Chance the Rapper: Chicago’s Independent, Grammy Award Winning Superstar

By: Shane Brooks

If you were watching the 59th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday night then you witnessed history being made. Last year, the Recording Academy changed their rules on Grammy eligibility to allow streaming-only releases to be considered for the award.

This allowed young artist Chance the Rapper to be nominated for seven Grammys, of which he took home three in one historic night. Chance was awarded for Best Rap Album, Best New Artist, and Best Rap Performance. The 23-year-old Chicago rapper beat out artists such as Kanye West, a fellow Chicago native, and his album The Life of Pablo, Drake’s Views and De LaSoul’s and the Anonymous Nobody.

Chance punctuated his triumphant night with a highly spirited live performance of his songs “How Great” and “All We Got” from his “Coloring Book” mixtape. “Coloring Book” was released in May of last year and it became the first streaming-only album to chart on the Billboard 200, opening in the top 10.
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Interview: Steve Emerson, Visual Effects Supervisor for Kubo and the Two Strings

An Interview with Steve Emerson, Visual Effects Supervisor for Kubo and the Two Strings
By Elizabeth Walker for Creative Media Times

(l to r) Monkey (voiced by Academy Award winner Charlize Theron), Kubo (voiced by Art Parkinson) and Beetle (voiced by Academy Award winner Matthew McConaughey) are on a thrilling quest to unlock the secret of Kubo’s legacy in animation studio LAIKA’s epic action-adventure KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS, a Focus Features release.
Credit: Laika Studios/Focus Features

Some films seemed destined to land among the contenders for best visual effects – like those big-budget offerings from Marvel or the Star Wars franchise. This year, along with Dr. Strange and Rogue One, Kubo and the Two Strings has earned a nomination for Best Visual Effects.

Also nominated for Best Animated Feature, Kubo is the first animated film to be nominated for Best Visual Effects in decades, and the production has received widespread recognition for its use of stop motion animation. Steve Emerson, visual effects supervisor for the film, spoke to reporters by phone from his home base in Portland, Oregon.

This is Emerson’s first Oscar nomination, but he says he has not had a moment to think about a speech. He describes for the group the moment he found out:

It was five in the morning, woke up and was drinking coffee, watching the streaming with my wife and my son.
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Joel and Ethan Coen Tapped To Polish Script For ‘Scarface’ Reboot

By Armando

Following late last month’s departure of Antoine Fuqua (“The Equalizer”, “Magnificent Seven”) as director of Universal Pictures’ Scarface remake, The Coen Bros is said to have “been tapped to polish” the new movie’s screenplay, Variety reported. Joel and Ethan Coen will work on the original script from Terrence Winter (The Wolf of Wall Street).

The Coen brothers are no strangers to writing screenplays that neither of the two directed. They also worked on the script of Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies (2015) and Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken (2014).

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New York: Couture Fashion Week – Fall 2017 Collections

By Armando

New York, NY—February 14th, 2017 – Couture New York Fashion Week began on Friday, February 10 and run throughout the weekend. All of the shows were held on Crowne Plaza Times Square Manhattan, Broadway, NY.

The Fall 2017 Collections featured collections from around the globe including Belinda Bullshoe, Cory Tran, Laura Moss, Rose Sharifi, Farah Sugar, Paulina Canas, Luis Machicao, Diana Mahrach, Meggie Hadiyanto, Mety Choa, Olga Alicea & Hector Musse, Bella Fashion Designs, Lourdes Atencio, Vanny Tousignant, Ruchika Kabra, Alexandra Popescu, Reuden Banks, Houda El Fechka Eddiouanne, and Andres Aquino who closed the runway shows on Saturday night.

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BAFTA Film Awards 2017 Winners

By AI Creative Media

With two weeks to go until the Oscars, a familiar crop of winners during this award season took center stage. La La Land, which went into the night with with the maximum of 11 nominations, dominated the night and took home five trophies, including best film, best actress for Emma Stone and best director for Damien Chazelle. The newest Spider-man, Tom Holland, took home the Rising Star award.Producer Jordan Horowitz said: “I think film, when at its best, reveals there is more tying us together than tears us apart.”

Hosted for the 12th time by English comedian and actor Stephen Fry, The 2017 BAFTA Awards took place on Sunday, February 12, at Royal Albert Hall in London. Here is the full list of winners:

Best film
La La Land

Outstanding British film
I, Daniel Blake

Director
Damien Chazelle – La La Land

Leading actress
Emma Stone – La La Land

Leading actor
Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea
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CMT Exclusive: Interview with Vivek Maddala on Scoring for The Tom and Jerry Show

By Elizabeth Walker

Vivek Maddala has written scores for numerous films, and studied jazz performance at the Berklee College of Music. One of his most recent projects has been writing for the Cartoon Network reboot of Tom and Jerry. I reached him by phone to discuss his latest project.

Elizabeth Walker: So is this your first time writing for animation?

Vivek Maddala: My first job writing for film was working for Turner Classic Movies. They were restoring old silent films from the 1920s. Back then, there was no score, because they didn’t have a way of synching music with the film, so I had to create the score. I did five or six of thosefor TCM, and they were not that difference from scoring for animation.

EW: How so?

VM: There is no dialogue between Tom and Jerry, and only a bit from the minor characters. As aresult, it is very visual, and the music has to convey a lot of the emotions. So I did my training for that by scoring the silent films.

EW: Interesting. So how were you approached for this particular project?

VM: On the silent films, I was fortunate enough to work with a tremendous recording and mix engineer – and a very talented musician in his own right – named Dan Blessinger. He was actually the one who recommended me for the Tom and Jerry gig.

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John Malkovich: Actor, Director, Fashion Designer?

By Shane Brooks

During last Sunday’s Super Bowl, an ad aired to promote the release of the new clothing line by Oscar nominated actor John Malkovich.

The ad depicts some of the struggles Malkovich went through in an attempt to be break from the world of acting into this new art form and represents some of the ideas and inspirations behind his designs. During the ad the actor makes the point, “I’m always a figure in someone else’s dream. I’d really rather sometimes make my own figures and my own dreams.”

Most people recognize John Malkovich for his role in the film Being John Malkovich, however, in an ad for Squarespace that aired during the Super Bowl the actor revealed his desire to take his creative talents in a new direction.

Many do not know that this is not Malkovich’s firststep in the fashion world. With his first fashion company, Mrs. Mudd, being released in 2002. His second, Technobohemian, was released in 2010 and featured many of the actor’s own designs.Along with the theatrical Super Bowl ad Malkovich has launched a website, www.JohnMalkovich.com, powered by Squarespace.

The website showcases Malkovich’s winterand summer 2017 collections. The collections include selections of jackets, knitwear, pants, shirts and accessories. An excerpt from the “About” section of the site reads: “John takes inspiration from his travels and experiences, fine art, and storytelling elements, such as setting and characterization. He sketches designs and patterns, refining every detail, while travelling andduring downtime on set. For over 30 years, John has been a passionate fabric collector. With a meditative approach, he often spends several days purely on fabric selection.”

It is clear that John Malkovich puts his heart into every project he works on whether that be acting, directing or designing fashion. So, if you were watching the big game last Sunday you may be pretty excited for all of the new box office blockbusters coming this summer but you may have also found that new summer look you have been waiting for.

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SECRET EMPIRE Unites the Marvel Universe this May

The Avengers, X-Men, Defenders, Inhumans, Champions, and more galvanize as one


New York, NY—February 10, 2017 — What if your greatest ally was secretly your greatest enemy? Beginning May 3rd, prepare for Marvel Comics’ SECRET EMPIRE! Blockbuster creators Nick Spencer, Steve McNiven, Andrea Sorrentino and Leinil Yu are ready to challenge the entire Marvel Universe as they unite the Avengers, X-Men, Defenders, Champions, Inhumans, Spider-Man, and more, as an unwavering front against the SECRET EMPIRE!

The Marvel Universe is under siege from within! Due to the manipulations of the Red Skull, Captain America, secretly a true believer in the cause of Hydra, uses the trust and respect he has gained over the years to a position where he can enacts Hydra’s ideals against the Marvel Universe and it’s up to all heroes to unite against one of the greatest challenges they have ever faced.

Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso said, “SECRET EMPIRE is the rallying cry for all the heroes — Avengers, Guardians, Defenders, X-Men, Spider-Man, Deadpool – to put aside their differences and unify in the defense of the Marvel Universe.”

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Star Wars: The Screaming Citadel: A New Five-Part Crossover Beginning This May

“Star Wars” & “Doctor Aphra” Collide For All-New Story

New York, NY—February 9th, 2017 — Two of the biggest comics in the industry collide as Star Wars and Star Wars: Doctor Aphra cross over for the first time! Today, Marvel is pleased to announce STAR WARS: THE SCREAMING CITADEL – a blockbuster five-part story beginning this May! Superstar writers Jason Aaron (Star Wars, The Mighty Thor) and Kieron Gillen (Star Wars: Darth Vader, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra) join forces once again to combine their two hit series for an epic crossover in the mighty Marvel manner!

“We’re so excited for The Screaming Citadel because it brings a whole new tone and feel to the Star Wars characters we know and love,” says series Editor Jordan D. White. “The titular citadel is our version of the dark and mysterious castle on the hill, and our cast of rebels and rogues are the adventurers who face a stormy night exploring the darkness. Kieron and Jason write these characters so vibrantly, it’s awesome to see them thrown into a new situation like this…get ready for a good one!”
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Star Wars Land will open 2019 at Disneyland

By AI Creative Media

During Walt Disney’s first quarter 2017 earnings call on Tuesday, Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed that the Star Wars-themed parks at Disneyland and Walt Disney World will be opening in 2019. The company also made the announcement via Disney Parks blog. Until today, the company remained quiet about the theme parks following its August 2015 D23 Expo announcement.

2019 should be a big year for Star Wars fans; Star Wars: Episode IX, the final chapter in the Star Wars “Skywalker” sequel trilogy, is scheduled for release in the same year.

“As we’ve shared, the Star Wars-themed lands are the largest-ever, single-themed land expansions at Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resorts. At each location, guests will be transported to a never-before-seen planet – a remote trading port and one of the last stops before wild space – where Star Wars characters and their stories come to life.”

But before the 14-acre parks open its gates, “Pandora – The World of Avatar” will open at Disney World’s Animal Kingdom in Orlando on May 27, eight years after James Cameron’s “Avatar” hit theaters.

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