Commercial production company Cap Gun Collective, with shops in Chicago and London, has opened a Los Angeles office with the hiring of executive producer Jason Botkin and an expanded U.S. directorial roster that includes founder Alex Fendrich, Docter Twins, Jeppe Ronde, Jonathan Doe, Michael Sewandono, Spooner Bonde, Tomas Mankovsky, and Tom Haines.
The company has also launched an original content offering, Cap Gun TV (CGTV), a hybrid production studio that develops, produces, and markets original content for broadcast, film, digital and video on demand, incubating micro-content into larger, fully realized properties and finding new ways of funding and distribution within the landscapes of traditional and new media.
Botkin hails from an extensive production background, most recently as EP for commercial production stalwart Furlined. Prior to Furlined, Botkin was the founder and managing director of Streetgang Films, a music video company that helped launch the careers of assorted prominent directors.
Cap Gun Collective was originally founded in Chicago in 2009 by executive producer Matt Abramson, director Fendrich, and producer Kaitlyn Parks. In 2011, the company opened an office in London with exec producer Oliver Allgrove. Cap Gun Collective is part of the grouping of Whitehouse Post “one roof” partner companies that includes Gentleman Scholar and Carbon VFX.
Since its 2009 inception Cap Gun Collective has developed and produced a number of original content properties, including The Venue, which won the Comedy Central Pilot Competition in 2012. Cap Gun also produced the web series Teachers with director Matt Miller and improv comedy troupe The Katydids. The series is showcased on The Onion website and is also being developed into a longer format series.
Cap Gun will continue its successful foray into original content with CGTV.
Cap Gun Collective is represented on the West Coast by Brooke Covington and Rebecca Reber, Jimmy Waldron for the Mid-West and Meredith Bergman for the East Coast.
Directing and Editing “Conclave”; Insights From Edward Berger and Nick Emerson
It’s been a bruising election year but this time we’re referring to a ballot box struggle that’s more adult than the one you’d typically first think of in 2024. Rather, on the industry awards front, the election being cited is that of the Pope which takes front and center stage in director Edward Berger’s Conclave (Focus Features), based on the 2016 novel of the same title by Robert Harris. Adapted by screenwriter Peter Straugham, Conclave stars Ralph Fiennes as the cardinal leading the conclave that has convened to select the next Pope. While part political thriller, full of backstabbing and behind-closed-door machinations, Conclave also registers as a thoughtful adult drama dealing with themes such as a crisis of faith, weighing the greater good, and engaging in a struggle that’s as much about spirituality as the attainment of power.
Conclave is Berger’s first feature after his heralded All Quiet on the Western Front, winner of four Oscars in 2023, including for Best International Feature Film. And while Conclave would on the surface seem to be quite a departure from that World War I drama, there’s a shared bond of humanity which courses through both films.
For Berger, the heightened awareness of humanity hit home for him by virtue of where he was--in Rome, primarily at the famed Cinecittà studio--to shoot Conclave, sans any involvement from the Vatican. He recalled waking up in Rome to “soak up” the city. While having his morning espresso, Berger recollected looking out a window and seeing a priest walking about with a cigarette in his mouth, a nun having a cup of coffee, an archbishop carrying a briefcase. It dawned on Berger that these were just people going to... Read More