Production company Envision Media Arts (EMA) has signed director Mike Nelesen to its commercial division. Among his credits is H&R Block’s “Procrastination” out of Fallon Minneapolis, which was named to TruTV’s “Top 10 Funniest Commercials of the Year” for 2013. The H&R job was produced by Drive-Thru, Minneapolis, which continues to handle Nelesen for select house accounts in Minneapolis. EMA otherwise reps him nationally.
Nelesen’s work spans such brands as McDonald’s, TiVo, Baskin Robbins, MNsure, ConocoPhillips, Marshfield Clinics and Nickelodeon Universe. He also directed, shot and edited two “user-generated” clips for Nike that were posted anonymously to YouTube. Besides being picked up by tens of thousands of blogs worldwide, each clip can claim millions of views. One of the clips, “Randy’s Donuts,” was viewed more than a half million times in a single day. “Cheerleader Toss,” another of Nelesen’s early viral projects, was viewed over 11 million times. The clip still retains thousands of web postings today.
Nelesen teamed with Best Buy, Redline Entertainment and The Rolling Stones to develop and produce broadcast and internet marketing material for The Rolling Stones’ four-DVD box set, “Four Flicks,” which was distributed exclusively by Best Buy and achieved five-times platinum sales in less than a month. Nelesen also directed broadcast campaigns featuring Sheryl Crow, Tony Hawk, Moby, and Elton John. For AMC Theatres, Nelesen co-conceived and directed four of the five successful “Silence is Golden” mock film trailers, which played for cinema audiences internationally.
For Nelesen, the opportunity to join EMA came from his long-term relationship with Andrew Halpern, exec producer/president of commercial production at EMA. “Andrew and I have always had a great time working together,” said Nelesen. “And he and Lee (Nelson, EMA’s president/CEO) as a team are a great creative force. I have watched them develop the EMA commercial division over the last year, and am excited to have an opportunity to join them.”
Nelesen has known Halpern dating back to when they were together at Crossroads. Together they turned out work for Ford, ConocoPhillips and Honda.
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