Bicoastal Sandwick Films, which recently added director Rubin Fleischer, has now signed helmer Simon Blake, who comes over from bicoastal/international Chelsea Pictures, a shop with which he was affiliated for more than a decade.
Perhaps best known for his mix of varied visual effects and animation techniques with live action, Blake broadens the palette of the Sandwick’s live-action roster. For much of his career, Blake has primarily been repped through live-action houses, bringing them mixed-media sensibilities. His current reel includes a short film, Sadness of Sex, which hit the film festival circuit, and the Levi’s stop-motion animation spot “World Gone Pretty” from McCann Tag, New York, an offbeat comedic tale of a man rebelling in a world of metrosexuals.
Blake’s credits over the years include spots for such clients as AT&T, United Airlines, Barnes & Noble, and the New York Lottery.
He is no stranger to the alluded to short film world either; in fact he was one of the directors in the initial groundbreaking round of Sony “Dreams” series of shorts in 2002. He directed and conceived the “Dreams” short Minotaur.
A native of the U.K., Blake studied graphic design in college and began working on film and television graphics at the start of his career, during which time he apprenticed under the legendary British animator Osbert Parker. Blake developed an affinity for working in a very organic manner with animation, often using found materials and hand-drawn or hand-made techniques to lend a warmth to his work that departed from the traditional computer animation norm at the time.
Blake described his work as being conceptual in nature, with narrative–not technique–being the key element. The director said that he and his producer Marcello Bue were drawn to the opportunity to work with executive producer Bill Sandwick. Blake said that Sandwick “intuitively understood the potential of the mixed media work that I do, and recognized the diversity of genres–I enjoy the spontaneity and immediacy of working with actors, and it’s one of the areas I’m interested in building up. Knowing Bill’s strength in working with performance-driven directors, I’m excited about or prospects of going forward.
Sandwick Films’ spot directorial lineup consists of comedy specialists Jeff Gorman and Steve Kessler, feature director John Curran, Blake, Fleischer, and three helmers who came aboard last year, Newton Thomas Siegel, Dave Merhard and Rawson Thurber. The latter two are also known for their work in ad humor.
The company is repped by Mary Ford of Mary Ford & Co. on the East Coast, Nikki Weiss of Nikki Weiss & Co. in the Midwest, and Stacey Altman of Stacey & Co. on the West Coast.
New FDA Rules To Take Effect For TV Drug Commercials
Those ever-present TV drug ads showing patients hiking, biking or enjoying a day at the beach could soon have a different look: New rules require drugmakers to be clearer and more direct when explaining their medications' risks and side effects.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration spent more than 15 years crafting the guidelines, which are designed to do away with industry practices that downplay or distract viewers from risk information.
Many companies have already adopted the rules, which become binding Nov. 20. But while regulators were drafting them, a new trend emerged: thousands of pharma influencers pushing drugs online with little oversight. A new bill in Congress would compel the FDA to more aggressively police such promotions on social media platforms.
"Some people become very attached to social media influencers and ascribe to them credibility that, in some cases, they don't deserve," said Tony Cox, professor emeritus of marketing at Indiana University.
Still, TV remains the industry's primary advertising format, with over $4 billion spent in the past year, led by blockbuster drugs like weight-loss treatment Wegovy, according to ispot.tv, which tracks ads.
Simpler language and no distractions
The new rules, which cover both TV and radio, instruct drugmakers to use simple, consumer-friendly language when describing their drugs, without medical jargon, distracting visuals or audio effects. A 2007 law directed the FDA to ensure that drug risk information appears "in a clear, conspicuous and neutral manner."
FDA has always required that ads give a balanced picture of both benefits and risks, a requirement that gave rise to those long, rapid-fire lists of side effects parodied on shows like "... Read More