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    Sarita d’Avignon named EP of Significant Others

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments1827 Views
    LOS ANGELES --

    Significant Others, Final Cut’s boutique sister company specializing in visual effects and finishing, has appointed Sarita d’Avignon as executive producer based out of its Los Angeles office, in charge of operations and new business.

    A native of Northern California, d’Avignon spent nearly a decade as a feature film manager for Pixar, working with Academy Award-winning directors John Lasseter, Pete Docter and Brad Bird, managing teams of artists from initial storyboarding through editorial on movies like Ratatouille, Inside Out and the upcoming Toy Story 4 as well as Pixar’s first television special.

    But her experience is not limited to animation. Upon moving to L.A., she honed her skills for live action effects at Digital Domain, where she managed animation and motion capture on David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which earned the team an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. From there, she accepted a position as EP for VFX and finishing at Company 3, before finally landing at Significant Others.

    “Sarita has a gift for bringing people together. Clients and team members alike are inspired by her passion for and knowledge of the craft” said Stephanie Apt, president of Final Cut and Significant Others. 

    Added d’Avignon, “I can’t wait to collaborate with Dirk (Greene, Significant Others’ creative director/lead VFX artist) and his team to create bespoke visual effects alongside Final Cut’s world-class editors.”




    Does “Hundreds of Beavers” Reflect A New Path Forward In Cinema?

    Monday, November 25, 2024

    Hard as it may be to believe, changing the future of cinema was not on Mike Cheslik's mind when he was making "Hundreds of Beavers." Cheslik was in the Northwoods of Wisconsin with a crew of four, sometimes six, standing in snow and making his friend, Ryland Tews, fall down funny.

    "When we were shooting, I kept thinking: It would be so stupid if this got mythologized," says Cheslik.

    And yet, "Hundreds of Beavers" has accrued the stuff of, if not quite myth, then certainly lo-fi legend. Cheslik's film, made for just $150,000 and self-distributed in theaters, has managed to gnaw its way into a movie culture largely dominated by big-budget sequels.

    "Hundreds of Beavers" is a wordless black-and-white bonanza of slapstick antics about a stranded 19th century applejack salesman (Tews) at war with a bevy of beavers, all of whom are played by actors in mascot costumes.

    No one would call "Hundreds of Beavers" expensive looking, but it's far more inventive than much of what Hollywood produces. With some 1,500 effects shots Cheslik slaved over on his home computer, he crafted something like the human version of Donald Duck's snowball fight, and a low-budget heir to the waning tradition of Buster Keaton and "Naked Gun."

    At a time when independent filmmaking is more challenged than ever, "Hundreds of Beavers" has, maybe, suggested a new path forward, albeit a particularly beaver-festooned path.

    After no major distributor stepped forward, the filmmakers opted to launch the movie themselves, beginning with carnivalesque roadshow screenings. Since opening in January, "Hundreds of Beavers" has played in at least one theater every week of the year, though never more than 33 at once. (Blockbusters typically play in around 4,000 locations.)... Read More

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