Composer/producer Nick Crane and Uppercut owner/editor Micah Scarpelli have teamed to launch music company Racket Club. The NYC-based shop will focus on original compositions for commercial and entertainment work designed to be created in-sync with visuals. Leading the boutique music shop as creative director, Crane will fuse his experiences as both composer and producer to craft original music tracks as well as oversee the creative vision for the studio as a whole, collaborating with a network of composer talent curated throughout his career. The shop has already composed for top branded projects, including a recent Nike campaign for the U.S. Open featuring Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka, as well as work for clients like Verizon, Reebok, Toyota, bareMinerals and Volvo.
“The music and editorial creative processes are all too often isolated from each other in our business,” noted Crane. “I’m excited to partner with clients that are just as music-obsessed, to bridge that gap and bring edit and score together the way they should be.”
Since opening Uppercut in 2015, Scarpelli has built a curated roster of in-house editorial talent who lend their diverse skills to campaigns for clients such as Volvo, Nike, Verizon, FitBit, Kia, Asics, Neutrogena, Lululemon, IBM and CVS.
“As an editor, I’ve always been really excited about how music drives the picture and when I connected with Nick, I knew that this was finally the right time to make the leap to launch a new venture in that space,” said Scarpelli.
Crane joins his extensive musical background–spanning university studies in music and film and touring stints with multiple bands–with an extensive lineup of musical artists compiled over his diverse career. In addition to composing for Racket Club clients, he will oversee the creative vision for all projects, tapping into his talent network to satisfy the musical needs on videos of all scopes and sizes. In addition to his work as a composer, he’s produced commercial projects for Adidas, Dos Equis, Walmart, Sprint and Gillette, as well as music videos for The Avalanches and Danny Brown. He made the segue to music supervision, helping to launch Sixty-Four Music, and later composition, working closely with editors and directors to unite music and picture throughout the production process.
Racket Club has connected with Mary Eiff and Michelle Stuart of Hello Tomorrow for East Coast sales representation.
Full Lineup Set For AFI Fest; Official Selections Span 44 Countries, Include 9 Best International Feature Oscar Submissions
The American Film Institute (AFI) has unveiled the full lineup for this year’s AFI Fest, taking place in Los Angeles from October 23-27. Rounding out the slate of already announced titles are such highlights as September 5 directed by Tim Fehlbaum, All We Imagine As Light directed by Payal Kapadia, The Luckiest Man in America directed by Samir Oliveros (AFI Class of 2019), Zurawski v. Texas from executive producers Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and Jennifer Lawrence and directors Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault, and Oh, Canada directed by Paul Schrader (AFI Class of 1969). A total of 158 films are set to screen at the 38th edition of AFI Fest.
Of the official selections, 48% are directed by women and non-binary filmmakers and 26% are directed by BIPOC filmmakers.
Additional festival highlights include documentaries Architecton directed by Victor Kossakovsky; Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie directed by David Bushell; Devo directed by Chris Smith about the legendary new wave provocateurs; Gaucho Gaucho directed by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw; Group Therapy directed by Neil Berkeley with Emmy® winner Neil Patrick Harris and Tig Notaro; No Other Land directed by a Palestinian-Israeli team comprised of Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor and Hamdan Ballal; Pavements directed by Alex Ross Perry; and Separated directed by Errol Morris. Notable narrative titles include Black Dog (Gou Zen) directed by Guan Hu; Bonjour Tristesse directed by Durga Chew-Bose with Academy Award® nominee Chloë Sevigny; Caught By The Tides directed by Jia Zhangke; Hard Truths directed by Mike Leigh with... Read More