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    Jason Botkin Launches Production House A Fresh Face in Hell

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments3631 Views
    Jason Botkin

    Shop opens with a directorial lineup which includes Olof Lindh, Meiko Takechi Arquillos, Casper Balslev, Aaron Brown, Tom Haines, David Robert Mitchell, Chris Volckmann, Austin Wilson

    LOS ANGELES --

    Production vet Jason Botkin has launched A Fresh Face in Hell, a film production company with bases of operation in Seattle and Los Angeles. 

    Botkin is owner and managing director of the new venture which is named for its “never say die” approach to production and will provide full-service production solutions for advertising and brands. Botkin has a track record of 20-plus years experience at commercial production companies, including serving as EP at B-Reel Films, Furlined and Cap Gun Collective. He is also known for establishing Streetgang Films, a seminal music video production company that launched the careers of many A-list directors today.

    A Fresh Face in Hell opens with a directorial roster which includes: 

    • Olof Lindh, visual storyteller known for work on Goodby Silverstein & Partners' Gradifi and Whirlpool. Lindh was previously at B-Reel Films.
    • Meiko Takechi Arquillos, a well known commercial photographer turned director. This is her first roster position for commercial production.
    • Casper Balslev, veteran commercial director, photojournalist and owner of New Land Films. Balslev had been at RSA for many years.
    • Aaron Brown, long-time Arctic Monkeys music video collaborator. Previously at Skunk
    • Tom Haines, renowned music video director and documentary film expert for BBC, Tate, and Channel 4. Previously at B-Reel Films.
    • David Robert Mitchell, indie favorite director of critically acclaimed films It Follows and Under the Silverlake. This is his first roster position for commercial production.
    • Chris Volckmann, industry veteran, known for his directing work with REI, Amazon, and Nike. Volckmann was previously repped at Unheard Of.
    • And Austin Wilson, music documentarian who has done profiles for Iron & Wine and Band of Horses. Wilson was previously repped at Society.

    For director representation A Fresh Face in Hell is working with Kevin Batten and Crystal Bedford at PopArts on the West Coast, Chiara Chung at CCCo. in the Midwest, and Dani Ostrowski of MoreMilkToast Co. on the East Coast.

    In addition to production, Fresh Face also provides in-house postproduction capabilities including editorial, telecine, online, VFX, design, and animation.

    Category:News
    Tags:A Fresh Face in HellAaron BrownJason BotkinMeiko Takechi ArquillosOlof Lindh



    Raoul Peck Resurrects A Once-Forgotten Anti-Apartheid Photographer In “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found”

    Friday, November 22, 2024

    When the photographer Ernest Cole died in 1990 at the age of 49 from pancreatic cancer at a Manhattan hospital, his death was little noted.

    Cole, one of the most important chroniclers of apartheid-era South Africa, was by then mostly forgotten and penniless. Banned by his native country after the publication of his pioneering photography book "House of Bondage," Cole had emigrated in 1966 to the United States. But his life in exile gradually disintegrated into intermittent homelessness. A six-paragraph obituary in The New York Times ran alongside a list of death notices.

    But Cole receives a vibrant and stirring resurrection in Raoul Peck's new film "Ernest Cole: Lost and Found," narrated in Cole's own words and voiced by LaKeith Stanfield. The film, which opens in theaters Friday, is laced throughout with Cole's photographs, many of them not before seen publicly.

    As he did in his Oscar-nominated James Baldwin documentary "I Am Not Your Negro," the Haitian-born Peck shares screenwriting credit with his subject. "Ernest Cole: Lost and Found" is drawn from Cole's own writings. In words and images, Peck brings the tragic story of Cole to vivid life, reopening the lens through which Cole so perceptively saw injustice and humanity.

    "Film is a political tool for me," Peck said in a recent interview over lunch in Manhattan. "My job is to go to the widest audience possible and try to give them something to help them understand where they are, what they are doing, what role they are playing. It's about my fight today. I don't care about the past."

    "Ernest Cole: Lost and Found" is a movie layered with meaning that goes beyond Cole's work. It asks questions not just about the societies Cole documented but of how he was treated as an artist,... Read More

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