Digital Domain’s Matthew Butler finds himself with his first Academy Award nomination, one of the co-VFX supervisors on Transformers: Dark of the Moon, along with Scott Farrar, who suped for ILM’s share of the work, and special effects supervisor John Frazier. Animation director Scott Benza rounds out the quartet. »

In Oscar’s “final five” in the visual effects category, Erik Nash finds himself nominated as the VFX supervisor for the robotic fisticuffs opus, Real Steel, along with very busy animatronic supevisor John Rosengrant, animation supervisor Dan Taylor, and digital effects supervisor Swen Gillbert. »

And so here we are, on State of the Union day, as – on America’s other coast – Oscar nominations are announced and a different media frenzy begins. Which might be more fatuous or less serious, we leave to you. But both processes are similar, as early caucuses and primaries – in this case, other... »

Local 44’s business agent Ed Brown and secretary-treasurer Anthony Pawluc recently invited Patrick Graham, owner of leading film industry publication Below the Line to Local 44's annual Holiday Retirees Luncheon, in order to negotiate final details for Local 44 members to take advantage of Below the Line’s popular Production Listings Discount Program. »

Ah, those digits. On computers tracking finances and trading commodity futures, they weaken the Euro, send gas prices higher, and create all manner of mischief. But in computers creating century-old Parisian landscapes, World Wars, and highly sympathetic revolutionary apes, among other imaginings, they create the very stuff of box office receipts and critical plaudits.... »

Generally, if Rob Legato’s been working on something, he emerges in the contender conversation – which seems to happen every other year or so. There were the special and visual effects for Scorcese’s The Aviator, followed by The Departed, after which he headed off to set up a pipeline for this new James Cameron... »

Tim Burke first boarded the Hogwarts Express for the second film in the Harry Potter series, The Chamber of Secrets, signing on as a VFX supervisor for post-house The Mill. Since then, he’s worked in supervisorial roles in all subsequent installments, rising to senior visual effects supervisor for the franchise’s two-part finale, Harry Potter... »

You might think that DP Jeff Cronenweth, having worked with director David Fincher on Fight Club, and garnering Oscar and ASC nods with the same director for his work on The Social Network was automatically set to shoot the American adaptation of The Girl with the Dragoon Tattoo. »

So there we were, on a Thursday mid-morning – Below the Line’s big giant head, Patrick Graham, and truly yours – libations already in hand, a plate of turkey, gravy and fixin’s in our near future. We were guests of IA Local 44 – Hollywood’s property craftspersons – at their annual Christmas party... »

It was a home invasion of the best kind... On a recent cold and blustery December Saturday, members of IA Locals including 44, 729 and 700, Teamsters 399, retirees, producers, and kin of the above, all descended on the home of location manager George Herthel and his wife Pam Boroski. George had become... »