Experiential design agency Fake Love recently tapped Omer Shapira as its new lead VR visualist. Shapira comes to Fake Love from Framestore, where he led projects for that studio’s VR software division. Previously he worked with The NYU Media Research Lab and the MIT Media Lab, and was a filmmaker/VFX artist at Channel 10.
Shapira specializes in blending programming, live-action film and experimental interaction technologies with real-time graphics, resulting in a highly unique visual experience. He has contributed this distinctive style to projects for Nike, Google, Microsoft, Disney, Universal Pictures and Samsung.
“Omer’s amazing skills with VR and game engines creates a fantastic complement to our existing team,” stated Layne Braunstein, co-founder and ECD of Fake Love. “His math and artistic background is going to help us create real-time visuals never seen before today in VR or really anywhere.”
Shapira’s work has been shown at Tribeca Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival and The Barbican and recognized by The Art Director’s Club and The Webby’s. Omer has a B.Sc in Mathematics from Tel Aviv University and a Master’s from the NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More