Robert Walston, president of Liberty Livewire Corp., Santa Monica-headquartered parent company to a host of post/effects facilities worldwide, has added the title of CEO. He had been serving as acting CEO since April, following the departure of David Beddow. Liberty Livewire’s primary hubs of operation are Los Angeles, New York and London. Before joining Liberty Livewire in June 2000 as president and COO, Walston was chairman/CEO of Four Media Co., which is part of the Liberty family of companies….Redtree Productions, based in New York and Boston, has signed feature filmmaker Brad Anderson and director Mat Kaufman for spot representation…Bicoastal HSI Productions has renewed its strategic alliance with Hollywood-based Bitmax for another year. Per the deal, Bitmax remains the exclusive provider of all digital convergence and distribution for HSI, encompassing such services as putting directors’ work on DVDs and streaming helmers’ reels over the Internet. Bitmax maintains BAM! (Bitmax Asset Manager), an online ordering service that via the Internet connects clients to their digitally archived video files (SHOOT, 4/20, p. 7). This enables clients to order customized reels via the Web. Over the past six months, Bitmax has produced more than 40 DVD runs between 100 and 300 discs each for HSI and its affiliated bicoastal shops, Mars Media and Venus Entertainment….Electra Lang has been named executive producer of Pictures In A Row, the Los Angeles shop featuring director Peter Lang….Sound designer/engineer Eric Pilhofer has joined VoiceWorks Recording Studios, Minneapolis. He was formerly with Minneapolis-based Hi-Wire….
SUPERLATIVE Signs Director Claudia Abend For Spots and Branded Content
Latin American director/editor and documentary filmmaker Claudia Abend has joined SUPERLATIVE for her first U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content.
Abend's empathetic docu-style POV has garnered several international awards for the documentary films Hit (2008) and The Flower of Life (2018). Her spotmaking credits include such brands as Procter & Gamble, Nestle and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. SUPERLATIVE has already worked with Abend, together producing a new ad campaign for digital agency Tinuiti and The Honest Company, a consumer goods corporation featuring eco-minded products.
“We found Claudia through her poignant documentaries on the festival circuit,” said SUPERLATIVE creative manager Stefan Dezil. “We are excited about her textured narratives, emotional storytelling, and her powerhouse long-form storytelling abilities, currently on her third feature film. As SUPERLATIVE continues to build our brand after premiering our latest films at Sundance and SXSW, Claudia is the kind of multidimensional artist we are excited to partner with on branded content and beyond. Fluent in English and Spanish, her reel shows real prowess with infants, food and skin products, families both young and old. Great visual storytelling and inspirational doc work.”
Abend began her career in her native Uruguay, studying film and editing in college. “My dad would show me films like Citizen Kane,” she said. “I love cinema and became an editor. It was here that I learned all about communicating human emotion.”
From the get-go, Abend hit it big as a documentary director, teaming with Adrianna Loeff on Hit, a movie chronicling pop artists of Uruguayan music. Abend took home a Best Editing... Read More