SHOOTonline will publish a Special Directors>e.dition on Monday, May 4, that will contain the latest installment of our Directors Series content.
The lineup of Directors Profiles includes this year’s DGA Award winner for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Dramatic Series: Nicole Kassell, who was honored for Watchmen, the acclaimed HBO series for which she serves as a director and executive producer. Also in the mix from this year’s DGA competition is Joe Talbot, nominated for Best First Feature on the strength of The Last Black Man in San Francisco, which also won him the best dramatic directing award at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Talbot discusses his feature directorial debut as well as his short-form aspirations which entail joining m ss ng p eces for spots and branded content.
Our Profiles lineup additionally features:
- Jamie Babbit–a three-time Emmy nominee (Best Director and two Outstanding Comedy Series nods) for Silicon Valley–who discusses her wide-ranging exploits spanning TV (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Russian Doll, Nora From Queens starring Awkwafina), features (the upcoming The Stand-In with Drew Barrymore) and commercials (including this year’s Super Bowl spot for Olay produced by Independent Media).
- Joseph Kosinski whose recent endeavors span such wide-ranging fare as the much-anticipated Top Gun: Maverick and tongue-in-cheek cinematic style ad work for Taco Bell, the latter done via his spotmaking home, RESET Content.
- Anthony & Joe Russo–whose directorial achievements include the highest grossing film of all time, Avengers: Endgame–who discuss their careers encompassing features, TV and short-form fare, the latter embodied in the exploits of their commercials/branded content studio, Bullitt.
- David Shane of production house O Positive discusses his latest Super Bowl spot, a tour de force comedy/visual effects effort for Rocket Mortgage starring Jason Momoa, as well as more sobering yet humorous public service Xmas-themed fare for the National Alliance of Mental Illness.
Meanwhile our lineup of promising, up-and-coming directorial talent includes: a director who scored a Grammy nomination this year for her music video work and recently landed at a prominent production house for branded content, commercials and music clips; a female filmmaker who is making inroads into a province not typically open to women–sheet metal, particularly groundbreaking truck advertising; and a director whose work reflects an affinity for crafting stories chronicling global youth culture and marginalized communities–while recently diversifying with the first installment in a new series of Nike films, and a music video for the debut single of a performing artist best known as a producer for the likes of IDK, AlunaGeorge, Joey Bada$$ and Jay Rock.
We look forward to presenting our Spring Directors Series>e.dition to you on Monday. Be well and stay safe.
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