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Avid celebrates ‘The Great Gatsby’ at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival
MUMBAI: Editors Jason Ballantine and Matt Villa used Avid Media Composer to cut Cannes Film Festival opener ‘The Great Gatsby‘ in 3D.
The 2013 Cannes Film Festival, which runs till 26 May, opened with the latest adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, The Great Gatsby directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Amitabh Bachchan. With careers spanning over 20 years, Ballantine and Villa are long-time Media Composer users and have worked on major projects including Bax Luhrmann‘s previous films ‘Moulin Rouge‘ and ‘Australia‘. Ballantine is currently using Media Composer on his next project, ‘Mad Max: Fury Road‘ and Villa is using it to cut ‘Predestination‘.
Ballantine said, “Every film throws a new set of creative and technical challenges for post-production that must be overcome. With so many variations in workflows to navigate, it‘s incredibly reassuring that there is no decision to be made with the offline cutting system – it‘s always Media Composer, that‘s a given. The reliability and functionality of the entire Avid product range is second to none.”
Media Composer empowers professionals to edit movies with 64-bit performance and provides easy-to-use video editing tools, and streamlined HD, file-based, and stereo 3D workflows.
Villa said, “During the shoot we had an editing station permanently on location and during post we had two fully operational cutting rooms running concurrently and in perfect sync; one in Sydney and one in LA. We called upon many tools from the Avid family to deal with the 3D material and they never faltered. Productions of this scale can be unrestrained and unpredictable, but Avid never fails in being stable yet flexible enough to get these jobs done.”
Avid VP worldwide marketing W. Sean Ford said, “Jason and Matt have done outstanding work on The Great Gatsby. Their achievement is a great example of why we are so committed to providing editors with the technology that lets them push the limits of what is technically possible– from syncing workflows across many locations, to working with 3D material. The Great Gatsby is a perfect example of what can result when professionals have the tools they need to turn their creative visions into reality.”
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
