The Cortez Brothers welcomes Marcos Cline-Márquez to our company as an executive producer; he'll be corralling our hottest, freshest and all-around coolest new talent. As the headcount in our Marina del Rey office expands, so too do our forays into South America. We'll be shooting in Colombia again, plus traveling to the Dominican Republic to take part in a Hollywood filmmaking conference there. The Storytelling Department is happy to lend a hand helping directors land studio-backed feature films, producers land television series deals and the one-and-only Disney reach people through the written word. At the same time, we welcome director Nelson Cabrera to our roster... Nelson has an impressive reel that includes Crispin Porter+Bogusky, Grey, BBDO, JWT, Merkley, Cole Weber, DDB, Euro NY, Zubi, La Comunidad, Dieste and COD (to name just a few). Also, a shout-out to director Ago Panini, since we've just gotten a sneak peak at the trailer for his upcoming feature film, "Waiting for the Sun."

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Quick (and much deserved) congratulations to our director Carlos V. Gutierrez. Proving we've got him listed as promising New Talent for a reason, his script "Black and Blue" has just been named as a Thriller finalist in the Fade In Screenplay Contest.

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It's one of those seasons where we're so busy working that we haven't had time for proper updates, but this is the gist of it... We've shot a LOT of stuff, analyzed a LOT of scripts, worked with a LOT of directors and DPs and producers and agencies and writers and creatives and other sundry (yet fascinating) characters. We've been in, shot in, and/or colluded with North America, South America, Europe and the Middle East on products that you wear, drive, eat, read and/or see. We've consulted on feature film campaigns, things written in Spanish and English, scripts, treatments, pitches and documentary projects. When we have a break in the craziness we'll certainly go into detail about those projects, but mostly we've just got our fingers crossed that we'll never HAVE a break at all...

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Revit Rendering Fundamentals

Here is a link to the other presentation I did:

Apologies this file is rather large due to all the embedded images (37MB approx.)

Again, I love to hear feedback both good and bad. It gives me incentive to keep updating this page...

EDIT: Webserver no longer allows me to have files this large. Please see link to PDF.

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Families the Basics - including management

Well its about time I updated my blog. For those that couldn't attend the recent Revit Technology Conference I thought I would post links to my powerpoints should you wish to check them out.



This is the talk I did about Families.



Generally it investigates how to setup standards in your office in order to maintain control of your library and develop consistency as well as maximum functionality.

Unfortunately our webserver no longer allows me to post these large files. Please use this link to PDF.



It then looks at some of the basics of family creation of which I then did some live demo's. If enough people post interest, I'll upload a video screen capture of this... :-)

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In a quck nutshell, here goes: In creative and professional news, director Ted Melfi's spot for the Los Angeles Film Festival was short-listed at Cannes; Quim Lorente took a Gran LAUS award from a prestigious art fund in Spain for a high-def video presentation. Martin Romanella won a silver at San Sebastian for his quirky and much-beloved "Juicio" spot for Film Suez. Cortez Brother Ricardo de Montreuil's film MÁNCORA had its Cannes debut, too -- it's the followup to his film LA MUJER DE MI HERMANO.

The Storytelling Department took one step closer to two different studios this month, doing creative work on both independent and wide-release feature films. We're consulting on a handful of film scripts in various stages of development and, more importantly, doing everything short of multiple backflips to ensure that our Cortez Brothers' pet projects and screenplays get a proper reception here in Hollywood.

Fernando Arrioja shot an AT&T job in Mexico City while Simón Bross filmed Tecate Light in the very same Greatest, Most Amazingly Complex Urban Center in the World (in our own humble opinion). Our production partners in Chile came north to Los Angeles to shoot a Paris perfume spot with lovely model/actress Milla Jovovich and Simón kicked another ball through the goalposts with a Home Depot spot featuring players from the Mexican National Soccer Team.

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Revit Technology Conference 2008

Its that time of year again!

Revit Technology Conference 2008 is on in June. I will be speaking as well as a host of other people. I strongly recommend you attend as its going to be 3 full on days of intensive training.

Hope you can make it.

Info can be found here http://www.rugsyd.com.au/rtc2008/rtc2008_events.htm

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The last few weeks have been exceptionally busy (as in, what does “weekend” mean?) for us... Director Fernando Arrioja shot five Budweiser spots for LatinWorks in Los Angeles, proving that cold beer and L.A. weather are a perfect mix. The Cortez Brothers' family friend LuÍs Gerard shot a Banco Popular spot for Group Films in Long Beach, bringing Spanish flags, Los Angeles Lakers center Pau Gasol and basketball fans together in suprising ways. Meanwhile, our own Magaby GarcÍa shot both Splenda and Lactaid spots for La Agencia de Orci in Mexico City - and this is one of the few times we can say a spot was "sww---eet!" and mean it.

The Storytelling Department lent creative consulting expertise to the upcoming trailer campaign for IRON MAN, our absolutely favorite feature film of the summer. We landed another new gig with some good old friends across town, and we'll be helping Spanish- AND English-speaking fans get a fix of the Disney magic. We provided analysis and notes on two international and two domestic feature film scripts and have three more on the way, all of them Latin-tinged and awfully fun to write.

Also on the creative side, director Martin Romanella just solidified co-production on his feature CIUDADES DORMITORIO, via Propeller Films in Germany, Ginga Eleven in Brazil and Lita Stantic Producciones in his native Argentina. The script was a Hubert Bals award-winner at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, and scooped up awards by the Argentinean Film Council as well. He's currently at work developing a feature script entitled KEEMA that we're all exceptionally excited to see brought to life...

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The Cortez Brothers is pleased to announce we've somehow managed to get one foot in several continents these last two months... Director Angel Gracia did a Verizon shoot in Mexico City with Global Hue, a Toyota spot in Dubai and a Falabella campaign for Group Films here in L.A. The Falabella shoot involved animatronic gorillas, which needs to be mentioned simply because we like saying 'animatronic gorillas.'

In Barcelona and Madrid, Doble Nelson shot a Burger King spot for Crispin Porter; our other directing team, Plástico, went a little further southwest to shoot the same fantastic burger chain in an entirely different environment (Mexico City, to be exact) and with a slightly different (yet no less beloved) agency, Bromley. Director Magaby García successfully wrapped a stunning Ikea spot for Anita Santiago in Los Angeles, which (we like to think) gives both Ikea a foothold in the Spanish-speaking world and Cortez Brothers bragging rights in Sweden and the Netherlands.

In other creative news, principal photography on Alfredo de Villa's feature film "Humboldt Park" has already started... The Storytelling Department lends its expertise to feature film scripts in South Africa and the US, as well as Spanish-language trailers (care of our strategic alliance with new friends AEM) for the Owen Wilson flick "Drillbit Taylor" and "Stop Loss," the feature followup for "Boys Don't Cry" director Kimberly Peirce. And yes, her name is spelled "Peirce."

Next up on our calendar? A Budweiser shoot with Fernando Arrioja in our own SoCal backyard. We'll bring the beer and fireworks, you bring the BBQ...

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Join Geometry Secrets

This is an interesting little trick that I've taken for granted for some time now and didn't realise a lot of people weren't aware of it.

If two adjacent walls are within say 25mm of each other and you use join geometry between the two walls (they don't even need to touch) the two walls inherit the openings of the other.

This is very handy when you are forced to model finish layers separetly in some situations. Saves you doing the unthinkable and using the evil "edit profile" option...

HTH.

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January, 2008 means the start of multiple productions in multiple cities. Simón Bross did a three-day Tecate shoot in Mexico with New York-based agency Adrenalina, the newest and only Hispanic member of the MDC Partners network. A little more south of the border, Karina Taira shot an entire General Market campaign for Nivea in Buenos Aires, Argentina; the agency and creative team behind the three-day shoot was TBWA Chiat NY. Slightly closer to home here in Los Angeles, director Quim Lorente shot a Verizon spot with Global Hue while, mere miles and one golf course away, Angel Gracia got all bobblehead on a Jack in the Box spot with Orci. We're currently gearing up to welcome our Cortez sister Magaby García later this month as she shoots an IKEA spot filled with all the little details and products that make us love both Magaby and IKEA. Additionally, we're happy to report on our return from Buenos Aires that directors Nes Buzzalino, Ale Ruax and Rama Martínez (AKA Plástico) are just as charming in person as they are in their treatments and on the phone. On the other side of the creative coin, Simón has just returned from Sweden's Gothenburg Film Festival (this year's highlight a retrospective tribute to Ingmar Bergman) where "Bad Habits" got more than its share of lovin' with the Audience's Choice award. In another snowy film festival, Ricardo de Montreuil's feature "Máncora" made its bow at Sundance in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. And if you've been following "Variety" lately you'll have seen that director Alfredo de Villa is adding lots of talent to his feature "Humboldt Park," with Jay Hernandez, Alfred Molina, Mercedes Ruehl and Luis Guzman joining John Leguizamo and Freddy Rodriguez in the cast.

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2008 brings new offices, new jobs and new faces. We've settled in at our new spot in Marina del Rey, radically increasing our size and scope. If you happen to be in the area, stop by -- we boast a nice retro/Art Deco Cuban flair and some really great artwork from the Caribbean. Not to mention a lounge area for our newest directors, whose names and bios will appear on our updated website shortly. Work-wise, we're just returning from the Havana Film Festival and enjoying the New Year glow. We've wrapped a fun spot with Simón Bross that, contractually, we can't mention yet -- except to say that it involves a burger and a red wig with braids (assume what you may). We've also done a Toyota spot with the same director but an entirely different artistic bent, shooting in L.A. and learning the exact location of every hill and incline in a 200-mile radius of the city. Finally, our Mexican director Fernando Arrioja airs an AT&T series this month that was shot jointly between Miami and Mexico City.

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