Digital Media FX News Archives

Thursday - September 13, 2001
- Note From Digital Media FX
- Sony Pictures Removes Spider-Man Trailer
- Open Letter From NewTek CEO
- News Link of the Day - Meet 'Chyna' - Beijing's Answer to Lara Croft

Note From Digital Media FX
Today regular Digital Media FX updates will continue even amongst heavy hearts and great sadness over the mass loss of life from the mindless terrorist attacks against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001 - another day that will live in Infamy.

The attack on Tuesday was not just against the United States, but against the world. This is why several countries, like Russia and China, have banded together with the U.S. in a commitment to find those responsible to stop such atrocities from happening again in the U.S. or other countries.

I would like to thank the regular Digital Media FX readers who discussed this issue in the dFX Forums. The comments show what a concerned, helpful, and united community has formed amongst dFX readers and reflects feelings everywhere.

What has been an encouragement to me is the outpouring of support from all over the world. On Tuesday, a friend of mine in New Zealand went with a friend to place a collection of flowers at the U.S. Embassy in New Zealand. When they arrived, the embassy was already laden with flowers from people who took time out of their day to simply say, "we care and we are thinking about the victims."

It's nice to see that the terrorist attack against the United States has served to unite rather than divide people from around the world. In a time of tragedy a wealth of goodness seems to come from so many.

None of us will ever forget September 11, 2001. And none of us will ever forget the outpouring of love, prayers, and caring that came as a result.

Joe Tracy
Digital Media FX

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Sony Pictures Removes Spider-Man Trailer From Theaters and Web
(by digitalmediafx.com) Sony Pictures has removed a theatrical movie trailer for Spiderman from theaters and the Internet because the trailer depicts a scene involving the World Trade Center towers. In the scene, a helicopter of escaping bandits gets stuck in a Web spun by Spiderman between the two World Trade Center towers.

The teaser was created for the trailer and does not appear in the actual movie, therefore the movie will not have to be edited and production on Spiderman won't be interrupted. The movie is still on schedule for a May 3, 2002 debut.

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Open Letter From NewTek CEO
(by digitalmediafx.com) Jim Plant, CEO of NewTek, has released an open letter to the company's users (Video Toaster, LightWave 3D, etc.) regarding Tuesday's terrorist attacks and how NewTek is handling the news. Here is the letter in its entirety:

September 12, 2001
To our customers, suppliers and friends,

Yesterday, September 11, 2001, the United States was rocked by what many are calling the world's worst terrorist attack ever. Like those of us here at NewTek, you have all watched the terrible images on television, and have had to deal with a wide variety of emotions incuding disbelief, confusion, grief, helplessness, fear and anger. Today our hearts are no less broken as we mourn for those who perished and pray for those who are still fighting for their lives. We also feel an enormous sense of gratitude towards the rescue forces and other groups and individuals who are still risking their own lives to save others.

Terrorists plan these types of attacks with two primary goals in mind. Their first aim is to inflict the most possible damage and cause the greatest loss of life, resulting in immediate chaos, confusion and terror. In this, yesterday's attackers succeeded. There is no question that, yesterday, we took a direct hit. But, this has happened to us before and we have never failed to pick up ourselves up out of the dirt and come up swinging.

The second, and even more important, goal of a terrorist attack is to create a lasting feeling of insecurity and fear; to paralyze us as individuals and as a nation. They would love nothing more than to destabilize us and permanently change our way of life and the way we feel about ourselves. This we cannot allow to happen.

Yesterday events proved that we cannot always control the things that happen to us. Life is like that. What we CAN control, however, is the way we react to the external forces to which we are subject. We choose our attitude and our actions. In this I believe we will always frustrate those who would like to see us suffer.

Today we will begin turning these thoughts into action and begin picking up the pieces of our lives and putting them back together. While we can never forget what happened on September 11, 2001, we can begin to put some distance between us and those horrible memories. One of the ways we can do this is by helping you do the same. I have asked the management and staff at NewTek if they will put aside their grief and focus on serving you, the NewTek community, and they have responded with a resounding "Yes!" Today we are fully staffed and open for business as usual. Our tech support and telephone lines are open. Our shipping department is open (although transportation will obviously continue to be problematic for the forseeable future.) We even have a couple of dealers who somehow managed to make it to San Antonio and, even as I write this, are undergoing LightWave [7] and Video Toaster [2] training. NewTek is fully operational.

Undoubtedly, we will suffer some unavoidable inconveniences as a result of yesterday's heinous attack, but we will fight hard to minimize them and continue our great society and our way of life...because that is the kind of people we are.

Jim Plant
President & Chief Executive Officer
NewTek, Inc.

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News Link of the Day - Meet 'Chyna' - Beijing's Answer to Lara Croft

According to the New York Times:

"She is 17 or 18 years old, 5 feet, 7 inches tall with an Asian face and the figure of a Scandinavian swimwear model.

She's 'Chyna' -- the Middle Kingdom's answer to voluptuous virtual action queen Lara Croft..."

Click here for the full story. (may require free registration to read)

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