Production house Florence has signed director Jay Walker for U.S. representation covering live-action projects. The Berlin-based filmmaker is meanwhile handled for virtual production and visual effects work in the U.S. by Impossible Objects, having recently come aboard that shop’s roster.
Walker’s commercial clients include Dell, Fortnite and Coachella, and she’s directed music videos for assorted European musicians, as well artists on the world stage like Lazer Viking, Zef, and Diplo.
Walker fell in love with filmmaking early on. Born and raised in the American Southwest, Walker was a child actor cast in commercials, TV series, and feature films before she began creating characters and worlds of her own. She started directing short format films, relocated to the Czech Republic, and eventually graduated with a Masters of Fine Arts in Cinema from the Czech National Film School, FAMU. Walker also learned the Czech language, which has enabled her to thrive as one of the few women directors working in the commercial space in Prague. Her directing career has taken her all across Europe and the United States.
“Florence is an incredibly exciting studio to be a part of,” said Walker on her signing. “The leadership are knowledgeable, generous collaborators, and based on their diverse roster and brave body of work, Florence feels like the perfect fit for my style and the work I hope to make.”
“Jay Walker is quickly making a name for herself,” said Jerad Anderson, founder and EP of Los Angeles-based creative studio Florence. “Her creativity, emotional intelligence, impeccable taste, and deep knowledge of all facets of the filmmaking craft means that she is quite a force, yet her relaxed demeanor and collaborative leadership style brings teams together, inspires confidence in clients, and brings out the best of everyone around her. She truly is a rare talent, and we look forward to our clients and collaborators discovering what it’s like to work with Jay.”
Walker has been an early adopter of advanced virtual production tools such as Unreal Engine. She is an expert on advanced motion graphics and animation, often combining these disciplines with live action to create her signature look. Walker has frequently collaborated with 3D artist and musician NIVVA, whose artistic presence is as a digital avatar.
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