Director Nick Spooner has come aboard the roster of PRISM, a Brooklyn-based production company and content studio founded by executive producer Tom Rossano and director Elliot Kealoha Blanchard.
Spooner’s directing credits span such brands as AT&T, Ford, Ikea, Tide, Budweiser, Volkswagen, Bounty, Nissan, Apple, Mazda, Dodge, Yoplait, Burger King, McDonald’s and HBO. Prior to joining PRISM, he had been handled by The Sweet Shop.
Spooner cut his teeth in the industry right after high school, working on the crew side making commercials and rock videos, gaining first-hand experience in virtually every department on set. The Boston native took this practical knowledge and enrolled at Harvard to major in film and animation, where he joined the storied organization, The Harvard Lampoon.
Starting as a staff cartoonist (he draws his own storyboards to this day), he eventually become The Lampoon’s President. After graduating with honors, he took a creative position at Ogilvy & Mather where he was trained in the art and craft of effective television advertising and brand-building. Spooner transitioned to a job at Comedy Central in NYC where his combined expertise in comedy and branded content allowed him to take on leadership roles as writer, producer, and director on many of the network’s formative campaigns.
Spooner then went on to direct spots for assorted brands. He balances advertising work with his own creative passions; his cartoons frequently show up in magazines, and his short film, a Lovecraftian, SFX-driven dark comedy titled The Call of Charlie, has played in 82 festivals around the world, winning over 40 awards and distinctions.
While comedy is his first love, Nick has had the good fortune to work across all genres, saying, “Comedy–especially in commercials–can be hard to get right, but it’s the perfect foundation to take on almost any type of content. There’s nothing I love more than telling these short stories, whatever form they take.”
EP Rossano said, “Not only does Nick have a strong foundation in writing, but he creates his own opportunities. You want directors to be self-starters, and Nick is someone who actively seeks out new collaborations. On top of that, his work stands out–it’s quirky, it’s funny, it’s subtle. And that’s a rare combination.”
Carrie Coon Relishes Being Part Of An Ensemble–From “The Gilded Age” To “His Three Daughters”
It can be hard to catch Carrie Coon on her own.
She is far more likely to be found in the thick of an ensemble. That could be on TV, in "The Gilded Age," for which she was just Emmy nominated, or in the upcoming season of "The White Lotus," which she recently shot in Thailand. Or it could be in films, most relevantly, Azazel Jacobs' new drama, "His Three Daughters," in which Coon stars alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen as sisters caring for their dying father.
But on a recent, bright late-summer morning, Coon is sitting on a bench in the bucolic northeast Westchester town of Pound Ridge. A few years back, she and her husband, the playwright Tracy Letts, moved near here with their two young children, drawn by the long rows of stone walls and a particularly good BLT from a nearby cafe that Letts, after biting into, declared must be within 15 miles of where they lived.
In a few days, they would both fly to Los Angeles for the Emmys (Letts was nominated for his performance in "Winning Time" ). But Coon, 43, was then largely enmeshed in the day-to-day life of raising a family, along with their nightly movie viewings, which Letts pulls from his extensive DVD collection. The previous night's choice: "Once Around," with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfus.
Coon met Letts during her breakthrough performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" on Broadway in 2012. She played the heavy-drinking housewife Honey. It was the first role that Coon read and knew, viscerally, she had to play. Immediately after saying this, Coon sighs.
"It sounds like something some diva would say in a movie from the '50s," Coon says. "I just walked around in my apartment in my slip and I had pearls and a little brandy. I made a grocery list and I just did... Read More