Commercial production unit opens with a roster featuring directors Biesemans, Karas, Enriquez
Stun Creative, a creative agency and production company based in Los Angeles, is launching StunSpots, a commercial production unit with a roster of directors for consumer and entertainment brand commercial spots. The unit will be led by Jared Christensen, Stun Creative’s VP/head of production, who reports directly to Stun founders/principals Mark Feldstein and Brad Roth.
StunSpots' talent roster consists of: Patrick Biesemans, formerly an in-house producer/director at Grey NY, highly regarded for his uniquely stylized and visual approach to storytelling; Jay Karas, a prolific Hollywood comedy director best known for his work in episodic television, including directing Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Parks and Recreation, Workaholics, Raising Hope, Awkward and The Fosters; and Nick Enriquez, a documentary and commercial director known for his dynamic, cinematic style of documentary advertising, working with real people. Enriquez previously was represented by Lonelyleap in NYC.
Celebrating 16 years, Stun Creative built its reputation as Hollywood’s go-to shop for entertainment brands–networks and studios. The company has since moved successfully into consumer brand advertising, most recently shooting top brand commercials including Dove + Men Care Real Strength, a Super Bowl favorite last year; the new Fandango campaign starring SNL comedian Kenan Thompson as movie superfan Miles Mouvay; the Pepsi Perfect commercial celebrating the 30th anniversary of Back to the Future; and "If You Don’t Tell Them, Then Who Will?," a pro-bono effort on Funny Or Die for WomanCare Global featuring actress and activist Jessica Beal and directed by Karas.
“Nick, Jay and Patrick contribute a full range of styles and approaches to StunSpots,” said Christensen. “They have very distinct points of view when it comes to storytelling. All very accomplished, they construct narratives in their own unique and compelling way through comedy, visual and documentary filmmaking.”
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
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