Big American Films

BAF Glitch

Website fall Down, go boom…  But we’re back before most noticed.

The company web site (yes, the very one you are looking at now) was temporarily down this past weekend for less than a day.  We didn’t get the amount of email traffic on Monday that we expected so I surmise there were some bounces.  Oops.  Don’t think that will happen again as our service provider is very good.  In fact I don’t mind giving them a plug as it was mostly our fault that it happened at all.  For an international service check out icdsoft.com, out of Hong Kong.  Sorry for any inconvenience, and please resend those juicy emails that might have lost their way to us.  Thanks.

the NEW DIGS

Yes, we made the move from that smallish place to the new palatial, two story home.  We have some room for growth here, at least as much as we want for now.  Still to come are details such as light fixtures and some room dividers, and a logo on the wall, but at least we won’t freeze this winter.  Last year at this time we were wearing fingerless gloves at the computers, even with a new heater directly over the heads of most of the animators!  I was in even worse shape in the next room with no heat at all (if I turned on anything else the circuit would blow).  But there’s always a silver lining, and the old place will soon become a photo studio for a while.
So, with new desks, new chairs, more computers there’s no excuses so if you work for BAF then get back to work!

Google Meeting Planner

We have added a new item to the front page, it’s a series of clocks courtesy of Google gadgets.  Currently set to our time in Shanghai, LA and Paris.  But it’s often hard to get ones head around phone or skype conference calls when dealing with big time zone differences.  China is 15 hours ahead of LA, so it’s often a different day.  Just makes your head hurt to think about it.  So!  You if you happen to be in Paris or LA you just click on the little “Launch the meeting planner” link and it lets you visually figure it out easily.  Try it and you’ll see what I mean.  It’s kinda cool.

Ningbo Rocks

Well, Ningbo rocks for at least one night…
The first kickoff concert for the Voices of Chivalry took place on Halloween (Oct. 31) and from where I sat it was a great success.  The Club was amazingly well done, and Chivas was everywhere.  A good time was had by all, as can be seen from these pics of Julia and one of the crew (Clay).

Ok, so Julia doesn’t look so happy, but she was.  And Clay was very happy indeed, until the next morning…

Office Getting Closer

The new place is looking pretty cool.  Got the stairs in, Gigabit ethernet going everywhere, and a little server room to keep things quiet.  Not to mention having space for larger meetings, coffee for clients and a separate edit suite.
I love this image, welding with glasses and a piece of stiff paper.

Virtual GQ

Chivas puts together a band of 4 male models…  or they would be if they were real

Big American Films has been working overtime (literally) on what looks to be Asia’s first all digital ‘Virtual Band’.  Chivas China, the number one spirits distributor in Asia came up with the concept as a new campaign targeted at the sophisticate drinker.  The group will ‘perform’ in clubs all around the country starting on Halloween, then in a large live performance in December and again in January, both alongside headline acts, with songs never heard before.  BAF will also be creating 2 music videos to be shown all across Asia on Channel [V].  We’re still in the thick of it here, and it’s a huge challenge given the amount of work (4 characters X 9 minutes of animation for the first concert), but we feel confident this will be a big hit.  2 songs will be ready by the end of October, another for the 2nd concert, and another for the 3rd.  All music is coming directly from Sony Music who has been working closely with Chivas.

New Digs

BAF moves up We have decided we are just too cramped up here on the 25th (and 26th) floor above the Little Sheep restaurant (if you live in China you know just what I mean, otherwise don't worry about it). After a fairly extensive search we found the perfect location, close to a busy district known as Xu Jia Hui, and only a few steps from a major subway line. We couldn't be happier to offer our employees and clients a more refined and spacious place to work and visit. We'll even finally have a fancy meetin' table, two floors, an edit bay, and lots of window space. Not to mention we won't at all miss the slow elevators to the 25th floor, this time we're only going to 4. The new building is crammed full of design companies of different sorts, and across the way is a large post facility (with a beautiful new digital screening/DI room) so it should be fun.

BAF does a Nuke Demo

We were very proud to have our own Ozzy help out the folks from The Foundry in a demo of compositing software NUKE.  We showed our recent work on some of the shots from Dragon Ball.

Embarking

Down a new trail

Over the past several months we’ve been talking about a ‘project’.  Now I think I have one.  Eureka!

 

Quality is Coming

After a setback of a few decades, China’s animation industry is charging full steam.

The Animation industry had seen better days.  Animation from the early days showed some real zeal and creativity.  Then came the dark ages, and now with the help and urging of the government there is a healthy resurgence. 

We couldn’t be happier.

Our new Site

After a lot of thought, and even more work, we have a new website.

Our look has changed a bit.  Instead of the pure flash site, we’ve gone with a new cms (content management system).  Even though the old site was oh so nifty and animated, we feel this new site offers us much more opportunity to tell you about us, and also gives you the client a way to better interact with us.  And by the way, if you are a PC user please don’t use IE (Internet Explorer); not only does draw our site incorrectly, it does so on many sites.  Do yourself a favor and download Firefox or Safari, which are standardized browsers.