Tool has promoted sr. interactive developer Vincent Toscano to the role of tech manager. The company has also added sr. interactive developer Simon Lindsay. For the past two years Toscano has been with Tool where he helped to execute digital projects ranging from Capitol One’s “2014 Mascot Challenge” to Sundance Channel’s “Be Original.” In his role as tech manager, he will be responsible for overseeing the technology infrastructure and working directly with agency/client tech directors. Lindsay joins the company following stints with Resn, Firstborn, and Fantasy Interactive. He will be based in NYC….Bicoastal VFX studio Ntropic has brought Kathrin Lausch aboard as executive producer of its NYC office. Lausch brings two decades of experience as an EP to Ntropic, having worked with a strong roster of production and post companies that includes B-Reel, Partizan Entertainment and Compass Films, on clients as diverse as Puma, Perrier, and Infiniti….
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