Entertainment company Alkemy X has continued the expansion of its visual effects division with the hiring of Sarah Grieshammer as VFX supervisor. Her nearly two decades of experience in visual effects span episodic, feature film and commercial projects. Among Grieshammer’s major credits include films like The Amazing Spider-Man, The Hunger Games and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, as well as series including Stranger Things, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Sleepy Hollow and Your Honor.
Alkemy X president and CEO Justin Wineburgh said, “Sarah’s profound positivity and enthusiasm for the innovative nature of the creative process is reflected in each and every project she works on.” At Alkemy X, Grieshammer reunites with Mark Miller, executive producer, business development.
Grieshammer shared, “To me, visual effects is a unique opportunity to step back and see how all of the puzzle pieces fit together and how the collaboration of the various disciplines come together to form one cohesive piece. I’m thrilled to be a part of the rapid momentum that the VFX department at Alkemy X has been building over the last couple of years. The team has met me with the utmost enthusiasm and optimism, and I am excited to bring the same to my work with our team and clients.”
Ohio-born Grieshammer followed a lifelong passion for the arts to Los Angeles, studying art and animation at California State University, Los Angeles. Her strong sense for motion, color and composition, alongside an inherent technical prowess, gave her a natural professional start in visual effects. Learning the industry through the lens of a compositor allowed her to gain a holistic understanding of the multitude of roles and departments within visual effects studios, using her artistic and technical skillsets to bring all of the disparate elements together to create the final vision. Already harnessing a comprehensive point of view of the strategic approach to visual effects, stepping up to the role of VFX supervisor was an organic move she embraced as an opportunity to continue pushing the boundaries of what her team could deliver for clients. Working as an on-set supervisor allowed her to further deepen her grasp on the end-to-end process, developing an understanding of how she could best serve the creative vision through visual effects.
In the interest of building a more diverse industry for the future, Grieshammer is passionate about mentoring emerging artists in the VFX industry, lending her expertise to broaden the awareness of the multitude of career path opportunities available. Currently based in New Orleans, she also periodically teaches visual effects at Loyola University New Orleans and continues to refine her love of fine art through oil painting.
Carrie Coon Relishes Being Part Of An Ensemble–From “The Gilded Age” To “His Three Daughters”
It can be hard to catch Carrie Coon on her own.
She is far more likely to be found in the thick of an ensemble. That could be on TV, in "The Gilded Age," for which she was just Emmy nominated, or in the upcoming season of "The White Lotus," which she recently shot in Thailand. Or it could be in films, most relevantly, Azazel Jacobs' new drama, "His Three Daughters," in which Coon stars alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen as sisters caring for their dying father.
But on a recent, bright late-summer morning, Coon is sitting on a bench in the bucolic northeast Westchester town of Pound Ridge. A few years back, she and her husband, the playwright Tracy Letts, moved near here with their two young children, drawn by the long rows of stone walls and a particularly good BLT from a nearby cafe that Letts, after biting into, declared must be within 15 miles of where they lived.
In a few days, they would both fly to Los Angeles for the Emmys (Letts was nominated for his performance in "Winning Time" ). But Coon, 43, was then largely enmeshed in the day-to-day life of raising a family, along with their nightly movie viewings, which Letts pulls from his extensive DVD collection. The previous night's choice: "Once Around," with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfus.
Coon met Letts during her breakthrough performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" on Broadway in 2012. She played the heavy-drinking housewife Honey. It was the first role that Coon read and knew, viscerally, she had to play. Immediately after saying this, Coon sighs.
"It sounds like something some diva would say in a movie from the '50s," Coon says. "I just walked around in my apartment in my slip and I had pearls and a little brandy. I made a grocery list and I just did... Read More