CP+B LA has hired creative directors and longtime creative partners Barnaby Blackburn and Gustavo Kopit.
Blackburn and Kopit come over from Wieden+Kennedy London where they spent the past two years working together as a senior creative team on Nike and Danish butter brand Lurpak. Their “Freestyle” campaign for Lurpak last year was awarded three Cannes Lions, three Clios and a D&AD wood pencil. The Lurpak “Freestyle” spot was also one of two entries which helped director Juan Cabral of MJZ earn a DGA Award nomination in the commercials competition.
Prior to their stay at W+K London, Blackburn and Kopit were with RKCR/Y&R London, working across all of the agency’s clients including the BBC, Land Rover, Oxfam and Virgin Atlantic, while also helping to win the Visit Britain global business. Most notably during this time, they created the BBC’s 2014 Winter Olympics campaign which won a British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) for Television Craft and a Creative Circle Gold. They also created Land Rover’s “Hibernot” campaign, which is still running today.
“I’ve admired Barnaby and Gustavo’s work from afar for a while now, and am very grateful that they’d agreed come join us in LA,” said Kevin Jones, chief creative officer, CP+B LA.
Blackburn, originally from London, and Kopit, from Brazil, met at the post-graduate Watford Creative Ad Course, where they teamed up before leaving to take jobs at RKCR/Y&R. In addition to their work in the industry, both are keen musicians and Barnaby is preparing to direct a small-budget film in December.
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