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.
LOBO Signs Filmmaker Cisma For Commercials and Branded Content
Creative studio LOBO has added multi-faceted artist Cisma (Denis Kamioka) to its directorial roster for commercials and branded content. Cisma, a self-taught motion designer, animator, and live-action director, began his career at LOBO nearly 20 years ago. His return marks a homecoming following a tenure working in Europe as a film artist.
Cisma’s filmmaking style combines live-action with heavy postproduction elements and art direction. Cisma’s work has earned a Latin Grammy nomination and many advertising festival wins, including Cannes Lions, Clio’s, D&AD, and One Show Interactive Awards. Cisma was previously repped in the U.S. by Black List/Psyop.
Starting as a motion designer and 3D animator, Cisma was quickly recognized by Diesel and asked to join their creative team in Italy. After this, he began shooting mixed-media films in Barcelona, later moving into directing music videos. To date, he’s collaborated with many artists, like Milton Nascimento, Racionais MCs, Tropkillaz, Nação Zumbi, and a music video for Criolo made in partnership with the video game franchise League of Legends. Additionally, Cisma directed sports documentaries “A História de Claudio Kano” for ESPN and “Espírito da Luta” for Canal Combate. He recently directed two episodes of the Netflix series “Sintonia” for its fourth season, reaching #1 on the Netflix Global Non-English chart. His commercial career includes brand films for Lay’s, Adobe, IBM, Fiat Abarth Pulse, Samsung Vivo, Banco Bradesco, Getty Images, a promotional film for Brazilian graffiti artist Os Gemeos entitled “The Giant,” and much more.
“It feels so good to be back home at LOBO,” said Cisma. “This place and these people shaped so much of who I am as a filmmaker.... Read More