LOS ANGELES-Duck Soup Produckions has changed its company shingle to Duck Soup Studios, reflecting what exec. producer Mark Medernach described as a broadening of the Los Angeles shop-long known for its traditional cel animation-into other areas such as 2-D/3-D computer animation, film titles and interactive projects.
"We’ve been involved in computer animation, film titles and emerging media for quite awhile, and it seemed the right time for us to finally acknowledge that in our name," explained Medernach, who announced the concurrent signing of three directors: cel animation specialist Sam Cornell; director/designer Robin Cottle, whose reputation is in graphic-arts design, particularly for network IDs, TV show opens, film titles and trailers; and Cathy Joritz, a director/illustrator known for her scratch-on animation technique.
Cornell is a seasoned veteran whose commercial career dates back to now defunct animation studio of FilmFair. He was later a partner in the since closed Cornell/Abood. Most recently, he was repped for spots via Playhouse Pictures, Hollywood. Cornell’s latest cel animation fare includes ads for Keebler via Leo Burnett Co., Chicago, and Post Cereals out of Ogilvy & Mather, Los Angeles.
Cottle-who had been freelancing for the past year after serving as a designer at Fuel, Santa Monica, and, prior to that, film trailer studio Global Doghouse, West L.A.-has to her credit broadcast design projects for such clients as Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Bros., Nickelodeon, Noggin (MTV’s new network) and Disney. Medernach envisions Cottle continuing to tap into the promo, ID, film title and trailer markets, but also plans to help her diversify into commercials at Duck Soup.
Joritz, too, has recently been working independently. Though she resides in Dortmund, Germany, Joritz, a Chicago native, is available for spots and other assignments through Duck Soup. She has maintained prior U.S. affiliations with such shops as Backyard Animation (now Tricky Pictures), Chicago, and Acme Filmworks, Hollywood. Among her credits are ads for the Texas Lottery via GSD&M, Austin, Texas, and a pro bono AIDS awareness message, both employing animation scratched directly onto film emulsion, producing a unique composition of Joritz’s animation on top of live-action footage.
Joritz, Cottle and Cornell round out a company directorial roster that also consists of Roger Chouinard, Jean Perramon, Miles Flanagan, James Murphy, Maureen Selwood, Isabel Herguera and Lane Nakamura.
Duck Soup is repped for spots by a trio of independents: New York-based Whitney Rauh on the East Coast, Chicago-based Mary Ida Bonadio in the Midwest and Los Angeles-based Andrew Hal-pern on the West Coast.
