The Association of Independent Creative Editors (AICE) has announced that the late James “Yamus” Mudra, an editor who influenced many of the most memorable ad campaigns to come out of Chicago’s top agencies, will be inducted into its Hall of Fame during the 9th Annual AICE Awards Show scheduled for May 20 at The Field Museum in Chicago.
Naming Mudra to the AICE Hall of Fame was a unanimous choice of the group’s Chicago chapter, which is hosting this year’s AICE Awards presentation. Bob Carr, an editor at Red Car in Chicago, explained, “It was not just that his work helped define what advertising from Chicago was all about in the ’80s and ’90s, but also the role he played in our community that we’re acknowledging. Yamus was a mentor to so many young talents here, all of whom had the opportunity to both work with him and learn from him.”
Tim McGuire, founder of Chicago-based editorial company Cutters and past president of the Chicago chapter of AICE, said, “As a young editor, I studied his work and tried to emulate his style. Yamus was a quiet, unassuming talent with a great feel for storytelling. His work spoke for itself.”
Among the spots Mudra edited are numerous Clio winners from the 1980s and 1990s for such brands as Budweiser, Bud Light, Busch Beer, Michelob, McDonald’s, Hallmark and United–all mainstays of the Chicago agency scene, emanating from agencies such as Leo Burnett, DDB Needham and FCB.
Mudra was born in Oak Park, IL, in 1943. A graduate of Southern Illinois University, he taught in the Chicago public school system before embarking on a career in the film business, joining Fogel Edit in 1971, then Optimus in ’74. He stayed at Optimus for the next 19 years before leaving in ’93 to co-found NuWorld Edit with Joe Malecki, Mike LaBellarte and Carr. When NuWorld closed in ’00, Mudra retired from the postproduction industry. He passed away in September of ’05.
Among the most memorable ads from Mudra’s Optimus era are Budweiser Light’s “Downhill,” which won a Gold Clio for Best Editing in ’83, and “Heartland,” also for Bud Light, which was produced to support the ’84 Olympic games. The now legendary commercial features two farmers who take a break from working in the field to watch a runner pass by carrying the Olympic torch.
AICE Awards Show info and tickets are available online at the AICE web site, www.aice.org.
Harris Dickinson Toys With Ambiguity In “Babygirl” While Keeping a Secret From Nicole Kidman
Harris Dickinson was nervous to approach Nicole Kidman.
This would not necessarily be notable under normal circumstances, but the English actor had already been cast to star opposite her in the erotic drama "Babygirl," as the intern who initiates an affair with Kidman's buttoned-up CEO. They'd had a zoom with the writer-director Halina Reijn, who was excited by their playful banter and sure that Dickinson would hold his own. And yet when he found himself at the same event as Kidman, shyness took over. He admitted as much to Margaret Qualley, who took things into her own hands and introduced them.
"She helped me break the ice a bit," Dickinson said in a recent interview.
On set would be an entirely different story. Dickinson might not be nearly as "puckishly audacious" as his character Samuel but in the making of "Babygirl," he, Kidman and Reijn had no choice but to dive fearlessly into this exploration of sexual power dynamics, going to intimate, awkward, exhilarating and meme-able places. It's made the film, in theaters Christmas Day, one of the year's must-sees.
"There was an unspoken thing that we adhered to," Dickinson said. "We weren't getting to know each other's personal lives. When we were working and we were the characters, we didn't veer away from the material. I never tried to attach all of the history of Nicole Kidman. Otherwise it probably would have been a bit of a mess."
His is a performance that reconfirms what many in the film world have suspected since his debut seven years ago as a Brooklyn tough questioning his sexuality in Eliza Hittman's "Beach Rats": Dickinson is one of the most exciting young talents around.
Dickinson, 28, grew up in Leytonstone, in East London — the same neck of the woods as... Read More