Postproduction studio The Colonie has hired Zach Day as producer/new business. Day brings more than 15 years of ad agency experience, most recently as a sr. producer at Leo Burnett. In his new role, he will focus on developing business and forging agency alliances beyond the studio’s base in Chicago.
The Colonie partner/editor Bob Ackerman said that the studio has collaborated with Day on numerous projects over the years and feels he is the perfect choice to lead a new expansion initiative. “We know Zach’s producing skills, we know his client skills, we know how passionate he is. I have no doubt his enthusiasm for our industry will strengthen the Colonie’s relationship to Chicago agencies as well as agencies in Detroit, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Madison and other cities across the Midwest. He understands their perspective having worked on that side for so long.”
Partner/executive producer Mary Caddy added that Day brings a fresh perspective to postproduction. “We’ve built a great business, but we can always improve,” she said. “We have a lot of respect for Zach and feel his ability to look at things with fresh eyes will help us move forward.”
For his part, Day says he was seeking a new challenge and has always enjoyed the editorial and postproduction side of the business, especially his interactions with The Colonie. “A ton of the work that I produced at Burnett passed through this studio,” he noted. “I came to see myself as part of the family because that’s how I was treated.”
A Chicago native, Day earned a degree in advertising and marketing from Columbia College before joining Leo Burnett as a junior account executive in 2005. He soon gravitated to a production role and moved up the agency ranks, becoming a senior producer in 2016. As such, he has produced work across a variety of media for brands including Samsung, Aldi, United Healthcare and Budweiser.
Day is looking forward to introducing The Colonie’s expertise to new agency partners and to helping the studio broaden its service offering. “We’ve got a great team and my role is to ensure we’re bulletproof on every project that comes through the door,” he said. “We have a lot of resources and expertise across a range of services, but there is more room to grow. I’d like to explore possibilities for bringing other facets of production into the studio.”
Review: Writer-Director Aaron Schimberg’s “A Different Man”
Imagine you could wake up one morning, stand at the mirror, and literally peel off any part of your looks you don't like — with only movie-star beauty remaining.
How would it change your life? How SHOULD it change your life?
That's a question – well, a launching point, really — for Edward, protagonist of Aaron Schimberg's fascinating, genre-bending, undeniably provocative and occasionally frustrating "A Different Man," featuring a stellar trio of Sebastian Stan, Adam Pearson and Renate Reinsve.
The very title is open to multiple interpretations. Who (and what) is "different"? The original Edward, who has neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes bulging tumors on his face? Or the man he becomes when he's able to slip out of that skin? And is he "different" to others, or to himself?
When we meet Edward, a struggling actor in New York (Stan, in elaborate makeup), he's filming some sort of commercial. We soon learn it's an instructional video on how to behave around colleagues with deformities. But even there, the director stops him, offering changes. "Wouldn't want to scare anyone," he says.
On Edward's way home on the subway, people stare. Back at his small apartment building, he meets a young woman in the hallway, in the midst of moving to the flat next door. She winces visibly when she first sees him, as virtually everyone does.
But later, Ingrid (Reinsve) tries to make it up to him, coming over to chat. She is charming and forthright, and tells Edward she's a budding playwright.
Edward goes for a medical checkup and learns that one of his tumors is slowly progressing over the eye. But he's also told of an experimental trial he could join. With the possibility — maybe — of a cure.
So... Read More