Design studio Elastic, based in Santa Monica, and U.K. animation studio Feed Me Light have entered into a reciprocal partnership, allowing both companies to broaden their reach across advertising and entertainment projects. Elastic and Feed Me Light’s first official collaboration is the just-released teaser for Valorant, one of the first games Riot Games’ made outside of League of Legends. “The script came in and we felt like it was the perfect opportunity for Feed Me Light to stretch their wings,” said Andy Hall, creative director at Elastic. “We knew that they had the latitude to explore it. The creative brief was very open and they really ran with it and owned it.”
As the industry continues to reshape itself with a truly global conversation, opportunities and expansion are contingent upon establishing relationships in foreign markets, and Elastic’s partnership with Feed Me Light allows each company to do just that. It is a mutually beneficial creative union, as each studio is now advantaged with an award-winning network of animators, graphic artists, and industry relationships on both sides of the Atlantic. “It’s like jigsaw pieces fitting together,” said Hall. “We each stand on our own merit but complement one another.” Denis Bodart, founder/executive creative director of London-based Feed Me Light, reiterated that the creative partnership has “always felt like a very fair and easy relationship.”
As is the case with many relationships these days, it started over DMs. Hall first reached out on Instagram to Bodart. Hall had been a long-time fan of the U.K. studio’s work, but he also saw a potential in the studios’ creative and operational like-mindedness.
“They speak the same narrative language as Elastic,” Hall explained. “We are each rooted in animation. Stylistically, we each have a broad brush and a variety of aesthetics. Their voice is very similar to ours in terms of how they present their work, how they speak about their work, and how they talk to clients.” Both studios originated as family businesses, seeking to provide opportunities for artists to grow beyond their predetermined roles.
Bodart shared the same sentiments about Elastic. He had long admired the visual range and high quality of their work, and after connecting with Hall, Bodart felt a kinship between their companies, recognizing the same artistic passion, family feel, and emphasis on producing exceptional creative. “It was an amazing opportunity for us to get to pitch on Valorant, and then to win it with Elastic,” he added. “Working together was a really easy process with great communication.”
The studios are already in production on a soon-to-be-released second collaboration, and Hall anticipates both Elastic and Feed Me Light evolving their skill sets and growing their portfolios across all creative mediums–whether its commercials, TV, game teasers, title sequences, or long-form material–and tapping into the vast pool of talented animators around the world. As Hall said, “as long as you can make the relationship and the conversations with the clients work, I believe it behooves you to look far and wide.”
Steven Soderbergh Has A Multi-Faceted “Presence” In His Latest Film
Steven Soderbergh isn't just the director and cinematographer of his latest film. He's also, in a way, its central character.
"Presence" is filmed entirely from the POV of a ghost inside a home a family has just moved into. Soderbergh, who serves as his own cinematographer under the pseudonym Peter Andrews (his father's name), essentially performs as the presence, a floating point-of-view that watches as the violence that killed the mysterious ghost threatens to be repeated.
For even the prolific Soderbergh, the film, which opens Friday in theaters, was a unique challenge. He shot "Presence" with a small digital camera while wearing slippers to soften his steps.
The 62-year-old filmmaker recently met a reporter in a midtown Manhattan hotel in between finishing post-production on his other upcoming movie ("Black Bag," a thriller Focus Features will release March 14) and beginning production in a few weeks on his next project, a romantic comedy that he says "feels like a George Cukor movie."
Soderbergh, whose films include "Out of Sight," the "Ocean's 11" movies, "Magic Mike" and "Erin Brockovich," tends to do a lot in small windows of time. "Presence" took 11 days to film.
That dexterous proficiency has made the ever-experimenting Soderbergh one of Hollywood's most widely respected evaluators of the movie business. In a wide-ranging conversation, he discussed why he thinks streaming is the most destructive force the movies have ever faced and why he's "the cockroach of this industry."
Q: You use pseudonyms for yourself as a cinematographer and editor. Were you tempted to credit yourself as an actor for "Presence"?
SODERBERGH: No, but what I did is subtle. For the first and... Read More