Lumberyard Productions, the in-house production unit of independent agency Venables Bell + Partners, has hired Veronica Seder as creative production lead. In this role, Seder will partner with head of integrated content studios Raquel Bedard and creative director Tyler Hampton to enhance Lumberyard’s production capabilities, spearhead creative efforts, and drive new business opportunities. Seder will also be instrumental in leading production assignments for clients including Audi, Chipotle, 3M, Reebok, LitQuake and AdTechCares. Seder joins the team as Lumberyard has taken on several new projects with both VB+P and non-agency clients, and expanded its capabilities to include music composition and sound design.
“We’re extremely fortunate to have grown our business and expanded our offering in a year that has been so challenging for the industry as a whole,” said Bedard. “We’ve taken on a range of new assignments with marketers of all sizes looking for agile production solutions that meet their current business needs, fulfill health safety requirements, and deliver exceptional creative products. Veronica has an amazing mix of both business and creative expertise, and she is sure to help us build continued momentum and create great work ahead.”
Seder brings a broad range of skills and experience to her new post, spanning brand and creative development, production, and directing. Before joining Lumberyard, she worked independently, creating, producing and directing a wide range of content for brands including Outside Magazine, Google, Merrell, Shopify and Land Rover. She also worked client-side, as head of content, brand marketing for direct-to-consumer apparel and home goods company Huckberry where she led the company’s creative content team, produced marketing and editorial content geared towards driving sales and brand loyalty, and created educational and inspirational resources for its brand community.
Earlier in her career, Seder worked in the TV industry, most recently as an independent producer and writer providing strategic content development and creative services to TV production companies and advertising agencies. She also managed TV series development and production in-house at Hoff Productions and Discovery Channel.
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.
The one rule to follow is that... Read More