LOS ANGELES -- While not a first, Reed Morano has attained a rarity in the annals of the Emmy Awards, earning nominations in the same year for her directing and cinematography. The former came for “Offred,” the pilot for The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu), recognized in the Outstanding Directing For A Drama Series category. As for her lensing, Morano is an Outstanding Cinematography For A Single-Camera Series (Half-Hour) nominee for the pilot of Divorce (HBO). Steven Soderbergh was the last—and believed to be the... Read More, Comment

Respondents to SHOOT’s Mid-Year Survey are quick to point out that you can learn a lot from a “Fearless Girl,” the much lauded creation from McCann New York for client State Street Global Advisors. The statue of a young, defiant girl staring down Wall Street’s famed “Charging Bull” has become popular worldwide. Artist Kristen Visbal crafted the statue of a four-foot tall lass in a windblown dress, standing in the path of the famous 11-foot-tall bull, an iconic symbol of commerce. “Fearless Girl... Read More, Comment

One DP has an ASC Award, a Camerimage Golden Frog and an Oscar nomination on the strength of his collaborations with a noted filmmaker. Another cinematographer has enjoyed working relationships with directors that have resulted in three Film Independent Spirit Best Cinematography Award nominations, among other honors. And our third DP recently garnered his eighth career Emmy Award nomination—four of which entailed lensing for the same director. Here are observations and reflections from... Read More, Comment

Steven Zaillian—whose writing earned four Oscar nominations, including a win for his Schindler’s List screenplay in 1994—has made an auspicious first foray into television as a writer, executive producer and director on The Night Of (HBO), which recently scored 13 Emmy nominations including for Outstanding Limited Series, two for Lead Actor (Riz Ahmed, John Turturro), two for Supporting Actor (Bill Camp, Michael Kenneth Williams), two for Directing for a Limited Series (James Marsh, Zaillian),... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES -- Our annual tradition continues with SHOOT sounding out John Leverence, sr. VP of awards at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, to get an entertainment industry perspective on the commercials nominated for the primetime Emmy which this year are: two Ad Council PSAs in the “Love Has No Labels” campaign from R/GA—”Love Cam” and “We Are America”; Google’s “Year in Search 2016” out of 72andSunny; Gathering For Justice’s “Why I March” from mcgarrybowen, San Francisco; and Squarespace’s “... Read More, Comment

The centerpiece of Kia’s new national campaign is a :90 cinema/online spot titled “The Arrival” about a newborn baby hamster who’s super fast and as we soon learn, impossible to catch. As it turns out, the ultimate destination for “The Arrival” is the number one slot in SHOOT’s quarterly VFX/Animation Chart. Set in a hospital, the commercial opens on a young nurse making rounds in the maternity ward when she comes across an empty bassinet. It’s revealed that the missing baby is our speedy... Read More, Comment

The quarterly Visual Effects/Animation Chart runs the gamut from a speedy little Hamster for Kia to a public service spot in the U.K. promoting awareness of Macular Degeneration. At the same time, there were some common threads running through the Top Ten, including the first four entries being for automotive advertisers, three of them from European agencies. But whether home or abroad, all the Chart work lives up to SHOOT's high quarterly standard for excellence. So have a look and the best... Read More, Comment

In the stirring CG animated film, a struggling single mom finds her job at the factory in jeopardy as robotics replace people in the workforce. The inevitable finally happens as she is out of work and at a crossroads, floundering to see a path forward. Inspired by the love she feels and the responsibility she has for her kids, the mom enrolls in an online course at the University of Phoenix to get a degree in Information Technology (IT). Hers is a story of triumph—for her, her family, and for... Read More, Comment

A wide range of work graces SHOOT 's quarterly Top Ten Tracks Chart, with a University of Phoenix spot featuring a score from Beacon Street Studios--and an inventive use of an existing song--taking the number one slot. Also in the mix are a moving short piece which shows the value of bicycling for those with ADHD, a post NBA-championship look at critics of Golden State Warrior superstar and Nike athlete Kevin Durant, and director John Singleton's spot for AECOM which puts us on the L.A. Metro... Read More, Comment

TORONTO -- The Toronto International Film Festival® today unveiled its second serving of titles premiering in the Gala and Special Presentations programs in September. Six Galas and 32 Special Presentations have been added to the lineup of leading titles already announced. Audiences can look forward to innovative storytelling from some of the most prominent filmmakers and actors in Canada and around the world. “We’re thrilled to bring Festival audiences some of the year’s most exciting films in our Gala... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK (AP) -- "Populist Pictures" reads the buzzer to Steven Soderbergh's Tribeca office. You might easily mistake it as ironic. It's a grand title for a little nameplate on an otherwise nondescript Manhattan building. But he means it. Four years after dramatically quitting moviemaking, Soderbergh is back with "Logan Lucky." His hiatus — in the end so abbreviated as to be nonexistent — hasn't been spent toying with a Major Artistic Statement to be showered in Oscar buzz. (He long ago lost his taste for self-... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK (AP) -- The parent company of New York’s Tribeca Film Festival is giving TV its own show. Tribeca Enterprises said Wednesday it will launch the stand-alone Tribeca TV Festival this fall. The three-day event will showcase episodic storytelling from TV, online and virtual reality. It promises an advance look at brand-new series and fan-favorite programs as well as the chance to hear from their creators and stars. Tribeca says it’s the first dedicated TV festival to be created by an established film... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK (AP) -- It's a simple message: Beware of racism in the United States. But Procter & Gamble took a calculated risk with its ad that features black mothers speaking to children about racial bias through the decades. The company says it knew there might be a backlash — and the ad has been criticized as being anti-police or anti-white. But it says it felt after hearing from consumers that the ad would be worth it. "The Talk," which makes no mention of any P&G product, has been the talk of social... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES -- BRF (B-Reel Films) has signed director Eva Michon for commercials and branded content worldwide. Born in Johannesburg, Michon grew up in Toronto, where she studied film at Ryerson University. She cut her teeth making music videos for bands such as Owen Pallett and Head Wound City, before expanding into the commercial and narrative filmmaking world for clients including Canon, Lincoln Motor Company, Facebook and fashion brands such as Ace & Jig and Rita Liefhebber. Michon wrote and directed... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES -- Bicoastal Big Block has added director Richard Farmer to its roster. Among his spotmaking credits are Free Credit Score with a magically appearing Fancy Bear, and LG V20 phones which entailed creating 1990s’ R&B songs about iconic memes. The recent LG commercials reflect Farmer’s innovative style and singular perspective. Shot exclusively on the LG V20 phone, Farmer took well-known memes, from “Double Rainbow” to “Damn Daniel,” and “remastered” them in high quality, showcasing a mash-up of... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK -- DDB New York has hired Hannah Meium and Rocky Probst to serve, respectively, as director of content and sr. social media strategist. Both executives will report to Reema Mitra, group director of digital strategy, who joined DDB NY in March, and will work on such clients as State Farm, Unilever and Cotton. Meium joins DDB New York from Mashable where she spent two years. In her role as director of branded content, Meium oversaw the creative, multi-platform work Mashable produced for all brand... Read More, Comment

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- Prolific writer, producer and television hitmaker Shonda Rhimes is bringing her Shondaland production company to Netflix under a multi-year deal to produce new series and other projects. Longtime producing partner Betsy Beers makes the move to Netflix as well. The move further unites Rhimes with Netflix. While Shondaland’s award-winning series such as Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder air in the U.S. on ABC--and will continue to-- How to Get Away with Murder streams... Read More, Comment

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) -- The stardust has settled from the just-ended Television Critics Association's annual summer meeting, revealing a lot, if not everything, about the 2017-18 TV season. With a posh hotel as staging center, a two-week parade of actors, producers and executives dished in Q&A sessions about their projects and TV in general. Should we be excited about what's in store for the next chapter of the current golden age of TV, as brought to us by cable, streaming platforms and, on rare occasion,... Read More, Comment

MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. (AP) -- James Cameron has taken time out from crafting the upcoming four "Avatar" sequels to return to one of his old films, one he says is as up-to-the-minute as ever — "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." Cameron converted the 26-year-old film — in which one robot with artificial intelligence battles another to stop nuclear annihilation — into a 3D format that hits movie theaters Aug. 25. It arrives just as escalating tensions over North Korea's nuclear ambitions are in the headlines. "I think the film is... Read More, Comment

"Logan Lucky " is an easy movie to like, but maybe not love. In his big return to film after a four-year hiatus (or retirement, if it can even be called that now), Steven Soderbergh has created a sort of cinematic bingo of his well of tricks. Heist movie? Check. Channing Tatum? Check. Not so subtle metaphors slipped in to genre stories about the state of the working class man? Check. Dopey but reliable sidekick brothers? Check, check, check. That's not to say that "Logan Lucky" has nothing new... Read More, Comment

The Sundance sensation "Patti Cake$" may flow with formulaic beats but it's got spirit for miles (eight of them, at least) and features one of the best mother-daughter relationships of the year. Patricia Dombrowski (the terrific newcomer Danielle Macdonald) is an overweight, white New Jersey 23-year-old living a hardscrabble life in the shadow of New York City. She's cruelly called "Dumbo" by many in town, but she's got a nickname of her own. "Killa P," she calls herself, because, as she states... Read More, Comment

There's not a whole lot that's new about "The Hitman's Bodyguard ." Its mismatched-pals premise is the stuff of classic buddy comedies. Stars Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson play their typical character types: Reynolds the handsome do-gooder; Jackson the unflappable badass whose favorite word is mother(expletive). And like many movie heroes past, they're tasked with taking down a brutal dictator. Yet that kind of familiar framework is what makes this action-packed mashup of gun battles, car... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK (AP) -- On their face, the numbers are grim. Movie ticket sales in North America are running roughly half a billion dollars behind last summer's box office, making this one of lowest-grossing summers in years. The 12.4 percent downturn comes at a critical juncture for Hollywood, with constantly swirling fears about the impact of streaming, television and the bazillion other entertainment options out there. AMC, the largest theater chain in the United States, saw its stock price tank recently partly... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK (AP) -- It's been a rough summer at the box office, and movie theater chains are feeling the pain. It got worse last week when AMC Entertainment said U.S. box office grosses are sinking. Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst for comScore, who has followed the industry for more than 20 years, says movie theaters are always vulnerable if people aren't excited about what's playing, but things can change quickly. This interview has been edited and condensed. Q: Are Americans just not excited about... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK (AP) -- The "Conjuring" spinoff "Annabelle: Creation" scared up an estimated $35 million in North American theaters over the weekend, making it easily the top film and giving the lagging August box office a shot in the arm. The opening came close to matching the film's predecessor, "Annabelle," which opened with $37.1 million in October 2014. Warner Bros. could celebrate not only the month's biggest debut but also having the week's top two films. Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk" followed in second with $... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK (AP) -- NBC’s summer run of “Weekend Update” segments from “Saturday Night Live” and ABC’s two-part special on Princess Diana were modest successes for their television networks last week. The first of four weeks where “SNL’s” Michael Che and Colin Jost deliver topical jokes on NBC’s primetime lineup was seen by nearly 4.9 million viewers last week. It was the 17th most popular program on last week but did better in the 18-to-49-year-old demographic NBC pays most attention to. Aside from “Game of... Read More, Comment

To celebrate the power of friendship, Grey New York went to a public school in NYC and invited parents to hear how their child was doing at school. The twist was when parents arrived, it wasn’t a teacher waiting but their child’s best friend doing the talking. Throughout the story, parents realized that seeing their child through the eyes of a friend was the best report card of all. Floyd Russ from Tool of North America directed this brand anthem, titled “Through the Eyes of A Friend,” for... Read More, Comment

August is the month that Brazilian people celebrate Father’s Day. To mark the occasion, Sao Paulo-based agency Propeg created a touching TV commercial that portrays the real story of Cézar Sant’Anna, a father who celebrates Father's Day for the first time with his son. With scenes complemented by the song “True Colors” (a version of the Cyndi Lauper’s hit), the movie produced by Vapt Filmes, Sao Paulo, highlights striking moments and the daily life of this relationship narrated by the son, who... Read More, Comment

Gavin Kelly of production company Piranha Bar directed this hybrid live-action/animation piece titled “Katherine” for Vhi Healthcare, a health insurance company in Ireland. Conceived by ad agency Publicis Dublin, the spot introduces us to Katherine, a primary school teacher and cancer survivor, and follows her journey from being diagnosed with thyroid tumors through to her intensive treatment and recovery. Beginning as live action with Katherine in a classroom, the film delves into her memories... Read More, Comment

This spot introduces to a young woman whose grandmother has passed away. Looking through a box containing her granny’s belongings, she finds a handwritten note signed “Love, Grandma.” The signature strikes an emotional chord--and inspires an idea. With the help of HP technology, the young lady perfectly preserves the signature, allowing a local artist to design a tattoo of the scripture as a loving tribute to her beloved grandmother. Peyton Wilson, who’s represented by Chelsea Pictures in the U... Read More, Comment

Richard Bullock via Hungry Man London directed a pair of films--a 95-second piece and a five-minute short--sponsored by Swiss running company ON and celebrating the Athlete Refugee Team, which is the brainchild of Tegla Loroupe, a former Kenyan star runner who convinced the IOC to enter a refugee team in 2016. Now Loroupe runs the Athlete Refugee Team Camp in the Ngong Hills in Kenya and she recruits from the country’s UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) camps. There are 65 million refugees on earth... Read More, Comment

This animation spot for South Africa salt brand Cerebos tells the story of Mpho, a little girl who dreams of snow, despite living in the semi-desert natural region of Karoo. Her grandparents intervene to help her dream come true--with a little help from Cerebros. Tulips and Chimneys, a lauded African short-form animation company repped by Strange Beast in the US/UK/Europe, teamed with agency FCB Durban and another studio, BlackGinger, to bring “Snow” to fruition. A lot of thought went into the... Read More, Comment

Now that NFL quarterback Peyton Manning is retired, he doesn’t have his gargantuan offensive linemen protecting his every move. He’s all alone. Exposed. Vulnerable. A 6’5’’, 230-pound porcelain doll. So OtterBox, a trusted brand in smartphone protection, decided to come to the rescue--in the form of its man-sized otter mascot named Ollie. Just like rugged OtterBox cases, Ollie is unapologetically overprotective, always on high alert to keep Manning safe, including in this spot titled “Hikers”... Read More, Comment

Wayne McClammy of Hungry Man directed this commercial titled “Lose-onic Plague” featuring the character Dr. Aftkings, a specialist in diagnosing and treating fans who don’t have enough fantasy sports in their lives. His patients have various maladies, including “Lose-onic Plague” in this spot, part of a comedy campaign conceived by creatives at Deustch NY. The cure, according to the offbeat doctor, is DraftKings. Read More, Comment