SMOKE & MIRRORS MAKE KEY STAFF ADDITIONS

LONDON based post-production facility Smoke & Mirrors (S&M) have announced they have secured the creative talents of sought-after French inferno artist Jean-Philippe Leclercq.
Known as “JP”, he has been appointed as a senior Inferno artist at S&M and, together with impeccable credentials, brings considerable skills in compositing and CG animation techniques as well as experience in visual effects supervision. Along with this key appointment, S&M has also made a number of other significant additions and promotions to further strengthen their production and client services teams.
JP joins S&M having already enjoyed a prolific and highly successful career in Paris working on a range of creatively and technically-challenging commercials, music videos and film projects for world-class directors, including Michel Gondry, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Carot and Nic Mathieu. In the last five years he has worked at some of the leading post production houses in Paris, including BUF, Duran and Ex-Machina, and directed a number of corporate campaigns for Armani, Chanel, Gucci, and Porsche.
Facility Director Penny Verbe: “JP has a brilliant reel and he is quite a coup for us. He is experienced in the highly-filmic and dramatic arena of French post production, and has an innate ability to collaborate with creatively driven people. The agencies and directors we work with regularly will quickly discover that he is a major new talent on the London scene.”
S&M have strengthened their production team by the appointment of Belinda Grew, a producer with over ten years’ experience in visual effects and CG production. She previously worked at Flehner Films, one of the biggest commercials production companies in Latin America, and at London post houses Excess, The House and Cal. She moves into her new role at S&M from S&M 3-D, where she supervised commercials for leading brands such as Esso, Kellogg’s and Wrigley’s. The first project is her new role at S&M involves BT’s new ad campaign, directed by Jake Scott from RSA, which launches next month.
Also joining S&M’s production team in a junior role is Julian Marshall, beloved long-term receptionist at the company. Replacing him at the front-of-house, is Shauna Seresin, formerly at The Mill and a member of the industry-renowned Seresin family.
Speaking about the staff changes, S&M managing director Mark Wildig commented: “Along with providing an inspirational compositing team, S&M is well-known for it’s informal, creative ambience. Supporting a star line-up of digital artists with a highly-professional production team is a prerequisite for a facility company. Our recent additions and changes will help Smoke & Mirrors to retain our position as a premier name in the global post production business.”
(GB)