By Robert Goldrich
DALLAS --Reel FX, a Dallas-headquartered design and CG animated content producer for feature films and commercials, finalized a deal last month to acquire digital effects studio Radium, according to the latter company’s cofounder/president Jonathan Keeton. Radium maintains studios in Santa Monica and San Francisco. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
The two companies–which maintain their respective identities in the marketplace–are in the process of merging their resources and capabilities, laying the groundwork for both to diversify. For example, Reel FX has been proactive in the development of intellectual property, particularly on the animation feature film front, noted Keeton. This represents new ground for Radium, which has provided digital effects services primarily to the commercial production business. Now as the ad industry goes beyond traditional spotmaking to encompass new forms of content, the intellectual property savvy of Reel FX could come into play for Radium, helping it to extend its reach beyond conventional work-for-hire scenarios when dealing with ad community clientele on new marketing/entertainment fare.
Conversely, Reel FX gains footholds in California, enabling its artists to tap into West Coast facilities that could open up new doors in Hollywood, for example. This breaking down of geographic barriers also applies to commercials as Radium can work more directly with Texas agencies, and Reel FX’s artisans can better liaison with agency creatives who are either based or shooting in California.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for all of us,” said Keeton, who now becomes executive creative director of the services division of the combined organization. “Reel FX is a leader in technology and the development of intellectual properties. By combining our studios, we are creating a new entity capable of greater depth in all areas–a new entity where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
Dale Carman, cofounder of Reel FX, described Radium as being “one of the best creative shops in the nation. We’ve long admired its work for clients like adidas, GMC and Target. It is a fantastic opportunity to bring together two like-minded organizations to build something very unique for the industry.”
That like-minded spirit is reflected in the fact that both companies were founded by artists, including Reel FX’s Carman and Radium’s Keeton and creative director Simon Mowbray. Reel FX opened in 1993 while Radium was launched three years later.
Combined the companies have an artists pool of some 130 individuals, with the lion’s share coming from Reel FX. The CEO of the combined operations is Reel FX’s Steve O’Brien.
“Further developments will be announced as the companies complete the integration plans,” stated O’Brien, adding that “the combination of both organizations’ broad capabilities in advertising and entertainment positions us as a leading player in emerging media such as branded entertainment, online and viral campaigns and mobile platform marketing/entertainment.”
Review: Writer-Director Andrea Arnold’s “Bird”
"Is it too real for ya?" blares in the background of Andrea Arnold's latest film, "Bird," a 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams) rides with her shirtless, tattoo-covered dad, Bug (Barry Keoghan), on his electric scooter past scenes of poverty in working-class Kent.
The song's question — courtesy of the Irish post-punk band Fontains D.C. — is an acute one for "Bird." Arnold's films ( "American Honey," "Fish Tank") are rigorous in their gritty naturalism. Her fiction films — this is her first in eight years — tend toward bleak, hand-held verité in rough-and-tumble real-world locations. Her last film, "Cow," documented a mother cow separated from her calf on a dairy farm.
Arnold specializes in capturing souls, human and otherwise, in soulless environments. A dream of something more is tantalizing just out of reach. In "American Honey," peace comes to Star (Sasha Lane) only when she submerges underwater.
In "Bird," though, this sense of otherworldly possibility is made flesh, or at least feathery. After a confusing night, Bailey awakens in a field where she encounters a strange figure in a skirt ( Franz Rogowski ) who arrives, like Mary Poppins, with a gust a wind. His name, he says, is Bird. He has a soft sweetness that doesn't otherwise exist in Bailey's hardscrabble and chaotic life.
She's skeptical of him at first, but he keeps lurking about, hovering gull-like on rooftops. He cranes his neck now and again like he's watching out for Bailey. And he does watch out for her, helping Bailey through a hard coming of age: the abusive boyfriend (James Nelson-Joyce) of her mother (Jasmine Jobson); her half brother (Jason Buda) slipping into vigilante violence; her father marrying a new girlfriend.
The introduction of surrealism has... Read More