Demand for IT Director roles increases by 50% i one month

A job report released this week highlights a near 50 percent increase in permanent vacancies for IT Directors in July, when compared to the previous month, indicating that businesses may be seeking talent to help re-evaluate strategy and performance.

IT Directors also saw a 78.7 percent increase in permanent vacancies since June last year, according to specialist IT recruitment consultancy Computer People.

Business Intelligence and Project Management roles also saw double digit growth since last year, which again suggests a renewed focus on strategy.

Computer People found the permanent jobs available across the whole IT sector are up by 8.09 percent and contract work is up 3.47 percent from this time last year. London and the South East continue to dominate with 53 percent overall growth, where London alone is responsible for a quarter of all vacancies in the UK at present.

"The forecast is looking extremely positive. All the signs are that there will be both month-on-month and year-on-year growth as we move forward, despite moving into the historically challenging summer holiday period," said Niall Cook, Managing Director of Computer People.

Within the contract market the largest rise in vacancies between June and July was for ERP at 13.7 percent, followed by 11.6 percent for Technical architects and 5.6 percent for web development.

'Pacific Rim' Director Guillermo del Toro: 'Post-Conversion 3D Can Be Great'

On the eve of his first movie release in five years, Guillermo del Toro was giddy during a Thursday night screening of Pacific Rim at LACMA.

The Mexican director, who has garnered acclaim for his work on Pan's Labyrinth and the Hellboy franchise, spoke to a sellout crowd about all things Pacific Rim and even delved into some personal anecdotes.

In an honest and hilarious moment, del Toro recounted his earliest memories of monsters, which inspired his latest film's ferocious Kaiju.

VIDEO: Guillermo del Toro on a Possible Sequel for 'Pacific Rim'

"When I was a child, I would wake up and dream that I was awake in the room I was in and I would see real creatures in my bedroom," he explained. "But for a child, that was really hard to process. I was afraid to step out of the crib because my parents had this green shaggy rug, so when I looked through the crib, I saw this sea of waving green fingers waiting for me to land and they would pull me down. So I peed."

Following the screening, when del Toro was introduced for a Q&A, he received a long standing ovation from the crowd, many of whom are subscribers to the Film Independent or LACMA communities.

"I wanted this to work as a summer movie and have the staple of characters that you'd expect but try to at least do something different, " he admitted. "Everything is a political aesthetic choice."

Pacific Rim, from Warner Bros. and Legendary, stars Idris Elba, Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day and Ron Perlman. It follows a group of people who create giant robots to fight off the invading megamonsters from the sea.

"I didn't want to celebrate the machines as cold, polished surfaces or to live in this gorgeous neon world where everybody is a waspy crew-cut guy. I mean, there's a single country saving the world all the time, and the aliens get one single map -- they go to New York!"

PHOTOS: 'Pacific Rim' Premiere: Big Robots Bring Out the Big Stars

Though the film was subject to bad tracking early on and drew comparisons to Michael Bay's Transformers franchise, del Toro insists his film balances substance and style while evoking nostalgia.

"The toughest thing in this movie was to keep the simplicity amidst all its complexity," he says. "I wanted it to function on both levels to make it a throwback. I tried to pattern it after adventure films with rangers and marshals waiting at outposts, riding the Jaegers [robots] into battle."

Del Toro also made a selling point for 3D during his post-screening talk: "The scale is mythical, a disregard for human scale, and it's a huge change to see it in 3D. You have to see it on the most obscenely large screen. I wanted to make this movie as a case for post-conversion of 3D can be great."

Yet for all his serious and intellectual musings on his own craft, del Toro still found time to poke fun at himself and his decisions.

On the meaning of the Pacific Rim title, del Toro jokes, "We've heard all the jokes. We would give the porn industry a winner. Someone will get nominated for an AVN award."

The film opens in theaters July 12.

Saudi Arabian Director Haifaa Al-Mansour to Head Venice Jury For Debut Films

ROME – Haifaa Al-Mansour, the first female film director of international note to emerge from Saudi Arabia, will head the jury that will award the Luigi De Laurentiis prize, given to the best debut film at the Venice Film Festival.

Al-Mansour’s own debut film Wadjda -- which tells the tale of a young girl efforts to earn money to buy a green bicycle she has her eye on -- won three secondary prizes in Venice last year before going on to earn accolades elsewhere on the international film festival circuit.

The Luigi De Laurentiis jury, made up of seven industry figures, will award a prize to a debut film screening in the festival’s main international competition or one of the competitive sidebars. In addition to the recognition from the award, the prize includes a $100,000 cash prize, spit between the director and the producer. Rules do not permit split awards.

PHOTOS: Top Ten: Venice Film Festival

The prize is named for famed Italian film producer Luigi De Laurentiis, who died in 1992.

Küf (Mold), a drama from director Ali Aydin about the struggles of a widow soon-to-be pensioner that screened in Venice’s Critic’s Week sidebar, won the Luigi De Laurentiis honor a year ago.

The 70th edition of the Venice event -- the world's oldest film festival -- takes place Aug. 28-Sept. 7.

Twitter: @sajilpl

'The Butler' Battle: Director Lee Daniels Pleads His Case To Warner Bros.' Kevin Tsujihara

Further ratcheting up the Weinstein Company’s campaign to force Warner Bros. into granting it permission to call its upcoming Lee Daniels’ film The Butler, the director has sent a letter to Warner Bros. Entertainment’s new CEO Kevin Tsujihara in which Daniels argues that if TWC has to change the movie’s title “it will most certainly hurt the film.”

On Tuesday following an arbitration, the MPAA’s Title Registry Bureau ruled that TWC could not use the title because it’s also the name of a pre-existing 1916 short film that now resides in the Warner Bros. library.

In response, attorney David Boies, who is representing TWC in the dispute, fired off letters to the MPAA and Warners earlier Wednesday threatening litigation.

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Daniels’ letter takes a different tack, pleading his case by describing the film, which stars Forest Whitaker and is based on the true story of Eugene Allen, who spent 34 years working at the White House until he retired as head butler, as a film he made “so I could show my kids, my family and my country some of the injustices and victories African-Americans and their families have experienced in the fight for Civil Rights.” The movie, he continued, “tells the story of the Civil Rights Movement from the sit-ins and the Freedom Riders, to Selma, Martin Luther King’s assassination and the election of the first Black president.”

Daniels wrote that while working on the film “is the proudest moment of my professional career, I am heartbroken as I write this letter.” He explained that the modestly budgeted movie is not intended to be a blockbuster and “if we were to change the title a mere six weeks before we open, it would most certainly hurt the film by limiting the number of people who would ultimately see this important story.”

Offering to screen the movie for Tsujihara, Daniels said, “I truly believe that once you watch it, you would not want to cause this film any harm.”

Daniels concluded the letter by adding he has the support of its stars Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, Cuba Gooding, Jr., and David Oyelowo as well as screenwriter Danny Strong. Copies also were sent to Warners executives Sue Kroll, Greg Silverman and Dan Fellman.

How ‘Stalingrad’ Director Fedor Bondarchuk Uses 3D to Generate Emotion

BARCELONA – I was particularly interested in seeing a 20-minute footage presentation from Columbia Pictures’ Stalingrad, a dramatic 3D-lensed Russian film from director Fedor Bondarchuk, this week at CineEurope. I had participated in a panel on 3D storytelling at last year’s IBC convention and one panelist, 3Ality CEO Steve Schklair, spoke of this project (he was a 3D producer on the film), which is currently in postproduction.

Set in 1942, Staingrad is a love story set during World War II’s Battle of Stalingrad.

The movie is being billed as the first Russian film to be shot in 3D for an Imax release. In the preview of the unfinished film that I saw in 3D (the trailer was separately screened in 2D during Sony’s slate presentation) the spectacle of the battle scenes was given added emotional weight through the director’s use of close-ups.

STORY: 'The Great Gatsby' in 3D: What to Watch For

The power of a close-up in 3D is something that I have discussed with numerous filmmakers, including Ang Lee, whom I spoke with during this past awards season about Life of Pi. In a more recent release, it's something that Baz Luhrmann used to strong effect in The Great Gatsby.

This week at CineEurope I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Bondarchuk. (The interview was conducted in large part through a translator).

“I love close-ups," the director said. "Spielberg says there is nothing worse than a big close-up from brow to chin; I do not agree with him.

“It was interesting and emotional for us to see the close-up [in 3D] of an actor who is working and feeling. I connect emotionally. … This is the way I push a little bit hard to get out emotions.

“For me [3D] was a completely new experiment,” he added. “[I found] there is a difference [in how] the emotions of the actors [are conveyed].”

PHOTOS: 3D Movie Rereleases: The Hits and Misses

Another thing that Bondarchuk discovered about 3D is that, working with the stereographer, he could bring the audience’s attention to different details or characters within a single frame, without editing. “It's going back to good old editing inside a frame [compared with ‘short cuts’],” he said.

The director also discussed his use of atmospheric effects such as smoke and particles to immerse the viewer in the battle. “The city was on fire, it was horrible,” he said of the actual events of the battle. “There are historical photographs with a black cloud over the city. We wanted to add these details in the 3D, and it came together with the real story. We tested it very carefully -- different types of ashes and smoke and sand -- to understand how it was going to work [in 3D].”

Director of photography Maksim Osadchy used Red Epic cameras on 3Ality 3D rigs to photograph the movie, which was shot completely on location in Russia.

Stalingrad was produced by Alexander Rodnyansky and Sergey Melkumov for Non-Stop Production and Dmitry Rudovsky for Art Pictures. Rodnyanksy was at CineEurope and told THR, “Russia is a country [that likes] 3D and spectacle in the cinema.”

Bondarchuk is a founder of Art Pictures, producer of the Afghan war drama The 9th Company, the first film that he directed. It was the winner of seven Golden Eagle Awards. The second film he directed, Inhabited Island, was released in 2009 and grossed over $30 million in Russia. Both of these films were produced by Rodnyansky and Melkumov; Stalingrad is their third film together.

Sony Pictures Releasing International is distributing the film, starting Oct. 10 in Russia. A U.S. release date has not been announced.

Follow me on Twitter @sajilpl

Ultimate Art Summer Weekend With Director Phil Lord

FRIDAY

Head to LACMA (5905 Wilshire Blvd.), where Paramount's Brad Grey just joined the board, for one of its Friday Jazz at LACMA concerts. If you book a table at the museum's Ray's and Stark Bar (named for producer Ray Stark), you can enjoy the music just as well as you could sitting on the grass. LACMA, now spotlighting the work of iconic light-exploring artist James Turrell, stays open until 8 p.m. Fridays. For a modern architecture staycation, book pioneering architect Rudolph Schindler's trilevel Fitzpatrick-Leland House atop Laurel Canyon. The two-bedroom goes for $350 a night, minimum two nights (airbnb.com/rooms/418226), and benefits the Mak Center for Art + Architecture's cultural and conservation programs.

PHOTOS: Best of Hollywood: 28 Ways to Create a Perfect Summer Weekend

SATURDAY

It's gallery day, so as long as you have signed up for ForYourArt's (foryourart.com) weekly e-mail blast, you'll be up on what's happening in L.A.'s constantly evolving art world. Grab a breakfast sandwich at hole-in-the-wall Coffee + Food (5630 Melrose Ave.) off Larchmont Boulevard before hitting the nearby developing arts area around Highland Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard. Don't-miss exhibits include group show The Humors, June 29 to Aug. 31 at Perry Rubenstein Gallery (1215 N. Highland Ave.), where the soaring design comes courtesy of hot architect Kulapat Yantrasast, who's doing the interiors of downtown's upcoming Broad Museum. A block away is Regen Projects (6750 Santa Monica Blvd.), which regularly draws the likes of John Waters and Rodarte designers Laura and Kate Mulleavy; its next show, June 29 to Aug. 3, showcases the serene, mostly abstract textile-based works of Danish artist Sergej Jensen. Just a block further south is JF Chen (941 N. Highland Ave.), a high-end vintage furniture purveyor where Hollywood's A-list decorators shop. Owner Joel Chen puts on gallery shows as well, including a new exhibit of cocoonlike sculptures made from recycled aluminum-can tops by Clare Graham on view through July 18. Next, head southwest to Culver City's thriving arts district radiating from the axis of La Cienega and Washington boulevards. On Washington, enjoy curry chicken salad and a potato leek tart at six-month-old restaurant Muddy Leek (8631 W. Washington Blvd.). Then pop in and out of the area's 35-plus galleries as producer David Hoberman and investor Dean Valentine regularly do. Among the standouts are Honor Fraser (2622 S. La Cienega Blvd.), showing works by Alexis Smith through July 27 that incorporate movie stills and text from pulp novels; and nonprofit LA><Art (2640 S. La Cienega Blvd.), where 21 Jump Street director Phil Lord is vice chair of the board. He collects the work of Justin Beal, whose multimedia Memphis-architecture-inspired show runs at LA><ART Santa Monica Museum of Art (2525 Michigan Ave.), celebrating its 25th anniversary; its current show through Aug. 17, I Killed Kenny, spotlights Joyce Pensato, whose monumental charcoal drawings take pop culture characters such as Bart Simpson and Mickey Mouse and give them a sinister cast. For dinner, head to Venice to eat at Larry’s (24 Windward Ave.), named after pioneering local artist Larry Bell, who loves the brussels sprout pizza.

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SUNDAY

It's museum day: On view around L.A. are multiple exhibits on SoCal modern architecture sponsored by the Getty Foundation's Pacific Standard Time initiative, including MOCA's look at sculptural Gehry-esque buildings, the Getty's sprawling survey of L.A.'s postwar growth and the Hammer Museum's retrospective on A. Quincy Jones. But the undiscovered gem of the bunch might be the Never Built show, running July 28 to Sept. 29 at the A+D Museum (6032 Wilshire Blvd.), a peek at what could have been if L.A. had constructed things like a monorail between downtown and LAX during the '60s. For lunch, head a mile east to just-opened retro fast-food joint Top Round Roast Beef (1000 S. La Brea Ave.) for the 10-spice-rub slow-roasted sandwiches and frozen custards. End the day at Century City's Annenberg Space for Photography (2000 Avenue of the Stars, open until 6 on Sundays); its new show of photos by Helmut Newton, running June 29 to Sept. 8, includes towering 8-foot-tall nudes.

See more perfect summer weekends below:

Shopping With Jewelry Designer Jennifer Meyer

Music With Breakout Star Skylar Grey

Food: From Seafood Craze to Farmer's Market Bounty

Outdoors: Fun in the SoCal Sun

Pampering: Spa, Aaah

Romance: Date Nights (and Days)

Classic L.A.: Historic Hot Spots

The 1 Percent: Live in Luxury

Kids: Modern Family Adventures

Follow me on Twitter @sajilpl

Brett Hendrie New Exec Director of Canada’s Hot Docs Festival

AMSTERDAM -- Longtime Hot Docs executive director Chris McDonald is moving aside to allow festival managing director Brett Hendrie to fill the post.

McDonald, who held the job for 15 years, will take on the new position of Hot Docs president, overseeing the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema in Toronto, the festival’s year-round home.

Hendrie, who worked alongside McDonald for 10 years to take the festival into the international arena, assumes the day-to-day running of North America’s largest documentary festival and related year-round programming.

The handover was blessed June 19 at a board meeting for Hot Docs.

McDonald, having joined Hot Docs in 1998, has taken the festival from a small gathering of Canadian filmmakers to an annual public event that draws international doc makers and industry players, including for a key documentary co-production market.

 

 

Twitter:  @sajilpl

 

'The Heat' Director Paul Feig Reacts to Melissa McCarthy Photoshop Controversy: 'It's a Bummer'

Paul Feig at "The Heat" premiere

The Heat director Paul Feig is defending his star in the wake of a Photoshop controversy that found Melissa McCarthy’s image significantly altered in a promotional image for the film.

STORY: Melissa McCarthy on Photoshopped 'Heat' Poster: My Husband Did It

“It’s a bummer,” Feig told The Huffington Post when asked about the incident. “I love Melissa exactly how she is.”

Feig acknowledged that one of the problems in that situation is that he has “very little to do with” the marketing materials, “especially in the foreign markets.”

The image in question (a poster for the film’s U.K. release) featured a significantly slimmed down, nearly unrecognizable McCarthy next to her co-star, Sandra Bullock.  Some critics estimated that photo editors had shaved up to 30 pounds from McCarthy’s face and frame.

PHOTOS: Melissa McCarthy, Sandra Bullock Turn Up 'The Heat' At New York Premiere

McCarthy joked about the drama while speaking with The Hollywood Reporter at the film's New York premiere.

"Ben did it," she said, referring to her husband Ben Falcone. "We had a big fight about it because I said I wanted it 80 percent smaller and he said he wanted it 70 percent."

In his interview with HuffPo, Feig also compares McCarthy to comedy veteran Steve Carell and discusses how Bullock adapted to the improv-heavy environment. Read the full piece here.

The Heat opens nationwide on June 28.