Justin Booth-Clibborn is leaving bicoastal production, design and animation studio Psyop to join BBH New York as head of integrated production. His last day at Psyop, where he’s served as managing partner and CMO, will be April 5, ending an 11-year tenure that began shortly after the company was founded.
Booth-Clibborn joined Psyop as a producer and helped the company to grow from a 14-person NY shop to 180 employees across two offices. He led Psyop’s reinvention of the production company/post-production model, integrating design, animation, live action and VFX. Over the years, Psyop turned out assorted pieces of notable work, including the lauded Coca-Cola “Happiness Factory” for Wieden+Kennedy, Amsterdam, Coke’s “Heist” for W+K, Portland, which won the primetime commercial Emmy Award in 2009, and more recently, Twinings’ “Gets You Back To You,” a spot for AMV BBDO, London, which topped SHOOT‘s quarterly Top Ten VFX/Animation Chart in fall 2011 and finished number two in our year-end Chart. At Psyop, Booth-Clibborn also helped launch VFX boutique MassMarket, Psyop sister company Blacklist and Psyop’s West Coast studio.
At BBH NY, Booth-Clibborn will oversee the agency’s integrated production team and build out the shop’s integrated production capabilities, reporting to chief creative officer John Patroulis.
“Justin has spent the last 11 years helping to grow a fantastic company built on technology, storytelling and creativity. Every idea and every person–from our creative department, our production partners, and our clients–will benefit from his unique understanding of the process, as well as his hunger to do great work,” said Patroulis.
Psyop CEO Rob Walston stated, “We will miss Justin but at the same time we are very excited for him. We look forward to working with Justin in his new role and will continue to deliver ground breaking, innovative highly creative work to our clients around the world.”
Lucia Grillo, managing director for Psyop’s New York office, added “Our teams on both coasts are filled with incredible, seasoned people–people who Justin helped attract–so though we are sad to see him go, we look forward to our continued growth and the creative opportunities ahead.”
Spurring that growth, Grillo will handle operations on the East Coast, while Neysa Horsburgh will oversee business on the West Coast from Psyop’s Venice, Calif. studio. Psyop COO Mark Tobin will continue to manage global operations.
Booth-Clibborn began his career as an agency account executive and planner in London before moving into live-action production and postproduction. Prior to joining Psyop, he worked in L.A. as a freelance producer for Method Studios, and as a director/producer for the since shuttered Propaganda Films.
Last fall, Booth-Clibborn completed a year’s service on the national board of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers and two years as VP of the AICP’s Digital Chapter.
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More