London-based production company Blink now has a U.S. presence. The company has set up an office in Venice, Calif., headed up by executive producers Elizabeth Newton and Jeremy Smith, and has signed its first U.S.-based director—Sam Jones. A director and still photographer, Jones helmed the well-received 2002 documentary I am Trying to Break Your Heart for Wilco, which chronicled the making of the band’s fourth album….Bicoastal Moxie Pictures and Grammy-nominated music supervisor Randall Poster (School of Rock) are launching a joint venture, Search Party. The new shop will concentrate on music for the commercial/branded content arena. Poster’s other credits include Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, Velvet Goldmine, Starsky & Hutch and Something’s Gotta Give…. Mary Cheney, formerly head of broadcast production at Bartle Bogle Hegarty, New York, has joined Leo Burnett USA, Chicago, as a VP/senior producer….Bicoastal Anonymous Content is handling U.S. representation for the directors at Therapy Films, London. Anonymous continues to rep Therapy’s Malcolm Venville but now adds such other helmers from that U.K. shop as Mark Denton, Guy Manwaring, James Haworth and Simon Levene….Noted film composer Philip Glass (The Truman Show, The Hours, Secret Window) has joined Los Angeles music/sound design house Groove Addicts to make his spot debut, an Altoids campaign for Leo Burnett USA, Chicago….Editor James Lipetzky, formerly of Red Car, Santa Monica, has launched Foundation Post with offices in West Los Angeles and Chicago. Coming aboard the new shop’s Chicago facility is editor Steve Morrison, who had been at Superior Street, Chicago….Steele VFX has entered into a strategic alliance with visual effects supervisor and computer animator/director Wayne England and his company Spatial Harmonic Productions to provide computer animation services through the Steele studio. While retaining its independence, England’s company will set up shop in Steele’s Santa Monica headquarters and effectively act as its in-house computer animation department….Agency vets John Boiler, Glenn Cole, Robert Nakata and Greg Perlot have launched 72andSunny, an ad shop with offices in Amsterdam and Los Angeles. Nakata will head the Amsterdam office; he is best known for his tenure as a creative/designer at Wieden+Kennedy (W+K), Amsterdam. Boiler is a W+K veteran in the U.S. and Europe; he formerly served as executive creative director of W+K, Amsterdam. Cole was most recently W+K’s European creative director on Nike. And Perlot was senior VP at Publicis/West and prior to that was director of advertising and corporate research at Microsoft….Sony Corp. has sold Culver Studios, a historic Culver City, Calif., complex which features 14 soundstages and other production resources, to a group of El Segundo, Calif., and New York investors. The buyers include New York securities firm Lehman Bros. Holdings, El Segundo real estate investment company Pacific Coast Capital Partners and its affiliate, Pacifica Venture Partners….Due to incorrect info provided to SHOOT, the name of Cindy Nielsen, who was promoted to editor at Chinagraph, New York, was misspelled in last week’s Street Talk column….
Breakout Films and Major Takeaways From This Year’s Sundance Fest
Film wasn't the only thing on people's minds at this year's Sundance Film Festival, which comes to a close Sunday in Park City, Utah ( and online ).
The effects of the wildfires in Southern California loomed large, as did the bittersweet knowledge that this year will be the second to last Sundance based in Park City. Some films offered an escape from reality; others were a pointed reminder of the domestic and international political landscape, from transgender rights to the war in Ukraine.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the 41st edition of the festival.
The effects of the Southern California fires were deeply felt
The wildfires were still burning in parts of Los Angeles when Sundance began last week and reminders of its devastation were everywhere, even on screen. Max Walker-Silverman's "Rebuilding," starring Josh O'Connor as a cowboy who loses his ranch in a wildfire and forms a community with fellow survivors in a FEMA camp, hit close to home for many.
Filmmakers Meena Menon and Paul Gleason lost their home in Altadena where they filmed some of their zombie apocalypse movie "Didn't Die." Sundance artist labs head Michelle Satter lost her Palisades home as well. Satter had an audience of Sundance Institute donors in tears early in the festival while accepting an honor at a fundraising gala.
"It's a deeply devastating time for us and so many others, a moment that calls for all of us coming together to support our bigger community," Satter said. "As a friend recently noted, and I have to listen to this, 'Take a deep breath ... We lost our village, but at the end of the day we are the village.'"
The festival's move to another city dominated conversations
It was a topic... Read More