Executive producer Toni Lipari and editor Stephen Jess have launched WAX, a boutique film editorial company and creative collective.
“We have the rare opportunity to craft our identity at the onset as being a versatile company in the market,” Lipari said. “Ultimately our goal is to assemble a collection of artists where ideas will be conceived and fostered all within a creative environment.”
“We are creating a brand where talented people want to work as part of a collective, each bringing their skills to different parts of the same project,” Jess said. “Our first partnership is with TheBrigade, a VFX and animation company helmed by Sean Broughton and Dave Dimeola. Their cloud based workflow introduces a new way to bring world class VFX and CGI to our clients in a very flexible way.”
In addition, WAX launches with a unique mandate: to align itself with a different charity each quarter and donate a percentage of its profits to these worthwhile causes. The company’s first philanthropic partnership is with artist Seth Casteel’s One Picture Saves a Life, a website that provides animal shelter staff and volunteers with the resources to successfully groom and photograph shelter pets for adoption photographs. The site is allied with the GreaterGood, an independent charitable organization that helps people, saves pets and improves the planet.
“When Steve and I first partnered together, something that was important to both of us was that WAX be a company that not only tells great stories but also somehow gives back to the world,” Lipari explained.
WAX officially opened its doors last Wednesday with an event held at its new loft space in Chelsea. Photographer Casteel was in attendance with seven photographs from his new book, Underwater Puppies. All prints were put up for silent auction, as was a commissioned photo shoot by Casteel, for One Picture Saves a Life. The event raised close to $12,000 for the charity, according to Lipari and Jess.
Prior to opening WAX, co-founder Lipari was the executive producer at NO6. Before her transition into postproduction, she worked on the agency side as an executive producer at McCann-Erickson New York and senior producer at Young & Rubicam New York. WAX co-founder Jess’ prior experience includes staff film editor positions at Whitehouse Post and Lost Planet. Jess recently edited campaigns for Target via Mono and Chase Sapphire via Saatchi & Saatchi, and just wrapped a project for Subaru via Carmichael Lynch. Editor Joe Dillingham is also on WAX’s roster and has recently worked on projects for Samsung, Reebok, NBC Sports and Optimum.
“There’s been so much consolidation in our industry in recent years, I think it’s beginning to turn back to the boutique model where the business is built around the talent,” Jess added. “We think it’s the best model for the creativity to flourish.”
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More