Graphic design and production boutique Eyeball NYC, New York, has hired executive producer Mike Eastwood.
For the past five years, Eastwood has served as a rep at commercial production/animation/ effects and design representation firm BLAH! blah? (Blah…), whose clients include London-based postproduction facility The Mill; New York-based visual effects house Quiet Man; and White Plains, N.Y.-based animation shop J.J. Sedelmaier Productions.
Eyeball president/creative director Limore Shur related that Eastwood’s background in repping and producing makes him well suited to help grow Eyeball. Grateful for the experience he gained at BLAH! blah? (Blah…), Eastwood related that he felt it was time to move on to new challenges after five years of repping. "It was time for a change," he said. "I was getting burned on the repetition."
Eastwood has gained a measure of familiarity with Eyeball and Shur during the time that BLAH! blah? (Blah…) maintained a nonexclusive rep arrangement with Eyeball. Explained Eastwood, "We got a few jobs for Eyeball," including a Domino’s spot called "Fall Heatwave" via Deutsch, New York. "Things kept moving forward and Limore and I formed a friendship."
The Eyeball job opportunity recently came up in the course of an informal conversation with Shur, and Eastwood expressed interest. "I think a big factor in getting me over here was the fact that Eyeball is starting to direct live-action jobs, Eastwood noted, citing an upcoming spot for Taylor Made via FCB Costa Mesa, directed by Shur and slated to break in January.
"I saw that as an opportunity to possibly add some more directors," recounted Eastwood, "or to form alliances with directors—the point being that Eyeball is not limited to [graphic design] work. They can do a lot more."
Eastwood estimated that commercials comprised 60 percent of Eyeball’s workload in the last year, with the remainder divided among corporate and Internet projects and music video re-edits. This is a higher percentage of commercial work than Eyeball has historically done. "This year was definitely a good year for BLAH! blah? (Blah…) as far as getting Eyeball a lot of commercial work," said Eastwood, "We’ve had a lot of success with advertising agencies regarding the jobs we’ve got for Eyeball. All the agencies we put together with Eyeball had nothing but great things to say about it; that certainly helped my decision.
"Now that I’m here, because I do have a decent amount of agency contacts, I would anticipate that [the percentage of commercials] would stay at that level, or would possibly increase. But I think a lot of the love for the business—for the guys at Eyeball—comes from non-agency work where they get to be a little more creative."
In 1995 Eastwood launched the West Coast office of BLAH! blah? (Blah…), before moving over to the New York branch in ’98. Prior to this, he started off his career as producer with Spike & Mike’s Festival of Animation.
Eastwood related that Eyeball is in discussions about formalizing its representation. For the time being, Eyeball NYC will continue to be informally repped by the BLAH! Blah? (Blah…) sales network, consisting of New York-based founder/executive producer Andy Arkin, who handles East Coast sales; San Francisco-based Novick & Associates on the West Coast, and Chicago-based Liz Laine in the Midwest.
