Commercial veteran John Romeyn, who most recently served as an executive producer at bicoastal Flying Tiger Films, died last week (3/8) of lymphoma. He was 55.
Romeyn’s career spanned 30-plus years, many of which were spent as a freelance producer/ assistant director for assorted spot helmers including Joe Pytka (now of PYTKA, Venice, Calif.), Lee Lacy (The Lacy Company, Los Angeles), and Cal Bernstein (Dove Films, Los Angeles). Romeyn came on staff at Flying Tiger when that company opened in ’97, continuing a longstanding relationship with the shop’s founding partner/ executive producer, Skip Short. Romeyn and Short were virtually lifelong friends, dating back to when both attended Hollywood High School. Romeyn freelanced regularly at Short’s prior roosts, including now defunct Wakeford/ Orloff, The Film Consortium and G.M.S. Productions.
At Flying Tiger, Romeyn worked primarily with director Ken Arlidge as a producer/AD and executive producer. Romeyn’s last large-scale job was executive producing an Arlidge-directed assignment shot in South Africa about a year ago for British Petroleum via Southfield, Mich.-based Doner. Upon his return stateside, Romeyn had developed a cough. Tests resulted in a lymphoma diagnosis. But even through chemotherapy, Romeyn continued to work at Flying Tiger. "He kept contributing and was here five days a week until about three or four months ago, when he started to feel quite ill," recalled Short. "That still didn’t keep him away. He must have come in two to three times a week, and remained a very positive influence on the people here."
Flying Tiger partner/executive producer Jeff Devlin said that Romeyn "touched thousands of lives in the business," serving as mentor to assorted members of the film community; among them was assistant director Christian Van Fleet. Ten years ago, Van Fleet was a self-described "second-second-AD" on a spot project for which Romeyn was producer/first AD. The two kept in touch over the years, with Van Fleet moving up to second AD and then getting his first big break: being hired by Romeyn as first AD on a major commercial shoot helmed by Arlidge.
Later, when he began executive producing, Romeyn passed on his first AD duties for Arlidge to Van Fleet. "John took great pride in showing me the old-school way of doing things," related Van Fleet. "And I took great pride in being taught by him. He not only gave me an opportunity, but also took the time to teach and groom me for that opportunity. It was common for crew people to call him ‘dad’ or ‘uncle.’ That’s the kind of giving person he was. For me, he was a second dad and a great mentor."
Van Fleet’s "first dad," VP/ executive producer Kevin Van Fleet of Laguna Beach, Calif.-based ad agency Open Minds, also has fond recollections of Romeyn. The senior Van Fleet was at D’Arcy, St. Louis, when he first worked on a job with Romeyn. More recently, Kevin Van Fleet collaborated with Romeyn on a Budweiser shoot directed by Arlidge for Open Minds. "John was simply a good guy who was great to be around," Van Fleet said. "He was very giving to all of those he worked with."
Romeyn is survived by two daughters: Jenny, who works in the account department at DDB Los Angeles, and Jessica, a freelance spot production assistant.
