Video-maker, musician and Internet audience generator Jack Conte has joined the directorial roster of Radar Studios.
Conte’s Internet success began with his 2008 stop motion video for his song "Yeah Yeah Yeah," and then gained high-profile momentum during his collaboration with Nataly Dawn as one-half of the band Pomplamoose. Conte pioneered the art of VideoSongs, creating multi-layered videos and recordings that show audiences each instrument and component of a soundtrack on screen. Pomplamoose’s work caught the eye of Hyundai, which hired Conte to create a holiday campaign. The agency encouraged him and Dawn to play and experiment on set, resulting in spontaneous and memorable commercials that preserved the band’s unique style.
Recently, Conte has been experimenting with building working robots, as in his video for his song as a solo-artist, Pedals, and with using a digital projector to great effect in Pomplamoose’s mashup of Pharrell’s "Happy" and "Lose Yourself to Dance" and Daft Punk’s "Get Lucky," which has been viewed over 1.4 million times.
Initially, Conte didn’t think of himself as a director, but that changed after Radar approached Conte and they began brainstorming together about how Conte’s playful, unique effects created on shoestring budgets could benefit from collaboration with Radar’s team of art directors and VFX artists. Conte said, “I have so many ideas, but right now the ones that get made are the ones that can be executed in three days or less with the stuff I have around me. The opportunity to have a team of creative minds, and expert technicians who can work quickly, means that I can dream on a much grander scale.”
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More