAShA jOhNSONVoiceover Artist

How did you get into tHe Business?

Like a lot of voiceover artists, I started in radio.

I was between radio jobs and wanted to strengthen my skill set and make myself more marketable to a station, so I set out to learn as much as I could about audio pro-duction from my peers.

I had a 6-month internship with an Atlanta advertising agency, where I got hands-on training in production basics, did some copywriting and voiced half of the commercials coming out of the office. That’s how I built my first demo reel. I produced it and shopped it to agents myself.

After I started booking gigs, I found I enjoyed voiceover, so I kept doing it.

wHAt’s gReAt ABout youR JoB? 

I absolutely love my job! To be picked from dozens of voices nationwide to represent brands in television and radio commercials is wonderful, and each project I work on is my favorite.

In the booth, it’s great to feed off another actor’s energy. Also, hearing someone who’s at best an acquaintance, but more often a stranger, tell you what to sound like, then processing that direction in your head and at-tempting to give voice to what they asked for is fun for me. It stretches me as an actor.

Part of the fun for me in the audition process is the cast-ing specs. I don’t have children, but my voice is often cast in a mom role. I guess I have a motherly vibe.

wHAt wouLd you sAy is youR sPeCiALty?

My specialty is commercials, but I also do lots of long form narration. A recent 56-page project took almost 3 hours (and a half gallon of water) to complete. I’ve also been known to grace a TV promo or two, and a voice messaging system or three.

tHRee ReCent PRoJeCts:

Radio commercials for Home Depot and Georgia Power, tags for AT&T.

jASON CLArkAnimal wrangler President, southeastern Reptile [email protected] How did you get into tHe Business?

One day, out of the blue, I received a call from a producer who wanted to know if I’d be interested in my own tele-vision show. After discerning this was no joke, I natu-rally said yes. In just a few days, I began shooting a pilot episode with my family. Not long after that, a full crew arrived at our home and began 18 months of filming for our series, SnakesKIN, on Animal Planet. After filming for our show wrapped, I was asked to provide some farm ani-mals for Rob Zombie’s Halloween II. This is when I really realized that filming a reality TV show was much different than working on a feature film. The second movie I was asked to work on was Hall Pass. This time, I was able to accompany my animal in the scene as it was a 100-pound python that no one else was able to handle.

wHAt is A Lesson you’Ve LeARned wHiLe FiLMing witH AniMALs?

Yes, you can blow a tarantula off the set. This happened while working on a film about phobias. The tarantulas were to walk to their mark and then stop. To move a ta-rantula and stay out of the scene, blowing air works well. As long as you don’t blow too hard! Another thing that was a very important lesson is that many times you have to be more patient with the people than the animals. For some reason, our animals seem to catch on and warm up to their co-stars much quicker than the humans do.

wHAt do you do wHen you’Re not wRAngLing AniMALs FoR FiLM?

I run the day to day operations of Southeastern Reptile Rescue, which is where our animals come to us from. They are rescues. We house approximately 150 animals (mostly reptiles) that range from alligators to cobras. Between feeding, cleaning cages and traveling with our educa-tional reptile exhibit and stage show, I stay busy all year.

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rOBErT DUVALLKey [email protected]

How did you get into tHe Business?

First things first. Yes, that’s my name. No, Mom didn’t have a clue. The benefit is that most folks don’t forget it.

First grade: had my lamb costume on, lines and block-ing memorized, and was ready to go. But I wanted to play with all the neat looking lights that were hidden up in the ceiling. Getting into the business happened at age 15 as a stagehand in that same 1,400 seat theater. Two years later, John Goodman was nice enough to give his old high school drama teacher a sizeable check to spend. She turned around, told me the amount, and that I should go spend it on “some video equipment”. That got us an S-VHS A/B roll suite, 2 cameras, accesso-ries, and several big learning experiences for me. On a visit 10 years later, it was still in use, and the instruction manual I wrote was taped to the wall.

One thing led to another, and another, and another… Now I’ve got 22 years of industry experience under my belt. I’ve rarely worked outside of the industry, and starting young has been a great benefit.

wHAt’s Business LiKe in A sMALLeR town LiKe sAVAnnAH? Savannah is location-rich for its size. A few things can work differently here. Our biggest benefit and drawback is that we’re not a big city. Getting whatever odd thing you need at three in the morning may only happen if you or your crew has a personal connection. But we also have fewer limitations, rules, etc. to hinder a shoot. Savannah crews are awesome because of the mix of great specialists and experienced multi-taskers. I love being a Key Grip, running my business of renting gear, and referring great local crew. Getting outside, work-ing with my hands, and being mechanically creative are just a few of the reasons. It’s an awesome contrast to my other life as a Technical Director for corporate meet-ings where I wear a suit and live in hotel ballrooms. wHAt ARe youR MAntRAs?

“There are no problems, only challenges and solutions.”, “My favorite project? The one I’m working on!”, “How can we make this better?”, and “Safety, safety, safety.”

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jAY rOgErSAnimatorjayro designwww.jayrodesign.com

How did you get into tHe Business?

Like many young artists, I had my sights set on Disney. I contacted their Feature Animation group, and they recommended a few appropriate college programs, so I put together a portfolio for Ringling College, and got accepted there. While I was a student at Ringling, I worked at Creative Arts Unlimited and got a taste of what it was like to be a professional in the visual arts, doing work for clients like FAO Schwarz, Macy’s, Mar-shall Field’s, and the Florida International Museum.

After I graduated, I was hired by CNN Headline News then transitioned to Cartoon Network. During my 11 years there, I got to work with a variety of fun and irreverent brands alongside some really great people. I eventually moved up to Art Director for their in-house creative department, where one of my most memorable assignments was designing the infamous national “RED” billboard campaign with mysterious and provocative slogans like “I POOTED.” and “I HAVE A MEAT BEARD.”

In 2010, I started my own design and illustration stu-dio, and I’ve been busy working on everything from museum exhibits and magazine covers to UI design and illustration for games and apps, and character art.

wHAt tyPes oF PRoJeCts wouLd you LiKe to woRK on in tHe FutuRe?

Having a long background in children’s media and entertainment, I’d love to get involved with more of the current major kids brands and see what opportunities exist there. Since I’ve been doing a lot of digital work lately, I’d also like to work on an interactive storybook. My kids can’t get enough of them, and it’s always exciting to show them something I’ve produced and see them interact with it.

MELVA AkENSCostume designer

How did you get into tHe Business?

I was working as a retail buyer when my spouse was relocated and I couldn’t find work in our new state of residence. I started working in sales for a company that provided art department services to the production and entertainment industries. Before long I was also assist-ing the company with set decorating and props. Months later, to my surprise, the company went out of business. One evening I attended an industry meeting and met a wardrobe stylist. She telephoned me days later to assist on a huge project insisting I had introduced myself as a wardrobe stylist - the rest is history. Over the years I im-proved my craft and expanded my experience by work-ing as a music coordinator, trade-out coordinator and associate producer. These roles seemed second nature because the professional skills (presentation, building budgets, negotiating, project manage, oral and written communication) and decorum developed in previous tenures were helpful in carrying out production respon-sibilities. Also, my interest in learning more and giving back led to seats on local, state and an international board of directors.

FAVoRite PRoJeCt to dAte?

The opening for ESPN’s Sunday Night Football. I met NFL owners and worked with 30 NFL players, Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, professional dancers and a host of extras. In this project we shot an NFL parade that required set-ting up a full workroom with 5 seamstresses. Costumes were created for all and they appeared on parade floats, in the parade and as fanatic spectators. The project allowed me to be extremely creative and have fun in the process.

dReAM PRoJeCt?

My dream project is to costume design a television series about living legends or design a period movie. I enjoy research and working with hair and makeup to create “art”. I’m at my best when visually executing the director’s vision via the beauty of color and detailed work.

Page 44: Oz Magazine Feb/March 2012

photography by Sarah Medina

OZ PUBLISHING, INC.per diem - decatur

dECATuR

Café 160 Fidelity National Bank Building 160 Clairemont Ave. 404-378-0099

Café Alsace 121 E. Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-373-5622 www.cafealsace.net  

Café Lily 308-B W. Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-371-9119 www.cafelily.com  

Carpe Diem 105 Sycamore Pl. 404-687-9696 www.apresdiem.com  

American Deli225 E. Ponce de Leon Ave. #100404-377-9922www.iloveamericandeli.com

Andryannis Bistro Café 125 Clairemont Ave., Suite 160 404-373-1333 www.andryannis.com   Avellino’s Pizza 902 W. College Ave. 404-228-3285 www.avellinospizzeria.com   Badda Bing! Takeaway Gourmet 406 Church St. 404-373-4500 www.baddabing.net  

The Chocolate Bar 201 W. Ponce de Leon Ave., Suite C 404-378-0630 www.thechocolatebardecatur.com

The Cookie Studio 747-C E. College Ave. 404-373-8527 www.thecookiestudio.net  

Corner Pub 627-D E. College Ave. 404-377-0603 www.pubalicious.com  

Dancing Goats Coffee Bar 419 W. Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-687-1100 www.dancinggoats.com    

The Bakery at Cakes & Ale151 Sycamore St.404-377-7960/ 404-377-7994 www.cakesandalerestaurant.com

Big Tex Cantina308 W. Ponce de Leon Ave.404-377-3939www.bigtexcantina.com

Brick Store Pub 125 E. Court Sq. 404-687-0990 www.brickstorepub.com  

Burnt Fork BBQ 614 Church St. 404-373-7155 www.burntforkbbq.com  

Decatur is a tasty town. As locals, we love Cafe Lilly (our favorite) - warm, inviting, reasonably priced with great Mediterranean style food and an excellent wine list, Cakes and Ale - a hip, award winning farm to table upscale eatery with excellent, creative cookery, Farmburger - an awesome farm to table burger joint with the best local-beef burgers in town, and The Brick Store - where the bar food is good, but the beer and atmosphere are even better. Bet you wish you lived here!

GEORGE ANd KATE LAWES, Kudzu ViNtage hoMe store

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Discover Decatur, where everything is Greater! Its small-town feeling with hip and sophisticated shops, parks, and friendly neighborhoods add to the benefit of living in a major metropolitan city. Voted among the top ten

“Tastiest Towns in the South,” Decatur offers an array of dining or a place to kickback, relax and enjoy!

Page 45: Oz Magazine Feb/March 2012

dECATuR

dAVId ALI, the sileNt cafe

I run a clean craft service and catering business on set and I only eat, serve and recommend restaurants that have good food, great service and a clean environment

inside and out. Erbert & Gerberts Sandwich Shop in Decatur is my favorite sandwich shop in Atlanta. It’s unbelievable that this is the only location here. The food taste and

menu variety is great. Every area shines with this place including the owners.

Decatur Diner 205 E Ponce de Leon Ave 404-377-8787

Duck’s Cosmic Kitchen 111-D New St. 404-371-8823 www.duckscosmickitchen.com  

Eddie’s Attic 515-B N. McDonough St. 404-377-4976 www.eddiesattic.com  

Farm Burger 410 W Ponce de Leon Ave 404-378-5077 www.farmburger.net  

Feast Restaurant 314 E. Howard Ave. 404-377-2000 www.feastatlanta.com  

Fellini’s Pizza 333 Comerce Dr. 404-370-0551 www.fellinisatlanta.com   Figo 627 E. College Ave. 404-377-2121 www.figopasta.com   Garlic Thai Cuisine and Sushi Bar 340 W. Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-270-9165 www.garlicthaisushi.com

Green Ginger265 Ponce de Leon Pl.404-373-2788

Harbour Bar129 Church St.404-371-0088www.harbourdecatur.com

The Iberian Pig 121 Sycamore St. 404-371-8800 www.iberianpigatl.com  

J. Christopher’s 250 E. Ponce de Leon Ave., Suite 150 404-378-2662 www.jchristophers.com

Java Monkey205 E. Ponce de Leon Ave, #5 404-378-5002 www.javamonkeydecatur.com    

Jimmy John’s335 W. Ponce de Leon Ave.404-474-6999www.jimmyjohns.com

Kavarna Bistro Café 707-A East Lake St 404-371-1113 www.instantkavarna.com  

Las Brasas Chicken Rotisserie 310 E Howard Ave 404-377-9121 www.lasbrasasdecatur.com  

Leon’s Full Service 131 E Ponce de Leon Ave 404-687-0500 www.leonsfullservice.com  

Mac McGee’s Irish Pub 111 Sycamore St 404-377-8050 www.macmcgeeirishpub.com  

The Marlay House426 W. Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-270-9950 www.themarlayhouse.com  

Matador Mexican Cantina 350-A Mead Rd 404-377-0808 www.matadorcantina.com  

McGowan’s Oakhurst Pub 321 W. Hill St. 404-373-4702www.mcgowansoakhurstpub.com

Mellow Mushroom 265 Ponce de Leon Pl. 404-370-0008 www.mellowmushroom.com  

Mezcalito’s 653 East Lake Dr. 404-687-0007 www.mezcalitoscantina.com  

Mojo Pizza 657 East Lake Dr, 404-373-1999 www.mojopizzanpub.com  

New Orleans Café and Sno Balls 340 W. Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-617-0044 www.neworleanssnoballcafe.com  

No. 246129 E. Ponce de Leon Ave.678-399-8246www.no246.com

Noodle 205 E Ponce de Leon Ave 404-378-8622 www.noodlehouse.net  

Out of the Pan105 Clairmont Ave.404-377-7266

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Page 46: Oz Magazine Feb/March 2012

Raging Burrito141 Sycamore St. 404-377-3311 www.ragingburrito.com  

Rainbow Chicken 749 E. College Ave. 404-371-0691

Ruby Tuesday 158 W. Ponce de leon Ave. 404-687-3389 www.rubytuesday.com  

Saba 350 Mead Rd. 404-377-9266 www.saba-restaurant.com

Sammiches n’ Stuff 515 N. McDonough St. 404-378-8778 www.sammichesnstuff.com

Sapori di Napoli314 Church St.404-371-0001www.saporidinapolipizzeria.com

Siam Thai 123 Sycamore St. 404-371-4333 www.siamthaidecatur.com  

Starbucks 133 E. Court Sq. 404-371-1104 www.starbucks.com     The Square Pub 115 Sycamore St. 404-844-4010 www.squarepubdecatur.com  

Steinbeck’s 659 East Lake Dr. 404-373-1116 www.steinbecksbar.com  

Sushi Avenue 308-C W. Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-378-8448 www.sushiavenuedecatur.com

Sushi Avenue on the Square 131 Sycamore St. 404-378-8448 www.sushiavenuedecatur.com

Sweet Melissa’s 127 E. Court Sq. 404-370-1111 www.sweetmelissas.com  

Swirlin Twirlin335 W. Ponce de Leon Ave.770-965-5071www.swirlintwirlin.com

Taco Mac 240 W. Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-378-4140 www.tacomac.com  

Taqueria del Sol 359 W. Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-377-7668 www.taqueriadelsol.com  

Ted’s Montana Grill 201 W. Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-378-1123 www.tedsmontanagrill.com  

Thinking Man Tavern 537 W. Howard Ave. 404-370-1717 www.thinkingmantavern.com  

Thumbs Up 174 W. Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-687-0999 www.thumbsupdiner.com  

Trackside Tavern 313 E. College Ave. 404-378-0504 www.tracksidetavern.com  

Twain’s Billiards and Brew Pub 211 E. Trinity Pl. 404-373-0063 www.twains.net

Universal Joint 906 Oakview Rd. 404-373-6260 www.ujointbar.com  

Wahoo! A Decatur Grill 1042 W. College Ave. 404-373-3331 www.wahoogrilldecatur.com  

The Yogurt Tap 419 Church St. 404-373-6090 www.theyogurttap.com  

Zucca 123 E. Court Sq. 404-270-9930 www.zuccadecatur.com  

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dAVId LyMAN, MeNtal Pictures hd

Decatur is full of great restaurants, but my favorite go-to spot is Leon’s Full Service! It is a converted gas station with great atmosphere, a “mixologist”

who makes the greatest mixed drinks (Kentucky Breakfast), and the best pub frites in town! (Try them with the fresh horseradish mayonnaise!)

BLAKE TyERS, still PhotograPher

You can’t go to Decatur and not go to the Brickstore Pub! Sitting in an old bank right in the heart of Decatur, this beer mecca boasts two bars, one

of which is dedicated to pouring only the finest from Belgium; an unrivaled bottle list; and even a cellar menu offering some of the most coveted brews

found anywhere. If you want a great meal and a great pint, this is the place!

Page 47: Oz Magazine Feb/March 2012

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Imagine over 160,000 square feet of creative genius, movie sets, fabulous food, fashion, props, technology, amazing performances and the entire creative community coming

together to celebrate and promote all of the next cool things in Georgia.

Imagine being a part of it.

Now is your chance.

THE NEXT COOL EVENT tickets are available at .com

TheNextCoolEvent.com be part of the movement.

Where will you be

Feb 17-18, 2012C

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DISTRIBUTION & ASSOCIATION PARTNERS

NORTH HIGHLANDS

Manuel’s Tavern602 North Highland Ave.Atlanta, GAwww.manuelstavern.com Plaza Theatre1049 Ponce De Leon Ave.Atlanta, GA 30306 www.plazaatlanta.com

Youngblood Gallery636 N Highland Ave.Atlanta, GA 30306www.youngbloodgallery.com

Righteous Room 1051 Ponce De Leon Ave.Atlanta, GA 30306

PERIMETER NORTH

Art Institute Of Atlanta 6600 Peachtree Dunwoody Road100 Embassy RowAtlanta, GA 30328www.aia.aii.edu

American Intercontinental University - Dunwoody6600 Peachtree Dunwoody Road500 Embassy RowAtlanta, GA 30328dunwoody.aiuniv.edu

Mellow Mushroom-Vinings2950 New Paces Ferry Rd SE #BAtlanta, GA 30339www.mellowmushroom.com/vinings

NORTH DEKALB

Chocolate’-Shallowford2566 Shallowford Road - Publix Shopping CenterAtlanta, GA 30345www.mychocolatecoffee.com

Crawford Media 5 West Druid Hills DriveAtlanta, GA 30329www.crawford.com

Showcase Video2323 Cheshire Bridge Road, NEAtlanta, GA 30324www.showcaseinc.com

EMORY

Everybody’s Pizza 1593 N Decatur RoadAtlanta, GA, 30307www.everybody’spizza.com

Chocolate’-North Decatur 2094 N Decatur RoadDecatur, GA, 30033www.mychocolatecoffee.comSOUTH ATLANTA

Clark-Atlanta University Library 111 James P. Brawley Dr., SW,Atlanta, Ga 30314 EUE/Screen Gems 175 Lakewood Way, SEAtlanta, Ga 30315www.screengemsstudios.com/atl

Raleigh Studios-Senoia600 Chestlehurst RoadSenoia, Ga 30276www.raleighstudios.com

MIDTOWN WEST

E-Six Lab 678 10th Street NWAtlanta, GA, 30318www.e-sixlab.com

Six Feet Under-11th 685 11th Street NWAtlanta, GA 30318 www.sixfeetunder.net

Panavision 1250 Menlo Drive NWAtlanta, GA 30340www.panavision.com

PPR - Professional Photo Resources 667 11th Street NWAtlanta, Ga 30318www.ppratlanta.com

Sam Flax 1745 Peachtree Stat Brookwood PlaceAtlanta, GA 30309www.samflaxsouth.com

Imagers 1575 Northside DriveBldg 400, Suite 490Atlanta, GA 30318www.imagers.com

Octane Coffee Bar & Lounge1009 Marietta Street NWAtlanta, GA, 30318www.octanecoffee.com

PC & E 2235 DeFoor Hills Road NWAtlanta, GA 30318www.PC&E-Atlanta.com King Plow Arts Center 887 West Marietta StreetAtlanta, GA, 30318www.kingplow.com C-TOWN/G. PARK/EAST ATL

97 Estoria 727 Wylie Street Atlanta, GA 30316www.97estoria.com

Stoveworks 112 Krog St.Atlanta, GA 30307www.officeloftsatlanta.com Six Feet Under-Memorial 437 Memorial Dr SEAtlanta, GA 30312

Studioplex 659 Auburn Avenue NEAtlanta, GA 30312www.studioplexlofts.com Little’s Food Store 198 Carroll St.Atlanta, GA 30316www.littlesfoodstore.com

529529 Flat Shoals Ave.Atlanta, GA 30318www.529atl.com

MIDTOWN

Turner Studios 1020 Techwood Drive,Atlanta, Ga 30318www.turnerstudios.com

Utrecht Art Supplies878 Peachtree StreetAtlanta, GA 30309www.utrechtart.com/stores

Portfolio Center125 Bennett StreetAtlanta, Ga 30309www.portfoliocenter.com S.C.A.D.- Atlanta1600 Peachtree StAtlanta, GA 30309www.scad.edu INMAN PARK/LITTLE 5 POINTS

Jack’s Pizza 676 Highland Avenue NEAtlanta, GAwww.jackspizzaandwings.com

Inman Perk Coffee240 N Highland Ave NE # H Atlanta, GA 30307 www.inmanperkcoffee.com

Savi Urban Market 287 Elizabeth Street NEAtlanta, GA 30307www.saviurbanmarket.com

Parish 240 N Highland Avenue NEAtlanta, GA 30307 www.parishatl.com El Myr 1091 Euclid Avenue NEAtlanta, GA 30307 elmyr.com

Aurora Coffee 468 Moreland AvenueAtlanta, GA 30307www.auroracoffee.com

American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA)

Atlanta Ad Club

Atlanta Macintosh Users Group

American Marketing Association-Atlanta

Media Communications Association International (MCAI)

Women In Film & Television Atlanta (WIFTA)

Business Marketing Association-Atlanta (BMA-Atlanta)

National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Southeast (NATAS)

Atlanta Press Club (APC)

Georgia Production Partnership (GPP)

The Freelance Forum

American Federation of Television and Radio Arts (AFTRA)

Cable & Telecommunications Association (CTAM)

American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP)

Society for Technical Communication (STC)

ASSOCIATIONS

4 8 O Z M A G A Z I N E w w w . o z m a g a z i n e . c o m

Page 49: Oz Magazine Feb/March 2012

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Oz Publishing, Inc.

Diane LasekSales Consultant

[email protected]

PH 404.551.4333 PH 404.633.1779

www.ozonline.tvwww.ozmagazine.com

2566 SHALLOWFORD RD.STE 104, #302 /ATLANTA, GA 30345

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Page 50: Oz Magazine Feb/March 2012

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Page 51: Oz Magazine Feb/March 2012

5 0 O Z M A G A Z I N E w w w . o z m a g a z i n e . c o m

Page 52: Oz Magazine Feb/March 2012

One Source, One Call, 24/7One Source, One Call, 24/7Atlanta’s most comprehensive production equipment supplier for over 25 years.Atlanta’s most comprehensive production equipment supplier for over 25 years.

www.pce-atlanta.com 800-537-4021 404-609-9001 2235 DeFoor Hills Road, Atlanta, GA 30318www.pce-atlanta.com 800-537-4021 404-609-9001 2235 DeFoor Hills Road, Atlanta, GA 30318

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Our people make the difference.