Postproduction and visual effects company Encore has announced the promotions of Jay Bodnar to sr. VP, engineering; Tom Kendall to sr. VP, VFX; and Morgan Strauss to sr. VP, operations. In new positions designed to spearhead Encore’s next phase of growth, the executive trio remains in the company’s Los Angeles headquarters, reporting to Encore executive VP Bill Romeo.
Bodnar and Strauss have been with Encore since 2000 and 2001 respectively, by way of former sister company R!OT, while Kendall joined the company in 2002. Each has been actively involved in advancing their particular division within Encore Hollywood and will now extend their venerable expertise to the company’s growing worldwide network.
A leader in the company’s transition to file-based workflows, including 4K, Bodnar has overseen Encore’s talented team of engineers and ensured that clients benefit from the company’s innovative use of advanced technologies. In his expanded role, Bodnar will be working with his team to architect and deploy progressive technical solutions and optimize pipelines across the Encore locations for a cohesive, global postproduction experience.
Under Kendall’s direction, Encore’s VFX department has made a rapid ascent in episodic television. During the 2013 awards season, Encore took home both Emmy and Visual Effects Society Awards for outstanding VFX work, and looks to continue the trend through its current slate of projects, with Encore artists recently nominated for a 2014 Emmy Award. Kendall now helms worldwide VFX efforts for Encore.
As director of operations, Strauss has been the logistics expert for Encore Hollywood’s postproduction arm. From business development and strategy to workflow design and IT, Strauss and his team have provided Encore’s roster of clients with a seamless experience by ensuring technology and creativity interact flawlessly. In addition to Encore Hollywood, Strauss now oversees day-to-day operations for Encore Vancouver and will be responsible for new Encore locations as well.
Encore is a Deluxe Entertainment Services company with locations in Los Angeles, New York, Vancouver, Toronto and London. The company also offers near-set services anywhere in the world via mobilabs, a proprietary compact system for on-site color management and dailies.
Review: Writer-Director Aaron Schimberg’s “A Different Man”
Imagine you could wake up one morning, stand at the mirror, and literally peel off any part of your looks you don't like — with only movie-star beauty remaining.
How would it change your life? How SHOULD it change your life?
That's a question – well, a launching point, really — for Edward, protagonist of Aaron Schimberg's fascinating, genre-bending, undeniably provocative and occasionally frustrating "A Different Man," featuring a stellar trio of Sebastian Stan, Adam Pearson and Renate Reinsve.
The very title is open to multiple interpretations. Who (and what) is "different"? The original Edward, who has neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes bulging tumors on his face? Or the man he becomes when he's able to slip out of that skin? And is he "different" to others, or to himself?
When we meet Edward, a struggling actor in New York (Stan, in elaborate makeup), he's filming some sort of commercial. We soon learn it's an instructional video on how to behave around colleagues with deformities. But even there, the director stops him, offering changes. "Wouldn't want to scare anyone," he says.
On Edward's way home on the subway, people stare. Back at his small apartment building, he meets a young woman in the hallway, in the midst of moving to the flat next door. She winces visibly when she first sees him, as virtually everyone does.
But later, Ingrid (Reinsve) tries to make it up to him, coming over to chat. She is charming and forthright, and tells Edward she's a budding playwright.
Edward goes for a medical checkup and learns that one of his tumors is slowly progressing over the eye. But he's also told of an experimental trial he could join. With the possibility — maybe — of a cure.
So... Read More