Actors like Tom Cruise and Jackie Chan are famed worldwide for their talent and their drive. Artists of this ilk are deeply involved in the productions they star in, evident in their performances. Many are referring to Indonesian actor and writer Ken Zheng in a similar manner as the aforementioned celebrities. His work as an action star and as a screenwriter has made him an international sensation in the last few years. Athlete (Zheng was part of the Indonesian National Team for Kickboxing and became the youngest Champion in Indonesia’s history) turned stuntman turned marquee name, this talent from Indonesia seems to revel in the action genre. His roles in US films and those abroad have seen him starring alongside long-established actors, vetting him as a peer and a major force in the international film industry.
2017’s Down by the River stars Zheng as a prison escapee making his way through the wilderness to the Rio Grande river while being hunted by a killer. It’s a classic tale of survival driven by a small cast. No less frightening is the film Hitman in which a woman inadvertently witnesses a drug deal gone wrong and pays the price for doing the right thing. Second Chance pits two hired killers against each other. Zheng is perfectly paired in this tale, starring alongside Trent Moore (of the Coen Brothers multiple Oscar-winning films No Country for Old Men). Concerning his work in these thrilling productions, Ken communicates, “I see the beauty in action and I love bringing thrills to the audience when they watch a movie. The action itself is always supplementary to the story and the visuals help the audience integrate to the world of the movie”
Currently, in post-production, Ken starred in the upcoming feature film he wrote called Insight. The story goes beyond the label “action film” as it is centered on two siblings who possess the gift of clairvoyance. Escaping an abusive home, they are recruited by a counter-terrorism agency. The brothers grow apart as they enter adulthood and this motivates the action of the story. As Qiang, the younger of two siblings, Ken delivers an emotional and visceral performance alongside such celebrated talents as Keith David (multiple Primetime Emmy winner) and John Savage (The Deer Hunter-winner of five Oscars, Hair-winner of two Golden Globes). Zheng concedes, “There’s always room to learn as an actor. Working with John and Keith was an opportunity to learn from their experience and talent. They’ve both been in so many extraordinary films; to see them creating on set like that…it was an incredible learning opportunity. As an actor who is also a writer, it also gave me the chance to see what I could do with the script to help the actors. When I first moved to the United States I tried to bridge the East and West as each has its own unique stories. Moreover, I always try to keep my stories rooted and grounded to real emotion and real relationship between the characters. The movie itself is not always self- contained but the relationship between the characters is always clearly defined in my stories.”
Despite having other passions, Mark Davis found himself acting from a young age. Growing up in Melbourne, Australia, his father had an old VHS camcorder, and to pass the time, Davis’ brother and his friend used to use the camera, recording small skits. Being the youngest, Davis was always made to be a bad guy who gets beaten up, or he would be dressed up in his mother’s clothes to play a woman. At the time, he was just happy to be spending time with his big brother, but little did he know he would grow to be a celebrated actor.
Throughout his esteemed career, Davis has been a part of several acclaimed projects, from award-winning movies to prolific commercials. He has starred in films like Lucy and Topdecked, which he also wrote, as well as the upcoming period drama Fallen. Australians also know his face from national commercials for Honda, Crownbet, Interflora, and more.
“I knew acting was always something I had a natural affinity for. Instinctually the acting process made sense to me and even though I was quite shy, I felt freedom when taking on a role. I feel like acting is a culmination of many art forms and for me movement and being in touch with something like your emotions and imagination as a profession just made sense. I like taking a walk in other people’s shoes and to get paid to swear, cry, fall in love and throw chairs is a privilege,” said Davis.
One of Davis’ first tastes of international success came with the 2013 romantic drama I Want You. The story follows Maya, who is deeply in love with a boy who lives in Israel. Maya struggles to maintain her faith in a relationship that unfolds largely on a computer screen after she meets another man who can provide the tangible aspects missing from her relationship. Although tempted, Maya has to ask herself, will this new relationship give her what she truly wants?
“The story really demonstrates that good people can be tempted to do things that are against their morals and who they are. In the end, however, the film is about forgiveness and that message is very strong,” said Davis.
In the film, Davis plays Ethan, a character who was very much the other man in a love story. Ethan had to seduce Maya, who was in a very healthy relationship. He was the protagonist in the film. He came into a healthy environment and had to be the perfect blend of nice and endearing whilst also being the bad guy who is going to ruin a relationship purely for his own sexual gratification. Therefore, Davis had to be extremely charming, and managed to do so in tough shooting conditions. It was extremely hot on set, as they were filming in many different locations during the Australian summer.
“I liked being cheeky and being a person with low morals dressed as a nice guy. I’m more self-deprecating and awkward in real life so I had to channel my inner Brando to pull it off. That’s the joy in acting and I definitely had fun on this film. I’ve always said that no one cares about your enlightenment, the audience will watch because they want to see your darkness. It’s more relatable,” said Davis.
I Want You also stars Australian superstar Viva Blanca, best known for her role on the television series Spartacus. The film marked the actress’ directorial debut, and she felt the pressure. Knowing she had to have the perfect casting to make her film a success, she gave Davis the role of Ethan.
With the help of Davis, the film went on to be screened at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, the Newport Beach film festival and the St Kilda Film Festival, seeing great success around the globe.
“It was one of the first films I was involved with and I’m glad it was so highly regarded. Viva is a great creative mind and an amazing talent,” he concluded.
(On the set of “Queen of the Hill” in Joshua Tree)
Livi Zheng recently directed the music video “Queen of the Hill” featuring Judith Hill a Grammy Award winning artist and contestant on The Voice (US season #4). “Queen of the Hill” is a unique collaboration between two genres of music: funk and Balinese gamelan. The music video itself is a kaleidoscope of funk and traditional Balinese dance and costumes.
“Queen of the Hill” was shot in the Southern California’s Joshua Tree desert. Filming in the desert is always a challenge but doing so in summer, as in the case of this music video, is even more so. Shot in a single day, the greatest challenge for the Queen of The hill team was transporting a Gamelan ensemble during rising temperatures in excess of one-hundred degrees Fahrenheit. Director/Producer Livi Zheng only had access to one set of the large gamelan ensembles and if the set broke during three-hour truck drive, or cracked under the heat…that’s it, show over.
The making of “Queen of the Hill” is featured in the full-length documentary Bali: Beats of Paradise. Also directed by Livi Zheng. Bali: Beats of Paradise will be released in theaters November 16, 2018. This epic story of Balinese music and the spread of gamelan was shot in Bali, Indonesia, and The United States. The executive producers of the film are His Excellency Ambassador Umar Hadi, Indonesian Ambassador to South Korea, former Consul General of The Indonesian Consulate in Los Angeles, and Julia Gouw.
Julia Gouw, on the list of 25 Most Powerful Women in Banking in the US, was born in Indonesia but has lived in the US for the last forty years. Her passion includes promoting Indonesian culture in the US internationally. Julia Gouw and Livi Zheng have collaborated on projects ranging from filmmaking to concert production.
Roma Kong has always been a big movie fan. Growing up in Lima, Peru, Kong’s favorite childhood pastime was taking in the latest flick, whether at the local cinema or on her couch at home. Even from that young age, she knew she wanted to eventually go on to make films like the ones she enjoyed so much.
“The moment I truly decided I wanted to make movies for the rest of my life was back in 2001 when I went to see Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring on opening night. To see these iconic literary characters and worlds come alive on the screen was mesmerizing. I remember how mind-blowing and epic the film was, and I just thought, I want to do that. I want to be one of those people who make magical worlds be a reality before the audience’s eyes,” she said.
Now, Kong is an industry leading editor in both her native country and abroad. Having worked on several prolific projects for none other than Disney, Kong has established her reputation with her versatile talent.
One of Kong’s other long-standing professional relationships is with Nickelodeon. Working on several projects for the company since 2016, Kong’s work has been appreciated by audiences all around the world. Earlier this year, she embarked on a new project for the celebrated production company, taking viewers behind the scenes of their favorite Nickelodeon shows, featuring some of the shows’ biggest creators and cast members.
“I think these videos give the audience an idea of what it’s like to work in the industry. It shows them that we are all human and not this kind of over the top industry where everything is super glamorous. That people that are part of this industry also do all the silly things everyone else does at work, we all joke and we all work incredibly hard to make the content that everyone loves watching. It grounds the industry for the audience and makes it more accessible for everyone,” said Kong.
Roma Kong at Nickelodeon
The online video series includes a behind-the-scenes look into the Fairly Odd Phantom, Butch Hartman’s new crossover animated short, and has exclusive interviews with the casts of The Fairly Odd Parents, T.U.F.F. Puppy, Danny Phantom, and Bunsen is a Beast. They were all published through Nickelodeon’s Social Media platforms, including YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Together they are some of the most viewed social media videos published by the studio, amassing over 400,000 views.
“I’ve always loved working on BTS projects. They’re always fun because not only are you looking to give the audience a glimpse of how their favorite shows and movies are made but also, you’re looking to catch those extra special funny moments that only happen behind the scenes. Making these for Nick and editing videos with some of their biggest creators at work really stood out for me,” said Kong.
Kong was the sole editor for every one of the BTS Nickelodeon videos. As the videos were very time sensitive, the production company needed an editor that was effective working at a fast pace. Even working quickly, Kong excels at catching great moments that not only are humorous and entertaining, but that look good on camera. On top of this, she has a unique ability to edit to the rhythm of the music in the video, making them that much more captivating. The use of music was essential to each videos success, which could not have been achieved without Kong’s touch.
“I loved these because it was awesome watching the footage and seeing these people in action. Being able to catch great moments of their personalities and how much they love what they do and being able to tell a story with those moments was fantastic. It was great watching the action go on and then something completely unexpected and funny would happen and I would just burst out laughing and call my teammates and we would have a great team moment. They were incredibly fun to work on,” she said.
Storytelling was a fundamental element for Kong when editing the videos. Even though they were just going behind the scenes of a show, she knew she still needed to tell the audiences a story. She was given all the footage and went through everything to find the best moments and tell a coherent story. Because they were behind the scenes videos, at the beginning, it was difficult to figure out how to structure it for everything to make sense and not just be a series of funny bits or bloopers. Kong therefore decided to first separate sections of the video, parts where everyone was laughing, parts where they were recording voices, etc., and then, depending on the video, she would either keep the sections separate or intercut them, jumping from one section to the other. She then added small sections from the actual show to help the audience make the connection between the part that was being made and the exact moment in the piece.
Roma Kong at Nickelodeon
“Nickelodeon is one of the big ones. Every kid grows up watching Nickelodeon and adults my age all had their lives impacted by them. Everyone knows them and what they stand for and their great reputation. It fills you with a sense of pride knowing that you’re working for a company that so many consider part of their lives. Whenever I talked to my friends about the shows they used to watch growing up, 90 per cent of those shows are Nickelodeon shows. It feels amazing to work for a company that has been so influential for so long,” she said.
Kong worked on BTS Nickelodeon from January to May of this year. Every video she did provided a new learning experience for the editor, which is why she loves what she does so much. Every time she steps into the editing studio, she remembers what it was like as a child, being so captivated with movie magic, and she strives to engages her audiences the way she was once so engaged. That drive is what makes her such a tremendous editor, and for those looking to follow in her footsteps, she encourages you to never give up.
“Never ever think that you can’t be a part of this industry, you absolutely can. It’s a very intense industry. It’s not glamour and glitz as they like to show, it’s long hours, very short deadlines, hard work and lots of different personalities to deal with. So, you have to be sure this is what you want to do for a living. Really sure. Once that’s settled, educate yourself. Filmmaking is a creative line of work but it’s also very technical. You need to learn how to do it. Watch all the content you can, no matter how good or bad you think it might be. You’ll be surprised how much one learns from bad movies. Learn the tools of writing and storytelling, your job is to tell stories, so learn how to properly tell them. Lastly, talk to people, reach out to people already in the industry, ask for their advice, ask if you can meet up for a cup of coffee. We all started somewhere and we all know how much talking to people already working helped us,” she advised.
“To me, filmmaking is like making a delicious meal. The process of shooting is like gathering the ingredients for the food, whereas post editing is like cooking. Editors reorder the different materials, and create different dishes through proper dressing and seasoning,” she said.
Chen is recognized around the world for what she does. Having edited highly successful films such as Slingshot Prince, Offsprung, and most recently, I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone, Chen is an industry leading editor in China with her work celebrated both there and abroad.
Chen is also a celebrated colorist, often combining her roles on many films. She has enhanced many films through color with her work, including Maskand The Last Page. The latter was a motivational project for the Chinese native, as she was telling a true story about another artist.
The Last Page is a short film that follows the story of a once famed comic book writer Emanuel Delgado. After a long career of award winning comics, and a mega fan base, it’s been nearly a decade since Emanuel abruptly ended his career because of the death of his brother. He is living in a house littered by the drunken debris of his depression until one of his fans show up who is the same age as his brother and encourages him to restart drawing comic books.
“I like this film because it carries positive energy and is both motivating and encouraging. It’s a story about a person coping after the big mental trauma of losing everything to picking himself up and changing his miserable life. It encourages people to never give up on their dreams, reminding them there are always other people supporting and caring about them. We need to cherish our own lives and do more meaningful things in the limited time that we have. I was totally touched when I finished watching this film. It is not only about remembering the people we’ve lost, but also encourages those people who lost their hope from losing the one they love to get out of the deep sorrow and tell them that there is always somebody else supporting and caring about them,” said Chen.
The film premiered at the Los Angeles Independent Film Awards 2017, where it took home the top prize. Chen was both happy and surprised when she heard that The Last Page was an award-winning film, knowing that it touched audiences the same way it touched her.
“I remembered those countless nights that I was talking with the director about the color grading ideas and how we could make this film into a better piece of art. And right now, we can all be proud of ourselves that we made it to the end, although it was just a small step on a long road ahead of me, I will keep up and be more creative as a filmmaker,” she said.
Chen was in charge of all the color grading for this project. The director described what kind of color effects he wanted for each scene after showing her the editing. Chen marked down every detail he mentioned and spent weeks turning his vision into a reality.
There are a lot of scenes in the film that express a decadence and hopeless feeling, and Chen used color to enhance these emotions. She used a heavy yellow and green color tune for showing the messy house environment. After the character’s internal emotion changed, she used some bright and clean color tunes to represent the delightful changes in his life. The whole color tune changed from cold to warm. Her color grading works highlighted the transitions of the moods and echoed the arc of the story, different color rhythms made this whole film vivid and lifelike. Her work took the film to a new level.
“The film had a big creative space for me to do the color grading, through the discussion with the director, I understood what he wanted and started to do the individual color design. Throughout the whole process I had a chance to use the color analyse from other different film types and apply them to this film project. I like the color tunes from Fight Club very much, and I was always trying to get a chance to apply them into my film projects. This short film fulfilled the wish for me by using the Fight Club dirty color tunes to highlight the messy house when the main character was at his lowest point. Also, it created a big comparison later when the main character was back into his normal life,” she said.
Be sure to watch The Last Page to see Chen’s outstanding work and be moved by Emanuel Delgado’s story.
The acclaimed Turkish art director Cagri Kara always knew his destiny lay in the arts. As a teenager, Kara wasted no time, successfully creating and selling a variety of progressive, eyecatching web designs before graduating high school. After attaining design degrees at university, the ambitious, driven Kara established himself, in short order, as one of the most skilled art directors in hometown Istanbul, the biggest, most sophisticated metropolis in eastern Europe.
The international entertainment, promotion and design communities are a tight knit pool of craftspeople and Kara’s mastery of the universal language—visuals—and impeccable reputation as a reliable, intuitive and groundbreaking artist quickly spread. Kara’s early formal accolades included numerous high-profile industry awards Crystal Apple Festival of Creativity, Kirmizi Advertising and MIXX Awards and the famed Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. All of this notably preceded his 2016 arrival in Los Angeles, where Kara’s characteristic professional alacrity found him taking on a spectrum-spanning array of assignments and campaigns for a wide variety of agencies and clients.
One of Kara’s first, key alliances in California was with the prominent Hollywood agency Forbidden Toast, a relationship which served both as proving ground and springboard for his American career.
“I’ve been working with Forbidden Toast since I’ve moved to LA,” Kara said. “It’s a high end creative services company that focuses on entertainment art work for movies and television The company’s owner, Sherry Spencer, hired me as an art director for several projects she was working on.”
It was a significant break for Kara, and also one that demanded he deliver first rate product. “Forbidden Toast has a very high quality work standard and a clear vision for the work they produce,” Kara said. “I very much respect that and enjoy working with the team. And I enjoy the challenges of producing such great work.”
From the start, Kara’s stylish, skillful contributions fit right in.
“My responsibility with Forbidden Toast is overseeing campaigns in post-production, and ensuring the artwork is correctly executed,” he said. “The projects I worked on were highly visible and vital to the success of the films and television shows for which we developed these campaigns, and my work resulted in both increasing the company’s revenue stream and exposure in the market.”
Kara’s mixture of technical skill, instinctive flair for appealing design and comprehensive grasp on the adaptability each visual element must have is a priceless combination.
“Mainly, we do print ads, large outdoor billboards and social media campaigns,” Kara said. ”The platform is not as important as the flexibility of the art work—it needs to be effective and integrated into all types of media, both internet and large scale print campaigns.
Kara’s keen vision has created important advertising campaigns for productions by some of the biggest names in the business—Sony, HBO, Fox, Netflix, Starz, National Geographic and numerous others.
“I worked intensely with Sherry in producing the final art work for the client,” Kara said. “The art gets approved directly by the studios and, often, also by the talent. And they were all very happy with the results.”
Kara’s successful ventures include campaigns for shows with wildly disparate themes and content. He successfully worked a winning campaign for the current season of comic provocateur Bill Maher’s “Real Time” (“The show is very timely and, I feel is very important to the American political climate. It was very special to be a part of the production of the art work for this series. The art went all over the United States and the show was highly rated and successful”) preceded by one completely opposite, 2017’s launch for the National Geographic television series Genius.
“It was very exciting and challenging,” Kara said. “The talent needed to give the impression that we were actually looking at Albert Einstein. Sherry and I worked closely together to produce a successful final product that appeared not only throughout the city but also appeared on the one of the most visible billboards in the city including—the entrance of the Fox studios.”
Whether it’s documentary, fantasy, film, television, album cover art or an international promotion for FIFA giant EA Sports, Kara’s sweeping creative scale, holistic grasp of his field’s requisite elements and most effective practices create the foundational basis upon which Kara’s formidable natural skills excel—and Forbidden Toast continues to reap his bounty.
As company president Sherry Spencer said “I’ve worked closely with Cagri over the last several years—I’ve been impressed by his ability to successfully lead teams of artists and watched his creative skill and impressive talent push my company even further into creative entertainment marketing. “
When watching the animated 2011 hit Rango, inspiration struck Qiao Wang. At the time, he was a graphic designer, creating still images, but when watching the film, he was transfixed by the technology used to create such realistic computer animation. Always a fast learner, Wang began to study new styles of mathematics and computer science to combine with his artistic background, wanting to create similar films to that which so motivated him.
“The visual effects industry in filmmaking was still fresh and new to the world, and not a lot of people knew what it was in my country. I enjoyed what I did as a designer and artist, but I would have definitely changed my career path earlier if I knew what VFX was,” said Wang.
Since that time, the Chinese-native has gone on to become an internationally sought-after Character Technical Director and Character Effects Artist. Using his skills in both mathematics and design, Wang helps to conceptualize some of the most beloved characters in many recent popular films, including Rocket the Racoon and Groot in the mega blockbuster Avengers: Infinity War. Not limiting himself to just one medium, Wang has collaborated with Justin Timberlake on his latest music video, “Filthy”, and worked with world renowned companies, like Target, on national commercial campaigns.
“Qiao is both technical and artistic, he contributed to the team and film’s success in many aspects, including troubleshooting and solving technical issues on hero characters, and developing aesthetics for character cloth and hair simulation and skin deformation,” said Fabrice Ceugniet, Creature Pipeline Technical Director at Method Studios.
Ceugniet and Qiao worked together at Walt Disney Animation Studios on the upcoming film Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 and Godzilla: King of Monsters. The two had previously worked together many times, and recently worked on a commercial series for the leading automotive company Lexus. The commercials, such as “2018 Lexus Golden Opportunity Sales Event: Lap the Planet” provided a unique and fun challenge for Wang, who delivered both technical and art direction to the digital Lexus vehicles. He took on many responsibilities for the commercial, working closely with the Character Supervisor, CG Supervisor, VFX Supervisor, Producer, Art Director, Model Maker, and Animators.
“Vehicles are like characters, they have characteristics. Especially Lexus vehicles; they are not only transportation tools, but also a work of art to me. To be able to help build extremely realistic CG Lexus cars sounds very cool, especially as they are the best-selling luxury cars in the United States. I’ve done human characters, cartoon characters, spaceship vehicles, utility vehicles in feature films, and more, but this was a type of project I’ve never done before. I always love to experience new challenges,” said Wang.
The goal was to create realistic CG Lexus cars to express their high performance. This meant that everything had to be exactly the same as the real cars. Wang was up to the task, so he first started doing research and development on rigging setup for cars, watching many videos to find out the details of movement of a race car’s wheels, suspensions, etc. He also had a few meetings with animators to ask them about what needed to be provided. After all that, Wang did not use the auto mastic vehicle setup tool to rig the cars. Instead, he scripted his own procedural Lexus cars rigging tool to provide animators with only a few very intuitive custom controls. He was also able to widely use the ‘Piston’ rigging system that he personally developed previously to fix bugs and improve features to make it a very powerful component in our character technology pipeline. These systems require less setup time and provide institutive and realistic controls for improving the motion of vehicles and many auto parts. On top of all this, Wang also solved wheel spinning motion blur issues to achieve the realistic yet artistic wheel effects. It requires a lot less rig rebuild time when there are model updates for over 10 vehicles. Undoubtedly, the vast technological improvements that Wang implemented saved not only him, but the entire team time, money, and effort.
“I really like the fast pace of this type of project, and the final results are fantastic. The whole production process went super smooth. I also like the different ways of logical thinking to explore and solve various fully mechanical rigging challenges for the vehicle parts,” said Wang.
The commercial series was to promote the 2018 Golden Opportunity Sales event for Lexus. Wang’s work was pivotal to the commercials’ success, and ultimately that of the sale. The company knew they needed someone with his talent, which is why they reached out to him in the first place to take the task. Wang did not take this honor lightly and is extremely happy with the outcome.
“It always feels great to know that our work is helping clients to make more money. I was amazed at how real those cars look, and how beautiful. Even though I work in the industry, if no one told me, I wouldn’t know those were computer generated cars,” he concluded.
Art Director Cagri Kara, whose professional reputation reaches all the way from his native Istanbul to current headquarters in Hollywood, has established himself as one of the leading, most sought after talents in his field. A renown award-winning talent whose skill and professional capacity effortlessly spans a wide variety of visual platforms – posters, billboards, web, television – Kara is currently enjoying a fruitful alliance with home entertainment giant Netflix, making key contributions to promotional campaigns for their acclaimed original series.
Most recently, Cagri was key in the launch of a groundbreaking international project for the company, one where his own Turkish heritage played a critical role. Having previously executed well received campaigns for Netflix series Santa Clarita Diet and Grace and Frank, when Kara got a call from top Hollywood entertainment marketing and advertising agency Rhubarb, the results were all but inevitable. Truly in the right place at the right time and brimming with the skill to make him indispensable, the stars aligned for Kara when he was given the green light to art direct promotional efforts for an ambitious new fantasy adventure series The Protector.
“I’d worked on several campaigns with Rhubarb in the past,” Kara said. “When Andrew told me about the project I was very excited and felt very lucky to work on this Netflix project in Istanbul. They brought me on-board right away.”
Kara’s instinctive ability to command and extend the delicate co-dependence which advertising and pop culture share is reliably invaluable. This unrivaled skill has also earned him a shelf full of awards and recognitions: his groundbreaking 2015 Woman with No Voice Campaign for Polisan Cosmetics was took both the Crystal Apple Festival of Creativity’s Most Creative Use of Social Media and the Kirmizi Advertising Awards’ Best use of Medium-length Video in Social Media honors; the year prior, Kara’s boundlessly appealing Coca-Cola 50th Anniversary in Turkey Campaign won the Crystal Apple’s Best Integrated Campaign award and along the way he’s earned additional trophies from the MIXX Awards and the prestigious Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity
Significantly, Kara’s works seamlessly in any setting, always displaying with an authority, ease and understanding of his role that is internationally successful.
“It’s important to understand the culture when you work on a project from a foreign country,” Kara said. “Advertising is basically a communication channel to speak to the public. So it’s imperative that you understand people’s cultural and societal filters, especially when they look at printed media or a TV commercial for less than 15 seconds.”
For the Protector, Kara’s heritage and comprehensive mix of intuition and commanding visual design was ideal.
“There were lots of advantages to me being a Turkish art director,” Kara said. “The story is about a young man given mystical powers by a talismanic keepsake. Fighting shadowy forces, he learns about himself and his past along the way. It is the first superhero show in Turkey and it also has a lot of historical content and deep significance that would be harder for a non-Turkish person to research and understand in such a short time. The ancient history that is woven into the show is something Turkish people cherish and are very proud of.”
Kara relished the layers of societal and cultural elements the project features, and approached the project with characteristic sensitivity.
“We had many great concepts that we needed to cover in the production,” he said. “The story plays in our current period of time, and it connects modern day Istanbul to its past. It was challenging to juxtapose the ancient history of the city with a modern execution. The photographer and motion director for the campaign were very well known and had many years of experience as artists in the field, so that made things go very smoothly. Also the cast were amazing with their patience.”
“The show’s importance for Turkish culture cannot be overstated,” Kara said. “It was very exciting for me to work on something that will be seen as groundbreaking and, eventually, a part of Turkey’s entertainment culture history”.
“I’m very satisfied with the result of the production and very excited to see the campaign out in the world. There is already a lot of buzz in print and television media about it.”
Kara’s involvement and enthusiasm are second only to his elevated sense of craft and ingenuity, attributes which define both his acclaimed professional reputation and the accomplished depth of skill he brings to any project. This winning formula—which makes Kara’s presence indispensable— guarantees an ever heightening professional profile.
As the Rhubarb agency’s owner-creative director Andrew Irving said, “When Netflix asked us to help with their first original Turkish series, I immediately thought of Cagri. He flew to Istanbul to direct the marketing photo-shoot, which was shot by Tamer Yilmaz, one of Turkey’s leading fashion photographers. He played an integral role in creating the marketing campaign, and Cagri directed the cast with such finesse that the client said she didn’t know how we would have accomplished the shoot without him.”
China’s Youjia Qian sees herself as a very perceptual person. She has always been extremely immersed in music and words. As an art director and stylist, she has the ability to take those things and create a visual for them. Through her work, she combines her original style with the needs and wants of those she collaborates with, turning out masterpieces over and over again.
Qian is best known for her work on a number of acclaimed music videos. These include “Devil in California” by Burna Boy, “Death Wish” by DeathbyRomy, and several hits for Gab3, including “Talking to Me” and “Hollywood Angel” featuring BEXEY. She is one of the leaders in her industry in both her home country and abroad and has no plans on slowing down.
“I think being an art director enables me to effectively communicate what I want to express in my heart and show the more profound feelings in the form of a visual. I want to present what I have seen and what I have learned and experienced through my work,” she said.
Just last year, Qian collaborated with hip hop artist Roy Woods on one of her most renowned projects to date. The music video for the artist’s hit “Say Less” has amassed over four million views on YouTube alone since its debut in November. It was issued WMG (Warner Bros Label); UBEM, Sony ATV Publishing and CAMERA and four other brands.
“Roy Woods is an artist that I truly admire. I started hearing more about him in the music industry after he signed a contract with Drake. There are so many personal emotions in his music and I also feel that I could feel something that he wants to express in his music. Many of my young friends like his music,” said Qian.
Qian was brought onto the project thanks to her good professional relationship with Gab3, who directed the video. Qian has worked on several of Gab3’s music videos, and he knew she was just the right person to help make Roy Woods’ video a hit. The teamwork between the three artists led the video to enormous success.
“It is so exciting that everybody likes our work and I also hope to collaborate with all kinds of artists again in the future. I hope to continue to reach a wide range of audiences and have my work impact many people.,” said Qian.
As the song “Say Less” is filled with emotion, Qian used that to set the tone for the entire music video. To prepare for the shoot, she spent most of her time listening to the song and all of Roy Woods’ music, to understand just what type of artist he is and what he wanted to express in the song. She decided after her research on a color tone of red. The actors in the music video are filtered by this, and it creates a specific mood that fits right in with the song. Gab3 supported her decision and worked closely with Qian during the shoot.
“We had really good communication as a team. I understood what Roy Woods wanted to express in his music, so I could create what he wanted visually, including the color and the switching of lens,” Qian described. “I like his music, which helped me to have a better understanding of his direction in the project. The people that I worked with on this project were great and I felt very comfortable with, which made the work that much more enjoyable.”
Check out the video for “Say Less” and admire Qian’s outstanding work.
Stephanie Evison Williams’ day always starts with a coffee. She then will walk her dog and head to a fitness class. She knows how you begin your day as an actress is vital to your success. It is about getting in the right headspace, so when she walks on set she is someone else entirely. She devotes herself completely to those she portrays, even trying to dream about future scenes while embodying her character. That, for Evison Williams, is what being an actress is all about.
From a young age, Evison Williams loved musical theatre, and as an overly creative kid and sometimes, as she describes, a loud child, she found her way into acting. In her high school years, she played Sally Bowles in a small production of Cabaret and that was when she knew. There was nothing else in this world she wanted to pursue, and since that time, she has devoted herself solely to acting, quickly rising and becoming one of Australia’s most sought-after actresses.
“I love the people, like-minded creative people who observe the world slightly differently to most, people who people watch and who go through life with a scalpel trying to understand why people behave like they do. I love the feeling when you are so ‘in’ a moment, it’s the best form of mindfulness or meditation because you are so present, listening and reacting. Creative flow. It’s a drug, acting,” she said.
Known for her work in the Netflix series Rostered On, as well as films such as Playgroundand In the Wake, Evison Williams has had a formidable career, with many highlights decorating her resume. One such project was the award-winning film Lazy Boy, which saw critical acclaim at many prestigious international film festivals, despite being made for the infinitesimal budget of $600 AUD.
Lazy Boy was awarded a 2016 Flickerfest finalist and nominated for the Flickerfest National Tour as well as a SciFi Film festival nomination. It received a Heathcote Film Festival nomination and was an Official Selection and a Top 100 Short Film at the 2016 St Kilda Film Festival. In 2017, it toured theatrically around the United Kingdom with Discover Film.
“It’s fantastic. I am really proud of the film. It’s an amazing story. It’s a great sci-fi-esque, time travel concept with a sinister undertone and a lot of heart,” said Evison Williams.
Lazy Boy tells the story of Ray and when he brings home a new purchase, his pregnant girlfriend is not impressed. Banished to the garage he soon realizes the old La-Z-Boy recliner he bought is in fact a one-minute time machine. Audiences are asked the question: will Ray learn from his mistakes, or is he destined to repeat them forever?
In the film, Evison Williams plays Sarah, Ray’s girlfriend. Although the synopsis may present her as simply hormonal, she is far from it, and she and their unborn baby end up being the catalyst of the story, ultimately affecting Ray’s decision on whether to use the time machine for good. Sarah is trying to hold it all together, and Evison Williams perfectly portrays her struggle. She is pregnant and has a partner who is not rising to the occasion, she hormonal, working and doing all the preparation for the new baby. She is pulled very thin.
To prepare for the role, Evison Williams spent a lot of time working with her scene partner, Steve Carroll, who played Ray. They wanted to ensure they had good chemistry while in front of the camera, as the success of the film hindered on their authentic performance as a couple. For Evison Williams, a large part of her research also went in to studying how a pregnant woman may be feeling when stressed. It would have been easy for her to come off as a “nag” or “buzz kill” and Evison Williams was very conscious of showing her heart and struggle.
“I didn’t want to continue that persistent sexist stereotype. Choices were made to motivate why she is saying and behaving as she is. Not that Dave wrote her like this, but it would have been the easier choice as an actor,” she described.
The Writer and Director of the film, Dave Redman, is a prolific storyteller with a passion for film and television. He has worked in the Australian film and television industry for over 20 years and has established a solid career as a film and television editor, cutting five feature films, 160+ episodes of TV, hundreds of TVCs and more than 45 short films that have played at festivals worldwide. When Evison Williams saw the opportunity to work with him, she was eager to take part. When she read the script, she was hooked.
The story allowed for Evison Williams to dive deep into a character that could have been very two-dimensional if she allowed. In exploring Sarah, her performance was real, and that is what Evison Williams aims for in every performance, a truthful style.
“Even when doing comedy or character I am always aiming for truth. I would prefer watching a scene about ‘what’s for dinner’ more than two people not listening and performing an idea,” she concluded.
Written by Sara Fowler
International Entertainment, and the Talents that Leave us Buzzing….
I Want You also stars Australian superstar Viva Blanca, best known for her role on the television series Spartacus. The film marked the actress’ directorial debut, and she felt the pressure. Knowing she had to have the perfect casting to make her film a success, she gave Davis the role of Ethan.
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