Industry vet will continue as EP of his boutique studio Big Spoon Industries
Filmworkers has reached an agreement with veteran colorist Craig Leffel to represent him for color correction projects in the Midwest. Leffel will continue to serve as executive producer of Big Spoon Industries, the creative production studio he formed last fall, while handling color correction assignments through Filmworkers.
Leffel has been a colorist in Chicago for more than 20 years. He has worked with all of the city’s top advertising agencies for accounts including Coors Lite, American Family Insurance, Kraft, Coca-Cola, the Illinois Board of Tourism, and the Chicago Blackhawks.
“Craig is a longtime friend and a pillar of the Chicago advertising community,” said Filmworkers president Reid Brody.
Leffel’s background includes a 15-year run as senior colorist at Optimus and three years as director of production of its production arm, ONE at Optimus. He also was a partner in the company. He left Optimus last fall to launch Big Spoon Industries, a collective of directors, artists and designers focused on producing work directly for brands, digital agencies, marketing firms and others.
Leffel said that his agreement with Filmworkers allows him to continue to pursue his passion for production and storytelling, while meeting demand for his skill as a colorist. “It’s a great opportunity,” he observed. “I’ve had a long relationship with Reid, and we share a similar respect for color correction. I like the people at Filmworkers and the support they give to their artists. They are a perfect ally.”
“Color correction, for me, is a very iterative process,” he said. “It’s about interpreting the thinking of the creative team and interpreting what was captured on the set, and turning it into something people want to see on screen. In the best scenario, it goes beyond what anyone hoped or imagined.”
Leffel complements a talent staff at Filmworkers that includes senior colorists Michael Mazur and Fred Keller, and colorists Matt Harger and Jeff Altman.
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
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