Element Productions and Picture Park, two of the region’s leading production companies, today announced a merger agreement, creating what they bill as being the largest production company in New England. The combined entity will operate as Element, blending a team of directors, editors and producers spanning a broad array of production and post services.
Eran Lobel, who founded Element Productions in 1998, will serve as CEO of the combined company and will remain an executive producer. Mark Hankey, who has led Picture Park for almost two decades, will focus on creative development, national expansion and serve as executive producer. Scott Burtnett will continue as senior producer. Rounding out the leadership team is long-time Element Productions executive producer Kristen Kearns, who will remain in that role and focus on growing the company’s post services.
“This merger brings together two entities with complementary skills, creating an opportunity to rapidly drive growth and meet the demands of clients in a continuously evolving production marketplace,” said Lobel. “Picture Park brings a remarkably strong roster of directors and a production team that will immediately strengthen the production arm of Element. Our combined collective of directors, producers and editors will all be able to even better serve agencies and their ever-evolving creative needs, on every platform.”
The Picture Park directors alluded to by Lobel include Jonathan Bekemeier, Bill Cuccinello, DeMane Davis, John Huet, Tibor Nemeth and Charles Wittenmeier. They join Element directorial colleagues Marc Colucci, Craig Orsini and John Papola. Adding to the talent ensemble are editors Kat Baker and Chris Santo of Element and new media artisan Jose Melendez, another Element staffer.
“The new Element will immediately leverage the growth potential of both companies. The ability for directors to work beyond the standard TV commercial format will open up creative possibilities not only for our clients, but also for the directors. The full service infrastructure will help carry the creative vision from concept through completion,” said Hankey.
The company will be based at Element’s new state-of-the-art quarters in Boston. Element’s recent expansion of its post facility provides clients an environment and technologies that streamline workflow and support the creation of quality work from concept through delivery.
Directing Duo Mindcastle Joins Farm League For Commercials and Branded Content
Film company and certified B Corporation Farm League has added directing duo Mindcastle--consisting of Casey Warren and Danielle Krieger--to its roster for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content.
Mindcastle has spent a decade building a body of work that takes viewers from energetic anthemic sports campaigns to emotional narrative stories to big worlds layered with CGI and VFX. The common link through each genre is their crafted, highly cinematic visual language and grounded performances from believable heroes.
After developing their cinematic eye through photography, they first began directing when ESPN approached them to create a piece from the NFL draft. This snowballed into travel across the globe for numerous films, commercials and TV shows, and collaborations with talent including Derek Jeter, Floyd Mayweather, and Guillermo del Toro. Mindcastle’s work for Adidas, Questrade and Patron shows the spectrum of their worlds and themes.
In a joint statement, Mindcastle shared, “Farm League’s work has an energy and dynamism to it where it’s not only defined by a strong visual style, but it also captivates your heart. We love the passion and mindset that the Farm League team brings to each project, including their drive to infuse a creative-first ethos into each project. We are incredibly excited to dig in together to continue expanding our roots of memorable and dynamic narratives.”
Tim Lynch (TL), Farm League Founder and EP, commented, “Mindcastle’s passion for telling big, crafted stories struck me immediately. They create worlds that are visually intriguing and grounded in humanistic performances, exactly the balance we seek at Farm League. We can’t wait to see where their vision can go... Read More