In a 2019 installment of SHOOT ’s The Road To Emmy series, Ozark showrunner Chris Mundy talked about the integral contributions of cinematographers Ben Kutchins and Armando Salas, ASC. Kutchins very much helped set the tone for the Netflix series from season one (after Pepe Avila del Pino shot the pilot and second episode). Kutchins was joined in season two by Salas who in turn became the primary DP in season 3. (Kutchins and Salas each shot half of the season 2 episodes, with Salas lensing six... Read More 

On Wednesday, more than 500 companies officially kicked off an advertising boycott intended to pressure Facebook into taking a stronger stand against hate speech. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has agreed to meet with its organizers early next week. But whether Zuckerberg agrees to further tighten the social network's carefully crafted rules probably boils down to a more fundamental question: Does Facebook need big brand advertisers more than the brands need Facebook? In a broad sense, the current boycott... Read More 

Verizon's decision to join the growing boycott against Facebook and Twitter risks hurting the social media giants where it hurts most: their advertising revenue. Advertising accounts for nearly all Facebook's $70.7 billion annual revenue, and a similar share of Twitter's $3.46 billion. Both already faced declining ad spending as big advertisers like Ford and Coca-Cola cut their budgets amid the pandemic and recession. The #StopHateforProfit campaign launched June 17 by the Anti-Defamation... Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Sundance Film Festival, held annually at altitude in the snowy reaches of a Utah ski town, is expanding beyond the mountains. Sundance, the premier independent film festival, isn't giving up its home in Park City. But on Monday, organizers said selections from next year's edition will also play in at least 20 other cities, radically enlarging Sundance's scope and connecting it more deeply with local communities. A "bespoke slate" of movies from Sundance's selection will screen concurrently... Read More 

LOS ANGELES -- The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) National Board of Directors met on Monday (6/29) in a one-day videoconference plenary and approved the tentative agreement reached with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on June 11. With the board’s approval, the deal covering motion picture, television and new media production now goes to the union’s membership for ratification. The board approved the tentative agreement by a super... Read More 

LOS ANGELES -- FilmLA, partner film office for the City and County of Los Angeles and other local jurisdictions, has issued an update regarding regional filming activity after the reopening of areas in L.A. County to production. FilmLA resumed remote office operations on Monday, June 15, and began accepting permit applications for filming as early as Friday, June 19. To date, 13 of the 16 city and county jurisdictions served by FilmLA have reopened to filming, while one of the six school districts served by... Read More 

The Critics Choice Association (CCA) and nonfiction producers’ organization NPACT have unveiled the winners for the second annual Critics Choice Real TV Awards, which recognize excellence in nonfiction, unscripted and reality programming across broadcast, cable and streaming platforms. Netflix led the way with eight wins, including two apiece for Cheer as Best Unstructured Series and Male Star of the Year (Jerry Harris), and Queer Eye for Best Lifestyle: Fashion/Beauty Show and Best Ensemble... Read More 

NEW YORK & LOS ANGELES -- Conor Byrne has joined the directorial roster of bicoastal m ss ng p eces. Byrne has directed international campaigns and branded films for clients like Skittles, Kit Kat, Microsoft, Ikea, Pepsi, McDonald’s and JetBlue. His work has won Cannes Lions, ADC honors, and Effies, among many other honors. Byrne was previously represented by Hungry Man. He’s an alum of SHOOT ’s 2014 New Directors Showcase. Byrne's comedic work is marked by a cinematic style with equal parts with, heart and meticulous... Read More 

LOS ANGELES -- Pulse Films has added director Haley Elizabeth Anderson to its roster for commercials and branded content worldwide. This marks her first production house representation in the ad arena. The NYC-based filmmaker is a rising talent. She wrote and directed Pillars which debuted this year at the Sundance Film Festival as a selection in the U.S. Narrative Short Films program. Additionally her short documentary If There Is Light was released on Hulu. If There Is Light debuted at last year’s Tribeca... Read More 

NEW YORK & LOS ANGELES -- Geoff Edwards has joined the leadership team of business agency GALE as executive creative director. He brings 20 years of advertising and entertainment industry experience to his new roost which has to its credit data-driven business strategies for such brands as T-Mobile, BMW, Chipotle and Santander. Edwards will oversee brand creative and execution at GALE where he’s been working with the executive team on various projects for the last six months before now officially coming on board... Read More 

LONDON -- Sam Hawkey has been appointed as the new CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi London. Hawkey takes on his new role today (7/1) as the agency opens the doors of its Chancery Lane headquarters. The office re-opens for a limited number of employees, with a booking system and social distancing measures in place, for the first time since the start of pandemic lockdown. The decision to promote Hawkey was made before the coronavirus crisis. Over the past five years, Hawkey has played a pivotal role in Saatchi... Read More 

LOS ANGELES -- The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is extending invitations to join the organization to 819 artists and executives who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures. The 2020 class is 45% women, 36% underrepresented ethnic/racial communities, and 49% international from 68 countries. There are 75 Oscar® nominees, including 15 winners, and five recipients of Scientific and Technical Awards. Those who accept the invitations will be the only... Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) -- The BET Awards served as an extension of the voices of Black people protesting in the streets about the inequalities Black people face daily, as artists used their performances to highlight the Black Lives Matter movement, civil rights and the lives of those lost because of police officers, including George Floyd. DaBaby, with his face pressed against the ground as an officer’s knee crippled his neck — replicating the last moments of Floyd’s life — rapped a verse from the Black Lives Matter... Read More 

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- A dozen feature films have been selected for the final round of tax credits allocated under California’s Film & TV Tax Credit Program 2.0, which was launched in 2015 and will be followed by the next-generation Program 3.0. The 12 projects (four independent, eight non-independent) are on track to generate nearly $225 million in qualified spending, which is defined as below-the-line wages to California workers and payments to in-state vendors. Overall in-state spending by the projects will be... Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) -- Lin-Manuel Miranda likes to picture the millionaire, Mr. Howell, from "Gilligan's Island," saying the brag. You know the one. "Well, I saw it with the original cast." On Friday, Miranda will steal that boast from anyone who ever saw "Hamilton" in its blistering first year and a half on Broadway. A live capture taken from two of the last performances with most of the original cast in June 2016 will premiere on Disney+, opening a new (and far less expensive) chapter in Miranda's ever-evolving pop... Read More 

LONDON (AP) -- An accident requiring two screws in his ankle nearly prevented Scott Eastwood from portraying a real life soldier in Afghanistan in "The Outpost" — a role that required a level of athleticism. Eastwood was tight-lipped about how he was injured, but he said it led to an "interesting" shoot. Director Rod Lurie had a "tough as hell time trying to figure out how we were gonna design shots where for the first few weeks I couldn't walk," he said. Lurie rescheduled the entire shoot, starting with... Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) -- Carl Reiner, the ingenious and versatile writer, actor and director who broke through as a "second banana" to Sid Caesar and rose to comedy's front ranks as creator of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and straight man to Mel Brooks' "2000 Year Old Man," has died. He was 98. Reiner's assistant Judy Nagy said he died Monday night of natural causes at his home in Beverly Hills, California. One of show business' best liked men, the tall, bald Reiner was a welcome face on the small and silver screens, in... Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) -- Milton Glaser, the groundbreaking graphic designer who adorned Bob Dylan's silhouette with psychedelic hair and summed up the feelings for his native New York with "I (HEART) NY," died Friday, his 91st birthday. The cause was a stroke and Glaser had also had renal failure, his wife, Shirley Glaser, told The New York Times. In posters, logos, advertisements and book covers, Glaser's ideas captured the spirit of the 1960s with a few simple colors and shapes. He was the designer on the team that... Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) -- Mention primetime television stars in other ages, and you'd think of Jerry Seinfeld, Mark Harmon or Jennifer Aniston. Now it's Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson. Fox News Channel was the most-watched network in primetime television last week, counting both broadcast and cable, the Nielsen company said. It was the second week in a row that happened, and the third time in June. Before this month, that had never happened before. Ever. June is traditionally a slow month for broadcast television, its... Read More 

Essity, global hygiene and health company and owner of Bodyform, Libresse, Nana, Nuvenia, Saba and Nosotras, is committed to breaking the taboos that hold women back and creating a more understanding world. With the award-winning #BloodNormal campaign in 2017, Bodyform & Libresse tackled the stigma around periods, turning blue liquid red and showing period blood as it really is. With Viva La Vulva in 2018, singing vulvas called out the toxic myth of the perfect vulva. In 2020, Bodyform... Read More 

The Frontline Workers Counseling Project, spearheaded by co-founders Elizabeth Rawson, MD, and Michael Levin, PsyD, is a coalition of more than 450 licensed mental health professionals in the San Francisco Bay Area who have joined forces to offer free counseling for frontline workers throughout the COVID-19 crisis. The extreme demands of the pandemic leave frontline workers at high risk for acute distress in the near term and for development of post-traumatic symptoms in the long term. The lack... Read More 

True Name by Mastercard lets Trans and Non-Binary people display their chosen name on their credit or debit card. The financial brand introduced the industry-changing effort to allow anyone to reflect their true identity in a moment we all take for granted--using a credit card. This spot brings us to a convenience store where a Trans Man uses his True Name to make a simple purchase. It’s the kind of everyday transaction that many of us do every day--but this one takes on added significance. The... Read More 

Run. That’s what refugees do. Their race starts with the sound of a gun, not a starter pistol. They run from burning villages and away from danger. Now, a group of athletes are running for the right to represent the 71 million displaced people in the world today. To mark the recent World Refugee Day (June 20), the Swiss sportswear company On has launched and co-produced an epic documentary feature to commemorate the millions of forcibly displaced people worldwide. The story follows the... Read More 

To launch Premium Duo--a subscription plan for couples living at the same address, allowing them to enjoy their favorite content, together and separately--Spotify is releasing this TV spot that captures real-life couples waxing lyrical about their tastes in music. Who deserves the “music aficionado” title? How does a man really feel about his partner blasting Christmas music in July? But here’s the twist--puppets are doing the talking. Spotify partnered with Buenos Aires-based production... Read More 

The Eightfold Collective has partnered with Detroit-based artists and creatives on this short film-- ’Til We See The Sky --designed to spark a conversation around the disproportionate effect of COVID-19 on Black Americans and Detroit natives, and to capture the spirit that held fast even as the worst pandemic in modern history ravaged its neighborhoods. Produced by Detroit native Bre’ann White and directed by The Eightfold Collective’s Nick Stachurski, the film was narrated by four... Read More 

Canadians haven’t been able to go to the movies since the pandemic started. But an apartment building in downtown Toronto got a surprise screening courtesy of Cineplex as chronicled in this spot from Toronto agency Zulu Alpha Kilo and produced by its in-house arm Zulubot. After three months of temporary closures, Cineplex in Canada is reopening its theaters in all markets where it is permitted by local governments. In an effort to build anticipation and remind movie-lovers of the power of... Read More 

“What We See” began with a post on Instagram by director and photographer Maik Schuster of the directorial collective I AM HERE, asking his followers to participate in a project. The resulting film is a collaboration by people from across the globe sharing their anxieties, hopes, and dreams through a series of intimate online interviews. The film is a deep dive into private thoughts amplified by feelings of physical isolation and candid connections through disconnection. The submission of... Read More 

Creative agency DCX Growth Accelerator teamed with director Tatia Pilieva of Pulse Films on this longform spot titled “It’s time to save online conversations.” The piece is for client OpenWeb, a B2B company connecting publishers with online audiences, offering an end-to-end solution for hosting quality conversations on the open web. In the spot, real online commenters from all walks of life debate hot-button issues like gun violence, masks and the #MeToo movement. In these divisive times, they... Read More 

Global fintech company Klarna is rolling out its biggest brand campaign in the U.S. to date, in partnership with creative agency Mirimar. The “Klarna: Swedish for smooother shopping” launch will lean into the company’s Swedish origins to introduce American consumers to the online shopping service. The 360 integrated campaign features a unique series of online films (directed by Andreas Nilsson of Biscuit Filmworks), an interactive virtual shopping experience, brand and media partnerships,... Read More 

Imaginary Forces has created the title sequence for a new, six-part documentary series I’ll Be Gone in the Dark directed by Emmy-winning and Academy Award-nominated director Liz Garbus for HBO, and produced by Story Syndicate. Based on the book of the same name, the series explores author Michelle McNamara’s obsessive search into the world of a violent predator who terrorized California in the 1970s and 1980s. McNamara herself dubbed the predator “The Golden State Killer.” The series first... Read More 

Brett Nicoletti directed, produced and edited this short documentary promoting the nonprofit Repair Cafe International, a community-based group devoted to fixing old, broken objects for free in an effort to keep these objects out of landfills. Titled Building Resilience, the documentary shows the good work and people behind Repair Cafe, which is growing worldwide. Smile Films produced the short which is playing on Repair Cafe’s Facebook page as well as on YouTube and Vimeo. Read More 

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