Visual effects boutique Mr. Wolf, based in Culver City, Calif., has opened a studio in NYC under the aegis of creative director John Ciampa. The new operation, located within the postproduction facility Post FactoryNY, will provide visual effects and finishing services for features, television, broadcast media, advertising and other projects. Mr. Wolf is known for its work on features American Hustle, Hercules, The Brother’s Grimsby and Allegiant. Its New York operation has already completed work for MTV’s Teen Wolf, SPIKE’s Adam Carolla and Friends Build Stuff, and VH-1’s America’s Next Top Model and Leave It to Stevie.
Like the company’s Culver City operation, the new site features a flexible IT infrastructure that enables it to quickly scale up or adapt its workflow to meet the needs of assignments of varying size and needs. In addition to tackling New York-based projects, it will provide supplementary support to the team in California.
“We’re extending the model that has worked so well on the West Coast,” said EP Mike Pryor who launched Mr. Wolf in 2014 with creative directors Danny Yoon and Duy Nguyen. “It’s creative solutions through unparalleled client service.” Pryor added that the two offices share a data link that allows them to collaborate. Both sides have already teamed up on projects for the television series Channel Zero (SyFy), The Goldbergs (ABC), Kevin Can Wait (CBS), and The OA (Netflix) as well as the Peter Berg- directed Patriot’s Day. They are currently in production on Nicole Holofcener’s Land of Steady Habits which recently finished shooting.
Ciampa worked as a New York-based independent for the past nine years, most recently focusing on broadcast media for VH-1, MTV and other Viacom channels. Previously, he spent 11 years in Los Angeles, where he held staff posts with View Studios, Pittard Sullivan, and Ring of Fire. A talented compositor, visual effects artist and creative director, he has worked across features, television, broadcast and commercials.
Ciampa said he views his arrival at Mr. Wolf as a reunion as he previously worked with Pryor, Yoon and Nguyen at Ring of Fire. “It’s been 25 years of amazing opportunities, including commercials, movies, graphics and TV,” he noted. “Mostly I’m grateful for the people and collaborations. And now I feel inspired and energized to be working with Danny, Duy and Mike again.”
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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