Granny Ranny's Coming Attractions

Cinemark Theatres announced that the “Fall Classics Series,” featuring six legendary Hollywood movies, will  take place in over 150 Cinemark theatres across the country.  All of these digitally restored movies are scheduled to play each Thursday, during the months of August and September, at two separate show times, 2 pm and 7pm.

“Cinemark’s Classic Film Series has proven to be a fan favorite for movie lovers of all ages,” states James Meredith, VP of Marketing & Communications for Cinemark. “Customers are taking advantage of this great opportunity to see some of Hollywood’s legendary films in crystal clear digital projection and incredible surround sound. Some of our locations will be featuring these titles on our Cinemark XD Extreme Digital Cinema screen!”

Cinemark has selected six titles that were visionary films at their time of release, and still stand as true “classics” in every sense of the word. The list of films and dates of their presentation are:

• August 23            Jaws (1975)                                        Rated PG
• August 30            High Noon (1952)                                Not Rated
• September 6        Doctor Zhivago (1965)                          Rated PG-13
• September 13      Chinatown (1974)                                 Rated R
• September 20      The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)       Rated PG
• September 27      The African Queen (1951)                      Not Rated

A full list of participating Cinemark locations, advance ticket purchases and show time information can be found at www.cinemark.com.

Kids can vote in the 2012 Presidential Election through the Scholastic Student Vote. The vote, which is live now at www.scholastic.com/vote, is a longstanding tradition for Scholastic News® classroom magazines. The Scholastic Student Vote was launched during the 1940 Presidential election, and has continued every election year since then with the outcome reflecting that of the General Election in every contest but two (in 1948 when students chose Thomas E. Dewey over Harry S. Truman and in 1960 when more students voted for Richard M. Nixon than John F. Kennedy).

This year, kids will choose between President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Governor and presumed Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, to become the next President of the United States. In addition to the online vote, students who receive fall issues of Scholastic Classroom Magazines at school will have the option of casting their vote via paper ballot. The deadline to vote online is October 10th.

“The Scholastic Student Vote has a rich history and plays an important role in educating students in the United States about our nation’s democratic process,” said Suzanne McCabe, Editor-at-Large, Scholastic Classroom Magazines. “We’re excited to see who the students choose as their next President in this mock election, and hope that teachers will take this opportunity to teach an important civics lesson about why every eligible voter should exercise his or her right to vote.”

Before voting, kids can check out the Scholastic 2012 Election site. Launched in the early days of campaigning, the site houses news articles, free resources, games and interactive maps that can help kids better understand the electoral process. The site also features campaign coverage by the Scholastic News Kid Reporters, a team of more than 50 student journalists from across the country who report “news for kids, by kids.”  In addition to covering the candidates on the campaign trail, the reporters are examining the issues that matter most to kids   during this election. Coverage will continue through Election Day.

For more information on Classroom Magazines, visit the media room.

According to Kids and Consumer Electronics: 2012 Edition, the latest report from leading market research company, The NPD Group, when compared to 2011, portable and console video game (VG) systems continue to have the highest usage levels among kids ages 4-14, but media tablets experienced the highest increase in usage at 13 percent in 2012 vs. only 3 percent in 2011.

While usage of more sophisticated devices such as computers and VG devices tend to increase as kids get older, tablet usage is highest among younger children, which highlights how important it is for manufacturers to make their devices easy to use.

According to the report, households with kids ages 4 – 14 own an average of 10 different devices, with kids using an average of five of those devices.

Televisions, computers and cell/smartphones continued to maintain the highest household ownership. Household ownership of console and portable VG systems, media tablets, and digital video cameras experienced the most significant increases.

Portable VG systems are the most popular devices personally owned by kids ages 4-14, with six years of age being the average age of adoption; this is slightly younger than 2011 where the average age was 6.4.

“Kids are using tablets to game, watch movies and TV shows, read books and listen to music-even occasionally for taking pictures- so they have embraced the utility of these devices quite rapidly,” said Russ Crupnick, senior vice president, industry analysis, The NPD Group. “Older kids also use the tablets for social media and communication, which squarely places these devices at the center for discovery and evangelism of new services and applications, as well as for brands and entertainment of all sorts.”

For more information, go to NPD Group.

Universal Pictures announced today that it has begun the search for new talent to appear in “Starships,” the official music video for Pitch Perfect, the studio’s upcoming musical comedy that hits theaters on October 5.  With the chance to join the film’s cast and Internet music sensation Mike Tompkins in the video, amateur musicians and dancers are encouraged to submit their best vocals; signature moves; beatbox; and/or guitar, bass, synth and back-up sounds to accompany this cover of Nicki Minaj’s worldwide smash.

With multiple options for participation, fans may submit their entries at www.pitchperfectmovie.com/musicvideo.  Those selected for the project will have their video showcased on both the Blu-ray DVD of Pitch Perfect and Tomkins’ YouTube channel, which currently has more than 550,000 subscribers.

“Pitch Perfect celebrates everyone out there who is following his or her true passion,” said the film’s director, Jason Moore.  “Mike Tompkins embodies passion for music, and we’re thrilled to be able to partner with him on this project.  I can’t wait to watch the undiscovered talent that I know we’ll find.”

“When Universal approached me with the idea to make a video for Pitch Perfect, I knew it would be a fun partnership,” noted Tompkins.  “Making music has driven me since I was a kid, and I know there are many others out there who love it as much as I do.  I’m looking forward to seeing what we are able to create together.”

This is the first time Tompkins has collaborated with filmmakers, talent and a studio on the official music video for a movie.  Tompkins, represented by Maker Studios—a next-generation talent-first music company—is best known for creating his own unique twist on music covers using only his voice and mouth.  As his popularity rose, he was noticed by some of the biggest names in entertainment and has since collaborated as a producer and writer with Timbaland and been featured on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, NBC’s TODAY show and PerezHilton.com, among others.  Tompkins and Alana Da Fonseca arranged this new a cappella version of “Starships,” which was written by Nicki Minaj, RedOne, Carl Falk, Rami Yacoub and Wayne Hector.

All submissions must be received by August 22, 2012.  Please visit www.pitchperfectmovie.com/musicvideo for entry details and terms and conditions.

Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS) is making its breakthrough BRDF Explorer available to the industry through a new open source site (github.com/wdas/brdf), it was announced August 7, 2012, at SIGGRAPH in Los Angeles by Brent Burley, the project’s principal engineer from WDAS software group. Burley, who gave a presentation at Tuesday’s conference on Disney’s proprietary approach to creating physically-based BRDFs (Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function, the mathematical description of how a surface reflects light), created the BRDF Explorer with his Disney colleagues Greg Nichols and Jared Johnson. He is a key player on the software team managed by Dan Candela, director of technology for WDAS.

Disney’s BRDF Explorer is an advanced physically-based shading and rendering toolset that evaluates BRDFs (a four-dimensional function that defines how light is reflected at an opaque surface) and how they compare to real life. It is capable of exploring the MERL 100 (Mitsubishi’s set of empirically measured data) and MIT CSAIL data sets, along with programmatic BRDF functions that can be defined by the user.

Said Burley, “We developed the BRDF Explorer to gain an intuition about the large number of BRDF models that have been developed over the years, to understand how well they fit real-world materials, and more importantly, see where they fall short. During this process, we discovered new ways to view the BRDF data more intuitively and holistically, and gained insights that allowed us to develop a robust new model. Somewhat surprisingly, our artists have also found this to be a very useful tool for crafting materials. We are happy to contribute this back to the graphics community and are excited to see what new BRDF innovations this tool will inspire.”

Peter Shirley, renowned principal research scientist at NVIDIA Research and adjunct professor for the School of Computing at University of Utah, added, “I have been doing research related to BRDFs for over 20 years, and yet I immediately learned new basic things from the output of this viewer. Often the key to scientific insight is getting the right picture, and this viewer accomplishes exactly that. It will become a staple in my own work.”

Naty Hoffman, vice president of technology at 2K and a pioneer in advancing realistic graphics in games and film, said, “The Disney BRDF Explorer is an excellent tool for analyzing, researching, developing and tuning BRDFs. I am sure that it will prove immensely useful for improving CG realism in film and games, as well as helping advance research in this important area.”

Calling all aspiring scientists! It’s time to put on your lab coat and let your imagination go wild. Discovery Science Center (DSC) is proud to partner with the famous El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood to host a Frankenweenie Science Fair in conjunction with the October 5th release of the movie Frankenweenie by acclaimed director Tim Burton.

In Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie young Victor conducts a science experiment to bring his beloved dog Sparky back to life, only to face unintended, sometimes monstrous, consequences. Participating students will conduct and submit their own inventive science experiment! This unique science fair will gather the best and brightest students to compete for three grand prizes.

The first 50 participating students will receive a ticket to see Frankenweenie at the historic El Capitan Theatre, and a pair of tickets to visit Discovery Science Center. The exciting first round of judging to determine the finalists will happen the week of September 10, 2012, and then finalists will be judged by VIP judges the week of September 27. Of all participating students, six finalists will be selected to have their projects on display at El Capitan Theatre from October 5 to November 1, 2012. In addition, the six finalists will each receive Disneyland tickets for them and three guests for reaching this distinguished level.

The Science Fair competition concludes at the El Capitan Theatre on October 5th when three Grand Prize winners will accept their awards at a special ceremony, on the El Capitan stage prior to the showing of Frankenweenie. Grand Prize winners will receive all prizes listed previously plus a behind-the-scenes tour of Walt Disney Studios.

Interested participants must be entering the 2012-2013 school year as a 5th – 12th grade student. All projects must present an experimentally based research design; illustrating scientific methodology or a demonstration/exhibition of a science or engineering concept based on themes from the movie Frankenweenie.  To become inspired, please visit www.disney.go.com/FRANKENWEENIE

For more information and registration, please visit www.discoverycube.org/frankenweenie.

ABOUT THE MOVIE:

From creative genius Tim Burton (“Alice in Wonderland,” The Nightmare Before Christmas”) comes “Frankenweenie,” a heartwarming tale about a boy and his dog. After unexpectedly losing his beloved dog Sparky, young Victor harnesses the power of science to bring his best friend back to life—with just a few minor adjustments. He tries to hide his home-sewn creation, but when Sparky gets out, Victor’s fellow students, teachers and the entire town all learn that getting a new “leash on life” can be monstrous.

A stop-motion animated film, “Frankenweenie” was filmed in black and white and rendered in 3D. The talented voice cast includes: Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, Martin Landau, Charlie Tahan, Atticus Shaffer, Robert Capron, Conchata Ferrell and Winona Ryder.

Presented by Disney, “Frankenweenie” is directed by Tim Burton, produced by Tim Burton and Allison Abbate, from a screenplay by John August, based on an original idea by Tim Burton. “Frankenweenie” releases in U.S. theaters on October 5, 2012.