Design and animation studio Laundry has opened a new location in the South of Market (SoMA) neighborhood of San Francisco. The company has hired industry veteran Michael Bennett as San Francisco managing director to spearhead its entry into the S.F. market. Bennett will work closely with Los Angeles managing director James Sweigert to ensure seamless integration of talent and capabilities between both offices. Designed for client sessions, the S.F. space houses a growing creative and production staff to provide a broad range of capabilities, from ideation and concept development to live-action, animation, graphics, editorial, and finishing.
Bennett’s hiring reunites him with Laundry, where he spent five years as executive producer in Los Angeles and played an integral role in the company’s growth from 2010-’15.
In addition to nurturing Laundry’s ad agency and direct-to-brand relationships, Bennett will also strategize with Sweigert and the studio’s various in-house and out-of-house reps, including Reber Covington, which has a strong presence in both the Los Angeles and San Francisco markets.
Bennett brings extensive experience in branded content, specifically within the disciplines of design, animation, and VFX. He was most recently director of business development/managing EP at finishing company Ntropic in San Francisco. Other notable stints include director of business development, commercial and gaming at yU+Co, as well as handling business development for Belief Design.
“[Laundry executive creative director] Tony [Liu] and I are both from the Bay Area and feel it’s the perfect return to our stomping ground as artists and designers,” says PJ Richardson, Laundry Executive Creative Director, who co-founded the award-winning studio with Liu in 2006. “We’re excited for Michael to be returning to Laundry in this capacity, and helping us nurture partnerships with the agencies and brands anchored in San Francisco and the Silicon Valley.”
Bennett characterized the San Francisco market as being “the perfect setting for their unique vibe, animation style, and design-driven storytelling.”
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
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