The-Artery has brought directorial duo the Ray Sisters–Austin and Westin Ray–aboard its roster.
The siblings were introduced to The-Artery when their women’s equality spec PSA, “We Are The Daughters,” earned them inclusion in SHOOT’s 2019 New Directors Showcase. The-Artery was a sponsor of that year’s Showcase and the Ray Sisters were attracted to the creative company’s out-of-the-box thinking and approach.
Now that they are part of The-Artery family, the duo hopes to create content that explores roads less traveled. Austin Ray cited the producing prowess of The-Artery managing director/EP Deborah Sullivan, and the visionary VFX and aesthetic of company founder and executive creative director Vico Sharabani. “It’s inspiring for us to align with filmmakers who have been in this business for years, yet still retain an unbridled enthusiasm and spark for creative work–whatever the genre,” said Austin. “We’re extremely excited to join The-Artery as it blazes a new trail into narrative live-action.”
Sharabani said, “The-Artery was built around versatile talent and Ray Sisters fit these exact traces of personality, character, taste, and style. We’ve been in close contact with Austin and Westin for over a year and, as collaboration increased, we decided to bring them on board.”
Sullivan added, “I’m especially proud to add not one, but two talented female artists to our roster. During our early conversations with Ray Sisters, the most important consideration was how The-Artery can help them grow. Thankfully, our team has, over time, worked hard to develop the resources to offer that and more.”
The original idea for Ray Sisters came about as both siblings fine-tuned their separate talents in film school. After working various production roles, including producing shorts and music videos as well as composing, the sisters decided it was time to form a directing duo.
Decorated with awards since their school days, Westin emerged from film school with a DGA Student Film Award for directing while Austin’s music scores, which first premiered in a film at Telluride Film Festival, garnered the Student Academy Award as well as BAFTA Student Award. Later, their short film The Listening Box won the Audience Award at the Austin Film Festival as well as an HBO award from the SCAD Savannah Film Festival. Their film This One Step was also screened at the Sedona Film Festival, among others. A Not So Still Life, the duo’s branded content piece for Moët & Chandon, was one of the winners of the Moët Moment Film Festival. Recently, Austin was also named Best New Music Composer at the 2019 Kinsale Shark Awards.
Westin Ray noted that she and Austin “overlap quite a bit in skills, since we both direct, shoot, and edit. I am more language-oriented, whether screenwriting or discussing character arcs with actors. Austin is razor-sharp with visuals and typically the techie putting out equipment or software fires. We joke that separately we’re flawed, but together we make the perfect human being!”
SCHROM x Yacht Club and Be Electric Studios Launch Electric XR for Virtual Production
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More