LIZ HINLEIN WRAPS SICHUAN UNIVERSITY SHOOT
Director/DP Liz Hinlein brings compelling stories to life. She’s a veteran of feature films (Other People's Children), commercials (Maybelline, A&E, Dove, Lifetime, Gillette), web series, music videos and virtual reality. But the hurdles she faced recently on a shoot for Sichuan Film and Television University in China were unlike any she’d encountered in her 20-plus year career.
“I had limited equipment, no script and no money,” she said. “I basically made these short films with a piece of tape and an apple box.” While using mostly student volunteers, WeChat for on-set translation and borrowed cameras, Hinlein also was able to tap into a well of local talent, including Jackie Chan’s fight choreographer and visual effects specialists in the area.
The result is a series of eight commercials that put Sichuan’s best foot forward, highlighting the wealth of creative energy at the school, including their photography, VFX, directing, dance and eSports departments. The vignettes stand apart from typical docu-style marketing videos, often aimed at parents, to give potential students a peek into the fields of study available at the college in southern China…
WHITE SCORES FELLOWSHIP FOR AFI CONSERVATORY
Cinematographer Meg White will be the inaugural recipient of the Screen Australia Onbass Fellowship, the newly established full-tuition scholarship for emerging Australian filmmakers to attend the American Film Institute (AFI) Conservatory in L.A. Created in partnership with Screen Australia (an Aussie federal government agency) and the Onbass Family Trust, formed by Gentle Giant Media Group CEO Greg Basser and his wife Kiera O’Neill, the Fellowships will provide full tuition and fees, as well as some support for living expenses and flights from Australia (courtesy of G’Day USA and Qantas), to one Australian filmmaker entering the AFI Conservatory in the fall of 2019 and one in the fall of 2020 — to join the graduating classes of 2021 and 2022, respectively.
White is an Australian cinematographer with experience shooting features, television and commercials. Originally from Newcastle, Australia, she received a degree in Media Arts and Production at the University of Technology, Sydney. Since graduating, she has worked in Australia and overseas across a diverse range of projects both large and small, digital and film. She was the cinematographer on “Remedy,” a music video directed by Russell Crowe, which won the Australian Cinematographers Society Silver (ACS) Silver Award. In 2017, White received the ACS Drew Llewelyn Camerimage Scholarship. Her ongoing interest in still photography, primarily of animals and the natural world, informs her approach to cinematography….
PEOPLE IN THE NEWS…
Marco Venturelli has been appointed co-president overseeing creativity at Publicis Conseil. Venturelli will work alongside Agathe Bousquet, president, Publicis Conseil and Publicis Groupe France, and Anne de Maupeou, chief creative officer, Publicis Groupe France. Venturelli was most recently executive creative director at Publicis Milan, a role he held from 2015. While at Publicis Milan, he was the global creative lead for Heineken business where he led the creation of several well-known, highly-awarded campaigns. Venturelli is also the recipient of a hundred awards which includes 30 Cannes Lions….
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
The one rule to follow is that... Read More