Production house/media company Bandito Brothers has partnered with producer Sean Cushing and director/VFX supervisor Stephen Lawes to launch design/VFX studio Cantina Creative LLC. The new venture is housed in Bandito Brothers’ Culver City complex on which construction was recently wrapped.
Cushing and Lawes formerly served as exec producer and creative director, respectively, at Pixel Liberation Front (PLF). Their PLF exploits included Lawes serving as a creative director on such films as Iron Man 2, Avatar and Terminator Salvation, and Cushing as a VFX producer on Iron Man, and Superman Returns.
Lawes also served in such capacities as compositing supervisor on Shutter Island, VFX art director on Speed Racer, compositor on The Key to Reserva, digital colorist on Superman Returns, and compositing supervisor/digital effects supervisor on Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. On the directorial front, Lawes’ credits include spots for such clients as US West, Barq’s Root Beer and McDonald’s/Disney via the then Duck Soup Produckions (now DUCK Studios).
Cushing’s credits also span VFX producer duties on Avatar and Terminator Salvation, and he has worked on numerous TV commercials and music videos over the years.
The VFX acumen and resources of Cantina Creative and the collaborative orientation of its partnership with Bandito Brothers translates into a situation in which “creative visions can be realized from concept through completion,” said Cushing.
Bandito CEO Mike “Mouse” McCoy related that having Cantina on the premises “rounds out our capabilities and adds another dimension to Bandito.”
Directing and Editing “Conclave”; Insights From Edward Berger and Nick Emerson
It’s been a bruising election year but this time we’re referring to a ballot box struggle that’s more adult than the one you’d typically first think of in 2024. Rather, on the industry awards front, the election being cited is that of the Pope which takes front and center stage in director Edward Berger’s Conclave (Focus Features), based on the 2016 novel of the same title by Robert Harris. Adapted by screenwriter Peter Straugham, Conclave stars Ralph Fiennes as the cardinal leading the conclave that has convened to select the next Pope. While part political thriller, full of backstabbing and behind-closed-door machinations, Conclave also registers as a thoughtful adult drama dealing with themes such as a crisis of faith, weighing the greater good, and engaging in a struggle that’s as much about spirituality as the attainment of power.
Conclave is Berger’s first feature after his heralded All Quiet on the Western Front, winner of four Oscars in 2023, including for Best International Feature Film. And while Conclave would on the surface seem to be quite a departure from that World War I drama, there’s a shared bond of humanity which courses through both films.
For Berger, the heightened awareness of humanity hit home for him by virtue of where he was--in Rome, primarily at the famed Cinecittà studio--to shoot Conclave, sans any involvement from the Vatican. He recalled waking up in Rome to “soak up” the city. While having his morning espresso, Berger recollected looking out a window and seeing a priest walking about with a cigarette in his mouth, a nun having a cup of coffee, an archbishop carrying a briefcase. It dawned on Berger that these were just people going to... Read More