Madheart, the L.A. shop headed by exec producer Lisa Phillips and representing director Jan Gleie, has expanded its ensemble of filmmaking talent. The production house has signed commercial director Jonas Arnby for the U.S. market, and will serve as stateside rep for The Brainstormclub, a Munich-based creative collective co-founded by Arnby. The Brainstormclub’s filmography includes notable viral ads that have sparked controversy and earned advertising awards across Europe.
Plans call for Madheart to add more directors shortly. The company has also appointed Catherine De Angeles as head of sales. She will additionally serve as Madheart’s Midwest rep through her indie firm Hot Betty.
Arnby is a Danish-born, British-educated filmmaker who has worked with top agencies across Europe and the U.S. for such brands as Sprite, Harley-Davidson, Peugeot, Quiksilver, TDC Mobile and McDonald’s. He is the recipient of numerous awards for his advertising work, including Clio, Cyber Lion, Creative Circle and Mobius award recognition. He has also directed several short films and music videos, and will direct his first feature next year. Arnby was last repped in the U.S. by TWC and prior to that, The Joneses. He continues to maintain his own company, Schmalz Film, in Copenhagen.
Meanwhile The Brainstormclub, which continues to represent itself in Europe, gains its first career stateside representation via the deal with Madheart. A collective of young filmmakers, advertising creatives, designers and artists, The Brainstormclub was founded in 2007 by Arnby, managing director Yves Peitzner, creative producer Hondo Raktkovic, and sales director Dalibor Tomasevic. Brainstormclub’s work, for such brands as Sony Ericsson, BMW and HBO, primarily consists of viral ads and other viral media, but it has also produced environmental advertising, broadcast commercials, music videos and even fine art installations.
The Brainstormclub won a Bronze Lion at the 2010 Cannes International Advertising Festival for a viral BMW ad in which a motorcycle is used to pull the cloth off a long table set on which is elegant dinnerware. Last month, the same ad took top honors at the Gold Award of Montreux for Best Use of Viral Media.
Madheart’s Phillips said she was drawn to Arnby’s comedic touch and The Brainstormclub’s guerilla marketing sensibilities.
“It’s an interesting opportunity to introduce our business model,” said Brainstormclub’s Peitzner of linking with Madheart in the U.S. “We aren’t a film production company or an ad agency in the traditional sense so we can be very flexible. We see many possibilities for working with agencies, or clients directly.” Peitzner added, “We are convinced that viral marketing, or rather contagious, branded entertainment, is the future.”
The Madheart sales force consists of Hot Betty in the Midwest, Lisa Gimenez Toliver on the West Coast, and Dana Dubuy on the East Coast.
SUPERLATIVE Signs Director Claudia Abend For Spots and Branded Content
Latin American director/editor and documentary filmmaker Claudia Abend has joined SUPERLATIVE for her first U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content.
Abend's empathetic docu-style POV has garnered several international awards for the documentary films Hit (2008) and The Flower of Life (2018). Her spotmaking credits include such brands as Procter & Gamble, Nestle and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. SUPERLATIVE has already worked with Abend, together producing a new ad campaign for digital agency Tinuiti and The Honest Company, a consumer goods corporation featuring eco-minded products.
“We found Claudia through her poignant documentaries on the festival circuit,” said SUPERLATIVE creative manager Stefan Dezil. “We are excited about her textured narratives, emotional storytelling, and her powerhouse long-form storytelling abilities, currently on her third feature film. As SUPERLATIVE continues to build our brand after premiering our latest films at Sundance and SXSW, Claudia is the kind of multidimensional artist we are excited to partner with on branded content and beyond. Fluent in English and Spanish, her reel shows real prowess with infants, food and skin products, families both young and old. Great visual storytelling and inspirational doc work.”
Abend began her career in her native Uruguay, studying film and editing in college. “My dad would show me films like Citizen Kane,” she said. “I love cinema and became an editor. It was here that I learned all about communicating human emotion.”
From the get-go, Abend hit it big as a documentary director, teaming with Adrianna Loeff on Hit, a movie chronicling pop artists of Uruguayan music. Abend took home a Best Editing... Read More