Bicoastal commercial production house Atherton has changed its name to Cylo, repositioning itself as a new media company focusing on convergent technologies. The house will also remain involved in traditional spotmaking. President/founder Julie Atherton will continue to head the company’s management, while director Edouard Nammour has been appointed executive creative director of new media. Gregory Lofaro, formerly design technology manager at Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners, New York, has come on board as a design technology director. Cylo has also opened an office in London under the same name.
The impetus for the shift started over a year ago, when Atherton began exploring ways to expand her business. Her first step was to promote executive producer/postproduction Kirsten Jansen to VP of research and development to take an in-depth look at how new technologies would impact and converge with broadcast television. "What we found out was that there was an enormous revolution happening—not just in the PC space or the Internet space, but in the TV space," explained Atherton.
Once Atherton committed to entering the interactive arena, she started building up her staff. She hired former Wall To Wall, New York, executive producer Kirt Gunn as Cylo’s VP/marketing to put the word out on the street. Lofaro was brought on board to augment Cylo’s Web-related initiatives, including DVD authoring, interactive television, rich media, and various other technologies that use a Web platform. The company already has an in-house DVD authoring facility in place, as well as the resources to create interactive experiences for its clients.
Director Nammour will continue to helm spots while being involved with the new venture as a "creative guardian." "He’s really interested and knowledgeable about the new media landscape … and he can give a director’s point of view," Atherton said.
Senior VP/executive producer Cindy Akins will continue to manage talent in the Los Angeles office while developing its new media division. Beth Kinder, also a senior VP/executive producer, will oversee production for all of Cylo’s new media projects in New York.
Alliances
Cylo’s initiative involves a partnership with London-based Branded Film, which is owned by Atherton’s sister, managing director/executive producer Susie Brooks-Smith, and her husband, commercial director David Smith. "Things will probably happen quicker in England, because the digital infrastructure is much firmer in place than [in the States]," related Atherton, who mentioned plans to open another office in Sydney, Australia. Cylo, London, is currently in development on a three-part miniseries for BBC Television, and on an original screenplay written by Nammour.
The company has also made strategic alliances with RespondTV, which provides real-time interactivity with television users; Spruce Technologies, which provides DVD authoring systems; and PCFriendly, which is DVD enhancement software. The alliances ensure that Cylo will have the appropriate technology available. "Because all these different technologies fit with different platforms, we have to be able to work with all of them and recommend the appropriate solution to our clients," Atherton explained.
As earlier reported (SHOOT, 3/10, p. 1), RespondTV has made inroads into the advertising arena. The firm facilitated the interactivity of a Ford Focus commercial, "Parking Lot," which aired last month in five local markets during the Grammy Awards telecast on CBS. An interactive layer was placed on the broadcast spot, which was directed by Scott Burns of bicoastal Tool of North America, for J. Walter Thompson, Detroit.
Traditional Media
Atherton asserted that Cylo was still committed to traditional media. "This doesn’t take away from what we’ve been doing; it adds to it in a big way," she said. "It actually gives our directors more opportunity."
Cylo continues to represent directors Nammour, David Denneen, Rachel Harms and Vadim Perelman. According to Atherton, all the directors are interested in developing new projects in varying degrees. Harms is already developing a cross-platform television program for women with Akins, and Perelman is working on a longform, Web-based program.
Cylo is represented on the East Coast by Marc VanDermeer of New York-based Commercial Artists Management, on the West Coast by Carol Biedermann of C. Biedermann, Los Angeles, and in the Midwest by Chicago-based Tracy Bernard.
