Editor Fernando Villena has joined editorial house Cutters, Santa Monica and Chicago, for exclusive spot and music video representation. He was last affiliated with Brass Knuckles, Venice, Calif.
Villena will be based in Cutters’ Santa Monica shop, but is available to cut out of either of the company’s facilities, as are fellow company editors. Over the years, he has cut commercials for such clients as Lexus, EA Sports, Coors Light, Mazda, Budweiser, Pizza Hut, Mattel, Ford, General Mills and Doctors Without Borders. A PSA for the latter, simply titled “Borders”–directed by Marcel Langenegger of now defunct Propaganda Films–for Advico Young & Rubicam, Zurich–won a Gold Lion at the 2001 Cannes International Advertising Festival. (Langenegger is now with Los Angeles-headquartered Biscuit Filmworks.)
Besides spots, Villena has also been active in music videos, editing for artists who include the Black Eyed Peas, Tupac, Hilary Duff, Ashlee Simpson, Ben Folds, Macy Gray, Hoobatank, Lil’ Kim, Alanis Morrisette, Nelly Furtado and Ben Harper. Among Villena’s most recent endeavors are feature-length projects such as a documentary, Rize, directed by David LaChappelle.
The move to Cutters reunites Villena with the company’s national director of sales and marketing, Chuck Silverman, who repped the editor from ’02-’04 at Brass Knuckles. Villena comes aboard a Cutters’ roster that includes editors Chris Claeys, Kathryn Hempel, John Dingfield, Ruth Efrati Epstein, Christopher Gotschall, Nadia Hennrich, Carlos Lowenstein, John Mailoux, Tom Pastorelle and Steve Stein. Nicole Visram is the company’s executive producer in Santa Monica, while Cindy Duffy serves in the same capacity in Chicago.
Cutters is outfitted with nine Avid bays in Chicago, and three in Santa Monica. The Santa Monica office also offers a Final Cut Pro edit bay. Chicago sister companies Sol DesignFX and Another Country offer finishing and audio post, respectively.
