Jeremy Leeds has joined San Francisco-based production/post/motion graphics/interactive media studio TEAK as senior interactive producer. He will work closely with executive producer Greg Martinez.
Leeds specializes in managing large-scale, complex interactive and web development projects, working with clients on custom designed websites, microsites and landing pages that have included such features as email messaging platforms, robust content management systems, and interactive interfaces.
Leeds was recently at Mekanism where he produced a pair of marquee projects including a comprehensive Flash video microsite and a social network for Harmonix/EA’s popular Rock Band videogame. While at Mekanism, he also had a hand in comedic tongue-in-cheek interactive site for Tostitos, in which users can watch a fictional organization (the National Organization for Legislation Against Fun-NOLAF) rail against the detrimental effects of Tostitos chips.
Among the other clients for whom Leeds has worked on projects are Ferrari, McAfee, SoBe, Toshiba, TheTourOperator.com, Sony, Oracle, Ask Jeeves, Selectica, Emindhealth.com, Kodak, AirTreks and Charles Schwab.
Prior to Mekanism, Leeds was a senior interactive producer at Loomis Group, interactive producer at Attik, and project manager at Landor & Associates, and Fluid, Inc.
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More