International VFX and design company Smoke & Mirrors has named Jeff Stevens to serve as creative director at its New York office. Additionally, the studio has secured its first-ever representation in the Midwest, signing Matt Bucher and his company, Obsidian Reps.
Stevens won a Gold Lion at the Cannes Advertising Festival in 2010 for a title sequence for that year’s OFFF Festival. He joined The Mill in 2009 as design director, charged with overseeing the development and integration of the new Design department with VFX and Digital. While there he worked on high-profile projects such as IBM’s “Data Anthem,” which brought data viz scans to life in a surrealistic narrative style. Other brands he has worked with include Ford, Coca-Cola, Verizon, L’Oreal and Pantene.
A graduate of Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD), Stevens has also worked at Charlex in NY, where he managed the design team, and at editorial and design boutique Splice Here in Minneapolis, where he was creative director.
This is the third major hire this year for Smoke & Mirrors which brought on new managing director Mary Knox in February and executive producer Daniel Cohen in April. Knox and Stevens replace Jo Morgan, longtime managing director of the company, and Sean Broughton, former CD and one of the co-founders, who left the company at the beginning of this year.
Gary Szabo, managing director of Smoke & Mirrors in London, said that the new hires position the company well on both sides of the Atlantic with operations connected through a fully integrated technical network. Smoke & Mirrors also has offices in Shanghai and Sao Paulo. In London, Smoke & Mirrors has recently launched a live-action production company, Rock Hound, which is soon to open in the U.S. A new website showcasing the international work is launching in early June.
Recent commercial clients in the States include agencies such as BBDO, mcgarrybowen, KBS+ and JWT, and brands such as BMW, Mountain Dew, Reebok, ESPN, Google, Jaguar, Land Rover, Verizon, Absolut, MTV and Coke. Smoke & Mirrors also recently completed CGI and VFX for the pilot of Hannibal, an NBC series directed by David Slade (Twilight, Breaking Bad) that aired in April.
Directing and Editing “Conclave”; Insights From Edward Berger and Nick Emerson
It’s been a bruising election year but this time we’re referring to a ballot box struggle that’s more adult than the one you’d typically first think of in 2024. Rather, on the industry awards front, the election being cited is that of the Pope which takes front and center stage in director Edward Berger’s Conclave (Focus Features), based on the 2016 novel of the same title by Robert Harris. Adapted by screenwriter Peter Straugham, Conclave stars Ralph Fiennes as the cardinal leading the conclave that has convened to select the next Pope. While part political thriller, full of backstabbing and behind-closed-door machinations, Conclave also registers as a thoughtful adult drama dealing with themes such as a crisis of faith, weighing the greater good, and engaging in a struggle that’s as much about spirituality as the attainment of power.
Conclave is Berger’s first feature after his heralded All Quiet on the Western Front, winner of four Oscars in 2023, including for Best International Feature Film. And while Conclave would on the surface seem to be quite a departure from that World War I drama, there’s a shared bond of humanity which courses through both films.
For Berger, the heightened awareness of humanity hit home for him by virtue of where he was--in Rome, primarily at the famed Cinecittà studio--to shoot Conclave, sans any involvement from the Vatican. He recalled waking up in Rome to “soak up” the city. While having his morning espresso, Berger recollected looking out a window and seeing a priest walking about with a cigarette in his mouth, a nun having a cup of coffee, an archbishop carrying a briefcase. It dawned on Berger that these were just people going to... Read More