Caviar has added director Miguel Campaña to its London, Amsterdam, Paris and Brussels rosters for commercial representation. His body of work spans such brands as Canon, Land Rover, Orange and Volkswagen, among others. Campaña’s two most recent recognizable spots for Carlsberg featuring Mads Mikkelsen are “Better With Beer” for Carlsberg O.O. and “Chamber of Secrets.” The director’s work has garnered accolades at such competitions as the Cannes Lions, Clios and Ciclope. And his acclaimed short film The Following Year with Rachel Keller has been selected for more than 50 international film festivals….
Toronto production company Merchant has added filmmaker and writer Chandler Levack to its roster for commercial representation in Canada. Her credits include the 2017 short We Forgot to Break Up, which played at both TIFF and SXSW, and her feature film debut I Like Movies, which had its world premiere at TIFF last year and was named Best Canadian Picture by the Vancouver Film Critics Circle. Levack has also directed music videos for bands including Toronto punk act PUP, which earned her back-to-back Juno nominations in 2015 and 2016. Her latest film, entitled Anglophone, was among 32 feature-length projects that recently received funding from Telefilm Canada….
Publicis Groupe has acquired Publicis Sapient AI Labs, an innovative artificial intelligence research and development joint venture launched in 2020 in partnership between Publicis Sapient, Elder Research and Tquila. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Publicis Sapient AI Labs will fully become part of Publicis Sapient, Publicis Groupe’s digital business transformation company. The acquisition will further strengthen Publicis Sapient’s data & AI capabilities and enable the company to develop innovative solutions across industries for a wide range of applications, such as generative AI, natural language processing (NLP), computer vision and autonomous systems. Transforming the way enterprises interact and understand their customers, Publicis Sapient AI Labs combines Publicis Sapient’s more than 30 years of global delivery of its SPEED (Strategy, Product, Experience, Engineering and Data & AI) capabilities with Elder Research’s 28 years of expertise in the multidisciplinary fields of data science, AI and machine learning, and Tquila’s record of hiring and rapidly scaling new technology services practices worldwide. The highly experienced AI and data science professionals from Publicis Sapient AI Labs will become part of the company’s existing data and AI practitioners, together propelling client enterprises into the era of advanced analytics, data-driven insights and intelligent solutions….
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