Director Damien Drake has joined creative digital studio Click 3X. The director, cinematographer and producer has traveled the world shooting documentaries, commercials, TV shows, music videos and branded content. In 2012 and into 2013, Drake directed more than 30 videos in over half a dozen countries for Procter & Gamble’s “Everyday Effect” campaign, which included what became high-profile commercials featuring elderly couple Morty and Lee Kaufman. Drake began his career as a producer at VH1 Classic, where he conducted hundreds of interviews with legends such as Elton John, REM and The Clash. In 2004, he founded East Pleasant Pictures and produced entertainment content for Sprint’s new digital account with music superstars Akon, Rihanna and Amy Winehouse. In 2009, producer Fisher Stevens recruited Drake to shoot over 100 days in Africa for a project documenting Dr Amy Lehman and the Lake Tanganyika Floating Health Clinic. Drake went on to shoot Stevens’ subsequent docs, Mission Blue and My Decisions….Venice, Calif.-based Slim Pictures has signed the directing team of Peter Goeltenboth & Florian Giefer, a.k.a. Pet & Flo. Known for its blend of unique in-camera effects and stop motion visuals, the Berlin-based duo handles all directorial duties equally, from the casting to art direction to operating the stop motion rigs. Beyond stop motion, Pet & Flo’s expertise includes working with front-screen projections, miniature puppets, hand-cut animations, time-lapse techniques, Rube Goldberg machines, and so on. Their credits include such brands as Olympus, BMW, and Coca Cola…. Still photographer/director Anthony Dias has signed with Square Planet Media for both commercial and digital advertising assignments. It marks the first time that Dias has been represented as a director in addition to his work as a still photographer. He joins directors Toshi Oku, Francis Dreis, John M and Chris Weinstein at Square Planet…
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More