ONE at Optimus, the production arm of Optimus, has added Tim Mason to its directorial roster. This marks Mason’s first formal production company affiliation as a director. Mason, who’s also a writer and actor, recently directed No Other Way To Say It in collaboration with ONE and Optimus. The comedic short film has earned wide recognition, including Best Short Film at the Best of the Midwest Awards Film Fest and a screening at the SlamDance Film Fest this January.
“Tim’s experience as a writer and creative director will be invaluable to clients looking to bring their concepts to fruition,” said ONE executive producer/managing director Lisa Masseur. “And, his work as a comedic actor helps him bring out more nuanced performances from other actors. As part of our roster, Tim has already collaborated with Downtown Partners and Golin on campaigns for Illinois Lottery and New Ocean, respectively.”
Mason is a veteran of the Second City Mainstage, where he appeared in numerous shows including the critically acclaimed revue, “Southside of Heaven.” In 2014, he performed in and served as head writer on “The Art of Falling,” a groundbreaking collaboration with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Mason has won two Gold Lions from the Cannes Festival of Creativity for his work in advertising. He also directed several Kmart pieces for FCB, including the 60-minute “Joe Boxer Lounger Games.” Mason will continue working with Hog Butcher, a content creation collective also based out of ONE.
“I’ve had the pleasure of partnering with ONE numerous times over the past few years as an actor and a writer,” said Mason. “Now that my career path has expanded into directing, there is no group of people I would rather work with than the folks here at ONE. They’ve been invaluable in helping me build my directing experience and find my own comedic voice and style.”
Jules Feiffer, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Cartoonist and Writer, Dies At 95
Jules Feiffer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and writer whose prolific output ranged from a long-running comic strip to plays, screenplays and children's books, died Friday. He was 95 and, true to his seemingly tireless form, published his last book just four months ago.
Feiffer's wife, writer JZ Holden, said Tuesday that he died of congestive heart failure at their home in Richfield Springs, New York, and was surrounded by friends, the couple's two cats and his recent artwork.
Holden said her husband had been ill for a couple of years, "but he was sharp and strong up until the very end. And funny."
Artistically limber, Feiffer hopscotched among numerous forms of expression, chronicling the curiosity of childhood, urban angst and other societal currents. To each he brought a sharp wit and acute observations of the personal and political relations that defined his readers' lives.
As Feiffer explained to the Chicago Tribune in 2002, his work dealt with "communication and the breakdown thereof, between men and women, parents and children, a government and its citizens, and the individual not dealing so well with authority."
Feiffer won the United States' most prominent awards in journalism and filmmaking, taking home a 1986 Pulitzer Prize for his cartoons and "Munro," an animated short film he wrote, won a 1961 Academy Award. The Library of Congress held a retrospective of his work in 1996.
"My goal is to make people think, to make them feel and, along the way, to make them smile if not laugh," Feiffer told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in 1998. "Humor seems to me one of the best ways of espousing ideas. It gets people to listen with their guard down."
Feiffer was born on Jan. 26, 1929, in the Bronx. From... Read More