ATAS Screeners

Yesterday I received the first of many screeners from the Academy.

The one I received was from HBO. It was a very elegantly prepared box which contained a large number of HBO's miniseries, series, specials, and movies from the past year. I haven't even jumped into seeing what's actually in the box itself, but there must be 40 DVDs in it!

Earlier in the week I received a small set of DVDs from the Sci-Fi channel. It seems they've cut down on their budgeting for sending out screeners, because this year they only sent two DVDs, one of their miniseries, Legend of Earthsea, which was nominated for a VES award, and a couple episodes of Battlestar Galactica on the other. Last year they send out four DVDs in some really nice packaging, and the year before that they send four as well, in a huge sphere which mimicked the Sci-Fi logo. It was very cool. I think I'll have to start taking pictures of these submissions to share!

The bulk of all these DVDs will probably come during the summer, and I'll be voting in three categories down the line for the Emmy Awards; my peer group category, Title Design and Special Visual Effects, and then two other categories of my choosing.

I have high hopes for the future of visual effects in TV, simply because while the budget is usually not the same as a film project, there is just as much creativity and dedication with the artists that create those TV effects. Now that HD is becoming more and more prevalent in todays shows, the resolution is approaching that of film, and the effects are getting more and more elaborate. One can only imagine a fully computer generated character such as Gollum in a weekly series!