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BITS & PIECES www.postmagazine.com 6 POST NOV/DEC 2020 UPPERCUT OPENS NEW ATLANTA STUDIO ATLANTA — New York-based post production company Uppercut (https:// uppercutedit.com) has opened its second office, bringing its editorial, finishing and VFX services to Atlanta. The company opened its flagship studio in 2015 in the heart of New York's Flatiron District. The new 10,000-square-foot facility is situated in a historic industrial building located in Atlanta's Upper West Side. Designed for creative comfort, the mixed-use development — dubbed The Works — blends office space with retail, dining and entertainment. The new Atlanta location will serve the growing needs of production clients in the region, including brand, advertising, film and entertainment clients, along with the state's booming tech industry. Executive producer Jen Sienkwicz will run the location, bringing with her more than two decades of experience in post production. From this facility, Uppercut will offer offline editing, VFX and finishing for short-form, commercials, music videos and branded content. The space is home to several offline edit suites and Flame bays for finish- ing. Additionally, the location can provide post production suites for long- or short-term rentals. These rental pods are fully customizable and each features controlled access, an edit bay with dual offline stations, an assistant/producer workspace, full access to client lounges, a kitchen and a conference room. "Opening in Atlanta is a logical next step as we have continued to grow in size and scope," explains founder/editor Micah Scarpelli. "The tremendous rise in Georgia's television and film production industries, and the high-level creative work coming out of local advertising agencies, is extremely exciting. We've earned our reputation and our loyal clients because we remain focused on cul- ture-defining stories that blur the lines between advertising and entertainment. We're eager to amplify our editorial and post services to serve the thriving Atlanta market." Uppercut is able to service clients working remotely during the pandemic via the studio's fully-remote pipeline. The new southern hub is also custom de- signed to be NDA-compliant in order to securely handle entertainment projects that call for the highest level of confidentiality and data encryption. "We are so excited to open this office and become a part of the Atlanta creative community," adds managing director Lisa Houck. "We're thrilled to see our team of world class artists take on the projects this vibrant market has to offer, and we are equally motivated to connect with and cultivate homegrown Atlanta talent to be part of our team." HEAD UP HIGH VIDEO EMPLOYS ANIMATED WORLDS LOS ANGELES — Fitz, of the band Fitz and the Tantrums, recently teamed up with Swiss Made Entertainment (www.swissmade.media) director Richard Selvi on a new music video that places the artist in a series of entirely-animated worlds. Head Up High represents the lead vocalist's first solo endeavor, and takes him on a surrealistic adventure through a range of imagined worlds. CG and 2D hand-drawn styles seamlessly transition from a space odyssey to an underwater world to a beach-side drive in a classic convertible, "I very much enjoyed working with Fitz on the Head Up High music video," notes Selvi. "He trusted my vision and gave me full creative freedom to bring my crazy ideas to life. Mixing and morphing different styles of 3D and 2D animation with live action has always been an avenue I wanted to explore, and with the immeasurable support of the Swiss Made Entertainment post produc- tion team, we were able to take the music video to new heights — literally!" Selvi founded Swiss Made Entertainment in 2018. The studio used Autodesk 3ds Max to prepare and export 3D assets to Unreal Engine. Blender was used to animate characters and render the final scene. Most of the scenes were built and rendered in Unreal Engine (UE4). Effects, such as dust, explosions and lighting, were also created inside UE4. All keying, rotoscoping, color correction and final compositing was performed using Adobe After Effects. Swiss Made Entertainment credits included executive producer Ben Arabian, producer Alex Lampsos, post supervisor/editor Vadym Shapran and DP Drew Ganyer. Bryan Smaller of Company 3 handled the color grade.