Hawthorne Direct, a full service brand response ad agency, has promoted Neil Klayman from sr. copywriter to associate creative director. Klayman will continue to report to John Pucci, chief creative officer.
In his new position, Klayman will be more involved with new business pitches, as well as manage the creative process on a diverse range of client campaigns, from ideation through production.
Klayman joined Hawthorne Direct as a sr. writer in 2012. In that role, he was responsible for DRTV, BRTV and digital advertising copy creation for all agency clients. Klayman came to Hawthorne Direct with over 15 years of experience as a copywriter at various advertising agencies and entertainment companies, including The Woo Agency, Rapp Worldwide, E! Networks and Mattel, Inc. He honed his copywriting and creative skills while working on campaigns for such clients as Lenovo, Samsung, Bank of America, Schwab, AAA, E! Entertainment TV, Style Network, Disney, and Pixar.
Klayman has been honored numerous times by the International Film & TV Festival of New York for his outstanding writing. He was honored by Eunice Kennedy Shriver for writing and producing several documentaries profiling New Hampshire Special Olympics athletes. He is also the author of the popular, published children’s book, “Boris Ate A Thesaurus”, which was chosen as a “Book of The Year” by both the National Education Association and the California Teachers Association.
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either — more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More