AFX Creative, an independent studio that specializes in VFX, design/motion, color and editorial services for the advertising and entertainment industries, has hired seasoned systems engineer and administrator Toby Gallo to serve as its new director of technology. The company–which is under the aegis of creative founder and managing director Mark Leiss–has also promoted Esther Minitser to head of production, Jessica Amburgey to sr. color producer, and Stefan Kim to production coordinator.
With more than 25 years of technology experience in network design, implementation and support, Gallo most recently worked at Shed, where he oversaw systems and network administration, and periphery management. Previously, he’s also worked for companies such as Technicolor, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures Entertainment, Digiscope, Nickelodeon, Gradient Effects, and World Wide Broadcasting. Gallo is well known for his work on groundbreaking pipelines and render farm solutions in the long-form episodic world.
Minitser most recently served as AFX Creative’s VFX producer for the past three years. She has been with AFX Creative since 2015. A recent graduate from the Pepperdine Graziadio Business School in California, she applies that knowledge to her day-to-day work.
Amburgey joined AFX Creative in October 2020 as a color producer. Previously, she served in a similar capacity at The Mill in Culver City, Calif.
Kim first joined AFX Creative in June 2018. He had been head of client services.
Remote services —
In light of the pandemic, AFX Creative has set up new technology by which the company is now able to provide Creative Remote Sessions to its commercial director, photographer and creative clients who need to evaluate color-accuracy and image fidelity as if they were “in the same room.” AFX Creative Remote provides a broadcast-grade, high-bandwidth signal beamed to a color-calibrated viewing environment–either at one of the company’s remote locations, or at one of its clients’ locations, anywhere in the world. This end-to-end calibration ensures that what the company’s clients see on their remote monitors is what the AFX Creative team sees on theirs.
The AFX Creative stream technology broadcasts each client session feed as a review quality, low-latency, real-time signal to a password protected website, viewable on computers and tablets. The stream can be accessed by dozens of people viewing it at the same time. The AFX Creative Mobile platform, currently under development, will allow for connecting viewers to the stream via iOS native iPhone and iPad apps. The launch of this Mobile platform will be announced in the very near future.
Gallo said he is looking forward to optimizing AFX Creative’s existing infrastructure, and focusing on taking its CGI and finishing to the next level.
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