January 29, 2010
A month into Hollywood’s awards season and the competition is still wide open. The Hurt Locker appears to be a front-runner, but Avatar, Precious, ‘Inglourious Basterds and Up in the Air have won their share of awards, too. The directors of these films—Kathryn Bigelow, James Cameron, Lee Daniels, Quentin Tarantino and Jason Reitman—compete Saturday for the top prize from the Directors Guild of America, an award that almost always predicts the Oscar winner for best director….Editor Karen Schmeer, who worked on many of Errol Morris’ documentaries, including The Fog of War, was struck and killed by a getaway car speeding from a Manhattan drugstore robbery….Creative editorial boutique jumP has hired Tommy Murov to serve as executive producer at its New York office. He comes over from Spot Welders where he had been since 1999, promoted from producer to exec producer of that shop’s N.Y. operation in 2006….
January 28, 2005
Damian Stevens has returned to the agency side of the business, joining Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles as director of broadcast production. The move reunites him with Saatchi LA executive creative director Harvey Marco; the two had worked together at Fallon where Stevens was a West Coast-based producer for the agency while Marco served as a creative director in Minneapolis. Stevens most recently served as an executive producer at JGF, Hollywood, which is now bicoastal Sandwick Films…..Directors Shona Auerbach, who has made a major splash with her feature film debut, Dear Frankie, and Jim Weedon, an accomplished spot editor who’s successfully diversified into helming, have joined GARTNER for their first formal representation in the American ad market. Both Auerbach and Weedon are with The Bare Film Company, London, a shop formed last summer by partners/managing directors Helen Hadfield and Claire Sims. GARTNER gains a European production foothold via Bare, in addition to repping two of its directors stateside….Editor Jason Painter—who made his first major industry mark on the 2003 Super Bowl with Reebok’s “Terry Tate: Office Linebacker” spot directed by Rawson Thurber—has joined Mad River Post. Plans call for Painter—who comes over from Jigsaw—to be available via all the Mad River studios, splitting his time primarily between NY and Santa Monica….
