Cinematographer Mattias Montero, FSF, production designer Laura Fox and stylist Kimberly Willess have signed with The Gersh Agency for exclusive representation….Dattner Dispoto and Associates (DDA) has signed cinematographer Mikolaj Lebkowski, whose credits include 11 Minutes directed by Jerzy Skolimowski, and editor Brad McLaughlin, who cut director Debra Eisenstadt’s Before The Sun Explodes….DDA has also booked the feature films The Italy Project (director Jeff Baena) for DP Quyen Tran, Beirut for production designer Arad Sawat, and San Bernadino Bound (director Chester Tam) for producer Rick Bosner. On the TV front, DDA has booked Sherlock, Season 4 (BBC/PBS) and Travelers (Netflix) for DP Neville Kidd, The Man in the High Castle, Season 2 (Amazon) for DP Jim Hawkinson, the Shots Fired pilot (Fox) for Tami Reiker, ASC, the Making History pilot (Fox) for DP Xavier Grobet, ASC, Gaffigan, Season 2 (TV Land) for DP Niels Alpert, the Drew pilot (CBS) for DP Stefan Czapsky, ASC, the Transylvania pilot (CW) for DP Bob Gantz, ASC, the Channel Zero series (Syfy) for DP Noah Greenberg, the Chad pilot (Fox) for production designer Tad Dennis, and Fear The Walking Dead, Season 2 (AMC) for editor Tad Dennis….Maria V. Elgar of Hardtribe Creative Representation in Hollywood, has taken on overall repping for Second Sense Creative, an L.A.-based house that writes, produces, and creates audio advertising and promotional spots for radio and digital platforms, as well as native advertising, long form digital podcasts and other branded content. Co-founded by creative directors Eric Poole and Jason Nutile, Second Sense has clients that include FOX Broadcasting Co., Nature Box and Wix.com….Cooke Optics’ ZGC, the American distributor for the multi-award winning manufacturer of precision lenses for film and television, has appointed Rich Eilers as its director of sales….
Steven Soderbergh Has A Multi-Faceted “Presence” In His Latest Film
Steven Soderbergh isn't just the director and cinematographer of his latest film. He's also, in a way, its central character.
"Presence" is filmed entirely from the POV of a ghost inside a home a family has just moved into. Soderbergh, who serves as his own cinematographer under the pseudonym Peter Andrews (his father's name), essentially performs as the presence, a floating point-of-view that watches as the violence that killed the mysterious ghost threatens to be repeated.
For even the prolific Soderbergh, the film, which opens Friday in theaters, was a unique challenge. He shot "Presence" with a small digital camera while wearing slippers to soften his steps.
The 62-year-old filmmaker recently met a reporter in a midtown Manhattan hotel in between finishing post-production on his other upcoming movie ("Black Bag," a thriller Focus Features will release March 14) and beginning production in a few weeks on his next project, a romantic comedy that he says "feels like a George Cukor movie."
Soderbergh, whose films include "Out of Sight," the "Ocean's 11" movies, "Magic Mike" and "Erin Brockovich," tends to do a lot in small windows of time. "Presence" took 11 days to film.
That dexterous proficiency has made the ever-experimenting Soderbergh one of Hollywood's most widely respected evaluators of the movie business. In a wide-ranging conversation, he discussed why he thinks streaming is the most destructive force the movies have ever faced and why he's "the cockroach of this industry."
Q: You use pseudonyms for yourself as a cinematographer and editor. Were you tempted to credit yourself as an actor for "Presence"?
SODERBERGH: No, but what I did is subtle. For the first and... Read More