Beast Editorial has brought three new editors aboard: St๏ฟฝphane Pereira and Kyle Brown who join Beast Los Angeles; and Karen Kourtessis who will work out of the New York office.
Kourtessis’ career launched with the U.S. Army where she shot and edited training films and news stories. When she scrapped her fatigues and moved to New York City, she landed a position at Crew Cuts and cut her teeth editing for brands such as Visa, Pepsi, Pizza Hut and Dr. Pepper. In 2006, she was invited to be a partner at Crew Cuts, a position she held until early 2013. Kourtessis’ body of work over the years spans storytelling with comedy, documentary, visual style and people/dialogue fare. Her efforts have garnered awards recognition, among the highlights being Pella Windows’ “Elopement” spot which she cut (and Mike Bigelow directed) for Y&R New York. She’s also cut music videos for artists such as Lloyd Banks, Ryan Leslie and Melanie Fiona. Her film work includes award-winning shorts, documentaries for Google and a short documentary that premiered at the Newport Beach Film Festival.
Pereira has been freelance for a number of years. He began in Paris cutting documentaries and then diversified into commercials for brands including Peugeot, Dior, Nike, Kenzo, Sprite and BMW. Pereira has crafted fantastic worlds and stories in his collaborations with directors such as Lionel Mougin, Antoine Bardou-Jacquet and The Elvis. Pereira has also cut features, including Asterix & Obelix: Meet Cleopatra, the 4th highest grossing film of all time at the French box office.
Brown had most recently been cutting at production house Prettybird. His credits include short films, documentaries, two seasons of a comedy series for Starz, and spots for Fiat, Visit Florida, Pepsi and Jack Daniels.
Brown, Pereira and Kourtessis are available through all of Beast’s seven shops–L.A., NY, Austin, Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta and San Francisco.
Review: Drew Hancock Makes Feature Directorial Debut With “Companion”
"Iris, wake up!"
Early in "Companion," lovely Iris and her nerdy-nice boyfriend Josh are driving to a secluded lake house for a stay with friends. Iris wakes from a nap and lovingly tells Josh she was dreaming about him. They reminisce about how they first met at the supermarket. All those oranges tumbling onto the floor! Ha ha.
In 20 minutes, absolutely everything about this sweet scene will be turned on its head in a terrifying and sinister manner. You will be surprised and shocked. Unless you saw the trailer, which reveals the whole thing.
And so we begin with a dilemma, dear moviegoer. "Companion," an exceedingly clever and entertaining sci-fi-horror-thriller-comedy by Drew Hancock in his feature debut, has more twists and turns than a corkscrew. But it's utterly impossible to write about the film without revealing the first of those twists.
So if you like coming in totally cold to a movie, then we're sorry to see you go, but stop reading! Otherwise, stay with us โ we promise there'll be more surprises to come.
Moving on: Iris (Sophie Thatcher) and Josh (Jack Quaid) arrive at the estate. A nervous Iris stops at the door, worried that Josh's friends won't like her. He urges her to simply brighten up and act happy.
Kat (Megan Suri), Josh's ex, greets them. She is gorgeous, and frosty to Iris. Eli (Harvey Guillรฉn) and his handsome boyfriend Patrick (Lukas Gage) are nicer. Then there's Sergey (Rupert Friend), Kat's aloof Russian boyfriend โ sugar daddy, really โ and owner of the house. The password to his devices is Stalin's birthday, which tells you something.
Things get dark, quickly. The next morning, someone dies. They will not be the first โ this is a horror movie. And suddenly Iris, caked in blood,... Read More