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www.postmagazine.com 5 POST JUNE 2018 BITS & PIECES NEW YORK CITY — Post stopped by Zoic's Manhattan office recently, where we caught up with creative direc- tor John Kilshaw, who says the New York visual effects market is booming. Zoic's headquarters is in Los Angeles, and they also have a facility in Vancouver, too. The New York studio opened three-and-a-half years ago and has grown steadily, now serving as home to 40-plus artists. They operate in an open bullpen area, using Autodesk Maya, SideFX Houdini and Foundry's Nuke as their main effects tools. Autodesk Flame is also available. In addition, the New York location is home to a dedicated render farm and a small 4K screening room. The studio recently provided visual effects services for 10 episodes of Marvel's The Defenders, which is streaming on Netflix. According to Kilshaw, the New York location handled work on as many as 80 VFX shots per episode. Other work coming through the studio includes director Justin Lin's upcoming TV series, Warrior; the new TV series Maniac, starring Emma Stone; the Netflix series, Friends From College; and ABC's Quantico, which recently ended its run. Zoic's other locations have contributed to seven seasons of ABC's Once Upon A Time, as well as to FX's Legion and Netflix's Santa Clarita Diet. And to commemorate the recent 15th anniversary of the cult favorite sci-fi series Firefly, the studio has released a four-minute highlight real that shows off its Emmy-winning work on the program. You can view it online at: https://vimeo.com/273367734. — By Marc Loftus NEW YORK CITY — Post recently stopped by New York City's creative editorial shop UpperCut (http://uppercutedit.com) and met with studio heads Micah Scarpelli, owner/editor, and Kathrin Lausch, execu- tive producer. While we had a chance to tour the studio, boasting five edit rooms with Avid and Adobe, and a finishing suite with Flame, and discuss some of the shop's recent projects, including commercial work for Volvo, Fitbit and Grey Goose, the studio's big news was centered on its recent partnership with bi- coastal VFX shop Zero. According to Scarpelli and Lausch, the partnership allows the shops to offer comprehensive post services across editorial, animation, CG, VFX and finishing in three locations — New York City, Los Angeles and Boston. The alliance also allows the stu- dios to continually evolve as the industry and clients' needs change. The bicoastal studios will be led by Uppercut's Scarpelli and Lausch and Zero founder Brian Drewes and senior producer Meg Bailey. "For me, it was a no brainer. I've known Brian for a number of years and seeing how he has grown Zero as an independent owner really synced with what we are building at Uppercut," says Scarpelli. "Partnering with like-minded companies that are working at the same level that we are allows us to have a greater stake in the creative vision." Uppercut's brand focus combined with Zero's complex visual effects for feature films, plus a cross-country VFX pipeline, will align the dual shops and allow for projects in the advertising and entertainment mar- kets. The alliance will also fully integrate the 120 combined staffers and give them access to all three studio locations, linking client service teams. Uppercut launched in Manhattan in 2015 and quick grew to encompass editors, pro- ducers and artists working with top brands, including Volvo, Fitbit, Covergirl, Nike, Google, Grey Goose and numerous others. Zero, based in Boston and Los Angeles, crafts photo-real visual effects for major feature films, including the Whitey Bulger biopic Black Mass, the 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters, The Magnificent Seven, and more recently Xmen: New Mutants, Pete Berg's Mile 22 and the upcoming Equalizer 2. — By Linda Romanello HOUSE CALL: ZOIC HOUSE CALL: UPPERCUT (L-R) Zoic's Kilshaw, Post's Linda Romanello, Marc Lous and Zoic's Ryan Cunningham. Uppercut's Scarpelli, Post's Linda Romanello and Marc Lous, and Uppercut's Kathrin Lausch. LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Film School (LAFS) (www.lafilm.edu) announces its continued support of women in the entertainment industry with its "Women In Entertainment Scholarship" (WIES). To date, the school, set in Hollywood's backyard with a national student enrollment of over 3,000, has committed close to $200,000 in scholarships for women. The addition- al $1.5 million WIES fund will focus on encouraging significantly more female enrollment to help boost women's representation in all areas of study at LAFS and its subsidiary, The Los Angeles Recording School. The WIES fund will benefit in- coming female students and is part of LAFS' latest pledge to increase female enrollment to 50 percent of the overall student body over time. Effective immediately, the scholar- ship will provide a one-time, $2,000 award towards tuition for all newly enrolled female students to drive an equal male-to-female ratio and aim to increase the school's current fe- male student population by 25 per- cent. The scholarship can be applied towards any of LAFS's numerous degree programs, including Bachelor and Associate of Science degrees in entertainment business, animation, graphic design, music production, audio production and film. "We believe strongly that our commitments today will make a dif- ference in developing our leaders of tomorrow," says Sandra Lee, associ- ate film program director and profes- sor at The Los Angeles Film School. "Opportunities for women in enter- tainment are improving and while we recognize there is much work to be done, we're proud to be able to offer this scholarship to incoming female students as a next step." LA FILM SCHOOL LAUNCHES 'WOMEN IN ENTERTAINMENT SCHOLARSHIP'