First, we are in Cannes this week--so if you spot us sporting our double-headed logo somewhere around town, feel free to say "bonjour."

Second, it is our pleasure to post some impressive artwork from our equally impressive writer Sierra Hall (drawing courtesy of IDW artist Casey Maloney).

Her feature film script "The Naked Eye" is a modern, noir-ish drama about a pair of doomed lovers. Chloe's a young woman escaping her past by hiding in the big city; he's the scientist who falls in love with her--but only after he has turned her invisible, and by then it's too late. Except it's not the invisibility that tears them apart... it's the secret she's hiding.

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Congratulations are in order for our director Nelson Cabrera, who has a stunning ten spots running during the World Cup. If you tune in to a match and see any of his AT&T, Best Buy or Ford work, let out a yell with something other than a vuvuzela.

We also offer some applause for Ricardo de Montreuil, who directed a special effects-driven short called "The Raven." It is floating around the Interwebs in several dozen places, but we particularly like the HD version:

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Revit Hatch Patterns (Hatch Kit)

Firstly apologies for my slackness in regular posts...

This question has come up a lot, and its how do I make custom hatch patterns for Revit?

Typically I'll recommend using Cadro's Hatchkit.

However, I recommend a different workflow to using hatchkit directly as the editor. I like to use the import DXF feature.

1. Begin by starting up Revit.
2. Start a new project.
3. Start a drafting view, set the scale to 1:1 for a drafting pattern or 1:100 or similar for a model pattern.
4. Now using solid detail lines draw the pattern you'd like to create at the scale you require it. In my example I'm trying to create a water surface pattern (some waves).

5. Next we need to outline a box/tile that if repeated would create a clean pattern and break our linework here.
   
6. Then delete the excess linework. (leave the box there as this helps to define the size of the tile)
   
7. Export to 2004 DXF format.
8. Start HatchKit
9. Go to File-->Import (change files of type to DXF entities) Find you file and import
   
10. Now we just need to delete the box that we drew. Select each of them by clicking on the white box and delete. You actually end up deleting 6 lines...
    
11. Finally add a name/description/comment then save as a Revit Model or Drafting pattern as required.
12. Its now ready to be imported and used in Revit!

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Wow, what a Spring! We really hit the pavement over the last month, shooting projects and chasing film premieres in Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, Hawaii, Atlanta and Dallas. We are happy to report that we returned from Uruguay with a newfound appreciation for filmmakers there (like our own Fede Alvarez) and for the country as a whole.

Closer to home in Santa Monica, we also moderated a workshop at the National Association of Latino Independent Producers' conference entitled "The Secret to Making 30-Second Feature Films: Commercial Production for Fun, Experience and (Mostly) Profit."

We give a big tip of the hat to our director Cole Webley, since he is a finalist for Boards Magazine's Eleventh Annual First Boards Awards. Boards doesn't mention that he's a red-headed fluent Spanish-speaker (by way of the Dominican Republic), but we will.

On the Storytelling side we welcome the very talented and brilliant writer Sierra Hall to our team, and give a kudos and lots of love to writer/directors Aaron Burns (of the upcoming film "Blacktino," to be produced by Elizabeth Avellán and shot in Texas) and Carlos Rincones (of the upcoming film "Malaventura," currently casting in Mexico).

Finally, we welcome Uruguayan director Guillermo Carbonell to our team. If you happen to read Spanish you can learn more about him in this interview here, and if you don't -- well, you're just going to have to trust us when we tell you that he has worked all over South America and Mexico and we are excited to add someone as talented as he is to our roster.

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Greetings to anyone visiting us from SourceEcreative; their special edition on Latin American production this month prominently features The Cortez Brothers, and we think that's pretty cool. Also, kudos to our director Nelson Cabrera, since he just won five Addys--two of them for "Reunion," the Latin-flavored AT&T spot we shot with the awesome team at Bravo. Cole Webley, our favorite redheaded Spanish speaker, has been chosen as a finalist for the 11th Annual First Boards Awards. Meanwhile, the Storytelling Department lent a hand to three feature film scripts and one documentary proposal over the last few weeks. We specialize in helping producers, directors and writers in the advertising industry turn their ideas into Hollywood-worthy final products (although we do a lot of work with civilian folks, too). Two of the seedling projects we nurtured into full-fledged scripts last year are set to shoot by the end of summer, so we're quite excited about that. Finally, if you haven't checked out our YouTube site we suggest you stop by and say "hi." Of course, you can do that in person if you're in the Marina del Rey area, too...

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January and February have been busy for us, shooting spots (amongst others) for some deliciously cold beer and hot-hot-hot phone packages in Mexico and the US. We've added another team member and some extra Cuban flavor to the office with the arrival of René Delgado, who'll be assisting our EP Ed Rivero. Also, "Sin Ella" will be screening at the Dallas Film Festival in April, with other screenings to be announced in coming months.

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