Director Rob Legato has signed with bicoastal/international Moxie Pictures for exclusive global spot representation. Legato has served as second unit director/cinematographer on such films as Martin Scorsese’s The Departed and The Aviator, and Robert DeNiro’s The Good Shepherd. Additionally, Legato is an Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor for such movies as Titanic and Apollo 13….Wieden+Kennedy (W+K) has hired Tyler Whisnand as co-creative director for the Nike team based in Portland, Ore. He succeeds Steve Luker who was promoted in January to co-creative director for W+K, Portland. Whisnand will partner with Mike McCommon who previously served as W+K creative director for the Electronic Arts account team. Whisnand comes to W+K from KesselsKramer, Amsterdam, where he was a creative director/partner….Director/DP Ben Dolphin has joined the roster of cineconcepto, Miami and Mexico City, and is now exclusively represented in the U.S. Hispanic market by Reel Reps….Editor Geraldine Garcia-Esquivel has joined wild(child) editorial, New York. After attaining a Master’s degree in communications in Chile, she moved stateside, interning at The Well, New York, and then working at 89 Editorial, New York…..Editor Tommy Harden, most recently at Chrome, Santa Monica, has come aboard Portland, Ore.-headquartered Joint, a digital media and post company housed within W+K. Joint operates offices in Portland, New York and Amsterdam….Copywriter Stephanie Crippin, formerly of 180 and W+K, both in Amsterdam, has joined McCann Erickson, New York….
Review: Director Carson Lund’s “Eephus”
In Carson Lund's "Eephus," two teams – the Riverdogs and Adler's Paint – gather on a neighborhood field for a baseball game. The leaves are already starting to turn — "It's getting late early," as Yogi Berra said — and this is to be the final game for their adult rec league. The field is to be demolished. No one would confuse them for all-stars. A suicide squeeze unfolds in creaky slow-motion. The rotund left fielder mutters "Mother McCree" under his breath when the ball is hit in the gap. But, regardless of skill level, they all care sincerely about the game. "Eephus," as leisurely as a late-August double header, simply unfolds along with their game. Except to chase a foul ball or two, the movie stays within the lines of Soldier Field, the nondescript Massachusetts baseball field they're playing on sometime in the 1990s. It spans nine innings, with dugout chatter and fading light. In this slow-pitch gem of a baseball movie — a middle-aged "Sandlot" — time is slipping away, but they're going down swinging. Money, analytics and whatever's on ESPN can sometimes cloud what sports is to most people: A refuge. "Eephus," in that way, is a change-up of a baseball movie, an elegiac ode to the humbler weekend warriors who are driven by nothing but genuine affection for the game. Richly detailed and mordantly deadpan, "Eephus" adopts their pace of play, soaking up all the sesame-seed flavor that goes along with it. The title comes from an unnaturally slow pitch not slung but lobbed toward home. When I was a kid pitching, I liked to uncork one from time to time, much to my coach's dismay. The metaphor isn't hard to grasp. One player describes it as a pitch you can get bored watching, even making you lose track of time. Much of the same applies to... Read More