Director Rob “Whitey” McConnaughy has joined humble, a bicoastal hybrid production and post company headed by president Eric Berkowitz. McConnaughy comes over from Hungry Man which repped him for the past several years. Prior to that, he was handled by Believe Media.
McConnaughy burst onto the advertising scene in the mid 2000s with a series of skateboarding spots and shorts that he directed for Nike, working directly for the brand through his own production company, Kingpin Productions. By then he was already a fixture on the snow and skateboarding scene, having directed over a dozen of the best-selling films in the snow and skateboarding genre. Simultaneously, he was serving as the photo editor for the snowboarder publication Blunt, later moving over to the skateboarding magazine Big Brother.
At Big Brother McConnaughy started directing a series of clips that would eventually morph into the MTV series “Jackass.” He not only contributed to the series, but also shot and helped write “Jackass the Movie” and its sequel, “Jackass 2.”
In commercials, McConnaughy’s work has run the gamut from over the top comedy for brands like Coors, Progressive, Dominos, EA and Activision to more traditional scripted spots for brands like Chrysler, Sprint, Dodge and Honda. Among the agencies he’s worked with are Wieden + Kennedy, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, RPA, Arnold and Crispin. His video for Diageo’s Jeremiah Weed brand of whisky-based beverages, featuring the Texas rockers ZZ Top, won a Bronze Lion for CAA in the Branded Content category in Cannes this year.
Having the ability to shepherd projects all the way through from pre-pro to post under one roof at humble will, said McConnaughy, give him maximum flexibility. “You can factor that into your bid going in, and account for it in terms of your creative approach to a job,” he noted. “From the outset you know how you’ll be able to accomplish each project from start to finish, and that’s great in terms of adapting to how work has to get done now. It lets you make sure you’re working within your budget without sacrificing quality control.”
In addition to his skateboarding chops, Whitey also has deep roots in music, having directed videos for a number of punk and indie artists such as The Gossip, Band of Horses, Red Fang and OFF. His work in this genre reflects his taste for guerilla filmmaking, often revealing a “DIY” sensibility marked by outrageous concepts produced on shoestring budgets.
AI-Assisted Works Can Get Copyright With Enough Human Creativity, According To U.S. Copyright Office
Artists can copyright works they made with the help of artificial intelligence, according to a new report by the U.S. Copyright Office that could further clear the way for the use of AI tools in Hollywood, the music industry and other creative fields.
The nation's copyright office, which sits in the Library of Congress and is not part of the executive branch, receives about half a million copyright applications per year covering millions of individual works. It has increasingly been asked to register works that are AI-generated.
And while many of those decisions are made on a case-by-case basis, the report issued Wednesday clarifies the office's approach as one based on what the top U.S. copyright official describes as the "centrality of human creativity" in authoring a work that warrants copyright protections.
"Where that creativity is expressed through the use of AI systems, it continues to enjoy protection," said a statement from Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter, who directs the office.
An AI-assisted work could be copyrightable if an artist's handiwork is perceptible. A human adapting an AI-generated output with "creative arrangements or modifications" could also make it fall under copyright protections.
The report follows a review that began in 2023 and fielded opinions from thousands of people that ranged from AI developers, to actors and country singers.
It shows the copyright office will continue to reject copyright claims for fully machine-generated content. A person simply prompting a chatbot or AI image generator to produce a work doesn't give that person the ability to copyright that work, according to the report. "Extending protection to material whose expressive elements are determined by a machine ...... Read More