Integrated production company Tool of North America has announced a strategic expansion of its digital leadership team and reorganization of the division. Under Dustin Callif, managing partner, digital, and Oliver Fuselier, managing partner, live action, the company has made several senior level promotions from within, as well as a new hire, to strengthen and support its growing digital, integrated, experiential and VR offerings.
Tool has promoted Chris Neff from executive producer, digital, to director of digital & integrated/EP; Adam Baskin from sr. digital producer to EP, digital; and Sarah DiLeo from integrated producer to EP, integrated. Tool has also hired Jennifer Baker as EP, experiential.
Neff, who executive produced recent Tool projects spanning VR, experiential and digital for brands like Infiniti, IBM and Domino’s, has been elevated to take a more senior leadership role across digital, experiential and VR. Baskin, who produced “A World of Belonging,” a data visualization project for Airbnb, will executive produce digital projects ranging from websites to mobile apps and continue playing a key role in Tool’s relationship with Airbnb and Twitter. DiLeo will lead the live action approach to integrated projects, having recently led the “Come Seek Live” project, a groundbreaking real-time storytelling campaign for Royal Caribbean using Periscope to live-stream island adventures on social platforms and live billboards throughout New York City. Baker will oversee the day to day business and long-term growth of Tool’s experiential department. Baker brings over 20 years of experiential experience, having served as lead producer and Executive Producer on projects with clients like Swarovski, Nestle, Acer, Nintendo, AT&T and Pepsi. Tool’s VR department will be led by Julia Sourikoff, who was recently hired as Head of VR & 360 from the Future of Storytelling, where she worked with brands like American Express, GE, Google, Microsoft and Time Warner.
“The demand for more interesting and entertaining storytelling in advertising has never been higher, and we’re constantly innovating our business and offerings to deliver culturally-relevant content,” said Callif. “As our digital and integrated, experiential and VR offerings continue to expand, we’ve made a strategic decision to appoint leaders of each division to work together to help accelerate our growth.”
“We’re dedicated to finding the right combination of creativity, talent and the use of emerging technology with the singular mission to tell great stories that resonate with people,” said Fuselier. “With this team in place alongside our world class roster of live action and interactive directors and artists, we’ve found the ideal structure that will allow us take on the most challenging and innovative new projects.”
The expansion comes on the heels of Fuselier’s promotion to managing partner, live action from managing director, live action, and follows several recent high profile VR projects from Tool and its best-in-class roster of directors and digital artists. In August 2015, Tool produced Infiniti’s “Driver’s Seat” campaign from CP+B, two distinct virtual reality experiences. In December 2015, to kick off Tool’s new digital studio in France, interactive director Aramique launched a VR exhibition in Paris’s Palais de Tokyo called “The Eight Phases of Enlightenment.” In March 2016, Tool’s John X. Carey directed the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s VR campaign from Wieden+Kennedy Portland, “Together We Are Stronger,” aimed at bringing people together to overcome the challenges of MS. And most recently, in April 2016, Tool’s Marc Forster directed “Eyes on Gigi,” BMW’s interactive global campaign with 360 video from KBS / Serviceplan to launch the new BMW M2 Coupé; it was just named the most viewed 360 video on Youtube.
Tool was recently awarded the Palme D’Or, the highest production honor of the 2016 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.
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