Luma Pictures has brought aboard creative director/VFX supervisor Simon Mowbray, formerly of Zoic Studios. The move fortifies Luma in the ad arena in that Mowbray has to his credit spots for assorted brands such as BMW, Target, Nike, Microsoft and Volkswagen as well as music videos for Kanye West, DMX, Missy Elliot and Rihanna, among other artists. Additionally, Luma may look to leverage Mowbray’s VFX and filmmaking acumen into its theatrical feature work.
Prior to Zoic, Mowbray served as creative director at Pixomondo. He has 25 years-plus experience in visual effects. Mowbray began his effects career in 1987, working at a number of top VFX shops in Sydney amid the emerging years of CG and compositing. In 1991, he moved to Montreal where he worked as a product specialist for Softimage. From there, he helped found Discreet Logic in 1992, where he served as a creative director. Two years later, he began as an effects artist at Western Images/Good Pictures, remaining there until opening Radium in 1996 with Jonathan Keeton. The duo sold the boutique design and visual effects company to Reel FX in 2007.
While at Radium, Mowbray contributed as creative director to hundreds of film, music video and commercial projects including several MTV Award-nominated music videos. He moved over to Ntropic where he worked as creative director/VFX supervisor before heading to Pixomondo in 2011
Mowbray’s notable credits include Audi’s “Return to Snake River,” a long-form ad produced by Bandito Brothers for Mediacom USA. The spot featured Audi revisiting Evel Knievel’s failed jump of Snake River Canyon. In a tight 10-day turnaround, Mowbray’s team recreated the practical stunt jump in CG to make it larger and more believable in addition to enlarging the actual base camp with CG tents and vans. A variety of shots were created featuring a completely CG Audi RS5, which traversed across virtual tarmacs and background matte-paintings.
Mowbray was also behind the VFX in Rihanna’s “Only Girl in the World,” one of 2011’s most popular music videos. On a near impossible turnaround of under 48 hours for post, the team rotoscoped Rihanna from every shot to achieve a signature pink style. A field of CG poppies was also conjured, as well as ample design-on-the-fly matte painting work, compositing and tracking of firework elements.
Mowbray has won numerous awards, including a PromaxDBA Award in Digital Effects for his work on the spot “GMC Yukon – Dot Matrix” as well as several International Monitor Awards. Many of his music videos have also been nominated for MTV Music Awards.
Trump Names Brendan Carr To Lead The FCC
President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday named Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, as the new chairman of the agency tasked with regulating broadcasting, telecommunications and broadband.
Carr is a longtime member of the commission and served previously as the FCC's general counsel. He has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate three times and was nominated by both Trump and President Joe Biden to the commission.
The FCC is an independent agency that is overseen by Congress, but Trump has suggested he wanted to bring it under tighter White House control, in part to use the agency to punish TV networks that cover him in a way he doesn't like.
Carr has of late embraced Trump's ideas about social media and tech. Carr wrote a section devoted to the FCC in " Project 2025," a sweeping blueprint for gutting the federal workforce and dismantling federal agencies in a second Trump administration produced by the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Trump has claimed he doesn't know anything about Project 2025, but many of its themes have aligned with his statements.
Carr said in a statement congratulating Trump on his win that he believed "the FCC will have an important role to play reining in Big Tech, ensuring that broadcasters operate in the public interest, and unleashing economic growth."
"Commissioner Carr is a warrior for Free Speech, and has fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans' Freedoms, and held back our Economy," Trump said in a statement on Sunday. "He will end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America's Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America."
The five-person commission has a 3-2 Democratic... Read More