Nick Gordon, Sally Campbell and Tim Nash have teamed to launch London production house Somesuch & Co. Director Gordon and producer Campbell were both formerly with Academy Films. Nash was most recently with Atlantic Records as video commissioner; prior to that he was head of music videos at Academy. Gordon heads the directorial roster at Somesuch, which has secured stateside representation via Caviar. Conversely, select directors at Caviar such as Keith Schofield pick up U.K. representation via Somesuch…..Still photographer Kate Powers has wrapped her first live-action TV directing gig with a pair of :30 spots for SHN, the official site of Broadway in San Francisco. The spots thread together a series of black-and-white testimonials from passionate theatergoers, from the woman who's seen Wicked 18 times to the man who keeps a box stuffed with the ticket stubs of every Broadway show he's ever seen, creating a dynamic portrait of SHN's diverse and passionate fan base. Production/post house Teak secured the assignment for Powers, which came out of agency Addis Creson. The spots were cut by Teak's Sean Shafer….Digital studio Radium/Reel FX, Santa Monica/Dallas has brought aboard veteran executive producer Dan Bryant, who will based in the Santa Monica studio. Bryant comes to Radium/Reel FX after a successful run as a freelance producer for advertising agencies DDB Worldwide, Euro RSCG and GSD&M, and digital studios Blind, Buck, Digital Kitchen, Shilo and Troika. Highlighting his freelance producing career are numerous Super Bowl commercials for Budweiser and Bud Light, including the Budweiser Clydesdale spot “Team,” which was voted the #1 Super Bowl spot of 2008 in the USA Today readers' poll. Bryant previously served as executive producer for Area 51 Films, The Joneses, Swietlik Editorial (now Cut + Run), and Backyard Productions. At Radium/Reel FX, he will oversee the studio's West Coast commercial business….San Francisco editorial/post shop Barbary Post has promoted Daniel Truog to editor. He has been with the company since its inception in 2006, first as an assistant editor to owner/editor Bob Spector, then as senior assistant/junior editor. Originally from Chicago, Truog has recently cut spots and web films for Doritos, Haagen Dazs and Sprint through Goodby, Silverstein and Partners, and Comcast Sports Network through BBDO West…
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