Movies
Art meets tech in the Media.Monks open house as they successfully decode virtual production
Mumbai: Media.Monks India, global creative and tech production company, has successfully hosted the first-of-its-kind virtual production open house in collaboration with Unreal Engine and ARK Solutions NCAM. The full day event was held in their Noida studio, bringing together filmmakers to explore virtual production and its potential to change the landscape of Indian cinema. With multiple virtual production films under their belt, MM took the audience through their approaches, and their learnings from these experiences – breaking down each scene from virtual assets to physical sets and premiered a live demo of multiple scenes from a recently shot film, highlighting their impressive capabilities.
Virtual Production merges live-action footage with computer-generated imagery (CGI) in real-time, offering filmmakers unprecedented creative control over their films. By reducing post-production time and costs, it’s a popular choice worldwide.
Over 100 filmmakers from major production houses and independent filmmakers from Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad attended the hands-on event, which showcased the latest virtual production innovations. It was an opportunity to test and understand the magic behind virtual production and interact with the team and tech.
Adding to this MM’s CCO- art & tech, John Paite says, “We’re very excited by the overwhelming support and interest shown by some of the most celebrated and established filmmakers in the country. The film industry is highly competitive so it was an extremely refreshing and unique experience to be able to interact and work together on something that has the potential to change our industry for the better.”
MD Robert Godinho further added, “ The event was well accepted and we saw a lot of potential collaborations and learning emerge from it. In line with the Media.Monks vision we intend to do more such open houses across the country, sharing our learnings on Art-Tech developments and of course learning a lot on the way from industry specialists. The goal would be to have a platform for artists to collaborate and further build our vision of an artist first community.”
The event had Whistling Woods, one of Asia’s premier film, communication and creative arts institute CTO – Chaitanya Chinchlikar, as their guest speaker who spoke about the VP industry globally and how VP is the need of the hour.
The virtual production open house was evidence that collaboration between different skill sets is not only possible but preferable for creating groundbreaking work. SVP Growth – the curator of this event – Gayatri Sethi mentioned, “Great work is inevitable when great minds come together. With Media.Monks India’s passion for creative collaboration, India’s most creative minds now have access to the latest filmmaking innovations and experts to take their vision to the next level. The only limitation now is their imagination.”
Hollywood
Paramount Skydance secures financing for Warner Bros Discovery deal
Debt syndication and new loans push $111 billion merger closer to close
WASHINGTON: Paramount Skydance has taken a major step towards its planned acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, securing fresh financing and completing the syndication of its bridge loan facility.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company confirmed that the bridge facility has now been distributed among a group of 18 banks, reducing total commitments to $49 billion from an earlier $54 billion. The move spreads risk across lenders and signals growing confidence in one of the year’s largest media deals.
Alongside this, the company has finalised permanent financing arrangements, including $5 billion in senior term loans and a $5 billion revolving credit facility. A previously planned $3.5 billion credit line has been dropped as part of the restructuring.
The loans are secured against key assets, including Paramount Global, Skydance Media and Warner Bros post-merger, underlining the scale and complexity of the transaction.
The financing push follows a competitive bidding process earlier this year, which saw interest from players such as Netflix before Paramount Skydance emerged as the frontrunner. The deal, valued at $111 billion, is expected to close in the third quarter, subject to regulatory approvals.
Adding to the momentum, the company has also secured significant equity backing, including investments from Middle Eastern funds, with support from billionaire Larry Ellison, who has guaranteed the equity portion of the transaction.
Commenting on the development, Paramount Skydance chief strategy officer Andy Gordon said, “Our successful debt syndication and new debt facilities represent another important milestone towards the completion of our acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery.”
Once completed, the combined entity is expected to carry net debt of just under $80 billion, reflecting the sheer scale of the merger.
As Hollywood continues to consolidate in the streaming era, this deal could reshape the competitive landscape, with Paramount Skydance betting big on scale, content and financial muscle to take on global rivals.
