What a crazy weekend. Seems like a new update was popping up on the VFX subreddit every hour - first about The Mill, then Technicolor US, then Technicolor as a whole.

Our best wishes to everyone affected. We always post job openings that come across our radar in each email, and we’re currently revamping the job page to source more open roles.

If you are hiring for any jobs or gigs with anything media and entertainment related, please send it over and we’ll share it out.

Joey

Film Industry Shifts: Technicolor in Turmoil, Battle for LA Production, Netflix Invests in Mexico

Major disruptions are reshaping the film industry. Legendary VFX house The Mill and its parent company, Technicolor, face imminent shutdown in the U.S., and global production hubs intensify competition for Hollywood's business.

Industry Consolidation Takes Its Toll: The fall of a VFX giant signals broader market pressures

The sudden closure of Technicolor Creative Studios' U.S. operations, including The Mill, MPC Advertising, and Mikros Animation, marks a seismic shift in the visual effects landscape.

• Hundreds of employees across New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago face immediate job losses

• The company's collapse comes despite recent Oscar nominations and high-profile work

• Financial pressures from delayed payments, increased competition, and pandemic disruptions proved insurmountable

Potential silver lining: Some VFX artists from The Mill have already launched a new company, Dream Machine FX

What Else?

The battle to keep film production in LA continues, but are the potential tax incentives too little, too late to compete with other states and countries?

Netflix announced $1 billion investment in Mexio over the next four years, guranteeing to produce at least 20 original movies or series each year.

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Grok 3: Impressive Model with Questionable Safety

xAI has launched Grok 3, a new AI model that achieves top performance across multiple benchmarks and raises fresh concerns about AI safety and censorship.

Trained on an unprecedented fleet of 100,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs, Grok 3 demonstrates how massive computational resources are reshaping AI development.

The model excels particularly in:

• Coding tasks, producing higher quality and more accurate code than competitors.

• Creative and technical writing capabilities that match or exceed current industry leaders.

• Mathematical reasoning and complex problem-solving abilities.

Plus, it has access to X/Twitter and real-time information. And it has its own Deep Research feature.

The advancement in AI capabilities comes with broader implications:

• While Grok 3 used 263 times more computing power than DeepSeek, it only achieved 33% better test scores, suggesting diminishing returns in the brute-force approach to AI development.

• The pricing structure positions Grok 3 at a premium compared to competitors like ChatGPT Plus and Perplexity Pro, which maintain $20/month subscriptions.

• The lack of certain features like voice mode and API access may limit its immediate utility for production workflows.

How does pricing and training compare to other models that were rapidly trained, like DeepSeek?

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LG Unveils In-House Virtual Production Studio

LG Electronics USA has unveiled a cutting-edge Virtual Production Studio at its North American headquarters in New Jersey. This in-house facility, a first for the consumer electronics industry, aims to streamline content creation for LG's product lines while reducing production costs and environmental impact.

Behind the Scenes

• The studio features a 1.5-pixel-pitch LED display spanning two walls, integrating LG's commercial LED technology with Mo-Sys's XR products and Megapixel's HELIOS LED Processing Platform.

• LG recently acquired an interest in Mo-Sys, a leader in virtual production solutions and camera robotics.

• The setup allows for rapid content production, reducing build times from days to hours.

• HELIOS Platform enables multiple users to control various aspects of production in real-time without additional software.

• The facility includes a 25ft, two-wall display using LG MAGNIT Studio Series Micro LED displays positioned at a 90-degree angle.

Read More

How To: AI-powered Video Inpainting with Pikaswaps

Pikaswaps is a cutting-edge tool that enables users to seamlessly replace and modify objects in videos through AI-powered video inpainting.

How to Use Pikaswaps in Pika

• Step 1. Open Pikaswaps. Log in or create an account on the Pika homepage. Click Get Started with Pikaswaps to launch the tool.

• Step 2. Upload your video. Choose and upload the video you want to modify. Pikaswaps processes only the first 5 seconds of your clip.

• Step 3. Identify the object to swap. Describe the object you want to replace by entering a prompt, or use the Brush feature to highlight the object you wish to modify.

• Step 4. Upload the image you want to use.

• Step 5. Generate the swap. Click Generate, and the AI will handle the rest!

We share our firsthand experience from the Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) Tech Retreat, including our participation in a live AI-assisted editing challenge.

Stories, projects, and links that caught our attention from around the web:

🚀 Still on the waitlist for Google’s Veo 2, their highly realistic AI video model? Now you can access it on Freepik.

⛔ The creators of iPhone virtual production app Skyglass have announced the app's closure effective March 24.

🏮 amaran introduces 10 new affordable light modifiers with quick setup features, designed for various lighting needs in film and video production.

🕵🏻‍♂️ The James Bond franchise enters a new era as Amazon takes the creative reins, potentially opening doors for expanded storytelling formats beyond traditional films.

👩🏻‍💻 The New York Times is integrating AI tools for various newsroom tasks while maintaining strict guidelines to preserve journalistic integrity.

👔 Virtual Production Gigs

Technical Program Manager
Mo-Sys Engineering Ltd
London, UK

Internship Program for Virtual Production
Orbital Studios
Los Angeles, CA

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