Damian Stevens, who exited his post as director of integrated production at Saatchi & Saatchi LA in November, has partnered with three editors formerly of bicoastal Lost Planet–Kim Bica, Paul Martinez and Geoff Hounsell–to launch Los Angeles-based editorial house Arcade. The new venture also maintains a finishing and graphics division, Airship, under the aegis of noted Smoke artist Chris Homel who was most recently at Elephant Post, which is a sister shop to Lost Planet.
The coterie of talent at Arcade also includes editors Patrick Griffin and Christjan Jordan. The former is another Lost Planet alum while Jordan comes over from bicoastal Cosmo Street.
Arcade has already wrapped several projects for such agencies as Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, BBDO New York and JWT New York. The latter brought to Arcade a Trident commercial directed by Baker Smith of Santa Monica-based harvest. At press time, the edit shop was about to embark on a job for Doner, Detroit.
Stevens had been with Saatchi for the past four years. During his tenure there, he had occasion to work with Martinez on several notable jobs for Toyota. Though Stevens didn’t collaborate with Bica and Hounsell before, he said he’s been a long-time admirer of their work.
“My time at Saatchi was the best of my career,” related Stevens. “But the opportunity to work with this kind of talent and to be partnered in and help to build a new company was just too good to pass up.”
Part of what Stevens and his colleagues are building is a business model whereby Arcade and
Airship offers offline, online and graphics. “On the picture end of things, we do everything from soup to nuts aside from transfer,” said Stevens. “We want to make sure that our clients can access the best creative workflow possible. And in today’s challenged economic environment, packaging the finishing with the offline allows us to be competitive in getting the job. We’re all often asked to back into a number–but with diverse services like we’re providing, you can creatively make that number happen without compromising the work.”
This marks Stevens’ first career foray into the post arena. His prior experience spans the agency and production house sides of the business. He started at FCB L.A. and Orange County as a producer, then moved over to Hal Riney & Partners, San Francisco, had a permalance arrangement at TBWAChiatDay, Los Angeles, for about a year before becoming a senior producer at Fallon Minneapolis. Stevens then served as an executive producer at production houses Moxie Pictures and then the former JGF before coming aboard Saatchi.
Among editor Hounsell’s notable credits are the split-screen NBA Playoffs campaign out of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. He won an AICE Award for a Montana Meth spot and an MVPA best editing award on the strength of The White Stripes’ “Hardest Button to Button.”
Bica first cut her teeth on Nike out of Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore. Her editing credits include Martin Scorsese’s American Express “Members Project” spot campaign, as well as short film The Kinda Sutra–directed by Jessica Yu of bicoastal Nonfiction Unlimited–which debuts this month at the Sundance Film Festival.
Meanwhile Jordan has cut commercials for such clients as Miller Lite, Burger King and Volkswagen. And Griffin has edited for noted directors Bryan Buckley, Spike Lee, and the Happy helming team.
Airship’s Homel made his first industry mark at Red Car, which has studios in Santa Monica, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Miami, Dallas and Buenos Aires. He has collaborated with such directors as David Mamet on spot work for Ford Edge and Aaron Ruell for Nintendo Wii.
Stevens is in the process of adding to the Arcade support team. He just hired producer Alison Maldonado, formerly of Lost Planet, and secured independent rep Stephanie Stephens to handle the West Coast. Stevens remains on the lookout for representation in the Midwest and on the East Coast. He foresees Arcade and Airship in the near future launching a sister studio in New York.
House Calls Via TV and Streamers: A Rundown of The Season’s Doctor Dramas
No matter your ailment, there are plenty of TV doctors waiting to treat you right now on a selection of channels and streamers.
Whether it's Noah Wyle putting on his stethoscope for the first time since "ER," Morris Chestnut graduating to head doctor, Molly Parker making her debut in scrubs or Joshua Jackson trading death for life on a luxury cruise, new American hospital dramas have something for everyone.
There's also an outsider trying to make a difference in "Berlin ER," as Haley Louise Jones plays the new boss of a struggling German hospital's emergency department. The show's doors slide open to patients Wednesday on Apple TV+.
These shows all contain the DNA of classic hospital dramas — and this guide will help you get the TV treatment you need.
"Berlin ER"
Dr. Suzanna "Zanna" Parker has been sent to run the Krank, which is only just being held together by hardened — and authority-resistant — medical staff and supplies from a sex shop. The result is an unflinching drama set in an underfunded, underappreciated and understaffed emergency department, where the staff is as traumatized as the patients, but hide it much better.
From former real-life ER doc Samuel Jefferson and also starring Slavko Popadić, Şafak Şengül, Aram Tafreshian and Samirah Breuer, the German-language show is not for the faint of heart.
Jones says she eventually got used to the blood and gore on the set.
"It's gruesome in the beginning, highly unnerving. And then at some point, it's just the most normal thing in the world," she explains. "That's flesh. That's the rest of someone's leg, you know, let's just move on and have coffee or whatever."
As it's set in the German clubbing capital, the whole city... Read More