Director/photographer Zen Sekizawa has signed with WoodShop, the production house headed by founder/executive producer Sam Swisher and founder/ECD/director Trevor Shepard. The company roster also includes creative directors/directors Michelle Pak and Peter Cote.
After freelancing with the WoodShop team continuously over the past 10 years, Sekizawa decided to formally sign with the company. “Since the beginning of our work together, there has always been a natural and organic partnership,” explained Sekizawa. “There aren’t many studios where you make great things at this high level and still be friends at the end of it.”
Sekizawa has been working as a photographer, director and artist for over two decades in her hometown of Los Angeles. She is second-generation Angeleno and fourth- generation, Japanese-American.
Since earning her BFA in Photography from Art Center College of Design, she had built an extensive roster of commercial clients including Jaguar, KFC, Nike, Apple, IBM, Sonic, Reynolds Wrap, Lexus, Modelo, Vogue, Vans, SONOS and The New Yorker.
Recent projects for Sekizawa include a launch for Miss Grass, and an Instagram-inspired social media campaign for Sonos, exploring how artists are living, working, and listening at home through a series called “Still Lives.” Sekizawa collaborated in the fall with Playboy on a Holiday Gift Guide. Currently she is working on projects for Vans, The New Yorker and Modelo. Sekizawa is continuously shooting for dual Michelin-starred restaurant n/naka and also creates custom objects and furniture pieces in her arts based collaboration project MANO YA.
“Zen has an incredibly unique perspective, which she brings to every collaboration,” noted WoodShop’s Shepard. “Zen’s use of color, texture and composition, which she brings to motion is amazing. She is able to portray a product to align with how it makes you feel. Zen can do this visually.”
Movie Armorer On “Rust” Pleads Guilty To Gun Charge In Separate Case
The weapons supervisor in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin on the set of the Western film "Rust" pleaded guilty Monday to a separate criminal charge of carrying a gun into a licensed liquor establishment.
Movie armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed agreed to change her plea to guilty on the charge in exchange for a reduced sentence of 18 months supervised probation.
Judge T. Glenn Ellington approved the agreement that allows Gutierrez-Reed to begin probation while serving out an 18-month prison term at a New Mexico state penitentiary for involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
In the "Rust" case, prosecutors blamed Gutierrez-Reed for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the movie set and for failing to follow basic gun safety protocols.
Gutierrez-Reed shuffled into the Santa Fe courtroom Monday in a beige jumpsuit, handcuffs and ankle shackles to change her plea to guilty and waive her right to trial.
"I'd just like to apologize to the court and thank you for your judgment today," she said.
The case stems from evidence that a few weeks before "Rust" began filming in October 2021, Gutierrez-Reed carried a gun into a downtown bar in Santa Fe where firearms are prohibited.
Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey said Gutierrez-Reed filmed herself in the bathroom of the bar with a handgun — explaining how she snuck in the prohibited firearm in a video that was obtained when authorities searched the armorer's phone during the "Rust" investigation.
Gutierrez-Reed was convicted in March at trial of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Hutchins. She has an appeal of that conviction pending in a higher court.
Baldwin, the lead actor and... Read More