The 2013 Cannes Film Festival, which runs from May 15 - 26th, will open with the latest adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, The Great Gatsby directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The 3D film was cut by award-winning editors Jason Ballantine ASE and Matt Villa ASE on Avid Media Composer. "During the shoot we had an editing station permanently on location and during post we had two fully operational cutting rooms running concurrently and in perfect sync; one in Sydney and one in LA," explained Matt Villa, co-editor of The Great Gatsby. "We called upon many tools from the Avid family to deal with the 3D material and they never faltered. Productions of this scale can be unrestrained and unpredictable, but Avid never fails in being stable yet flexible enough to get these jobs done." [source]

Boris FX unveiled a new VFX Browser for its flagship Boris Continuum Complete (BCC) plug-in collection. Available as a free download, the new BCC Effects Library Browser plug-in allows editors and motion graphics artists to instantly preview thousands of BCC presets via animations that integrate timeline video. The free plug-in can be used on any system with a BCC-compatible host application - even if BCC is not installed. The Boris Continuum Complete Effects Library Browser plug-in will be available as a free download during Q2 2013. [source]

Boris FX announced Boris Continuum Complete version 8.2. The new v8.2 release features up to 100% improvement in render time for OpenGL-accelerated filters. In addition, nearly all BCC AVX for Avid filters can now be rendered in real-time. BCC v8.2 FxPlug for Apple Final Cut Pro and Motion is available now as a free download for v8.x users. BCC v8.2 AE for Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro, v8.2 AVX for Avid, and v8.2 for Sony Vegas Pro will be available as free downloads during Q2 2013. [source]

Panasonic has announced AVC-ULTRA plug-ins for Avid Media Composer 6.5, both Mac and Windows versions - AJ-PS001, AJ-PS002, plus AJ-PS001 and AJ-PS002 plug-ins. The AJ-PS001 activates AVC-Proxy's Re-Link feature, which allows the user to import AVC-Proxy and edit natively; edit sequence are re-linked to corresponding high-res clips automatically. AJ-PS002 activates the AVC-Intra Export feature, which allows the user to export AVC-Intra 100/50 clips. And AJ-PS003 activates AVC-LongG Export, with a choice of file sizes up to 50Mbps, while the AJ-PS004 activates AVC-LongG Import. The AJ-PS001 and AJ-PS002 plug-ins will be available in June 2013 at suggested list prices of $199 US and $149 US respectively, AJ-PS003 and AJ-PS004 plug-ins will be available in October 2013 at suggested list prices of $149 US and $99 US respectively. [source]

GenArts released Sapphire 7, new version of its set of visual effects plug-ins for Autodesk, Avid, After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Nuke, OpenFX, and Sony Vegas Pro platforms. This new release provides users with greater control, increased speed, and an expanding arsenal of effects; empowering users to create higher quality effects in less time. Key innovations in Sapphire 7 include new and enhanced effects; CUDA GPU support for more plug-ins and optimized GPU code to provide overall speed increase; more presets; preset sharing across host platforms; and real time rendering in Avid version. The prices start at $1,699 US, a demo version is also available. [source]

Avid unveiled Media Composer 7, featuring accelerated and simplified file-based workflows including optimized HD delivery from high-res source material and automated media operations. In addition, as a key component of the Avid Everywhere vision, the new release offers Interplay Sphere for Mac support (in the Media Composer Interplay Edition), extending real-time production everywhere. Media Composer software will be available starting at $999 US, Media Composer 7 Interplay Edition will be priced at $1499 US. The new Media Composer will be shipping in June 2013. [source]

Continuing to add to its family of products for managing media from the set to the screen, MTI Film announced the release of a new Windows-based standalone transcoding application, Cortex::Convey. It supports input of all popular camera file formats, editorial files and intermediate file formats, including DPX, OpenEXR and H.264, for transcoding to review, editorial and intermediate formats such as Avid DNxHD/MXF 1:1, DPX file sequences and QuickTime, as well as fully-authored DVDs and Blu-ray discs. Cortex::Convey takes advantage of both CPU and GPU processing with NVIDIA CUDA to transcode most files at real-time or faster, many at over 100 fps. Template-driven automation removes the need for time-consuming, repetitive tasks and ensures consistent results from job to job. Pricing starts at $995 US. [source]

Avid congratulated its many customers recognized as award nominees and winners at the 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards, the world's most prestigious ceremony honoring music professionals. At the GRAMMY Awards held on February 10, 2013, various artists, producers and engineers who use Avid's Pro Tools audio solutions took home awards, including Record of the Year, Gotye featuring Kimbra for Somebody That I Used To Know; Album of the Year, Mumford and Sons for Babel; and Best Rock Album, Black Keys for El Camino. Avid solutions were also used in the studios of other GRAMMY Award winners including, Producer of the Year, Dan Auerbach for Black Keys, El Camino; Best New Artist, fun. for We Are Young; Rap Album, Drake for Take Care; Best Rap Song, Jay-Z & Kanye West for N****s In Paris; and Best Traditional R&B Performance, Beyonce for Love on Top. [source]

Cinemartin, the European team that developed the first prototype of an uncompressed low cost portable video recorder some months ago, the SFV, has released a new software tool oriented to cinematographers and video users for transcoding, converting, and encoding videos to film and broadcast quality formats. Cinec is currently available for Windows (Mac OS X version is in the works), and supports many formats including avi, mpeg, mts, m2ts, m2v, 3gp, mp4, m4a, 3g2, mj2, mov, wmv and others. Current version includes presets for exporting to ProRes, XDCAM, Avid DNxHD and H.264 formats, to 8, 10 and 12-bit formats with 4:2:0, 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 sampling and up to 4K resolution. Download it free of charge, here. [source]

Avid announced the launch of the Pro Series line of AAX Native and AAX DSP plug-ins, featuring three new advanced processors that enable users to sound their best. Pro Compressor and Pro Expander (available now at $99 US), along with Pro Limiter (coming soon), are the first plug-ins in the series, joining an expanding line-up for the AAX platform. Pro Limiter is a transparent-sounding limiter that enables you to maximize the loudness of any mix, without distortion or harshness, while Pro Compressor is a compressor based on the Avid System 5 console and Channel Strip plug-in (which is bundled with Pro Tools 10 software), enabling you to shape sounds, enhance tracks, and breathe life into mixes. Pro Expander is also based on the Avid Channel Strip plug-in, enabling you to give mixes more energy, gate noise, and duck signals. [source]