Lisa Houck has joined the executive team as managing director at Uppercut, an editorial, finishing, and VFX studio with headquarters in New York, and a soon-to-be-opened office in Atlanta.
With 20 years of experience in artist representation, business development, production, and postproduction, Houck is most recently known for her talent agency, Salon Reps, which she launched in 2010. She has produced editorial, animation, and visual effects for integrated campaigns with global brands and agencies. Houck also led the commercial division of the award-winning Method Studios, overseeing the diversification of the company’s capabilities with the growth of its live-action arm, Method Labs.
During such uncertain and tenuous times within the industry, Uppercut has nevertheless leveraged its capabilities to serve the market more effectively, with projects for top brands. Recent Uppercut work includes Volvo with Grey NY, Nike for R/GA, and NFL out of 72andSunny. Through its partnership with sister company Racket Club, a boutique music studio, Uppercut benefits from direct access to leading composers, and the ability to create a streamlined and fully integrated post experience through delivery. Uppercut continues to generate new business based on these strong, multi-faceted offerings and its service-oriented approach.
“Adding Lisa to our team as managing director signals the next chapter for Uppercut,” said company founder and editor Micah Scarpelli. “We look forward to building upon our proven resilience and substantial growth that we’ve realized during 2020, and navigate this time of expansion with Lisa’s gifts for organization, inspiration, development, and implementation at the helm. She brings energy, attention to detail, and artistic passion to all that she does.”
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More