Skins Game, Raising Voices, People in the News...
SKINS GAMEMuskrat Lovely made its TV debut on PBS earlier this week as part of the network’s Independent Lens series. The documentary premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival last fall and marks the first feature-length endeavor for director Amy Nicholson, a long-time ad agency creative (Fallon McElligott, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Wieden+Kennedy) who has made a successful transition to directing. Her spot helming home is bicoastal/international Hungry Man, which she joined last year, having since directed campaigns for the Department of Homeland Security and On Demand.
Shot in a remote area of the Chesapeake Bay, Muskrat Lovely follows the events that lead to the final crowning of Miss Outdoors, a beauty pageant for local high school girls at the National Outdoor Show in Golden Hill, Maryland. That is not the only competition being held at the Outdoor Show during that time as the film also chronicles a muskrat-skinning contest. Muskrat Lovely has also been screened at the Austin Film Festival and the Florida Film Festival. Nicholson is accustomed to the film festival circuit and to PBS. Her first film, Beauty School, a short about the New York School of Dog Grooming, was shown at several international festivals and gained airtime on PBS.
RAISING VOICESan Francisco-based audio post house Crescendo! Studios has launched Voice Talent Casting, an online casting service of exclusively Bay Area voice actors. Working with Taylor Korobow of The Voice Factory, Crescendo has assembled a categorized roster of talent in its online database. Thus far, Voice Talent Casting has worked for such clients as Mervyn’s and DLP Texas Instruments.
PEOPLE IN THE NEWS
Sound Lounge, New York, has promoted Paul Weiss and Cory Melious to audio mixer positions. Both artisans began their careers at Sound Lounge in 2002 as assistant mixers. “Grooming our own talent allows us the opportunity to train new mixers in our approach to the craft of mixing,” said Sound Lounge President Tom Jucarone. Weiss recently had the opportunity to perform the final mix on work for MasterCard (McCann Erickson, New York), a PSA promoting AIDS awareness (from Crispin Porter+Bogusky, Miami) and a cinema campaign for this year’s TriBeCa Film Festival (Ogilvy & Mather, New York). Melious’ ad endeavors include campaigns for Tylenol (Deutsch, New York), MTV (in-house), Sportsnet (Ogilvy, N.Y.) and the American Liver Foundation (Filter, New York). The latter spot made SHOOT’s “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery earlier this year….Audio engineer Vance Walden has joined AudioBanks, Santa Monica. He comes by way of Polarity Post and One Union Recording in San Francisco…..Tricia Halloran, director of A&R for Hum Music, Santa Monica, has been named the music supervisor for ABC’s primetime comedic drama Men In Trees…..The theatrical film trailer team of Tricia Ashford and Treva Blue has joined Post Logic Studios, Hollywood…..Visual effects operator Adam Watson is joining the effects department at Rushes, London….Denver-based creative digital studio !mpossible Pictures has added producer Julie Morrandez and visual effects artist Hector Espinosa. Morrandez had been senior producer at Phoenix Edit, Effects & Design, San Francisco, while Espinosa was a graphic designer at The Filmworkers Club, Chicago…..
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More