Talent Infusion At Mill+
Managing director Rani Melendez and exec creative director Phil Crowe of The Mill have spearheaded an influx of new hires to the Mill+ roster in L.A.
Coming aboard Mill+ are creative directors Bowe King and Evan Parsons, and executive producer Ben Leiser. Additionally, Mill+ head of production Elizabeth Newman has been promoted to exec producer.
King previously worked at The Mill in New York as art director, and most recently in Chicago as an integral part of the senior team.
Parsons has had stints at a range of studios including Buck, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Imaginary Forces. Prior to joining The Mill, Parsons was associate creative director at Hue&Cry for The Martin Agency where he directed and creative directed projects including Care’s “Power of a Box,” Oreo’s “Mel’s Mini Mart” and the show opener for CT5.
EP Leiser brings with him over 15 years of production experience, working for production companies including Believe Media, Park Pictures, MJZ and RSA. He also has extensive experience working with brands such as Apple, Lexus, Nike, Coca-Cola and HBO, recently leading the promo campaign for the network’s successful limited series Big Little Lies.
Since joining Mill+ in 2013, Newman has produced a diverse range of powerful work including JAY-Z’s epic animated music video for “The Story of O.J.,” campaigns for Google Play, and the poignant titles and graphics for documentary feature We Are the Giant.
Framestore Brings Hulk To Life
Oscar-winning studio Framestore is showing its cross-platform capabilities yet again by bringing the powerful Marvel character Hulk to life on both film and commercial platforms. The Film team in London and Integrated Advertising team in L.A. collaborated on the latest CG characterization of Hulk for upcoming Marvel Studios releases and Renault’s commercial “Renault Kwid.”
“We’ve honed a very tight transition pipeline for film characters into other platforms,” said creative director Ben West. ”The ability to utilize detailed assets with complex rigs ensures we’re meeting the cinematic standard demanded for Marvel projects.”
Shot in São Paulo by Smuggler director Jonathan Gurvit, the “Renault Kwid” adventure begins as a man imagines what the Hulk would do as news breaks that a satellite is falling towards Earth. Framestore artists brought Hulk to life with his signature leaps taking him to the top of the Banco Banespa building before smashing the explosive satellite mid-sky.
Framestore worked to exaggerate Hulk’s strenuous muscle and facial detail. The teams worked closely together to enhance the amount of detail needed in his muscles, including in the rig, muscular weight in animation, textural displacements of veins, lighting art direction to enhance angles, and shot-specific muscle sculpting to refine even further. Other subtle yet essential details of Hulk include peach fuzz on the body, facial stubble and sweat stems.
Timber Shows “Loyalty” For Kendrick Lamar
Timber once again contributed to Kendrick Lamar’s artistry, this time in his new music video “Loyalty” featuring Rihanna. The cinematic piece, directed by Dave Meyers via production house Freenjoy with VFX by Timber, stands as a metaphoric exploration of loyalty under diverse and thrilling circumstances, from city rooftop ledges, where Rihanna holds onto Kendrick’s arm for dear life, to surrealistic sharks stealthily ascending from the ground. The Timber team included creative directors Jonah Hall and Kevin Lau, EP Sabrina Elizondo,Flame artists Miles Kinghorn and Tim Miller, Nuke artists Andrew Ashton, Matt LaVoy, Jason Forster, Eric Almeras, Eduardo Anton and Michael Loney, and CG artists Jeff Willette, Kevin Gillen and Erik Zimmermann.
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More