Full service production shop The Collective @ LAIR has signed director Chris Dealy as a partner with the studio. Formerly VP and sr. copywriter at McCann Erickson and most recently executive creative director at JWT, Dealy becomes part of his new roost’s directorial roster which includes company founder and chief creative director Thor Raxlen. Dealy brings to The Collective @ LAIR extensive experience as an agency creative and a filmmaker for a variety of brands including Kleenex and Tyson. He is known for his creative work on Häagen-Dazs’ “aah” campaign, Mastercard’s “Priceless” campaign, ION TV’s launch campaign, and various other campaigns for brands like Royal Caribbean, Kleenex, and Nestlé’s Stouffer’s, Tollhouse, and Outshine brands…..
Dentsu Aegis Network US announced that Firstborn, a strategic design and technology company, will join the global network of Isobar, a full-service digital agency. Together, the two companies will offer enhanced digital, design, and technology solutions to help marketers holistically transform their businesses at speed and scale spanning such areas as AR, VR and AI. Firstborn clients will be able to leverage Isobar’s global network and scaled technology implementation capabilities. Isobar was recognized as a Leader in the March 2016 Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Global Digital Marketing Agencies” for the second consecutive time and as a Leader in the “The Forrester Wave™: Digital Experience Service Providers, Q4 2015.” Meanwhile Firstborn adds talent and capabilities in the areas of design, development and content production to Isobar’s current offerings. Both shops will also have the added benefit of access to shared resources, methodologies, tools and platforms, as well as the power to jointly and aggressively invest in emerging technology and innovation practices. Firstborn, which creates interactive experiences, digital products and content for clients like PepsiCo, S&P Global, Supercell and L’Oreal, with its 105 employees, will continue to service clients from its Tribeca, NYC headquarters….
Los York has added Jean-Paul (JP) Frenay to its roster. The Belgian film director, creative director and multidisciplinary visual artist is best known for his short film “Artificial Paradise, Inc.,” the collaborative project “Resonance,” his “VW Bluemotion” and multiple Nike commercials, In particular, he mixes live action, stop motion animation, CGI, miniatures, motion design, video mapping and photographic artworks — most often resulting in beautifully-shot live action layered with the careful fine-tuning of post effects, design, and CG….
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 — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — 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 — 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.
The one rule to follow is that... Read More