Bicoastal/international production house hungry man has opened a Canadian outpost, Toronto-based frozen man. Since its launch last month, frozen man has produced Simon Properties’ "Five Items," "Directory," "Garage" and "Food Court," out of Publicis, New York, directed by Mark Foster; and an undisclosed campaign for TBWA/Chiat/Day, New York, directed by Stacy Wall.
According to hungry man partner/executive producer Stephen Orent, "We opened a company in Toronto because we did so much work there during the SAG strike and [found that] it was a great alternative. But as hungry man we couldn’t just go work there—you can’t pay people unless you have a company based there—so you pick a production company and you run the job through the house for a certain fee. We were working with a couple of companies that were really great, but we felt we were losing our identity. So we thought, ‘Why not start a company up there?’ "
Currently frozen man is headed by Orent and producer Tom Rossano, both based in New York. Orent said he hopes to add permanent Toronto-based staff within the next few months, though at the moment he has no plans to add any Canadian directors to the roster. "The hungry man talent will work under the name frozen man when we’re working out of Toronto," stated Orent. "We are an American company and we want to do our work here," he stressed. "This is just an alternative for our smaller-budget [jobs]—it will make the money go a little bit further. We don’t want people to think we’re taking work out of the States."
Hungry man and frozen man’s partners/directors are Bryan Buckley and Hank Perlman; directors are Martin Canellakis, Mark Foster, Jim Jenkins, Young Kim, Marc Klasfeld, David Levin, Bennett Miller, Paul Norling, John O’Hagan, David Shane, Marcos Siega and Stacy Wall.
Hungry man’s sales are handled by in-house staff rep/associate producer Lauri Aloi in New York on the East Coast; Kitty Monaghan and Kelly Halpine of monaghan+halpine, Chicago, in the Midwest; and Raquel Muñoz-Flores of Resource, Los Angeles, on the West Coast.
