Emmy-winning VFX house Zoic Studios, with offices in Culver City, Calif., Vancouver, B.C., and a recently opened NY shop, has for its commercial division secured indie rep firm Minerva to handle the East Coast. Comprised of industry veterans Mary Knox and Shauna Seresin, Minerva represents a select roster of talent to ad agencies and direct to clients.
Van Duke has joined the executive team of PlayBox Technology as USA sales manager. He will lead the newly established PlayBox Technology U.S. office which is based in Florida. The hiring of Duke marks his return to the company for which he served as U.S. market country manager from 2006-’09. Van Duke commenced his broadcast industry career in 1978 as an engineer at WTVJ TV-6 in Miami. Five years on, he progressed into sales engineering including successful roles at Midtown Video, On-Air Systems, Video Technics and most recently Primestream.
Alberto Santana has joined Snell Advanced Media’s (SAM) Latin American team as regional sales manager, reporting to Felipe Andrade, regional director–Brazil. SAM was formed from the fusion of Quantel and Snell. Santana, a 14-year veteran of the broadcast industry, joins SAM after serving in roles at Sony, Grass Valley and most recently Ross Video. At his new roost, Santana is responsible for development of new markets and the management of the channel partners and system integrators in the region….
Review: Director Morgan Neville’s “Piece by Piece”
A movie documentary that uses only Lego pieces might seem an unconventional choice. When that documentary is about renowned musician-producer Pharrell Williams, it's actually sort of on-brand.
"Piece by Piece" is a bright, clever song-filled biopic that pretends it's a behind-the-scenes documentary using small plastic bricks, angles and curves to celebrate an artist known for his quirky soul. It is deep and surreal and often adorable. Is it high concept or low? Like Williams, it's a bit of both.
Director Morgan Neville — who has gotten more and more experimental exploring other celebrity lives like Fred Rogers in "Won't You Be My Neighbor?,""Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain" and "Steve! (Martin): A Documentary in Two Pieces" — this time uses real interviews but masks them under little Lego figurines with animated faces. Call this one a documentary in a million pieces.
The filmmakers try to explain their device — "What if nothing is real? What if life is like a Lego set?" Williams says at the beginning — but it's very tenuous. Just submit and enjoy the ride of a poor kid from Virginia Beach, Virginia, who rose to dominate music and become a creative director at Louis Vuitton.
Williams, by his own admission, is a little detached, a little odd. Music triggers colors in his brain — he has synesthesia, beautifully portrayed here — and it's his forward-looking musical brain that will make him a star, first as part of the producing team The Neptunes and then as an in-demand solo producer and songwriter.
There are highs and lows and then highs again. A verse Williams wrote for "Rump Shaker" by Wreckx-N-Effect when he was making a living selling beats would lead to superstars demanding to work with him and partner... Read More