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Crush Digital Video joins New York Media Group family which already includes Cyclotron, East Side Audio, Post Perfect and Superdupe Recording. Crush is a DVD studio that provides pre-mastering and authoring services to the entertainment and commercial production industries.

High Definition Oberhause Studios (HDO) opened its doors on Sept. 25, 1997 in Oberhausen, Germany. HDO is Europe's largest special effects studio and part of the State of North Rhine Westphalia.

HDO has 10,000 sq. meters (108,000 sq feet) with special studios for matte painting, blue screening, motion capture, motion control, modeling and set construction workshops, a sound department, editing suites, audio rooms, production offices and a cinema. It's largest studio is a 13,000 sq. foot blue screen studio with a 30' ceiling. HDO maintains a full time staff of 40-45.

The facility cost $65 million to build, most of which was came from NRW and the European Union. Producer Dieter Geissler's Cinemagic Film Effects Studio in Babelsberg holds 31% and the Satel Group holds 20% with the remaining 49% held in trust for future investors.

HDO hopes to draw films from around the world and compete with the large US-based FX houses. HDO is positioning itself as a one stop shop for digital and traditional visual effects production. Projects completed include Tarzan and Jane, The House with a Roadshow, Jungle Book II and Dybuk in the Applefield.

Steinberg intruduces Nuendo, a new digital audio workstation (DAW) for the SGI, which combines the Hamberg, Germany-based company's Virtual Studio Technology with realtime effects and an open plug-in architecture. Audio can be recorded at 16-, 20- or 24-bit resolution. Steinberg chose the SGI platform with the hopes of gaining wide spread acceptance in the film industry.

Eastman Kodak halts selling of equipment: Eastman Kodak recently announced that it would no longer sell its line of digital film scanners and recorders. Kodak's Genesis film scanners and Lightning film recorders are considered the leading systems in the digital film system industry. Kodak's systems are laser based. Laser based systems have an imaging output speed advantage of 5 to 1 over CRT based systems. Digital Cinema Systems, makers of the $550,000 Lux Laser Cinema Recorder (recently used on Batman & Robin) is the only competing laser film recorder.

Recent financial troubles led to this decision, along with rumors that Kodak would try to sell its Cineon line of related software. Industry analysts speculate that Kodak's decision was made based on the assumption that there was no possibility that the division would make a profit in the near future.

The Lightning film recorders sell for $2 million and only two have been sold (to Dreamworks SKG and POP). The Lightning II is priced at $1 million and is guaranteed for 3 years by Kodak. Cineon will be supported for a year.

Kodak has no plans to sell its Cinesite division.

Intel and the American Film Institute recently announced a program to support the Hollywood creative community in the evolution of digital entertainment. The three year venture will include Intel's sponsorship of the AFI's Los Angeles Film Festival, support for AFI to create interactive sessions and exhibits at the Festival, the creation of a new Interactive Star award, an AFI-Intel interactive production workshop, annual symposium and exhibition of outstanding interactive work and the expansion of AFI's web site, AFI Online.

The Visual Effects Society, a nonprofit trade group formed earlier this year has announced plans for an extensive series of educational seminars featuring the top industry effects artists. The first seminar, "The Vision of Visual Effects" is scheduled for Oct. 4 at UC Berkeley. The three hour seminar will feature speakers including John Dykstra, Dennis Muren and Michael Fink and will be moderated by Harrison Ellenshaw. The seminar will focus on the participants' earliest career paths and how they learned their craft. The seminar will be repeated on Oct. 25th at the TV academy in North Hollywood. The VES seminars are free, but admission is limited to faculty and students of participating colleges and universities, plus some invited high school teachers and students. Colleges set to participate in the seminar series include San Fransisco State, Cal State Monterey, UC Santa Cruz, DeAnza College, Cogswell Polytechnic Institute, San Jose State, California Arts Institute, San Jose State Long Beach, Mount San Antonio College, Pasadena Community College, American Film Institute, UCLA Extension, USC and Glendale Community College. SGI and Quantel are corporate sponsors and have donated $25,000 each.

Megalomedia, a London-based media and news media group which owns London-based effects company FrameStore, recently acquired Computer Film Holdings Limited, the holding company of The Computer Film Company (CFC) which has facilities in London and Los Angeles, CA. CFC recently completed work on Con Air and Event Horizon. .