Visual effects studio FuseFX has appointed Joseph Bell as chief operating officer and executive VP of production, with responsibility for client-centric processes and operations, including production team management and company expansion.
Bell is an award-winning production executive with more than a decade of experience in the visual effects industry including a wide mix of film and television work. Most recently, he was executive producer at CoSA VFX, where he was the first hire and was instrumental in scaling the company to a team of 160 people. Bell’s previous experience includes roles with Industrial Light & Magic, Digital Dimension and Pixel Magic. Notable projects throughout his career include Star Trek (2009), The Gifted, Minority Report (TV), Person of Interest, Fringe, Revolution, Almost Human, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Live Free or Die Hard.
Bell is a longtime member of the Producers Guild of America and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. He holds an MFA in Film & TV Production from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and a Global Executive MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and the National University of Singapore. He was nominated for Emmy Awards for his work with Gotham (2015) and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007).
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