Directors Steve Beck and Peter Gornstein, CG/visual effects supervisor and artist Ivo Horvat, and line/VFX producer Kathy Tishler have teamed to form Saboteur, a live-action/effects collective that has come aboard the directorial roster of Passport Films, a Santa Monica shop headed by owners/executive producers Patti and David Coulter.
Beck’s directing chops span features and commercials. On the former front, he helmed the movies Ghost Ship and 13 Ghosts. Earlier in his career, Beck served as the visual effects art director on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Abyss and The Hunt for Red October.
Beck’s prior spotmaking roost in the U.S. was Rhythm+Hues, where he meshed live action with VFX and CGI. Beck has to his credit several Super Bowl commercials over the years, including Nissan’s “Pigeons” for TBWAChiatDay, Los Angeles, Primestar’s “Runaway Pipe” via now defunct Adler Boschetto Peebles, and Pontiac Grand Prix’s “Coyote” for the former DMB&B Detroit. His spot endeavors span such clients as Volkswagen, McDonald’s, Chevrolet, Gatorade and First Union Bank.
For the latter, which was out of Publicis & Hal Riney, San Francisco, Beck directed “Launch,” “Noise” and “Cityscape” which swept the visual effects category and earned a production design honor at the AICP Show. Beck helmed the campaign through the since closed commercial production arm of Industrial Light+Magic where he also turned out such work as Gatorade Fierce’s “Raptor vs. Raptor,” a SHOOT Top Spot, for what was then known as FCB Chicago.
Over the years, Beck-directed commercials have gained recognition at the AICP Show, the Clio Awards, Cannes, the London International Awards, the Siggraph Electronic Theatre, and the International Automotive Advertising Awards. Recently Beck had been active in the international commercialmaking market, turning out projects in Italy, Spain, Turkey, Dubai and Russia.
He has also collaborated with freelance producer Tishler regularly over the past decade, and developed a working rapport with Gornstein and Horvat in recent years, laying the groundwork for them to now come together as Saboteur, an L.A.-based collective.
The only Saboteur member not currently in Southern California is Gornstein who’s in Denmark. But he plans to relocate to L.A. later this year. Gornstein has been a concept artist on numerous features, including Contact, Stuart Little, Anaconda, DieHard 3, Snow Falling on Cedars and James And The Giant Peach for Sony Pictures Imageworks. He’s also served as lead concept developer for IO interactive on several video games. This conceptual and technical expertise has supported his visual storytelling as a director. He was a nominee for Best Young Director at Cannes in ’04. He made an initial splash directorially with the short film Sunrise (winner of a Fuji Film international short film award, Fotokem and Panavision awards). Gornstein’s short Peaceforce was honored with the Canal+Prix Award at the short film festival Clermont Ferrand and is currently making its way through the festival circuit this summer slated to gain exposure at fests in London and Sao Paulo.
At press time, Gornstein was wrapping a Danish commercial for Aalborg Airport. He is currently in development on two feature film projects, one titled On Thin Ice with NDS New Danish Screen, the talent development division of the Danish Film Institute, and Misofilm. The action thriller is set at the North Pole.
Horvat has worked at a variety of industry stalwarts such as Industrial Light + Magic, Sony Imageworks, Imaginary Forces, Uncharted Territory and Zoic Studios. His artistry in conceptual design, matte painting and visual effect supervision is on display in 60-plus feature films, commercials, and most recently the aforementioned short film Peaceforce. His contributions can be seen in 2012, Star Wars: Episode One, The Mummy Returns, Galaxy Quest, Superman Returns, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Spiderman, and The Chronicles of Narnia to name a few. While heading up the matte painting department at Sony Imageworks, he devised a camera projection system created by Maxon for Cinema 4D, which has since become a VFX industry standard.
Tishler brings 20 years of production experience to Saboteur and Passport. Her spotmaking exploits span VFX, automotive, comedy, beauty, tabletop, kids and celebs. She plans to also work on the business development front for Saboteur.
Saboteur will team with Passport on pre-pro, production and post, offering clients a streamlined process and tapping into other talent and resources that the collective’s members have forged relationships with over the years.
SUPERLATIVE Signs Director Claudia Abend For Spots and Branded Content
Latin American director/editor and documentary filmmaker Claudia Abend has joined SUPERLATIVE for her first U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content.
Abend's empathetic docu-style POV has garnered several international awards for the documentary films Hit (2008) and The Flower of Life (2018). Her spotmaking credits include such brands as Procter & Gamble, Nestle and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. SUPERLATIVE has already worked with Abend, together producing a new ad campaign for digital agency Tinuiti and The Honest Company, a consumer goods corporation featuring eco-minded products.
“We found Claudia through her poignant documentaries on the festival circuit,” said SUPERLATIVE creative manager Stefan Dezil. “We are excited about her textured narratives, emotional storytelling, and her powerhouse long-form storytelling abilities, currently on her third feature film. As SUPERLATIVE continues to build our brand after premiering our latest films at Sundance and SXSW, Claudia is the kind of multidimensional artist we are excited to partner with on branded content and beyond. Fluent in English and Spanish, her reel shows real prowess with infants, food and skin products, families both young and old. Great visual storytelling and inspirational doc work.”
Abend began her career in her native Uruguay, studying film and editing in college. “My dad would show me films like Citizen Kane,” she said. “I love cinema and became an editor. It was here that I learned all about communicating human emotion.”
From the get-go, Abend hit it big as a documentary director, teaming with Adrianna Loeff on Hit, a movie chronicling pop artists of Uruguayan music. Abend took home a Best Editing... Read More