Bicoastal/ international Propaganda Films has named Rick Hess as its president. Hess formerly served as head of production at Phoenix Pictures, the Culver City, Calif.-based feature company under the aegis of president and CEO Mike Medavoy.
In his new role, Hess, in partnership with Propaganda COO Trevor Macy, will be responsible for all facets of the company. Hess will spearhead Propaganda’s feature, TV and talent management efforts, as well as supervise its commercial and music video production endeavors.
At Phoenix, Hess oversaw all motion picture projects from the early stages of development through marketing and release. Films produced during his Phoenix tenure included Apt Pupil, Urban Legend and The Thin Red Line. Prior to Phoenix, Hess teamed with Cassian Elwes to create William Morris’ Independent Film Division, packaging and financing numerous pictures for the Beverly Hills-based talent agency’s clients. Earlier Hess served as a production executive at TriStar Pictures, Culver City, where his focus was on international film finance.
Hess said he was attracted to Propaganda on several levels, noting that "for probably the better part of the last year, I’ve been exploring how to take a lot of the directors and motion picture talent I’ve been working with into other media, including the commercial production business." After meeting and developing a rapport with Macy, Hess said, "I came to realize that the group at Propaganda had the talent base and the assets I had been looking for. It’s a perfect fit in terms of a company that is truly multimedia and will create opportunities for talent across all platforms."
With his theatrical motion picture experience, Hess also wants to figure prominently in opening up feature film opportunities for Propaganda’s commercial helmers. "That is a priority," he said. "I’m talking about more than just getting feature jobs for directors. We want to provide a smart strategy so that they can expand into the motion picture business in a way that lets them have a great degree of creative control over the process." This philosophy of providing meaningful crossover opportunities, said Hess and Macy, spans Propaganda’s overall operation, encompassing the directors at its commercial production labels (i.e. Propaganda, bicoastal/international Satellite, Hollywood-based Propaganda Independent) as well as directors and actors handled by Propaganda’s talent management firm.
Hess added that he was also drawn to the fact that Propaganda is well connected to considerable Internet resources via SCP Private Equity Partners, a Wayne, Pa.-based investment fund. SCP is part of the group—headed by entertainment entrepreneur Gary Beer—that bought Propaganda’s commercial, music video and talent management businesses from Universal Studios earlier this year (SHOOT, 4/16, p. 1). Part of the thinking behind the deal was that Propaganda’s content provider prowess complemented SCP’s investments in such arenas as communications information technology and Internet ventures. SCP is a $265 million private equity fund that’s affiliated with Safeguard Securities, which is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Hess characterized the Internet as being "a terrific alternative delivery system" that can afford directorial talent "different creative opportunities."
Hess and Macy will report directly to Propaganda’s board of directors. Key board members are: Beer, who was originally slated to be Propaganda’s CEO but subsequently became CEO of Smithsonian Business Ventures for the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Winston Churchill of SCP; and Austin, Texas-based cable pioneer Jack Crosby, former chairman of Imagine Entertainment. Beer and Macy previously worked together at the Sundance companies in Park City, Utah. Beer was co-founder/CEO of the Sundance companies, while Macy was formerly Sundance’s COO.
Among the directors Hess has ties to is Bryan Singer, who directed such features as The Usual Suspects and the aforementioned Apt Pupil. Singer had been repped by Propaganda Independent, a division specializing in handling feature directors for select commercials. According to Macy, Singer currently has no active spot affiliation in that the director, who never had a formal contract with Propaganda Independent, is currently immersed in the feature X-Men. Macy conjectured, though, that when Singer "comes up for air [from the feature world], I wouldn’t be surprised if he were back in the Propaganda Independent fold," given his close relationship and friendship with Apt Pupil collaborator Hess.
Propaganda Independent and other Propaganda divisions have seen the departure of key execs in recent months. As earlier reported (SHOOT, 7/16, p. 1), Steve Dickstein was let go as president of Propaganda’s overall commercial operation. He has since become president of bicoastal Partizan Entertainment (SHOOT, 9/10, p. 1). The international Partizan, with offices in London and Paris, had previously maintained its U.S. commercial foothold in association with Propaganda.
Additionally, Propaganda Independent executive producer Susanne Preissler left the company (SHOOT, 8/13, p. 1), as did Jeff Armstrong, executive producer of bicoastal/international Satellite, and Dave Morrison, who served as Propaganda’s head of commercial development. Morrison has since joined an as-yet-unnamed company being formed by Propaganda cofounder and former chairman Steve Golin.
Macy said that Propaganda is in the midst of building "a different organizational structure" and plans to bring on additional key managerial talent. He expects to make an announcement soon pertaining to the commercial operation. Colin Hickson, Propaganda’s VP of commercials, added that "the restructuring" doesn’t necessarily mean that each person who has left will be replaced.
