Bicoastal m ss ng p eces has hired Catherine Day as head of VR/AR/360 and added VR director Sam Smith to its roster. The moves fortify the production and entertainment company’s already established pedigree in virtual reality storytelling which includes delivering one of the first commercial VR projects, Dos Equis’ “Virtual Masquerade,” bringing a U.S. President into VR with Bill Clinton’s “Inside Impact,” and turning out a groundbreaking VR sports documentary “Follow My Lead: The 2016 Finals” for the National Basketball Association and Oculus.
Day comes over to m ss ng p eces from Jaunt VR where she was head of unscripted/executive producer. In her new role, Day will drive VR/AR/360 efforts from m ss ng p eces’ Los Angeles office, and oversee several original VR series that will be announced jointly with WME and partners in the coming months. In her previous role at Jaunt VR, Day led projects for ABC News, RYOT/Huffington Post, Camp 4 Collective, XRez, Tastemade, Outside TV, Civic Nation and Conservation International.
Meanwhile Smith is a creative director and VR director who previously worked with MediaMonks on projects for Expedia, Delta, Converse and YT. Smith also has an extensive background in commercial visual effects. His deep understanding of postproduction and VFX gives him a unique edge in development of VR/360 projects, and as a technical advisor to m ss ng p eces.
Smith and Day build on a company talent base which recently added such other notables as: Ray Tintori who co-directed the 25-minute “Follow My Lead” experience, which transports the viewer through the 2016 NBA championship and helped redefine long-form for VR; Yehuda Duenyas, a.k.a. Mindride, who is best known for his creative and technical work on the Ad Council’s lauded “Love Has No Labels” campaign and the “Airflow” flying VR simulator; and Yung Jake who’s part of Jaunt’s VR Residency and is currently developing a VR/360 experience for the 2017 Sundance Institute New Frontiers program.
Additionally, as part of its expansion into developing original VR content, m ss ng p eces has signed with WME for representation. Earlier this year m ss ng p eces won an Emmy for its original series “Videos 4U,” a co-production with Ira Glass and This American Life.
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