Vista Group companies Numero and Maccs have named Jim Zak senior vice president, North America. Zak will be based in Los Angeles and report to Numero and Maccs chief executive, and Numero co-founder, Simon Burton.
AFX Creative of Santa Monica, California, has hired seasoned systems engineer and administrator Toby Gallo as director of technology. The company also promoted Esther Minitser to head of production, Jessica Amburgey to senior color producer, and Stefan Kim to production coordinator. Company founder and managing director Mark Leiss made the announcement.
Stephan Schenk has been named Arri’s general manager global sales and solutions. In his new role he has taken over responsibility for the worldwide sales and service of Arri’s hardware products as well as the company’s solutions business. This newly created position aims to combine and align the sales and service activities across all Arri product groups and expand the systems business across all markets. He reports directly to executive board member Markus Zeiler.
The American Society of Cinematographers has announced its nominees for feature film, documentary and television cinematography, representing the organization’s picks for the most compelling visual filmmaking over the past 14 months. Winners will be named during the 35th ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards on April 18. The virtual ceremony will be live streamed via American Society of Cinematographers Facebook page at 12:30 pm PDT from the historic ASC Clubhouse in Hollywood.
Allison Casey is the owner and senior mixer of Gramercy Post in New York City. She first began working there as an intern in 2008, when she was just 22. While she later switched to freelancing, she continued to keep a close relationship with the company and its founder, Joe Mendelson. Toward the end of 2012, Mendelson decided to retire from sound and sell Gramercy to her. She says that since he’d been able to train her from the ground up and knew they had similarly intense work ethics, she thinks he knew his studio would be in good hands. In the wake of this week’s celebration of International Women’s Day, I spoke with Casey about her career, about how far women and other minority groups have advanced in production and post-production, and how far they have to go to reach full equality in the industry.
Managing director Cara Sheppard has announced that Tomasz Witkowski has been named director of technology & engineering of Twickenham Film Studios, which is operated by Time+Space Studios. She said the addition of Witkowski will enable the studios to completely rethink and fully evolve their technology and innovation offering, overseeing and developing a next level technology pipeline and creating bespoke technical services for their clients.
The Motion Picture Sound Editors today announced that it will honor supervising sound editor Dennis Drummond with its 2021 MPSE Career Achievement Award. Drummond’s long list of credits includes The Intern, The Help, It’s Complicated and The Pursuit of Happyness. He has developed close relationships with several top directors including Nancy Meyers, James L. Brooks and Penny Marshall. He will receive the Career Achievement Award at the 68th Annual MPSE Golden Reel Awards, which will be held as an international virtual ceremony on April 16th.
Noted cinematographer Mandy Walker, ASC, ACS, will be a featured keynote speaker at the Hollywood Producers Association’s annual Tech Retreat, which is being held March 15-24. Walker, whose recent work includes Mulan (2020) and Hidden Figures (2016), is a respected artist who has been working throughout the pandemic and will share her experiences and insights. The event features live and recorded content, live Q&A’s, interactive roundtables, and networking opportunities, all presented in HPA’s new Engage portal.
MetaMedia today announced the promotion of Frank Bryant to chief operating officer. Reporting directly to MetaMedia CE Jason Brenek, Bryant will help focus the organization on the execution of operational and strategic plans and oversee functions related to the acquisition and delivery of content from studios and other suppliers, deployment and logistics, project management, marketing, legal and corporate strategy.
The Motion Picture Sound Editors association has announced the nominees in the 68th Annual MPSE Golden Reel Awards. Nominees represent the work of the world’s most talented sound artists and their contributions to the past year’s most outstanding feature film, television, animation, computer entertainment, and student productions.
