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Bits & Pieces Previs house Baraboom opens in Culver City C ULVER CITY, CA — Baraboom Studios (www.baraboomstudios.com) has opened a new facility that specializes in previsualization. The new Culver City-based studio launched with a small team of artists in late 2013 and has plans to expand in 2014 with the hiring of additional staff and the addition of a scanning and motion-capture stage. "We're very excited to have a home in Culver City that's convenient to our clients and provides a comfortable working environment for our talent," explains executive producer, Mike Pryor. Founded in 2009 by animation director supervisor Pepe Valencia (pictured, lower left), Baraboom has provided previs services for a wide range of film, television and commercial projects over the years, including Summit Entertainment's The Impossible and Universal Pictures' Hop. It is currently working on a television series for a major US network. Valencia has more than 20 years of experience as an animator and animation director/supervisor. His background includes 11 years at Sony Pictures Imageworks, where he served as animation supervisor on such films as The Aviator, Peter Pan and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. He also produced director layouts for Robert Zemeckis on The Polar Express, Gil Kenan on Monster House and Brian Singer for Superman. After leaving SPI in 2007, he joined Imagi Animation Studios and served as director of photography on the film Astro Boy. Apple delivers new Mac Pro C UPERTINO, CA — On Thursday, December 19th, Apple began taking orders for its new Mac Pro, the first of which were delivered before the new year. I got to see one up close recently, and my first impression was, "Wow, it's smaller than I expected." The truth is, it's 1/8th the size of past Mac Pro towers. And the cylindrical-shaped workstation is very quiet too. Apple reps say the new Mac Pro runs at about 12dBs, which is comparable to the noise made by the company's Mac Mini. The success in keeping the new Mac Pro so compact and quiet stems from its design footprint, which is essentially built around a cooling fan. The "thermal core" consists of the unit's CPU and 2 GPUs, which are arranged in a triangular fashion that allows heat to escape upwards and through the top of the unit. The new Mac Pro comes equipped with dual AMD FirePro graphics cards. Buyers can choose between the D300, D500 or D700 cards when configuring their unit. Nvidia boards at this point are not an option. Users can also choose between Quad-Core or Six-Core configurations with Intel Xeon E5 processors. Removable flash storage is also available, ranging from 512GBs to 1TB. And for memory, users can chose between 12GBs or 16GBs of DDR3 ECC memory. The new Mac Pro offers lots of expansion via its ports. The unit features four USB 3 ports and six Thunderbolt 2 ports (each offering 20gbps throughput). HDMI connectivity allows for use with 4K monitors. Two Ethernet ports and two audio outputs round out the release. The latest 8 Post • January 2014 WiFi and Bluetooth technology is also featured. Apple notes that the Mac Pro is being manufactured here in the United States. Its chassis is be being made in Tennessee and final assembly takes place in Austin, TX. In addition, manufacturers from 12 states are supplying components for the workstation, further supporting the "Made in America" theme. Coinciding with the launch of the new Mac Pro is an update to Apple's Final Cut Pro editing software. Version 10.1 is now available as a free upgrade. The download marks the 10th release for the application over the past two-and-ahalf years, all of which have been free. Final Cut Pro is still priced at $299.99, and the latest enhancements are a direct response to requests from the pro marketplace. Version 10.1 was designed to take advantage of the Mac Pro's new hardware, particularly the dual GPUs, which support 4K and allow for rendering and playing back VFX in realtime. Color grading and the retiming of footage also see significant improvements thanks to the new hardware. Pricing for the new Mac Pro begins at $2,999. — By Marc Loftus www.postmagazine.com Commercial edit house Friendshop opens in NYC N EW YORK — Editors Tim Wilson and Ben Suenaga have left Go Robot!, New York and opened a new editing company with partner/managing director/ executive producer Melissa Mapes. Friendshop (212-520-3150) will operate as "artists in residence" at Outpost Digital, while permanent offices are undergoing construction. Wilson and Suenaga had each been on staff at Go Robot! for more than a decade. Wilson's credits include ad campaigns for HP, Exxon, UPS, and Ikea, among others. Suenaga's many credits include spots for IBM, Starbucks, AT&T and PowerAde. Mapes previously served as EP and senior partner at Ogilvy, New York, working with American Express, UPS, Ikea and Stoli, among others. "We were always crazy about the idea of building our own culture, one where collaboration and a sense of community are key," explains Wilson. "We've had the pleasure of working with some of the most talented and creative minds in the industry, and we're excited to continue doing great work with them in this kind of environment." "Ben, Tim and I have essentially grown up together in this business, and have been relying on each other as partners since our careers began," Mapes adds. " We're excited to officially join forces." They can be reached via email at: tim@friendshopedit.com, ben@friendshopedit. com, or mapes@friendshopedit.com.