This was the first time on the diamond for most including Sean Costelloe, Head of Production, who threatened to break out his cricket bat and really show how to swing!

Baseball isn't just for the boys. Girls just wanna have fun too, even in heels.

But the real heavy hitters were Adam Isidore, EP of Brand, who brought his own bats.....

And Jared Yeater, Deputy Head of Production and MVP, who knocked it out of the park in the professional cage.

No matter the level of ability, a good time was had by all and a new Mill tradition is born!

We are really looking forward to this year's FMX Stuttgart. It is the 3rd year in a row for us now and the 2012 FMX conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Transmedia is set to be a marvellous week for looking at creativity in the digital industry.

If you are attending FMX this year why not drop in on us? We have a stand in the recruitment area, Booth 4 and we'll be there all day Wednesday 9th May. We are really keen to talk to any TDs or Animators that are interested in an internship in our London, NY and LA studios.

As well as looking forward to meeting and chatting to everyone, we'd love you to come and listen to some of our Millers talk.  We have Claire Anderson our Talent Manager  and Alex Fitzgerald a VFX Producer  talking about all things recruitment on Wednesday 9th May at 10:00am. Murray Barber, VFX Supervisor is primed and ready to chat about film quality VFX on a TV budget on Wednesday 9th May at 12:00pm. Jan Walter our principle R&D engineer will be comparing global illumination (GI) renderers on Thursday 10th May at 11:00am and finally, our commercial team's Rob Holmes, Joint Deputy of 3D, will be dispelling Fact vs. Fiction and the challenges our commercial artists face every day on Friday 11th May at 4pm.

So, tickets done, bags packed, you know where to find us, please do pop by and say hello, otherwise we will see you at the party on Wednesday evening!

This month's theme is FOUND OBJECTS, this can be anything you've stumbled across or found, from a stray newspaper left on the train you spot on your way in to the office, a lonely hat or glove poking up from a railing as you walk by, or a lost toy or child's shoe that's fallen out of a buggy.... whatever you like.

So getting snapping and every month we'll select some to highlight on the blog.

For "Nasty Girl", Vincent and Mill colorist, Sal Malfitano first agreed they would set looks to differentiate the real world street footage from the colorful and slightly dreamlike dance footage. The street footage was kept neutral to cool, overall natural and a bit gritty. The dance/dream footage was all about bold colors, rich skin tones, deep blacks and glowing highlights. A lot of softened highlight streaking - sometimes vertical, sometimes horizontal was added to enhance the look but the most important thing was to keep the effect off of Jocelyn Saldana's face as much as possible.

The biggest challenge of this project was to find a balance between enhancing the dream sequences and preserving as much detail as possible. Flame Artist, Roz Paradis achieved this through defocused vignettes and subtle chroma separation.  

With Vincent's great eye for composition and color and the Mill's Creative vision, this homage is just as "nasty" as the original. As children of the 80s, it was fun to help Vincent reinterpret a catchy classic.

Director: Vincent Skeltis
Editor: Colin Patton
Colorist: Sal Malfitano (The Mill)
Flame: Rosalind Paradis (The Mill)
Titles: Mikey 907

Special Thanks to NY Millers: Lily Tilton and Claudia Guevara

They'll be revealing industry secrets behind the professional shots, demonstrated in their latest student VFX reels and giving tips on making sure your showreel stands out from the crowd.

A great opportunity to learn from the pros and not to be missed!

Check out VFX showreel of Escape alumni, Lammie Veracruz, put together in under 12 weeks!

Production Company: Variable - WeAreVariable.com
Creative: Variable
Post Production/Editorial: The Mill - TheMill.com

Directors/Cinematographers: Jonathan Bregel & Khalid Mohtaseb @ Variable
Executive Producers: John Rule & Mike Sutton (@MNS1974)
Producer: Tyler Ginter @ Variable
Line Producer: Viraj Velinker
Phantom Tech: Nick Midwig

The Mill: New York City
Post Production Producers: Dee Allen & Alex Maxwell
Editor: Ryan McKenna
Colourist: Sal Malfitano

Original Score/Sound Design: Salomon Ligthelm - ligthelm.tv

Team 'The Vogon Poets', which includes William McGregor as director, Ben Burdock as producer and Adriane Scott-Kemp as VFX producer had no idea on Friday night what exactly the film they were about to make would be about. Then on Saturday morning at 10 am they received the title, a key prop and a line of dialogue, all of which had to be included within the film. They were taking part in the Sci-Fi London 48 Hour Film Challenge 2012. And we had a very tired looking Martin Karlsson, Mike Chapman, Adam Brandon and Emily Greeley here on Monday morning after pulling an all nighter to get it finished……..plus beautiful work by Adam Etherington DoP and Katie MacGregor on production design!

So what kind of a film can you make in 48 hours? Take a look at their entry 'Eradicate' and good luck to 'The Vogon Poets'!

CAST
LUKE NEWBERRY
EDDIE WEBBER
JOHNNY PALMIERO
RACHEL BRIGHT

DIRECTOR
WILLIAM MCGREGOR

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER/WRITER
TOM NASH

PRODUCER
BEN BURDOCK

EDITOR
IAIN WHITEWRIGHT

1ST ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
MARK LACEY

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
LUKE DOUGLAS

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
ADAM ETHERINGTON

FOCUS PULLER
ED BOWEN-CARPENTER

CLAPPER/LOADER
JOSEPHINE THIME

GAFFER
NICK BUDDING

ART DIRECTOR
KATIE MACGREGOR

ART DIRECTOR'S ASSISTANT
SAMANTHA SHELDRAKE

WARDROBE STYLIST
YANIKA WATERS

WARDROBE STYLIST
CHARLOTTE LUCAS

MAKE UP ARTIST
ZOE MOORE

DIT
EMILY GREELEY

COLOURIST
ADAM ETHERINGTON

SOUND RECORDIST
TOM WHETMORE

BOOM OPERATOR
SCOTT YOULDEN

RUNNERS
MICKEY ODONOGHUE
JAMES QUINN

STILLS PHOTOGRAPHER
MATT DADSON

VFX PRODUCER
ADRIANE SCOTT-KEMP

2D VFX LEAD
MARTIN KARLSSON

ON SET VFX SUPERVISOR
MIKE CHAPMAN

2D ARTISTS
PATRICK ALTMAIER
MIKE CHAPPMAN
EMILY GREELEY
KARL VAGLAND

ROTO/CLEAN UP ASSISTANT
DOUGLAS HAYNES

TITLE ARTIST & DESIGNER
ADAM BRANDON

MUSIC SUPERVISOR
AIDAN F. SHAW

SOUND DESIGNER
TRISTAN POWELL

Our other latest intern Cat is starting today. Take a butchers at her stuff below, where, as SFX & Miniatures Supervisor for 'Skyborn' she created "A world of smoke", fire, flaming torches, cloudscape and a miniature flying machine.

Life Drawing is back! Some amazing work was produced last time so why not do more. Need some inspiration? Look at some of the drawings our own Millers have created.

To round things off, we have a brand new Mill Talent twitter account. We have been tweeting our heart out so starting following if you want to know about jobs, news, events.

Sneak peek into next week's blog; The Mill travelling to FMX in Stuttgart and an update on our short film competition.

Check out sauve 2D

and the very dapper 3D!