Saville Productions, Beverly Hills, has signed filmmaker John Cameron Mitchell for commercial representation. Mitchell is the acclaimed director of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and last years’ highly controversial film, Shortbus.
Mitchell initially started out as an actor appearing in theater, numerous television series and movies before moving into directing. In 1998, he wrote Hedwig and the Angry Inch, an off Broadway musical play about Hedwig, a transgendered rock musician chasing after an ex-lover who plagiarized her songs. Three years later, he directed the feature film version of the play, casting himself as Hedwig. The film and play were critical hits and have each spawned a cult following. Mitchell received the best director and Audience awards at the Sundance Film Festival and the Grand Prix at Deauville. The film was honored as best directorial debut by the National Board of Review and the L.A. Film Critics Society. Mitchell was also nominated for a Golden Globe as best actor.
After the success of Hedwig, Mitchell expressed an interest in financing, writing, and directing a film which would incorporate explicit sex in a naturalistic way. That movie would be called Shortbus. Completed in ’06 after a two-year long talent search and shooting process, it was presented in May ’06 at the Cannes Film Festival. Shortbus also won awards at the Zurich, Athens and Gijon Film Festivals.
Mitchell has directed music videos for Bright Eyes and Scissor Sisters. For the latter he helmed “Filthy/Gorgeous,” which was banned from American MTV for its explicit sexual content. He also directed the video for Bright Eyes’ “First Day of My Life” which has had more than 330,000 views on Youtube.
“John’s work is bold, provocative and highly entertaining. This is a perfect combination to make great ads or longer branded content film,” said Johnny Doran, Saville’s executive producer. “Also, having been an actor for so long, John has a wonderful rapport with talent resulting in convincing performances”
Mitchell’s latest film in development is a modern fairy tale called Oskur Fishman.
SCHROM x Yacht Club and Be Electric Studios Launch Electric XR for Virtual Production
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More