HSI Productions has signed director Alex Ogus for representation in the U.S. and U.K. He continues to be handled in Canada by Industry Films.
Ogus made his first major mark in 2007 when The Fight Network campaign he helmed for Cossette Communications-Marketing in Toronto won a Gold Lion at the Cannes International Advertising Festival. That same year he earned inclusion into SHOOT‘s New Directors Showcase and secured his first U.S. representation via Santa Monica-based TWC, his roost prior to now coming aboard the HSI roster.
The Fight Network package was comedy/dialogue fare, centering on an average guy’s idiotic quest to pick a fight with anyone in his immediate vicinity.
Ogus’ spot filmography also includes noted work for Xbox, Newcastle Brown Ale, Smarties, Time Warner and Media Markt. Among his most recent exploits at TWC was Asics’ “Ping Pong Ball Shoe” via The Vitro Agency for which nearly 3,000 ping pong balls–some colored white, others black and orange–were strung onto 784 strands of fishing line and lifted two feet off the ground by a pair of industrial air compresses and 24 air valves. They levitate to form a Gel-Blur 33 Asics shoe, underscoring a message scrawled on a nearby chalkboard which reads, “Gravity. Meet Your Archenemy.”
The help of aerospace engineer Ryan Wilson was enlisted for the project. He designed the rig facilitating the in-camera attainment of the desired visuals, which is a sharp departure from what would be the norm for such a job, intense post manipulation and effects. Both Ogus and the creative ensemble at Vitro agreed that catching the spirit of this commercial concept “live” was essential to the vision coming to life for the audience. The shoe became a work of art while handling the commerce side by positioning the GEL-Blur 33 as seemingly lighter than air.
The DP was Helge Gerull.
The Vitro team included executive creative director John Vitro, creative director K.T. Thayer, art directors Kevin Lukens, David Reyes and Ali Filsoof, copywriter Schuyler Vanden Bergh, and producer Mickey Strider.
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