Editor Jason Painter–who made his first major industry mark on the 2003 Super Bowl with Reebok’s “Terry Tate: Office Linebacker” spot directed by Rawson Thurber via bicoastal Hypnotic for The Arnell Group, New York–has joined Mad River Post, which maintains shops in New York, Detroit, Santa Monica, San Francisco and Dallas. (Thurber’s spot roost is Boondoggle, Hollywood.)
Plans call for Painter–who comes over from Jigsaw, Santa Monica–to be available via all the Mad River studios, splitting his time primarily between New York and Santa Monica. Already out of the New York roost he has cut three spots for Earthlink directed by Errol Morris (who recently joined bicoastal Moxie Pictures) for Crispin Porter+Bogusky, Miami, and an NBA campaign helmed by Steve Miller of bicoastal/international @radical.media for The Arnell Group. (The Earthlink package consisted of six spots–the other three being cut by Mad River’s Stephane Dumonceau.)
Painter has also worked out of Mad River, Santa Monica, cutting a Dina Realty job directed by Marcus Raboy of Boondoggle (the sister spot house of music video production company F.M. Rocks, Santa Monica) for Petersen Milla Hooks, Minneapolis.
Painter said he was drawn to Mad River by its president Krystn Wagenberg, the chance to attain a higher profile in the New York agency market, the positive working environment at the company, and access to the editorial house’s facilities throughout the U.S. On the latter score, Joiner noted that Mad River’s Rosedit system–which facilitates remote editing whereby, for example, he can be in Santa Monica and conduct an edit session with clients who are in other cities–provides him a measure of flexibility that helps extend his creative reach. He also intends to travel to whatever Mad River shop needs him for a particular job. Painter noted that he has developed Detroit clientele, which can best be served via the company’s Motor City facility.
The NBA and Earthlink assignments entail comedy, a niche for which Painter has become best known. Among his credits during the past year at Jigsaw were Dodge’s “Mating Game” and “Sunday, Sunday” directed by the Traktor collective of bicoastal/international Partizan for BBDO Detroit; Honda directed by Tim Godsall of Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles, for Rubin Postaer and Associates, Santa Monica; and a humorous Kyocera cell phone spot helmed by Jason Reitman of Tate USA, Santa Monica, for Vitro Robertson, San Diego. The latter was a takeoff on the Wes Anderson film, Rushmore.
Prior to Jigsaw, Painter was with Swietlik, Santa Monica (which has since become Cut+Run Los Angeles, which also has offices in New York and London). At Swietlik, he cut “Terry Tate: Office Linebacker” while also demonstrating his editorial prowess in more serious fare, including “Fighting Words” a PSA for the Gay Lesbian & Straight Education Network that ran on MTV. Directed by Michael Franzini of Public Interest Productions, Santa Monica, the moving spot showcased derogatory terms used to refer to gay people. Judy Shepard then appears on screen to relate that this kind of prejudice and hatred toward homosexuals led to the death of her son, Matthew Shepard, who was murdered because he was gay.
Painter noted that public service fare has at times enabled him to show a side of him outside of the comedy arena. He added that the recent Dina Realty job also represented a diversification for him into graphics-driven work.
