Kelly Kandle has been appointed VR executive producer of MediaMonks’ Los Angeles operation. She will report to co-founder and COO Wesley ter Haar, and the company’s global head of VR Ola Björling.
Kandle was most recently at RYOT, where she served as an executive producer on more than 30 VR and linear film projects for numerous brands and partners, including PepsiCo, Walgreens, Gatorade and The New York Times. Prior to that, she was at Naaila Films where she produced video content for clients such as United Airlines, Beyoncé and Time Magazine.
The hiring of Kandle comes as MediaMonks continues to ramp up its West Coast operations and digital production, necessitating a move into a larger workspace on Venice Beach’s Abbot Kinney Blvd.
MediaMonks works with and for advertising agencies to craft digital work for global brands. The agency has over a decade of digital experience and offices in every continent of the world. With an in-house production team of more than 600 monks specialized in a wide range of disciplines, MediaMonks capabilities span VR, AR, and AI, film, games and mobile. MediaMonks now has 10 offices around the globe, in Amsterdam, London, Stockholm, New York, LA, Singapore, Shanghai, Dubai, Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo, and works with clients such as Saatchi & Saatchi, DDB, BBDO, Wieden + Kennedy and BBH.
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More