Convoy Content, a commercial, branded content and film production company, has been launched under the aegis of executive producer Jared Christensen.
The new venture opens with a directorial roster which includes: Sydney-based Fiona McGee, who had formerly been freelancing in the U.S. and is known for comedy and documentary fare (working with U.S. brands such as ING, and earning recognition at the Cannes Lions Festival, D&AD and LIA); Benoit Gabriel, previously with Saville Productions, whose focus has been emotional storytelling with credits spanning such brands as AT&T, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Honda, Toyota, Ford, Nestle, Walgreens and Visa; and Joe Grasso, a veteran helmer and cinematographer who was working freelance, is known for visual storytelling and has turned out content for brands including Subaru, UPMC and Husqvarna.
Also on the Convoy roster are Andrew De Zen, Cameron Gade, Nick Enriquez and Jay Karas who were previously repped by Stun Spots, the former commercial production company maintained by Stun Creative. Karas, who had earlier in his career been with The Famous Group, is best known for episodic TV encompassing such shows as Parks and Recreation, Raising Hope, Awkward, The Fosters, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Workaholics while extending his reach into commercialmaking with campaigns for Ford. Enriquez is an independent documentary and commercial director who directed the L.A. Addy winning SheaMoisture’s #BreaktheWalls campaign, as well as spots for GMC, Google, Sprint and Tumi. De Zen, a Canadian born director, writer, producer and editor is noted for highly visual storytelling with work for Nike, PlayStation, Joe Fresh, Victim Services Toronto, Indigo and YMCA, among other clients (shortlisted for a Cannes Young Directors Award, he is repped in Canada by Skin & Bones. And Gade is an emerging new talent as a director, cinematographer and writer, known for helping brands tap into honest emotions.
“The Convoy team can tackle any genre, comedy, documentary, scripted, visuals, branded content, you name it,” said Christensen who also continues to serve as VP, head of production at Stun Creative, which backs Convoy, a shop that operates separately and independently. “We are dedicated to collaborating closely with clients to help them tell their stories and make their brand messages powerful and meaningful.”
From Restoring To Hopefully Preserving Multi-Camera Categories At The Emmys
When Gary Baum, ASC won his fourth career Emmy Award earlier this month, it was especially gratifying in that the honor came in a category--Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Half-Hour Series--that had been restored thanks in part to a grass-roots initiative among cinematographers to drum up entries. Last year the category fell by the wayside when not enough multi-camera entries materialized.
In his acceptance speech, Baum appealed to the Television Academy to keep multi-camera categories alive. He later noted to SHOOT that editors also got their multi-camera recognition back in the Emmy competition this year. Baum hopes that after resurrecting multi-camera categories in 2024, such recognition will be preserved for 2025 and beyond.
A major factor in the decline of multi-camera submissions in 2023 was the move of certain childrenโs and family programming from the primetime Emmy competition to the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciencesโ (NATAS) Emmy ceremony. For DPs this meant that multi-camera programs last year were reduced to vying for just one primetime nomination slot in the more general Outstanding Cinematography for a Series (Half-Hour) category. It turned out that this single slot was filled in โ23 by a Baum-lensed episode of How I Met Your Father (Hulu).
Fast forward to this yearโs competition and Baum won for another installment of How I Met Your Father--โOkay Fine, Itโs A Hurricane,โ which turned out to be the series finale. Two of Baumโs Emmy wins over the years have been for How I Met Your Father, and thereโs a certain symmetry to them. His initial win for How I Met Your Father was for the pilot in 2022. So he won Emmys for the very first and last... Read More