Yates Holley and John Kim have launched WORKPRODUCT, a multidisciplinary production studio which develops linear content and experiences for commercial brands globally. The new L.A.-based venture both represents and produces work for a roster of directors and boutique creative studios throughout the U.S., Europe and Australia. WORKPRODUCT’s range of services includes brand strategy, end-to-end content production, visual effects, and immersive experience development, drawing on a lineup of individual artists and creative collectives.
Managing executive producer and founding partner Holley is a veteran EP whose work to date has earned him honors that include three Gold Cannes Lions, and multiple AICP awards. His production experience is rooted in a successful interactive experience, game development, and VFX background, wherein he spent two decades developing award-winning technology-based brand campaigns. Holley’s creative collaborations include work for Disney, Nike, Coca-Cola and Apple. He served as technical director on Google Cloud’s “March Madness" campaign which scored a Cannes Gold Lion for Creative Data and a Silver Lion for Innovative Use of Technology. Holley’s contributions as TD on video game “Where The Cards Fall” helped it win Game of the Year at the Unity Awards and recognition for Best Art Direction by Apple. And his work on “Sprint Now Network” was awarded a Gold Art Direction AICP award, and a Gold Cannes Lion for Best Integrated Campaign.
WORKPRODUCT creative director and founding partner Kim is an accomplished CD and artist with a prominent career in the agency domain, catering to automotive brands such as Toyota, Mazda, Kia, and Lexus. Kim also maintains niche creative collective Rideview, a specialist CGI automotive studio rostered to WORKPRODUCT.
WORKPRODUCT’s talent lineup includes directors Matt Boman, Tommy Wooh, Blackmilk, and Maciek Sokalski, VFX and animation studios Rocketlab and Proper, automotive visualization studio Rideview, audio collective Dynamite Laser Beam, animation studios Yatta Studio and Papaton, and animation director Warcat. All the rostered directors/artists were operating independently prior to coming together under the WORKPRODUCT banner. Sokalski’s awards pedigree includes being part of an ensemble that garnered a primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Main Title Design in 2020 for Watchmen.
Holley shared, “Our goal in developing WORKPRODUCT was to create a diverse roster of creative talent and a flexible business model that allows us to morph our services and build bespoke creative teams for a huge range of brand client challenges. From the ideation stage to the final post, we can draw on this rich roster of individuals and creative studios to offer creative support at any scale. We wanted to expand on the traditional production company model and represent a team that spans various disciplines–from VFX and live-action to immersive entertainment. We are here to break the rules and take risks along the way.”
Juliette Welfling Takes On A Musical, A Crime Thriller, Comedy and Drama In “Emelia Pérez”
Editor Juliette Welfling has a track record of close-knit, heartfelt collaboration with writer-director Jacques Audiard, a four-time BAFTA Award nominee for Best Film not in the English Language--starting with The Beat That My Heart Skipped in 2006, then A Prophet in 2010, Rust and Bone in 2013, and Dheepan in 2017. He won for The Beat That My Heart Skipped and A Prophet.
Welfling cut three of those features: A Prophet, Rust and Bone, and Dheepan. And that shared filmography has since grown to most recently include Emelia Pérez, the Oscar buzz-worthy film from Netflix. Welfling herself is not stranger to Academy Award banter. In fact, she earned a Best Achievement in Film Editing Oscar nomination in 2008 for director Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
Emelia Pérez is a hybrid musical/drama/thriller which introduces us to a talented but undervalued lawyer named Rita (portrayed by Zoe Saldana) who receives a lucrative offer out of the blue from a feared drug cartel boss who’s looking to retire from his sordid business and disappear forever by becoming the woman he’s always dreamt of being (Karla SofÃa Gascón in a dual role as Manitas Del Monte/Emilia Pérez). Rita helps pull this off, orchestrating the faked death of Del Monte who leaves behind a widow (Jessi, played by Selena Gomez) and kids. While living comfortably and contently in her/their new identity, Pérez misses the children. Pérez once again enlists Rita--this time to return to family life, reuniting with the kids by pretending to be their aunt, the sister of Del Monte. Now as an aunt, Pérez winds up adopting a more altruistic bent professionally,... Read More