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www.postmagazine.com 8 POST OCTOBER 2015 BITS & PIECES FINISH CREATES VFX FOR CIVIL WAR-ERA FEATURE LONDON — Finish (www.finish.tv) recently completed work on more than 90 VFX shots featured in director Daniel Barber's new film The Keeping Room. The studio also created the title sequence for the western thriller, which takes place towards the end of the American Civil War. Drafthouse Films released the feature on September 25th. The film is a tense tale of survival that also shatters both gender and genre conven- tions. It stars Brit Marling, Hailee Steinfeld, Sam Worthington and Muna Otaru. Visual effects supervisor Jason Watts worked closely with long-time collaborator Barber in devising the effects. "To work on a long-form project with a director I have a long-standing working relationship reaffirmed our collaborative synergy," comments Watts. "There was a lot of trust in delivering creative shots that were an essential part of the storytelling." VFX were added to intensify mounting tension, with skies set ablaze via CGI cloud systems, and crowd simulation used to replicate troops. In addition to smoke and gun fire, there are numer- ous invisible effects. Finish has worked with Barber on com- mercials for clients such as BMW, Ford and Jaguar. They also completed the VFX for his Oscar- nominated short, The Tonto Woman. BOXX DEBUTS COMPACT APEXX 1 WORKSTATION AUSTIN, TX — Boxx Technologies (www. boxxtech.com) has introduced Apexx 1, one of the smallest workstations available with either an overclocked Intel Core i7 or standard Intel Xeon E5 processor. Featuring professional Nvidia graphics, Intel solid state drives, and PCI-E NVMe SSD technology, Apexx 1 provides workstation performance in a compact form factor. The unit is 4.7 inches wide, 8.5 inches tall, and 9.0 inches deep, and features liquid-cool- ing. Customers can choose between an overclocked, eight-core, Intel Core i7 processor or an Intel Xeon E5 processor with up to 18 cores. By the end of October, Apexx 1 will further expand its available options by offering overclocked, quad-core Skylake processors. The included Nvidia Quadro graphics card makes it well suited for work with Dassault Systèmes' Solidworks, Autodesk Revit, 3DS Max and other professional 3D applications. Capable of housing two 2.5-inch drives, Apexx 1 features an optional M.2 PCI Express NVMe solid state drive for four times the performance of a standard SSD. Its unibody core, interlocking strengthening side panels, and four corner bumpers allow the space-saving workstation to stand verti- cally, horizontally, or as a stacked component in combination with the upcoming Boxx RenderPro 1. New SmartTrac 1.5 tbcconsoles.com | 1 . 8 8 8 . c o n s o l e V i s i t u s a t BOOTH#843 Content and Communications World C U R V E ® • Casters or levelers • With or without cabinets • Fixed or adjustable height • Configured for the way you work