Director Vincent Ward (whose feature credits include What Dreams May Come) has joined Santa Monica-headquartered Omaha Pictures for commercials….Executive producer Kent Feuerring and director John Alper, who were partnered for the past seven years in bicoastal A Pictures, have amicably parted ways. Alper has signed on for commercial representation with Tate & Partners, Santa Monica. Feuerring will maintain A Pictures, which represents director Greg Vernon; the exec. producer plans to bring on additional directorial talent as well….Director Gerald Casale has joined Picture Park, Santa Monica and Boston…. Roger Zorovich, who served as an executive producer at bicoastal/international Propaganda Films for the past five-and-a-half years, has been named head of the commercial production operation at F.M. Rocks, a Santa Monica house known primarily for its work in music videos….Word is that director Paul Sapiano is coming aboard Blind Spot Media, Santa Monica and Dallas…. London-based digital production company Sleeper has entered into production partnership deals with eight U.K. commercial houses—Academy, Blink, Gorgeous, HLA, Joy, Outsider, Spectre and Stark Films—to facilitate cross-platform campaigns integrating traditional TV and new media such as interactive TV and the Web….Noted feature director Michael Ritchie (Downhill Racer, The Candidate, The Bad News Bears), who was also active in the commercialmaking discipline, died last month of prostate cancer. He was 62. Ritchie’s spot credits included Diet Coke’s "The Melt," which he helmed in 1990 via now defunct Lucasfilm Commercial Productions. The ad literally shows football players melting under 104-degree heat on a practice field until quarterback Boomer Esiason comes to the rescue, restoring them to normal with two-liter bottles of Diet Coke….Editor David Moritz is working on The Affair of the Necklace, a feature starring Hillary Swank. He will again be available for commercials and music videos starting July 1 via Wild(child), New York. Moritz has edited on such movies as Rushmore, Jerry McGuire, Bottlerocket and Town and Country….
