Jay Gordon

Runway’s The Hundred #Film Fund is providing grants from $5K to $1M+ alongside up to $2M in Runway credits. Only to filmmakers already working on a film project that utilises Runway throughout the production pipeline who need additional funding to complete the project. All formats of film are eligible including features, shorts, documentaries, experimental projects, music videos and more. The fund currently sits at $5M with the potential to grow to $10M. Additionally, the fund will allocate $2M in Runway credits across projects. #AI #artificialintelligence #generativeAI

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Spotify 7NEWS Australia Create NSW Chris Minns Tim Kelly OMG, where do I begin??? Australia, in general, is hard for music, and it's not just streaming. -No one wants to support artists until they are already successful. People will pay hundreds to see Taylor Swift but balk at the idea of paying $10 entry to see local bands at the pub. International touring acts bring their buddies when they should be hiring local artists as their support acts. -The Australian public is hostile to the idea that musicians should be paid for doing their 'hobby.' (https://lnkd.in/g78-ntzJ) - The previous NSW state government was very hostile to various forms of live music with lock-out laws and festival policing requirements that made music festivals unviable. - The cost of touring your band in Australia is outrageously expensive. - All the bars where young, new bands would cut their teeth have been brought up and turned into trendy cocktail bars. - Mainstream media doesn't support indie Australian music, but will happily promote the same handful of Australian artists again and again and again.. Like Kylie needs more promo. -Music-related grants are incredibly difficult to complete and require a high level of writing ability, which disadvantages non-university-educated musicians and discourages them from applying. - The NSW government is currently considering cutting up the music curriculum so music students have fewer performance opportunities which is very, very lame. -Spotify streams are worthless unless you TayTay, Beyonce, Kendrick, or Billie. If Spotify is going to dominate our music industry, can they at least push our music in our market?

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🌈🎮 It's disappointing to see hate and intolerance cropping up in spaces that celebrate diversity and inclusivity. I was made aware of some negative comments from posts about our Queer Indies Showcase - an event that celebrated LGBTQIA+ indie game developers and the amazing work they do. I have witnessed a spike of hateful comments saying things like "you have been exposed, prepare" and "Nobody wants to play games with gay people in it.” (First of all--WHO SAYS THESE KINDS OF THINGS?) We have so much further to go when it comes to embracing acceptance and diversity. These hate wave incidents aren't isolated; they're part of a bigger problem and often tied to extremist ideologies. Sure, Twitter/X is a trash fire. Yet, we all know these kinds of opinions and hateful statements don’t stop on Twitter. They linger in people’s minds and often sway opinions of those lacking strong media literacy and critical thinking skills. These words find their way into our culture be it at home, school, workplaces, etc. These thoughts are then validated and perpetuated in social media echo chambers and closed circles where a sense of belonging is derived from a shared hatred of “others.” Suddenly these thoughts become deeply held beliefs intensified through strong feelings and attachment to one’s identity. Once that identity is established--well, good luck changing minds then. In the midst of this rise in hate and negativity, we must remain committed to celebrating diversity while vocalizing expectations of our communities and establishing strong boundaries of what is acceptable behavior. Let me be clear about where I stand: inclusivity does not mean we have to put up with hate. Absolutely not. In fact, inclusivity relies on a culture of accountability and creating a space where everyone can thrive without fear of discrimination or harmful attacks. This inherently excludes hate. More specifically, the exclusion of intolerance and hate is about sending a clear message that certain behaviors are unacceptable and have consequences. I’m human. I have emotions and react to things like anyone else. When I confront hate and intolerance, I’ll be 100% transparent with you: I tend to default to a sassy/spicy/GTFO reaction. However, I’m a firm believer that kindness is key, and we must focus on what we wish to bring about in this world. So, let’s create spaces of love and kindness where hate doesn't stand a chance. 🤝💬 But let’s also firmly snuff the flame of hate as soon as we see it. How do we do that? Here’s a start: https://lnkd.in/gsU_qc6h #GamesIndustry #GameDev #Diversity #Equity #Inclusion #Belongingness

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Got the opportunity to chat and record a podcast for No Film School with Grant Petty, the CEO of Blackmagic Design, at the NAB Show this year. If you're curious about the new Blackmagic URSA Cine 12K camera, or the future of AI in video, check it out as we cover a wide range of topics, including: -Developing the URSA Cine with a post-production mindset -Zero-cost options from Blackmagic for beginners -Why Grant doesn’t like to compete with others -PYXIS camera and its features -Creating products that lend to an efficient post-production workflow -Exciting new changes and updates to DaVinci Resolve 19 -Grant’s opinion on AI and the future of editing -The moment he fell in love with color correction -Feeling lonely and misunderstood -Why you have to be a ruthless, yet empathetic product engineer Give it a listen here or, you know, wherever you get your podcasts!

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Amber when Video team and Design team does collaboration interesting things happens. For any professional video these keys elements are important: 1. Engaging Script which makes things easier for the consumers 2. Good Video and Audio quality during production 3. Make sure to be well prepared beforehand during green screen shoot, avoid green color costume, accessories 4. Make sure the green screen color isn't spilling on reflecting on the speaker as it might be a problem during editing part 5. Always check the position of wireless microphone on speaker and use good quality headphones during takes 6. In case of long hair, a nice non frizzy hair do will be of great help 7. During Post production Make sure all the footage is well sorted with proper naming system which will ease up the efforts of Motion graphic artists and save time 8. There are audio cleaning sites to reduce noise (The noise reduction tool in Premiere Pro has improved and works most of the times but in case of more noise and audio grains i use Runway ML audio cleaner) So these were the key factors for a video production at a corporate or any other professional setup. These insights were video specific and varies project by project if you want to learn and understand about the Video Production drop a comment and lets start a conversation. In the end a big shoutout to Video Team Ankush Keripale. Also Motion Graphics Team Kamini Shinde Gaurav Pandore and Muatseem Shaikh for amazing motion graphics and the final output and the rest of the team BTW thumbnails are the most important part of any video and this amazing design was done by Saumya Shah And also you can add the processes you think are also important. #videoproduction #filmmaking #adfilmmaking #learnfilmmaking Checkout the Video below.

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Two shifts in the global landscape of film tax incentives already this month: 1. AUSTRALIA Australia is nearly doubling their offering from 16.5% to 30% for productions with budgets of at least AUS$20 million (US$13.3 million) for production, or AUS$1.5 million (US$1 million) per hour for a TV series. ”With the offset, the country is looking to keep pace with the U.S., U.K., Canada and other top international production hubs in drawing Hollywood movies and TV series for local shoots” says the Hollywood Reporter. This can be combined with up to 15% from state and territory incentives. Details on Australian VFX credits here: https://lnkd.in/gp7zKQ-F 2. GERMANY Germany has a 30% rebate lined up for its 2025 budget too, pending approval by their Cabinet. “Industry groups have been lobbying Berlin for months to improve the country’s incentive system, complaining that Germany is no longer competitive with neighboring European countries with more generous programs.“ They're not wrong. On top of their 30% rebate, France already applies a 10% bonus for VFX-intensive projects with more than €2M of VFX-related eligible French expenditure. Once the €2M threshold is passed, the 40% tax rebate applies on all of a project's eligible spends, including live action spends which are not VFX-related. Which France needs to do to keep pace with generous incentives in the UK. Local industries rightly celebrate the positive impact these changes are going to have for them. At the same time, keep in mind that tax incentives create artificial economic conditions which last only as long as the incentives are in place. Sébastien Moreau of Rodeo FX put it succinctly: "Unfortunately, despite the immense talent in Quebec, a region's competitiveness is determined by tax incentives." That’s true of any region today when it comes to the big budget Hollywood productions that drive the global VFX industry, including Hollywood's local industry in California. #vfx #vfxjobs #taxincentives https://lnkd.in/gUe49afk https://lnkd.in/gDjVxxJw

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Valuable insights from Jon Finger worth paying attention to as we continue our dialogue among creatives and technologists on where, how, and why AI tools need to embrace a path for evolution that celebrates human creativity and the intuitiveness of our physical realities or however else artists wish to image the physics and other principles that govern their fantastical worlds, which once set in play should continue to automatically dictate the way events and environments affect components within those worlds. #ArtificialIntelligence #NeuralAssets #AIResearch #ContentCreation #AssetManipulation #AIDevelopment #VisualEffects #Filmmaking #GameDevelopment #WorldBuilding #Storytelling #Tokenization #ContextualAI #Innovation #CreativeTechnology #FutureOfAI #TechInnovation #DigitalTransformation #Robotics #AIInMedia

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I was pleased to be able to attend the Goodbody Annual Video Game Event today and to hear some fantastic speakers including María Sayans (ustwo games), Nick Button-Brown, Kristian Segerstrale (Super Evil Mega Corp), Patrick O'Luanaigh (nDreams) and Dylan Collins (superstar CEO and Founder) share their view on the current state of the UK video games industry, very ably hosted by Goodbody's own Patrick O'Donnell. The discussions were fascinating, covering developments in game publishing and distribution, new business models and the M&A landscape for games companies. The overall theme of the event was "Returning to growth?" and there seemed to be a fairly universal take that both the optimistic and pessimistic view of the industry are likely to be true to some extent at the same time. The pessimistic view focused on the challenges of layoffs and the slowdown of investment. The optimistic take was that while these things are undoubtedly true and painful, the UK remains an exciting investment proposition. There was a really interesting theme around the future of gaming being in the hands of younger players who may not self-identity as "gamers" any more than any of us would identify as "TV watchers". They play games as part of their media consumption rather than it being a core part of who they are. There's a marked difference between how industry people talk about games and how younger gamers see them in their lives. There was also an interesting discussion about the rise and rise of UGC and what it means for the wider industry. One speaker took the view that the next big thing might well emerge from a community-built game on a platform like Roblox or Discord. The most powerful comment for me was the speaker who said that "game tech will be the future of tech in pretty much every sector". Starting in TV and film production, we already see game engines playing a major role, but it is exciting to think that tech pioneered by the games industry is also finding it's way into everything from education to health, architecture to opera. All-in-all, a really valuable event that was both clear-eyed about the present and hugely ambitious about the future. Great stuff!

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Immersive experiences are reinventing our industry. But it’s not because of all the fan-fare and impressive technicality. This style of events has increased: spectator expectations and the value they see in attending. My partner and I recently looked at going to see a well-known comedian in Sydney. But once we factored in all expenses (travel, accommodation, dinners etc) it was going to be at least a $1200 affair. $1200 for a 1-hour performance and a performance that - I hate to say - we can easily watch (and enjoy) on Netflix. For that kind of money, I want a much more spectacular experience. People are craving to be fully immersed in experiences. They want to be part of them. They want to forget about their lives for a few hours - now more than ever. On the flipside, for event professionals, the people that will get the most out of the events industry, career-wise, in the next 3-5 years will be the ones that understand and adapt to this change (and the technology coming along with it). They will figure out how to use it in a proactive and positive way to expand the reach of events whilst making them affordable. What are you currently paying attention to in the world of immersive experiences? Photo cred: cosmopolitanme

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The Australian Film Industry. Just finished reading an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, an interview with a film investor Phil Hunt. The article is called "Screen Australia is spending millions to stop filmmakers accessing funds. Why?" It was very disturbing to me, I have been involved in the film Industry for over 50 years, and some of the issues you hear about almost make you want to leave all together, but you don't you tend to push on, answer the questions that the Government ask you , fill out the forms, listen to the so called advice, and with a new pair of knee pads for your investor and bank meeting, go out and try to make your film. Each year reading the new rules, try to understand the changes, modify your project if you can to suit, again answer the latest batch of questions, many you have already answered before, stop and wonder if any one has read your last lot of emails, go passed a church turn and go in sit down in this quite place maybe even light a candle, get up walk outside, and just hope that all the things you have heard about don't stop you from making your film. I don't think I am alone in my quest.

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Sumo Digital Ltd acquired Pipeworks Studios for $100M in 2021 and made Timbre Games a part of it, but now Timbre will shut down as SUMO wants to be future-ready. Yet again, a studio falls prey to closure while in the middle of developing two games, one an ARPG and the other a sim-like RPG. And to be fair, RPGs require a lot of effort to build. But by the looks of it, Timbre possessed a strong group of talent who could’ve easily accomplished these RPGs, so it’s hard to imagine how they are feeling after putting in years of hard work only to lose all of it. In addition, they were on a mission to build a world-class network of game studios across Canada. It's hard to digest that more and more studios are being forced to quit crafting their video games every day. Support for the game devs is much needed, in fact, now more than ever! So, I am back to highlight a few of the folks who were impacted with an intent to support and bring visibility from recruiters. Kat Neale — A Women in Games ambassador who was Timbre’s Principal Gameplay Designer. Kat is an excellent team player because if you check out her feed, she has been supporting her team nonstop since the closure by reposting jobs and resources. Before Timbre, she worked for Blackbird Interactive as an Associate Game Director on an unannounced title and Homeworld 3. Zach Williams — He was Timbre’s Lead Core Gameplay Designer and has shipped 17 titles in his 14 years of experience in the industry. Before Timbre, he worked for renowned studios like Relic Entertainment, Smoking Gun Interactive, and BlackBird Interactive. Emmalyn Rynard — A Materials Artist for Timbre Games, Emmalyn also has experience developing VR games and prototypes for Oculus Quest. Her love for 3D drove her to become a 3D Artist, making her skilled in modelling, texturing and lighting. Jonas Roth — The Principal Software Engineer of Timbre Games with a hardcore 15 years of software engineering experience. Before Timbre, he was Offworld Industries’ Principal Software Engineer working on Starship Troopers. Jaclyn Adair — Another Women in Games Ambassador from Timbre Games who was their Lead Talent Acquisition Partner. Previous to Timbre, she was also Beamdog’s Technical Recruiter who helped ship their title, Mythforce. Yan Chatel — A bomb Level Designer who has worked on titles like Far Cry 5 & 6, For Honor, Transformers: Beyond Reality, and Hitman: Sniper. He has worked for studios like Rovio, Ubisoft, Compulsion Games, and The Sandbox. #layoffsupport

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"Most surprising of all though, was that the films by novice filmmakers that were supported by a Studio significantly outperformed the films of experienced filmmakers by a factor of 3 to 1. The films by novice filmmakers were also more likely to screen at a high profile international film festival." My hypothesis is that it isn't just the level of experience, it is the way the projects are designed. As in, because of the orthodox nature of industry, experienced filmmakers can become more conformist. Conformity does not necessarily translate to audience success. I look forward to reading the study.

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That’s me in 2017, just wrapping up my (then) biggest job as a producer with Facebox. We had 32 actors, seven camera operators, and over 30 extras spread across multiple locations in Auckland's bustling CBD. I remember triple-checking every detail of the production documents, obsessing over the schedule to make sure it was airtight. It felt like a huge responsibility, and I spent the night before the shoot waking up repeatedly, thinking, “Did I pack that item?” or “Did I contact that person?” And when the day arrived, everything fell into place—everyone showed up on time, wardrobe was ready, and every single person knew their role. We brought that vision to life together. Fast forward to a few weeks ago in September 2024—my schedule had doubled, this time on a global stage with over 120 deliverables. Despite its enormity, it somehow ran like clockwork. Looking at that girl in the photo, I see someone who was observant, dedicated to the result, and driven to achieve near-perfection with her team. She cared deeply about her crew, about empowering them to deliver excellence—and, in so many ways, she’s still me. Now, she’s grown into someone who not only embraces high-stakes challenges but thrives in guiding others through them. From ambitious shoots to seamless productions on a global scale, I’ve learned that excellence is built on preparation, passion, and trust. “Good organisation is the foundation of all great achievements.” If you're ready to elevate your media or content strategy—or want someone to guide you through the organised chaos of creative execution—hit me up. Together, let’s bring your vision to life. 🚀 Shout out to Kevin George - 7 years later still practicing C.A.N.I

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Read about the recent animation we made!

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Today's edition of The Download Distilled almost didn't happen because of a pet emergency! This video kicks off with some light ribbing of the offending cat, before we get into the top stories: - A new report from Deadset Studios and Insightly, an Unbounce company finds Australia has 2 million daily podcast listeners. - Magellan AI charts the top brands for podcast ad spend in August, as well as the top movers and shakers (including an over 5,000% podcast ad spend increase from July to August by Intel Corporation). - Digiday posts new research looking into the strategies of news publishers to adapt their revenue streams, including some major publications switching to metered gating (allowing viewers a set number of daily free articles before the paywall appears). - and Ashley Carman covers the upcoming The New York Times Podcast subscription which will give access to full backlogs of NYT podcasts that are switching to limited-backlog (such as The Daily, which will only keep the newest three episodes freely-accessible). For our full write-up of the stories and quick hits not covered in the Distilled, head to SoundsProfitable.com. Video audio made possible by Nomono. Special thanks to Spreaker for sponsoring the Download daily newsletter.

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