Grenade, a creative collective formed last fall by director/cameraman Bobby Sheehan, has established affiliations with L.A.-based Ace Entertainment and Concrete Productions, Dallas.
Although the deal had not officially been finalized at press time, the interim agreement specifies that Ace, which is headed by principal/executive producer Pam Tarr, will provide production support and represent Grenade on the Coasts and in the Midwest, while the Southwest and Southeast markets will be handled by Concrete, run by president/executive producer Lisa Cobb.
Sheehan continues to maintain his affiliation with Vancouver, B.C.-based Boz Film and has just struck up a deal with Toronto-based Spy Films for representation in Toronto and Montreal.
Other elements of the Grenade collective are editors Alex Albanese and Steve Silkensen, who both met Sheehan during their former stints at independent film edit house Spin Cycle Post, New York. Albanese has cut a good percentage of Sheehans work over the past four years, while Silkensen has begun working with Sheehan more recently.
Grenade also includes Dean Chamberlain, who specializes in an in-camera technique known as light painting, a frame-by-frame process in which he manipulates the film negative to create light effects. Tarr noted that the artistic technique has interesting applications to Sheehans spots and potential for specific commercial projects.
Said Tarr, The whole idea of Grenade is this group of creative collaborators who are working together on a variety of different film adventures, from commercials to features. Its a bit of a repertory theatre in that they all have individual talents we will represent and hopefully find work for on an individual basis, but they also collaborate with each other on their projects. Its a really unique way of doing commercials, I think.
Being represented by these two different production companies is kind of an experiment, explained Sheehan, who believes that forming affiliations while maintaining Grenade as his own entity provides greater flexibility in terms of sales. If I have different sales forces selling in different markets, maybe Ill have some more control in being able to monitor my growth in different regions and to make adjustments.
For Grenade, Ace has secured Santa Monica-based rep firm Stacey & Annie (which also reps Ace) on the West Coast and New York-based rep Steve Mendel to cover the East Coast, related Tarr, who said they have talked with Sheehan about providing international representation, as well.
Among Sheehans recent Grenade credits are seven spots for Las Vegas Tourism via R&R Advertising, Las Vegas (which Albanese, Silkensen and Chamberlain also worked on); Roswell, a Wal-Mart/Polaroid spot via Bernstein-Rein Advertising, Kansas City, Mo., and a client-direct spot for Partnership For a Drug-Free America featuring country singer Lorrie Morgan (also cut by Albanese and Silkensen).
This week, Sheehan was slated to helm another Partnership spot featuring Andy MacDonald, currently ranked the number two skateboarder in the world. At press time, Sheehan was in the middle of shooting an Ace-produced McDonalds spot via Stern Advertising, Pepper Pike, Ohio, which Albanese is slated to edit.
Sheehan said these affiliations have already yielded results: Concrete obtained Roswell out of Kansas City, a market hed never gotten work from before. I think its going to be a good thing for me, said Sheehan. I work with agencies in all different pockets of the country, and I like that. You get more opportunities at creative coming out of unexpected places.
Until now, Sheehan had been prevented from finalizing affiliations for Grenade because hed been occupied with his first independent feature, Seed, which he completed over the holidays and has begun to send to distributors. He said the unscripted film, which features light-painting sequences by Chamberlain and was cut by Albanese, was culled from 18 hours of footage.
Not a traditional narrative or a conventional documentary, Seed features improvisational performances by both actors and real people. We wrote this movie after it was shot, said Sheehan, who acknowledges that many might not know what to make of it. Its not a mass-audience film. That aside, there are unquestionably great moments of real people saying really interesting things about their own lives.
Before forming Grenade, Sheehan had been a partner in Pure Film, a satellite of now defunct Harmony Pictures. Prior to this, he was represented through Sussan & Co. (now The Sussan Group, New York) and The DXTRs, now closed.
