Droga5 has appointed Lucia Grillo to serve as production development director. The newly created role comes as the headcount of the combined production departments has grown to approximately 180 people, and within this, the diversity of Droga5’s offerings has grown tremendously.
Grillo will report to and work with Droga5 chief creation officer Sally-Ann Dale to create a smart, future-facing production business unit for Droga5. Grillo will also be part of the production department’s leadership team, which includes the head of interactive production, head of art production, head of print services and director of integrated production business affairs and the soon-to-be-hired head of film.
Grillo joins Droga5 from 360i, where she held the title of head of integrated production, VP. Prior to 360i, she enjoyed a stint at VICE Media as a group account director. Her earlier experience comes from the production side of the business, as head of production and then managing director for Psyop in New York, where she spent about 10 years. She began her production career in the production departments of J. Walter Thompson and McCann Erickson.
Chief creation officer Dale said, “We see a great value in Lucia’s experience of being on both the production and agency side. She has the ability to run a business, be an astute producer and be client-facing. We want to constantly explore new production solutions and opportunities to better serve us and our clients’ ever-growing content needs.”
Grillo commented, “This is a really exciting time to be joining Droga5, as it celebrates its tenth anniversary and continues to create work with impact and ambition, as well as world-class craft.”
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