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BITS & PIECES www.postmagazine.com 4 POST NOV/DEC 2020 60 COMPANIES FORM GLOBALIZATION ASSOCIATION LOS ANGELES — Ten founding companies and 50 forming companies have announced their collaboration to create an entertainment industry association focused specifically on entertainment globalization. Globalization is defined as dubbing, subtitling and audio description services that allow content to be con- sumed in languages other than the original version. The founding companies of the association are Audiomaster Candiani, Deluxe, Hiventy, Iyuno Media Group, Keywords Studios, Plint, SDI Media, Visual Data Media Services, VSI and Zoo Digital. The additional 50 companies represent high caliber service providers from all around the world. The Entertainment Globalization Association (EGA) has been formed to cre- ate a closer connection to the creative community to better facilitate the retell- ing of their stories for global audiences. The association is primarily focused on creating educational resources, localization standards and generating consumer impact research of localization. Chris Fetner has been named as the managing director of the association. Before this role, Fetner led Netflix's content localiza- tion vendor strategy for nearly a decade and is widely regarded as an industry transformer among entertainment localization companies. "I feel incredibly fortunate to be given the opportunity to work with these leaders in localization," says Fetner. "Every company in the association is an outstanding contributor to sharing stories globally, and I'm excited to see how we can all work together to help creatives share their stories more broadly." The association is already the largest of its kind through the support of its named founders and forming companies, and is currently open to new mem- bers that work as individuals or companies providing globalization services in gaming, episodic television, feature film or access services. The associa- tion will begin forming committees in December 2020 and commence activities in early 2021. Among its early efforts are a full slate of stan- dards to be established, as well as educational outreach plans starting in Q1 of 2021. "The initial support of this group has been overwhelming," says Fetner. "Every single member is ex- cited about the work they do re-telling stories for the creative community and this is a signal to that community saying we're here to support you and help you tell your stories globally in what will no doubt be an unprecedented time of growth and opportunity to entertain the world." With streaming platforms providing opportunities for global reach, creative talent and producers alike have realized that quality globalization plays a critical role in the success of a production. The new understanding is that globalization is less of a science and more of an art form that needs to be incorporated into the production process to ensure that stories are resonating with their global audiences. The EGA has been formed to give creative talent a resource to build their competency around globalization and a set of motivated partners to help them entertain audiences all over the world. NICKMAS SPECTACULAR COMPLETED AT LA CASTLE STUDIOS BURBANK, CA — LA Castle Studios (www.lacastlestudios.com) recently helped Nickelodeon kick off the holiday season by providing production and post services for The All-Star Nickmas Spectacular, which premiered on Saturday, November 28th. Hosted by Nickelodeon's Lex Lumpkin, the hour-long variety show included musical performances by JoJo Siwa, That Girl Lay Lay and Ne- Yo, along with appearances by Gabriel Iglesias, Jay Pharoah, Tisha Campbell, Trevor Noah and Young Dylan. The special also featured comedy sketches from the casts of All That, The Astronauts, Danger Force, Group Chat and Nickelodeon's Unfiltered — including Darci Lynne with Petunia — as well as special messages from animated stars SpongeBob SquarePants, Lincoln and Lucy from The Loud House, and Ronnie Anne from The Casagrandes. According to LA Castle Studios' owner Tim Pipher, the company has worked with the show's producer, Jesse Collins Entertainment, quite extensively in the last several months. This project called for the studio to create a Christmas land that was stunningly bold and colorful, without the constraints of the real world. While the studio can handle live composit- ing, by capturing the foreground and background separately, along with matte and tracking data, they are able to color correct each element separately if needed. In this case, most the final shots ended up coming from the live composite. "Our setup allows for freely-moving cameras and live compositing," Pipher explains. "We shoot 4K with our three (Panasonic) VariCam 35 cameras and three Fujinon 4K 20-120 cinema zoom lenses," he adds, noting that they also have a camera crane, teleprompters, LED RGBW lighting and audio gear. Camera tracking is provided through the StarTracker system from Mo-Sys. The entire production was pulled off in just two days — one serving as a tech day, and the other as a shoot day.