Casta Diva Pictures, an international production company with offices in New York, Milan, London and six other cities, is adding a select group of photographers from Artist & Agency to its directorial roster for global commercial and web video representation. Additionally Casta Diva will serve as the outsourced production company for all film and video projects generated by Artist & Agency, a boutique shop which was founded by Noah Bruun and Gina Whitehead in 2011 to represent and manage top fashion and beauty photographers and directors.
The infusion of talent is the second major move Casta Diva Pictures has made in the past six months to bolster its presence in the U.S. advertising market. Earlier this year the company established a stateside foothold with the hiring of Jack Cohn as its N.Y.-based executive producer and partner. Cohn is best known to the American ad community as the founder and executive producer of several noted production companies, including Lovinger Cohn, Cohn & Company, and C Entertainment. He’s managed and built the careers of such directors as Michael Grasso, Paul Goldman, Paul Cade and Jeff Lovinger, while producing broadcast work for a who’s who of global brands and assorted ad agencies.
The Artist & Agency photographers who will join the Casta Diva Pictures lineup of directors includes Gilles Bensimon, Rasmus Mogensen, Morten Bjarnhof, Pascal Demeester, Torkil Gudnason and the team of Zoren Gold & Minori.
“What’s great about this association is that it fits perfectly into the Casta Diva 360 approach to finding solutions for our agency clients,” said Cohn. “It allows us to offer a full range of production services to accompany Artists & Agency’s extremely talented and creative image makers, which will lead to finding the ideal scenario for any project worldwide.”
Birth of a partnership
Casta Diva Pictures’ relationship with Artist & Agency grew out of a project shot last year for the Vidal Sassoon brand via agency Atelier, the fashion and beauty arm of Leo Burnett Worldwide. Shot in Europe and directed by Mogensen, Artist & Agency tabbed Casta Diva Pictures to handle aspects of its production.
Based on the success of this job, Luca Oddo, chairman of Casta Diva Group, offered Bruun and Whitehead the opportunity to form an exclusive partnership.
Bruun noted, “We’re confident this relationship will endure and grow to be very powerful. We feel that linking our boutique agency with the Casta Diva Group will revolutionize how creatives solve their problems.”
The relationship with Artist & Agency adds to what originally attracted Cohn to Casta Diva Pictures. He said he was drawn to the global nature of the company which maintains production covering every major region from Europe, North America, South America, Africa and Asia. He also cited Casta Diva’s holistic approach to producing advertising content; various aspects of its parent company, the Casta Diva Group, handle everything from production for television commercials and web video to branded entertainment, print, digital, events and experiential installations.
“Luca and his team have created a company that’s ideally positioned to handle the needs of a changing marketplace, where clients and agencies are not only looking for standout creative talent but also global efficiencies in integrated production that will allow them to maximize their budgets and create assets for all their media channels,” said Cohn.
Notable U.S. work for Casta Diva Pictures includes a Gillette campaign produced for BBDO New York that ran in support of the 2012 Summer Games in London, as well as the aforementioned work for Vidal Sassoon. The company’s Buenos Aries office also teamed with the New York operation earlier this summer to shoot a Latin American campaign for Ace detergent that was shot in the U.S. with Modern Family star Sophia Vergara. The project included both broadcast commercials and a viral component for the web.
In addition to New York, Milan, London and Buenos Aires, Casta Diva Pictures also maintains full service production offices in Munich, Prague, Istanbul, Mumbai and Cape Town.
Review: Drew Hancock Makes Feature Directorial Debut With “Companion”
"Iris, wake up!"
Early in "Companion," lovely Iris and her nerdy-nice boyfriend Josh are driving to a secluded lake house for a stay with friends. Iris wakes from a nap and lovingly tells Josh she was dreaming about him. They reminisce about how they first met at the supermarket. All those oranges tumbling onto the floor! Ha ha.
In 20 minutes, absolutely everything about this sweet scene will be turned on its head in a terrifying and sinister manner. You will be surprised and shocked. Unless you saw the trailer, which reveals the whole thing.
And so we begin with a dilemma, dear moviegoer. "Companion," an exceedingly clever and entertaining sci-fi-horror-thriller-comedy by Drew Hancock in his feature debut, has more twists and turns than a corkscrew. But it's utterly impossible to write about the film without revealing the first of those twists.
So if you like coming in totally cold to a movie, then we're sorry to see you go, but stop reading! Otherwise, stay with us — we promise there'll be more surprises to come.
Moving on: Iris (Sophie Thatcher) and Josh (Jack Quaid) arrive at the estate. A nervous Iris stops at the door, worried that Josh's friends won't like her. He urges her to simply brighten up and act happy.
Kat (Megan Suri), Josh's ex, greets them. She is gorgeous, and frosty to Iris. Eli (Harvey Guillén) and his handsome boyfriend Patrick (Lukas Gage) are nicer. Then there's Sergey (Rupert Friend), Kat's aloof Russian boyfriend — sugar daddy, really — and owner of the house. The password to his devices is Stalin's birthday, which tells you something.
Things get dark, quickly. The next morning, someone dies. They will not be the first — this is a horror movie. And suddenly Iris, caked in blood,... Read More