By Millie Takaki
HOLLYWOOD—Responding to growing demand for shortform postproduction services in Hollywood, Encore Hollywood has brought on board Mike Cosola, an experienced spot colorist.
Cosola spent the past five years at Sight Effects, Venice, Calif., where his recent credits included commercials for Volvo via Euro RSCG MVBMS, New York; Chrysler via BBDO Detroit, Troy, Mich.; and Coors, part of its "Guys Nights Out" campaign, for Foote, Cone & Belding, Chicago.
Among Cosola’s most notable endeavors at Sight Effects was the first series of BMW short films out of Fallon, Minneapolis. Dubbed "The Hire," the series saw Cosola working on shorts directed by such feature filmmakers as Ang Lee, Wong Kar-Wai, Alejandro Gonz?lez I??rritu, Guy Ritchie and the late John Frankenheimer.
Cosola also colored the Sega spot "Apocalypse" for Foote, Cone & Belding, San Francisco. Directed by John Moore, who was then with bicoastal Headquarters (he is now with Optional Pictures, Santa Monica), "Apocalypse" was honored in the production, visual effects and production design categories of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Show in 2000. Also an AICP Show honoree in visual effects that year was Motorola’s "Blackbird," for which Cosola served as colorist. "Blackbird" was helmed by Peter Smillie of Smillie Films, Venice, Calif., for McCann-Erickson, New York.
Cosola becomes part of a growing team of artists at Encore focused on commercial and music video postproduction work. This ensemble includes colorists Arnold Ramm and Mark Sachen, Fire editor Dan Aguilar, compositors John Shirley and Kent Feeler, producer Laurie Ryan, and operational personnel Gregg Schaublin and Jeff Tellefson. The group’s visual effects efforts are led by executive producer/director of effects Barbara Marshall.
The group also has access to the talents and resources of Encore Hollywood’s computer animation and graphics department to provide complete shortform postproduction packages under one roof.
Cosola began his career with the since closed Unitel Video, Hollywood, in ’89. He joined 525 Post Production in ’90, where he earned his initial success as a colorist for music videos and commercials. (525 has since been consolidated into R!OT, Santa Monica.) Cosola came aboard Sight Effects in ’98.
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