The chorus is building for the premiere of the 2021 AMP Awards for Music & Sound, now set for Thursday, July 22 at 7 pm ET, on Zoom. Admission to the virtual presentation is free, courtesy of sponsors, but registration is required. To RSVP for the AMP Awards, click here.
In announcing the new date for the virtual show, the AMP Awards committee also released the list of agency creatives and producers who took part in its recent curatorial judging session and announced its list of companies who’ve signed on to sponsor the event.
And, in keeping with past shows, the AMP Awards will be presenting a special and exclusive musical performance, this time by a major recording artist. This Grammy and Academy Award winner will perform two songs during the virtual show, to celebrate the competition’s winners and salute their creative achievements. The show itself will open with an animated title sequence created by Sibling Rivalry, with music by Yessian. Postproduction for the virtual show is being handled by Cosmo Street.
The AMP Awards Curatorial Committee met recently under the leadership of Show chair Perry Fair, EVP/global executive creative director and director of entertainment at McCann, to review the category finalists and confirm the choices of the AMP jury panel as category winners. They also selected the 2021 AMP Award Ryan Barkan Best in Show winner, which honors the memory of the late Droga5 music supervisor, Ryan Barkan.
Taking part in the curatorial session were David Baldwin, partner & CEO of Baldwin&; freelance composer, producer and engineer Alana Da Fonseca; Colleen Dahlstrom, music producer at McCann; Rafael Donato, chief creative officer of DAVID; Damien Escobar, music director and minister of creative culture at Arnold; Michael Freeman, executive music producer at Ogilvy; freelance composer Lisa Goore; Mike Ladman, sr. music producer at Droga5; Jessica Shaw, SVP, sync licensing at Sony Music Entertainment; Kurt Steinke, music producer at Townhouse; Alec Stern, director of music at DDB Chicago; and Jean Zamprogno, executive creative director at DAVID.
The AMP Awards Committee has also released the list of sponsors for the 2021 Show. Leading off are Platinum Sponsors FGMK Insurance, Audio Network and DISCO.
The lineup of Gold Sponsors for the event include ABKCO Music & Records, Beggars Group, Concord Music Publishing, Crucial Music, Hipgnosis, Manage Ad Music, Music Alternatives, Primary Wave Music, Reservoir, Spirit Music Group, Sugaroo, Wise Music, Sibling Rivalry, Cosmo Street and Yessian. Media Sponsors include SHOOT Magazine │SHOOT Online.
“We’ve had an amazing year for the AMP Awards, with our number of entries up from last year and more AMP members taking an active role in our judging process,” said AMP national president Georg Bissen of MetaTechnik. “We also had an impressive lineup of curators, thanks to the efforts of our awards committee and our Show chair, Perry Fair.
“Coming after what everyone went through in 2020, this was a true affirmation of the strength of the advertising music community and the power of music and sound to move people emotionally,” Bissen continued. “We’re excited to share our winners and recognize their creative accomplishments.”
“The response we had this year from sponsors has been incredible,” adds Groove Guild’s Al Risi, who spearheaded AMP’s sponsorship efforts. “Not only do we have most of our sponsors returning from years’ past, we also have a lot of first-time sponsors. All this amazing support from our community is not only inspiring and appreciated by the entire AMP membership, it also reflects how far the AMP Awards have come on so many levels. Every year our show gets a little stronger and a little bigger, and that wouldn’t be possible without the strong and continuing support of our sponsors.”
SCHROM x Yacht Club and Be Electric Studios Launch Electric XR for Virtual Production
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More