Creative studio Florence has added award-winning director and still photographer Harry Deadman to its talent roster. This marks the first U.S. signing for Deadman whose work spans music videos, branded content and commercials while offering a range of disciplines from live action to mixed media and visual effects. The London-based Deadman hails from Australia.
Best known as a music video director, Deadman studied music in his youth in Adelaide, Australia. He produced electronic music and hoped to pursue a career as a musician, but he soon found he was better suited to filming musicians than being one. Making music videos enabled him to remain connected to the music scene while discovering where his creative talents truly lie. Deadman has gone on to helm videos for artists like Two Another, Skylar, E^st, Finn Askew, Golden Vessel, Selbor, and Chinatown Slalom. On the branded side, his clients include Hendrick’s Gin and Kodak, and he’s directed fashion films for Labrum London.
Deadman’s work has garnered global recognition, including a win for Best Comedy Music Video at the International Music Video Awards (2021) for Selbor’s “Your Love.” He was a finalist for Best Music Video at the Stockholm Independent Film Festival and the J Awards, which celebrates achievement in the Australian music industry. In addition, his work has screened at the International Micro Short Film Festival, the Silver Screen Festival, and the Atlanta Film Festival. His still photography has been included in the official selection of Portrait of Britain, a publication of the British Journal of Photography.
“I’ve been directing independently for a long time, but when I met the team at Florence and saw the films they were producing, it was clear they’re a studio that’s adventurous and open-minded enough to take on my brand of weird!” said Deadman. “Their inclusive culture, collaborative ethos, and intriguing client list sealed the deal.”
Florence founder Jerad Anderson said of Deadman, “It’s clear to anyone who’s seen his work that Harry has a style that’s uniquely his own. His films are always fresh and surprising, and yet unmistakably born from the imagination of a singular mind and talent. We look forward to working with Harry and seeing what universe he dreams up next.”
Maggie Smith, Star of Stage, Film and “Downton Abbey,” Dies At 89
Maggie Smith, the masterful, scene-stealing actor who won an Oscar for "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" in 1969 and gained new fans in the 21st century as the dowager Countess of Grantham in "Downton Abbey" and Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films, died Friday. She was 89. Smith's sons, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, said in a statement that Smith died early Friday in a London hospital. "She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother," they said in a statement issued through publicist Clair Dobbs. Smith was frequently rated the preeminent British female performer of a generation that included Vanessa Redgrave and Judi Dench, with a clutch of Academy Award nominations and a shelf full of acting trophies. She remained in demand even in her later years, despite her lament that "when you get into the granny era, you're lucky to get anything." Smith drily summarized her later roles as "a gallery of grotesques," including Professor McGonagall. Asked why she took the role, she quipped: "Harry Potter is my pension." Richard Eyre, who directed Smith in a television production of "Suddenly Last Summer," said she was "intellectually the smartest actress I've ever worked with. You have to get up very, very early in the morning to outwit Maggie Smith." "Jean Brodie," in which she played a dangerously charismatic Edinburgh schoolteacher, brought her the Academy Award for best actress, and the British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) as well in 1969. Smith added a supporting actress Oscar for "California Suite" in 1978, Golden Globes for "California Suite" and "Room with a View," and BAFTAs for lead actress in "A Private Function" in 1984, "A Room with a View" in... Read More