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Visual Data Media Services, a global provider of media services, distribution, and content management, is expanding its media supply chain capabilities with the addition of industry veteran Theo Gluck as director of library restoration and preservation.

A respected film historian and title management professional, Gluck joins Visual Data from The Walt Disney Studios where he was director of library restoration and preservation. He will focus on growing Visual Data Media Services’ restoration business to serve the increasing global demand for diverse media across multiple platforms.

“It’s rare to have a conversation about restoration without Theo’s name coming up,” said Steve Spear, SVP global media operations for Visual Data. “His exceptional level of technical knowledge and creative depth paired with his unique ‘studio perspective’ make him an ideal fit for our restoration servicing team and ensures we are well positioned to meet our clients’ needs.” 

Gluck’s expertise combined with technologies like Visual Data’s MatchMaker scanning and Dolby Vision HDR/UHD remastering workflows will offer content owners and distributors a comprehensive suite of media services.

“Theo’s knowledge and expertise in restoration and preservation is second to none,” said John Trautman, CEO, Visual Data.  “As we continue to broaden and enhance our media supply chain capabilities, we will look to Theo, who has been instrumental in establishing the foundation for restoration, to help us engage with the industry and deliver on our mission to provide a truly customer-centric experience.”

Since its founding by Trautman in 1995, Visual Data has delivered quality end-to-end media solutions including restoration, remastering, content management, digitization, digital cinema mastering, dubbing, translation, localization and more. The company maintains its commitment to supporting customers at every stage of the supply chain and has continued to build on its leadership position with a recent partnership with Endeavor Capitol.

“There’s never been a better time to be in this business and Visual Data is at the forefront of thought leadership for content preservation and distribution,” Gluck commented. “Audiences have so many distribution platforms and content viewing options to choose from. That opens the door to new creative possibilities for preserving, presenting and delivering the titles people want to see, and I’m looking forward to working with the team at Visual Data to drive innovation around audience demand for content.”  

Gluck is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He sits on the Academy’s Science and Technology Council and serves as chairman of the council’s Technology History Subcommittee. His longstanding professional affiliations include the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), the British Kinematograph, Sound and Television Society (BKSTS) and the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA).

Visual effects studio Weta Digital has partnered with global media and entertainment software provider Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) to launch WetaM--a groundbreaking product offering that provides tools designed and developed by Weta Digital, fully embedded in Autodesk Maya. Weta Digital has won 13 Academy Sci-tech Awards for its tools that helped artists produce some of the most successful film and TV series in the world, including The Lord of the Rings, Avatar, Game of Thrones, and Planet of the Apes. Weta intends to rollout WetaM as a private beta in Q4.

WetaM productizes Weta’s unique set of proprietary VFX tools for artists built on Maya’s open API, and will be commercialized by Weta Digital as a subscription cloud service. For the first time, artists from around the world will have access to one complete--from stage to screen--cloud based pipeline. The launch of WetaM marks the first product launch under a newly formed Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) division within Weta Digital. This new business arm is an integral part of Weta’s expansion strategy to offer professional and prosumer tools to artists across the global entertainment industry.

“WetaM is the first step in the democratization of VFX and animation production. Weta Digital brings together the most creative minds in the world and has been a pioneering innovator in the visual effects and entertainment industry for decades,” said Prem Akkaraju, CEO of Weta Digital. “WetaM is a transformational move that will raise the bar for global creative production, redefining the industry in the process. At its core, this partnership with Autodesk will extend the reach of the Weta magic, making it more accessible for artists in pursuit of creating amazing characters and worlds across film and television.” 

“We are longtime fans of Weta’s remarkable visual effects achievements, and they are constantly breaking new ground building immersive, imaginary worlds and unbelievably real and engaging digital characters,” said Diana Colella, sr. VP, entertainment & media solutions, Autodesk. “The debut of WetaM is a gamechanger as it opens up years of Weta’s dedicated animation and VFX R&D resources to all creatives. It is exciting to be working with Weta to bring their magic to Maya artists, offering them powerful new effects tools and time-saving automation capabilities.”

John Miller, a veteran postproduction sales and marketing executive who was an early proponent of the power and flexibility of remote post production processes and virtualization, has joined WrkFlo Solutions as partner and chief growth officer. 

Miller has more than 20 years of experience in broadcast, media and entertainment. Joining WrkFlo Solutions reunites him with company president and founder Peter Corbett, who was an early client of Miller during his time with Discreet Logic, when Corbett owned and ran the production and post house, Click 3X.

Prior to joining WrkFlo Solutions, Miller was SVP of sales and marketing for BeBop Technology, a leader in the virtual production and post arena. Before that he was VP of sales for Brightcove. Miller is perhaps best known to the production and post communities for the six years he spent at Avid as the VP of the North American business activities. At Autodesk and Discreet Logic, he held the position of VP of worldwide sales and marketing.

“In launching WrkFlo Solutions and its embrace of virtualization, I believe we’re on the cusp of a revolutionary change in the business of production and postproduction,” said Corbett. “Having someone with John’s experience, knowledge and relationships will give our mission a huge boost in the marketplace.”

“I’ve always loved being in the forefront of new technology,” Miller said about his professional journey that’s led him to WrkFlo. “Peter and I have now come full circle, from employing giant supercomputers costing hundreds of thousand dollars to a technology that actually eliminates hardware. This is clearly the very future of our business. At WrkFlo Solutions, we’re aggregating an impressive suite of best of breed solutions, all revolving around virtualization.”

Miller first realized the potential of virtualization while heading up sales at BeBop Technologies. He noted that the push for virtualization was already underway even before the pandemic hastened its acceptance, but that a few key links in the chain were missing. “People were uploading to the cloud, and delivering via the cloud, but not working in the cloud,” he said. At WrkFlo Solutions, he added, “we’re clustering our services around the key pillars: technology, security and talent.”

The company will offer varying levels of virtualization, from full up to hybrid set-ups to meet clients’ respective needs, as well as the capability to rapidly scale up for productions or post projects and then just as quickly scale down. It will also offer access to its roster of artists for everything from editorial to color to VFX to design, CG, animation, sound design and mix

Corbett sees virtualization as the end of the era of what he described as post companies “buying into this era of heavy metal--the machine rooms, the air conditioning, the infrastructure. It all feels somewhat archaic.

“What we offer is more than just a remote capability,” Corbett continued. “It’s the ability to access talent from any part of the globe that can work in a fully collaborative, real-time environment without latency, as though they’re right down the hall. It’s total flexibility for businesses to shrink or grow and provides absolute security of assets without the expense and headaches associated with equipment purchase and maintenance.”

WrkFlo Solutions can help postproduction and editorial companies that will be increasingly challenged to meet a new hybrid work model that mixes remote with on-premised, supervised sessions, Corbett added. “Virtualization allows these companies to continue working with all of the software they’ve relied on for years, to deliver the same level of quality their own clients have come to expect,” he pointed out.

Miller joins a WrkFlo leadership team that’s comprised of industry veterans whose backgrounds span production, postproduction, engineering, staffing and management. It includes Radu Polizu, VP Engineering, who has decades of experience as a senior broadcast engineer, having built over 3O facilities; Paul Schneider, managing director, operations, who was head of post for such companies at WPP’s Hogarth as well as postproduction supervisor at Viacom; and Dave Dimeola, VP, customer experience, who leads WrkFlo’s talent sourcing operations and is a pioneer in virtualization, building remote post, VFX and animation teams in the cloud for over six years.

Supporting Miller in his role as chief growth officer will be the Atlanta-based Dave Warner, who’s handling business development for the Southeast, and the Chicago-based Helen O’Brien, who’ll handle Midwest sales.

Cinematographer Isaac Vila chose Cooke S7/1 Full Frame lenses for Netflix’s action thriller feature, Below Zero. The Spanish Netflix Original follows the events after a prisoner transfer van is attacked. The officer in charge must fight those inside and outside while dealing with a silent foe: the icy temperatures.

For the most part, the action in the film takes place inside a truck, with some additional scenes around Madrid and a variety of smaller towns, including the ancient city of Segovia, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Full frame lenses were not the initial choice, as Vila explained, “At first we wanted to shoot the movie with anamorphics. Then we realized that maybe it was not the best option seeing how small the space in the van was. So, we opted for spherical, but in full frame format to get that feeling of spaciousness. The Cooke S7/i’s were perfectly suited to what we needed. They offer the quality, and at the same time a minimum of focus, which allowed us to shoot freely inside the van. We also used a T2 diaphragm, which was highly appreciated for the night shots.”

Vila added, “The fog and the cold are very important narrative elements, and the smoothing characteristics of the Cooke lenses offered the perfect blend for them to become additional characters.”