NEW YORK—Karen Kourtessis and David Cornman have joined Crew Cuts, New York, as partners/editors. The pair comes over from Post Factory, New York, where they served in the same capacities.
For Kourtessis, joining Crew Cuts represents a homecoming in that she left the company last year for Post Factory. "I came back," she explained, "to partner with three of the smartest and most talented editors in the industry—Sherri Margulies, Clayton Hemmert and Dave Cornman."
Kourtessis was at Crew Cuts for 10 years before she left to join Post Factory. She started at Crew Cuts as an assistant editor in 1992, and was promoted to editor within two years; she was made a partner in the shop in ’00. Among her many high-profile credits from her first tenure was the ’98 Pella Windows spot "Elopement," out of Young & Rubicam (Y&R), New York, which was nominated for the primetime Emmy Award for best commercial. Mike Bigelow—then with now defunct Coppos Films—directed the ad. He’s now with Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles.
Prior to Cornman joining Post Factory, he was an editor at The Blue Rock Editing Company, New York. While there, he cut Computer Associates’ "Amnesia," out of Y&R, which was nominated for the ’02 primetime Emmy Award for best commercial. LeMoine/Miller—Rick and Steve, respectively—of bicoastal/international @radical.media directed the spot. (The pair no longer directs as a team, but both are still with @radical.)
Cornman related that he was attracted to Crew Cuts and its partners in part because of their business philosophy. "They have a good business track record, and they’re really successful and fair business people," he said. "[When I talked to them,] they were the straightest shooters. They spoke about the business the way I thought it really was, and what they wanted to try to accomplish in the future, and that lined up with what we wanted to try to do." Cornman explained that with the proliferation of smaller editorial shops, most now have just one "A" editor, meaning if that editor is unable to cut a spot, a comparable cutter can’t be offered to the client. "We’re trying to bring it back to … the way it used to be, where you would have four or five ‘A’ editors at one shop," Cornman said.
Crew Cuts was founded 17 years ago by Hemmert, who remains at the shop as partner/ editor, along with Margulies, who was upped to partner in the mid-’90s, and Chuck Willis, partner/editor who left the shop earlier this year. Kourtessis noted that she and Cornman joining the shop had nothing to do with Willis’ departure.
As for expansion plans in the form of new hires, both Kourtessis and Cornman reported that nothing definite is in the works. "We are not looking to grow the company just for the sake of growing," said Kourtessis, "but we recognize great talent when we see it—and we are always looking."
Both Kourtessis and Cornman have already started on projects out of their new roost. Cornman has cut a package for Accenture via Y&R, which he worked on with Margulies. He and Kourtessis also collaborated on a Comcast package out of Red Tettemer, Philadelphia. Kourtessis has cut a Dentyne job out of McCann-Erickson, New York, as well as other spots.
Cornman said that he enjoys collaborating with Kourtessis. "We can bounce things back and forth, and the clients are really happy to have two editors at the same time," he remarked. "We’d like to do that at Crew Cuts—all of us as a group. It’s just more interesting—instead of being in your little bubble, you get more ideas from the others, and you see what the other editors are doing."
