Creative post studio Spontaneous has upped its CG game by bringing VFX artist Ed Manning on board as CG supervisor to oversee the increasingly complex CG projects coming through the New York office.
A Harvard grad, Manning has held key executive positions at digital agency R/GA and worked as a freelance VFX supervisor and technical director across a variety of disciplines–from feature films and commercials to software development–with such shops as Method Studios and Psyop. This new role represents a chance for him to take on a more meaningful stake in enhancing and shaping the technical and creative skillset at an evolving studio.
“Spontaneous has a solid creative core of artists across all post disciplines. I’m looking forward to undertaking more complex projects, and building on their already substantial body of knowledge, best practices, and technical resources for the department,” said Manning. “I am also excited about tapping into their foundation in commercial production as a basis for growth into other rich-media areas, like experience design, interactive multimedia, and casual gaming. Finally, the position also affords me the opportunity to take on a leadership role in more personally rewarding areas, like mentoring artists.”
Spontaneous is headed by creative director John Leamy and team leaders Lawrence Nimrichter, director of animation/associate creative director, and Andy Milkis, director of VFX. Manning and Leamy had known each other for years and have worked together on numerous occasions so the opportunity to collaborate on a more permanent basis was a natural step.
Martin Scorsese On “The Saints,” Faith In Filmmaking and His Next Movie
When Martin Scorsese was a child growing up in New York's Little Italy, he would gaze up at the figures he saw around St. Patrick's Old Cathedral. "Who are these people? What is a saint?" Scorsese recalls. "The minute I walk out the door of the cathedral and I don't see any saints. I saw people trying to behave well within a world that was very primal and oppressed by organized crime. As a child, you wonder about the saints: Are they human?" For decades, Scorsese has pondered a project dedicated to the saints. Now, he's finally realized it in "Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints," an eight-part docudrama series debuting Sunday on Fox Nation, the streaming service from Fox News Media. The one-hour episodes, written by Kent Jones and directed by Elizabeth Chomko, each chronicle a saint: Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, John the Baptist, Thomas Becket, Mary Magdalene, Moses the Black, Sebastian and Maximillian Kolbe. Joan of Arc kicks off the series on Sunday, with three weekly installments to follow; the last four will stream closer to Easter next year. In naturalistic reenactments followed by brief Scorsese-led discussions with experts, "The Saints" emphasizes that, yes, the saints were very human. They were flawed, imperfect people, which, to Scorsese, only heightens their great sacrifices and gestures of compassion. The Polish priest Kolbe, for example, helped spread antisemitism before, during WWII, sheltering Jews and, ultimately, volunteering to die in the place of a man who had been condemned at Auschwitz. Scorsese, who turns 82 on Sunday, recently met for an interview not long after returning from a trip to his grandfather's hometown in Sicily. He was made an honorary citizen and the experience was still lingering in his mind. Remarks have... Read More