ENTERTAINMENT

2006 Bumper Year for Movies with Stunning VFX: Visual effects made a giant leap to the forefront of moviemaking this year as a record number of directors made movies that relied heavily on effects to bring the story alive. BOXX Technologies, an innovator in high-performance computing systems designed for visual effects and design professionals, played a significant behind-the- scenes role in creating several award-winning films with pivotal visual effects. This year alone, BOXX workstations and renderBOXX image rendering nodes were used to digitally create and enhance everything from a mythical land of fairies and magical creatures in "Pan's Labyrinth", to cool gadgets and invisible cars in "Casino Royale", to dancing penguins in "Happy Feet". "We like to view BOXX as a wizard behind the curtain for movies, television shows, and commercials that require sophisticated visual effects," said Francois Wolf, director of marketing for BOXX Technologies. "BOXX provides the powerful multi-processor platforms with large memory capacities that enable visual effects professionals to create stunning images through stable and efficient production pipelines." For years, BOXX Technologies' 3DBOXX and APEXX Workstations have fueled the magic behind movies ranging from "Harry Potter" to "Star Wars Episode 3", to the current Box office hit, "GhostRider". "Using Boxx's 3DBOXX workstations, we were able to manage the complexity of the simulation needed to visualize "Ghost Rider's" detailed effects, without sacrificing the quality of the image," said John F.K. Parenteau, visual effects supervisor, CafeFX. One of the most highly acclaimed film's of this year was "Pan's Labyrinth", a movie about a lonely little girl named Ofelia who creates an imaginary world of mystical creatures in order to escape the harsh realities of her life. Long time BOXX customer CafeFX produced the critically acclaimed "magic realism" of "Pan's Labyrinth" on 3DBOXX 7500 Series workstations and renderBOXX 7500 render nodes: "The workflow we achieved when compositing with Digital Fusion on BOXX Technologies' 3DBOXX is unparalleled," said Jack Wells, senior network systems engineer. Other films using BOXX Workstations and renderBOXX recognized by the film industry for outstanding special effects this year include: * Happy Feet - This film graded by Animal Logic on Digital Vision's Nucoda Film Master DI system running on APEXX 8 won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film, a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award and a Golden Globe award for Best Animated Feature Film. The film was also nominated for a Visual Effects Society (VES) award for Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Motion Picture. * Casino Royale - The Moving Picture Company used a 3DBOXX 7500 for this film that won a VES award for Outstanding Special Effects in a Motion Picture and was nominated for a BAFTA award in Special Visual Effects * Poseidon - Moving Picture Company's VFX Supervisor Chas Jarrett used a 3DBOXX 7500 to create the visual effects in this film, which was nominated for an ACADEMY AWARD for Achievement in VFX and a VES award for Best Single Visual Effect of the year. * X-Men - Moving Picture Company, using a high performance BOXX workstation created X-Men-The Last Stand - Phoenix Air Force Sequence, also a VES nominee for Best Single Visual of the Year.