R!OT has brought on board a pair of visual effects supervisors who have extensive TV spot experience. Cris Blyth, a former effects supervisor at Digital Domain, Venice, Calif., assumes the role of creative director at R!OT, working out of the company’s Santa Monica facility. He will be available for work as an effects supervisor.
Meanwhile, Toby Brockhurst, who has held senior effects posts with Moving Picture Company in London, A52 in West Hollywood and Sight Effects in Venice, becomes visual effects supervisor/senior artist at R!OT Manhattan. He had most recently been working as a freelancer for effects houses in the U.S. and in Europe.
The hires are in line with R!OT’s initiative to diversify beyond its core traditional post business and serve as a more active player in the conceptualization, design and production of effects-driven media, particularly commercials. R!OT has also been looking to encourage increased collaboration between and among its studios in Santa Monica, New York and Atlanta in order to better leverage its combined talent and resources.
On the latter score, R!OT’s Manhattan and Santa Monica shops recently teamed on a three-spot package for Cotton out of DDB New York (via bicoastal editorial house Cosmo Street).
Blyth joined Digital Domain in ’99 as a digital artist and later moved up to CG supervisor and then to visual effects supervisor. His credits include campaigns for American Express, Gatorade, Autotrader and Disney. He also worked on several feature films such as Daredevil, Adaptation, We Were Soldiers and Stormrider.
Brockhurst has been freelancing for the past four years, drawing ad assignments from visual effects studios stateside and abroad, including The Mill, Play and Glassworks in London, Digital Domain and Asylum in Southern California, and Das Werk in Germany. Among his credits is Land Rover’s “Gourd,” a Bronze Lion winner at Cannes.
Brockhurst began his career with VTR, London. He then relocated to the U.S. in ’96, joining Sight Effects, and then CFC, Culver City. Brockhurst returned to London in ’98, joining Moving Picture Company as senior Inferno artist. Beyond the spot arena, he worked on director Nick Park’s animated short Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave, which went on to win an Oscar in ’96.
Alec Baldwin Urges Judge To Stand By Dismissal Of Involuntary Manslaughter Case In “Rust” Shooting
Alec Baldwin urged a New Mexico judge on Friday to stand by her decision to skuttle his trial and dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against the actor in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of a Western movie.
State District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case against Baldwin halfway through a trial in July based on the withholding of evidence by police and prosecutors from the defense in the 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film "Rust."
The charge against Baldwin was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it can't be revived once any appeals of the decision are exhausted.
Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey recently asked the judge to reconsider, arguing that there were insufficient facts and that Baldwin's due process rights had not been violated.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer on "Rust," was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal when it went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer — but not the trigger — and the revolver fired.
The case-ending evidence was ammunition that was brought into the sheriff's office in March by a man who said it could be related to Hutchins' killing. Prosecutors said they deemed the ammunition unrelated and unimportant, while Baldwin's lawyers alleged that they "buried" it and filed a successful motion to dismiss the case.
In her decision to dismiss the Baldwin case, Marlowe Sommer described "egregious discovery violations constituting misconduct" by law enforcement and prosecutors, as well as false testimony about physical evidence by a witness during the trial.
Defense counsel says that prosecutors tried to establish a link... Read More