Alkemy X has expanded its business development team, hiring seasoned sales executive Mary Ida Bonadio as VP of business development, based in Chicago, to continue leading the company’s growth in the Midwest, and signing with Jack Strachan of Say Hey Representation for East Coast representation. Serving as a production company rep for over 20 years, Bonadio has fused her production experience with her MFA background from the Art Institute of Chicago to represent film directors in the ever-shifting advertising space. She will leverage her expertise to represent all of Alkemy X’s creative divisions including live-action, editorial, VFX, post/finishing, and Alkemy X’s global artist collective The Creative Studio. Strchan brings 15 years of experience to Alkemy X. The signing of Alkemy X marks the return of his independent firm, Say Hey Representation, with a reframed focus on brand-direct work aligned with the modern media marketplace. Strachan began his career with sales roles at shops including SMUGGLER and Dress Code NY, spending six years developing and selling creative talent internally before launching his own independent firm, Say Hey Representation in 2011. He represented directors, graphics artists, designers, visual effects artists and editors, building lasting partnerships through creative projects. In 2018, he made the transition back in-house as part of the launch of ArtClass Content, spending four years as head of sales, leading the growth of the live-action and postproduction studio. Most recently, he served as sr. account director at an agency/creative production studio before relaunching Say Hey Representation. After attending Moore College of Art and Design for her BFA in photography, Bonadio entered the competitive Art Institute of Chicago for an MFA in Video Production, informing the outlook that carries over into her career today. She cut her teeth with GLG and Giraldi Suarez as a sales rep before striking out on her own as one of the first agents to cross-platform represent filmmakers for advertising opportunities. She additionally owned MI Bonadio Productions and serves as a board member of the Chicago Film Archives, a nonprofit organization committed to the preservation, study, and exhibition of films that reflect the character and heritage of the Midwest…..
The Ad Council has partnered with global creator commerce agency Whalar on the Creators for Good Ambassador Program, which becomes part of Creators for Good, the Ad Council’s successful influencer marketing division. The Creators for Good Ambassador Program is comprised of a selection of trusted influencers who have deep passions for social issues related to areas of focus for the Ad Council including mental health awareness, gun violence prevention, substance use disorders and racial justice. The program applies the Creators for Good Ambassadors’ lived experiences and career insights to overarching strategy, platform messaging and overall execution of Ad Council’s Creators for Good campaigns. It is the first time in the Ad Council’s 80-year history that trusted messengers will play such a formative advisory role across various campaigns, now further driving social impact efforts at scale. Led by the Ad Council’s Creators for Good team, in partnership with Whalar, initial creators in this new program include: Jonny Morales; Chase Brown; Kahmora Hall; Tiffany Yu; Jo Beckwith; Cienna Ditri; Sasha Hamadani, MD; Rowan Ellis; Matthew Maxfield; and Matthew Schueller This program is designed to invite in the strategic thinking from creators, allowing these influential leaders to play a critical role across various national PSA campaigns, bolstering the effectiveness of Ad Council’s trusted messenger strategies and social impact initiatives. As the ambassadors lend their insights to the strategies of campaign activations, the Ad Council will also equip these creators with issue expertise, research-backed messaging and social impact best to fortify their work speaking out on causes they care about….
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 โ quite literally โ into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat โ who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival โ 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 โ 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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