Film Industry

Joyce Rudolph VERDUGO WOODLANDS -- Creating a good scare comes easily to Greg Woodhouse. He works with computers on the technical side of the TV and film industry. This Halloween, his frontyard is a nightmare. Ghouls and goblins are jumping out of graves, a pirate sits proudly on top of his treasure chest and an unfortunate victim hangs from the flag pole. Quite unsettling sights. You'll find the house at 670 Glenmore Blvd. He and his wife, Jennifer, really get into decorating for Halloween.

Rima Shah With 16 nominations for the annual Annie Awards and a place in the top 50 all-time box office champions, about the only thing that could trip up "The Incredibles" at this point is a cape. Well, that and a certain green guy with a donkey as a sidekick. The Pixar Animation Studios and Disney movie won 16 nominations for this year's animated film awards. Glendale-based DreamWorks scored seven nominations for "Shrek 2." The Burbank-based International Animated Film Society, a nonprofit organization for the advancement of animation, presents the awards, which were first given in 1972, said Antran Manooghian, president of the society.

The St. Bede Drama Club celebrates its exciting first year with a fall production to be held Friday, Nov. 18, at 7 p.m. in the St. Bede Parish Hall. The nearly 60 actors from grades 1 to 8 will present three family-friendly one-act plays, Stone Soup, Suzie and the Magic Pebble and The Apple, under the direction of DeeDee Montesanto-Fried, an 18-year film industry veteran. Montesanto-Fried and other parent volunteers created the St. Bede Drama Club to provide St. Bede school children a fun and educational theater arts experience.

Judy Seckler MONTROSE -- For car lovers everywhere, La Crescenta Park was the place to be Sunday. The Verdugo Vintage Vehicles Car Club held its 25th annual car show displaying anything from 1900 to 1978. Visitors viewed original stock cars, pre-1930 antiques cars, classics -- specially designated cars built at the turn of the century up through 1948, pre-1948 modified street rods, post-1948 modified custom cars, as well as pick-up and panel delivery trucks, sports cars from any time period and foreign cars.

Hollywood came to the Valley Sun when graduates of La Cañada High School returned Saturday to film a spec television pilot on location. Chris Macho and Matt D'Elia completed LCHS, moving on to New York Film School, from which they have since graduated. Pursuing a career in film, they started a company, AWOL, and began looking for financing for film and television projects. "We had two films where the financing fell through," Macho said. The company then gained backing and decided to film a pilot episode for what they hope will become a television series.

More than four months after Walt Disney Studios Chairman Rich Ross began seeking a replacement for her, the company's worldwide marketing president, MT Carney, is apparently exiting. The film industry outsider who was brought in by Ross 19 months ago to shake up Disney's marketing practices and focus more on digital platforms has had a difficult run. She failed to acclimate to Hollywood and oversaw the release of a number of box office flops. Carney was an experienced "brand strategist" who co-founded a New York firm that worked for clients including Coca-Cola, Microsoft and Nokia but never worked in the entertainment industry before joining Disney in 2010.

In a surround-sound, Technicolor world, freelance film editor Robert Birchard hopes to turn the volume up on a muted industry with the release of his new book, "Silent-Era Filmmaking in Santa Barbara." "With the more research I do, I find that silent films and movies today aren't that different," said Birchard, a Glendale resident. "I hope that readers will see that acting styles and picture quality may have changed, but once readers become familiar with the conditions and the technology they had to work with, they'll forget what's different and see what's alike."

As officials continue to press for millions in concessions from the city’s employee unions, records show nearly 30% of Glendale’s municipal workforce earned $100,000 or more last year — a burden shared by cities statewide that experts say must be addressed in reducing budget deficits. Of Glendale’s roughly 2,400 hourly and full-time employees, 647 earned $100,000 or more before taxes and other deductions — making up a collective payroll of nearly $88 million in calendar year 2010, according to city records.

After trying to analyze the three letters to the editor regarding runaway film production in your April 5 edition, it left me gasping for air. Beala Neel says it was more than a $6-billion-a-year industry three years ago. Fulfill-Hollywood says it generates $35 billion in state revenues. What are state revenues? Neel also says 89% of "movie-of-the-week" production went to Canada, England and Australia, and only 2% is shot in California. Is that representative of all production?

Gretchen Hoffman "Ararat," the first major feature film on the Armenian Genocide, earned more than $210,000 in its opening weekend despite being shown at just six theaters, according to film industry tracker Exhibitor Relations Co. The film, which examines the effects of the genocide on a contemporary family, opened Friday at three theaters in Los Angeles. Tickets to all Friday, Saturday and Sunday screenings of "Ararat" at the Mann 10 Glendale Exchange Theatres on Maryland Avenue were sold out by noon Nov. 14. A manager at the Mann 10 said four additional showings were added for a total of nine each day, due to the demand.