New York-based Mechanism Digital Effects has added Abby Okin to its staff as executive producer. He began his career at H. Aoki Studio, an effects/motion control/model shop in New York. Okin then entered the digital arena as an effects producer at Image Design, New York, and later joined the staff of now defunct Cyclotron as head of production/executive producer. Mechanism Digital Effects produces animation, graphics and visual effects for commercial and broadcast clients….VT2 Media Design & Communications, Houston, has added Charlie Wan and Jacqueline Tieu to its staff. Both had been the founders of Suka Inc., an Austin, Texas-based design company. Wan will serve as creative director of VT2, while Tieu has been named creative director of VT2’s Digital Media division….Digital artist/designer Nico Puertollano has joined the staff of Rhinoceros Visual Effects and Design. He had worked freelance for the New York-headquartered facility over the past two years. Puertollano’s credits include spots for Empire Blue Cross, Phoenix Mutual, Arby’s and Ben Gay, as well as projects for Sony, USA Networks and Samsung….Kodak has unveiled VISION2 500T Color Negative Film 5218/7218, the first in a new family of color motion picture films that the company claims offers superior image structure, more highlight and shadow detail, improved color and skin tone reproduction, less grain, clean telecine transfers, seamless special effects and more flexibility in both film and digital postproduction. VISION2 500T is available in 16mm, 35mm and 65mm formats….
SUPERLATIVE Signs Director Claudia Abend For Spots and Branded Content
Latin American director/editor and documentary filmmaker Claudia Abend has joined SUPERLATIVE for her first U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content.
Abend's empathetic docu-style POV has garnered several international awards for the documentary films Hit (2008) and The Flower of Life (2018). Her spotmaking credits include such brands as Procter & Gamble, Nestle and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. SUPERLATIVE has already worked with Abend, together producing a new ad campaign for digital agency Tinuiti and The Honest Company, a consumer goods corporation featuring eco-minded products.
“We found Claudia through her poignant documentaries on the festival circuit,” said SUPERLATIVE creative manager Stefan Dezil. “We are excited about her textured narratives, emotional storytelling, and her powerhouse long-form storytelling abilities, currently on her third feature film. As SUPERLATIVE continues to build our brand after premiering our latest films at Sundance and SXSW, Claudia is the kind of multidimensional artist we are excited to partner with on branded content and beyond. Fluent in English and Spanish, her reel shows real prowess with infants, food and skin products, families both young and old. Great visual storytelling and inspirational doc work.”
Abend began her career in her native Uruguay, studying film and editing in college. “My dad would show me films like Citizen Kane,” she said. “I love cinema and became an editor. It was here that I learned all about communicating human emotion.”
From the get-go, Abend hit it big as a documentary director, teaming with Adrianna Loeff on Hit, a movie chronicling pop artists of Uruguayan music. Abend took home a Best Editing... Read More