COMPANY, headed by executive producers Robin Benson and Richard Goldstein, has signed director Michael Shapiro for commercial representation. Shapiro’s storytelling has recently been highlighted in work for GAP, Goodyear, SIRIUS, JCPenney and Bank Of America….Venice, Calif.-based branded and immersive storytelling studio OffAbbot has been launched. The new venture is led by executive producers Justin Towery and Scott Flor, with Adam Cohen named to serve as head of VR production. OffAbbot opens with a directorial lineup which includes Brendan Beachman, Julian Whatley, Jason Z. Wong, Ryan Pesecky, Andrea Ball, Matt Celia, Ryan Turner and Sabyn Mayfield. Celia recently wrapped a couple of projects for OffAbbot, including Paranormal Activity Seance, a 360 VR narrative horror story created as a co-branded production for gaming network IGN.com and for the on demand/digital HD release of the latest feature in the horror series Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension….San Francisco-headquartered Wikia, which recently launched entertainment website Fandom, has now opened an office in Santa Monica, Calif., featuring a video production facility. Anthony Cava heads up the new content studio and will serve as head of video. Eric Moro, who currently serves as VP of content for Wikia, will be based in the new office and spearhead all editorial content. Before joining Wikia, Moro was the editor in chief of the movies, TV, Blu-ray and DVD channels for entertainment website IGN.com. Moro said that the Southern California office enables Wikia to be closer to leading entertainment industry entities, opening up opportunities to partner with them….
Steven Soderbergh Has A Multi-Faceted “Presence” In His Latest Film
Steven Soderbergh isn't just the director and cinematographer of his latest film. He's also, in a way, its central character.
"Presence" is filmed entirely from the POV of a ghost inside a home a family has just moved into. Soderbergh, who serves as his own cinematographer under the pseudonym Peter Andrews (his father's name), essentially performs as the presence, a floating point-of-view that watches as the violence that killed the mysterious ghost threatens to be repeated.
For even the prolific Soderbergh, the film, which opens Friday in theaters, was a unique challenge. He shot "Presence" with a small digital camera while wearing slippers to soften his steps.
The 62-year-old filmmaker recently met a reporter in a midtown Manhattan hotel in between finishing post-production on his other upcoming movie ("Black Bag," a thriller Focus Features will release March 14) and beginning production in a few weeks on his next project, a romantic comedy that he says "feels like a George Cukor movie."
Soderbergh, whose films include "Out of Sight," the "Ocean's 11" movies, "Magic Mike" and "Erin Brockovich," tends to do a lot in small windows of time. "Presence" took 11 days to film.
That dexterous proficiency has made the ever-experimenting Soderbergh one of Hollywood's most widely respected evaluators of the movie business. In a wide-ranging conversation, he discussed why he thinks streaming is the most destructive force the movies have ever faced and why he's "the cockroach of this industry."
Q: You use pseudonyms for yourself as a cinematographer and editor. Were you tempted to credit yourself as an actor for "Presence"?
SODERBERGH: No, but what I did is subtle. For the first and... Read More