Takes On Exclusive Representation For Big Machine Design
Bicoastal talent agency The Directors Network (TDN), best known for its representation of directors and DPs in the spotmaking arena, has extended its reach into animation and design. TDN will rep Hollywood-based Big Machine Design (BMD)–a CG, animation and design creative services studio–to commercial production companies. This marks the first time in its 21-year history that TDN has handled a CG/animation house.
TDN, under the aegis of founder/president/agency Steve Lewis, will rep BMD on an exclusive basis. Additionally, TDN will rep BMD co-founders Steve Petersen and Ken Carlson as a directing team.
BMD is active in spots, promos, TV and film. Lewis shared his rationale for adding BMD to the TDN roster. “More and more television commercials and Web-based ad content are using and integrating CG, animation and broadcast design into their visual content,” said Lewis. “As such, our production company clients have been seeking talented CG studios that can accommodate this rapidly growing demand.”
Lewis plans to offer BMD as “an embedded unit” for commercial production companies, enabling them to diversify into the CG/animation sector. Conversely, BMD’s reputation is largely in broadcast design and on-air promos, meaning that the link with TDN could help it to grow in the commercial production marketplace.Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle โ a series of 10 plays โ to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More