Editors Eric Zumbrunnen and Stephen Berger have returned to the commercials roster at Final Cut. Berger rejoins the company, which maintains shops in Los Angeles, New York and London, after two years at editorial house DAVID-Inc., San Francisco and L.A. Zumbrunnen, a Final Cut partner, is back after taking a hiatus from spots to edit the feature film John Carter, the live-action debut from Pixar director Andrew Stanton.
Zumbrunnen, a spot mainstay with work for such clients as Audi, HP, Xbox, and ESPN, first got his start editing music videos. Early work for The Beastie Boys, Smashing Pumpkins, Björk, Fat Boy Slim and Beck developed a collaborative partnership with such directors as Dayton/Faris and Spike Jonze. During that period Zumbrunnen earned two MTV Music Video Awards for Best Editing.
Zumbrunnen successfully transitioned to feature films with Jonze’s Being John Malkovich, which received three Academy Award nominations and earned Zumbrunnen both a BAFTA nomination and an ACE award for Best Edited Feature Film. Zumbrunnen’s subsequent film, Adaptation, also directed by Jonze, received four Academy Award nominations and netted another ACE nomination for editing. Other film credits include the Jonze-helmed Where the Wild Things Are (for which Zumbrunnen and Union Editorial’s James Haygood are credited as cutters).
Stephen Berger
Berger started working with Final Cut in 2005, after a five-year stay with colleague Zumbrunnen at Spot Welders. While there the two combined to cut Spike Jonze’s short I’m Here for Absolut Vodka. Berger also edited the Yellow Pencil Award-wining Grizzly Bear video “Two Weeks” directed by Patrick Daughters.
In 2010, Berger moved to the Bay Area and signed with DAVID where he extended his reach into the San Francisco market. Now at Final Cut, he will edit out of the Southern California facility as well as maintain a satellite bay in San Francisco. Berger’s Bay Area ties are reflected in work for agencies Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, DOJO and Heat.
At DAVID Inc, Berger worked on the Sprint “Epic Movies” campaign, director Filip Engstrom’s 2011 Chevy Volt Super Bowl spot, Sprite’s “Reimagined” featuring LeBron James out of BBH, and EA Battlefield’s “Is It Real?” spot directed by Noam Murro for Wieden+Kennedy. Since returning to Final Cut, Berger has wrapped his first project for the shop, an Activision commercial via 72andSunny.
Director Cassandra Brooksbank Joins Monument Content For Spots and Branded Content
Monument Content has signed director Cassandra “Cassie” Brooksbank for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content. She brings to her directing and storytelling the experience and skills of a writer, conceptual artist, editor and visual effects artist.
Her body of work as a director includes Pepsi’s “Selfie” featuring Lionel Messi amid a flurry of fans, Barclays madcap women’s Soccer League spot where she collaborated closely with the agency to develop the creative, ultimately winning the Grand Jury Prize at the Sports Industry Awards, and a grass-roots campaign for Fellow Coffee. The latter just didn’t brew buzz; it helped raise $1.2 million on Kickstarter.
Prior to joining Monument Content, Brooksbank had been repped in the U.S. for commercials by production house Hey Wonderful.
On the long-form front, she is repped by CAA for film and television. And on the horizon is her debut feature, My Masterpiece, produced by Sylvester Stallone’s Balboa Productions and backed by Amazon.
Read More