Bicoastal production company Flesh and Bones expands its roster with the signing of multimedia animation director Antoni Sendra Barrachina, aka Podenco. This marks the first time the director has been represented in the U.S. market for commercials and music videos.
Podenco is an internationally accomplished director and animator who specializes in mixed media driven projects across a broad range of platforms from commercials and music videos to title sequences for film and television. His signature style of textured and layered mixed media merges both analog and digital realms, employing a wide variety of mediums including live action, animation, stop-motion, and collage. He has designed and directed projects for brands worldwide including Adidas, Twitter, Warner Music, Sony Music, Vox Media, Time Studios and Red Bull.
Podenco graduated from an audio/visual production program in Spain in 2005 and started working mainly in documentaries for television. The turning point in his career happened in 2012 while working on a documentary project when he started mixing animation with live action. He suddenly found his place and his voice as a filmmaker. Soon after that, he became a freelance director.
“I always wanted to direct. For my generation, cinema was THE art, so I was naturally attracted to it. In the beginning, I was focused on directing live action, but then I discovered animation and realized that it could be a more creative and equally effective medium to tell stories. So I started experimenting with mixing all the mediums. My way of working is to try to light a little flame in a dark room to then, obsessively, find the exit. Obsession is my creative fuel.”
Podenco’s unique style of layering multiple images and then peeling back the layers to find the unexpected visuals has lent itself very well to the advertising space and music video world. One of his recent projects for Sony Music was a video for Rat Pack icon Dean Martin. “I tried to make the old, classic imagery look cool and relevant, which was a real challenge. It was done mostly in 3D, but I tweaked every frame in Photoshop to make it look like a vintage airbrushed film poster illustration,” he explained.
Flesh and Bones’ EP Rob Traill and ECD Tony Benna were instant fans upon discovering Podenco’s art and work.
“His style is raw and rebellious, yet has such a beautiful technical touch to every single piece. It’s exactly the type of thumb-stopping visual work we want to offer our brand and agency clients at Flesh and Bones,” said Traill.
Podenco joins a Flesh and Bones roster of directors specializing in media-mixing, including Aaron Ray, Bryce Wymer, Darcy Prendergast, Monica Medellin, Kevin Antoine, Adam Avilla, and Benna.
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More