Filmmaker made mark at Sundance with documentary bought by Amazon Studios and Open Road Films
Director Clay Tweel–whose feature documentary Gleason debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January–has joined Community Films for commercials and branded content.
Gleason focuses on former NFL player Steve Gleason and his family’s struggle with his diagnosis of ALS. The film’s U.S. rights were purchased by Amazon Studios and Open Road Films just days after the festival. Tweel is also the co-director (with Bryan Carberry) of Finders Keepers, which was co-produced by Community Films.
Tweel joins a roster of directorial talent at Community Films, which includes Seth Gordon, Jared Hess, Michael Patrick Jann, Matt Smukler, Pam Thomas, The Hoffman Brothers, Clay Williams, and Emil Möller.
Lizzie Schwartz, executive producer/partner of Community Films, described Tweel as “a wonderful storyteller who can take on such powerful subject matter and make it moving, surprising and funny all at the same time. We believe his talent, honed in documentary filmmaking, will make an easy translation to commercial and branded content projects.”
Community EP/partner Carl Swan added, “There was a first wave of documentary filmmakers who applied their talent to commercials and brought about a great deal of reality-style projects. We see Clay representing the second wave of doc filmmakers entering the commercial/advertising space who can bring acute storytelling to brands to make their messaging connect with viewers in a genuine way.”
A native Virginian living in L.A., Tweel made his directorial debut on the documentary Make Believe, chronicling six teenagers battling to become the world’s best teen magician, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the LA Film Fest in 2010 and is currently running on Showtime Networks. Tweel’s next film, Print the Legend, premiered at SXSW and was awarded the Special Jury Recognition for Storytelling and Editing. The film was bought by Netflix Originals and premiered in theaters and online in late 2014. His next film, Finders Keepers, premiered at Sundance 2015 to rave reviews and was bought by the Orchard. Tweel was back at Sundance again this year with Gleason, which will be released later this year both theatrically and on Amazon streaming services. He is currently developing numerous projects in both the scripted and documentary worlds.
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