Established below-the-line agent Marie Perry has joined Gersh to serve as head of the Commercial Production Division. In her new post, Perry will focus on the representation of below-the-line talent with an emphasis on commercials and music videos.
Perry brings with her a notable list of clients including cinematographers Crille Forsberg (Cadillac for director Joseph Kosinski), David Lanzenberg (Age of Adaline for director Lee Toland Krieger, a Lionsgate feature with Blake Lively), William Rexer (Public Morals for Ed Burns/TNT), Ross Richardson (Ferragamo and Givency for directors Mert and Marcus), Tristan Sheridan (Shiseido featuring Lady Gaga for director Ellen von Unwerth/Serial Pictures), Joe Zizzo (Billy & Billie for Neil LaBute/DirecTV) and a number of other talented DPs and production designers. This will add to the high-profile list of production talent currently represented by Gersh.
Gersh recently celebrated four Academy Award™ wins for their clients, which include Patricia Arquette for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Boyhood, Paul Franklin for Best Visual Effects for Interstellar, J.K. Simmons for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in Whiplash and James W. Skotchdopole, producer for Best Picture for Birdman.
“In my view of the commercial landscape, Marie is in the upper echelon and bringing her to the agency is really a game changer for us. We will now be even more competitive, and will have a very significant and active presence in commercials,” said David Gersh, co-president of the Gersh agency.
“Gersh has a lot of great clients and a strong film and TV production department but they didn’t have someone who focused solely on commercials, fashion films, branded content and music videos, and these are areas where really interesting and creative work is being done every day. I’m excited to be heading the department and to be working with all the Gersh clients and thrilled that my existing clients have joined me for this new endeavor,” said Perry.
Before joining Gersh, Perry spent the last 12 years as an agent at The Skouras Agency representing cinematographers and production designers for commercial work. Prior to that, Perry spent nine years at a Stiefel + Company, a prominent commercial production company where she served as a staff production manager, head of production and executive producer with Frank Stiefel. Perry has over 25 years of production experience, and is also a graduate of the USC School of Dramatic Arts.
Gersh continues to expand in all areas, most recently bringing up three new agents in its Talent Department and additional hires in both the TV and Feature Literary Departments.
From Restoring To Hopefully Preserving Multi-Camera Categories At The Emmys
When Gary Baum, ASC won his fourth career Emmy Award earlier this month, it was especially gratifying in that the honor came in a category--Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Half-Hour Series--that had been restored thanks in part to a grass-roots initiative among cinematographers to drum up entries. Last year the category fell by the wayside when not enough multi-camera entries materialized.
In his acceptance speech, Baum appealed to the Television Academy to keep multi-camera categories alive. He later noted to SHOOT that editors also got their multi-camera recognition back in the Emmy competition this year. Baum hopes that after resurrecting multi-camera categories in 2024, such recognition will be preserved for 2025 and beyond.
A major factor in the decline of multi-camera submissions in 2023 was the move of certain children’s and family programming from the primetime Emmy competition to the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ (NATAS) Emmy ceremony. For DPs this meant that multi-camera programs last year were reduced to vying for just one primetime nomination slot in the more general Outstanding Cinematography for a Series (Half-Hour) category. It turned out that this single slot was filled in ‘23 by a Baum-lensed episode of How I Met Your Father (Hulu).
Fast forward to this year’s competition and Baum won for another installment of How I Met Your Father--”Okay Fine, It’s A Hurricane,” which turned out to be the series finale. Two of Baum’s Emmy wins over the years have been for How I Met Your Father, and there’s a certain symmetry to them. His initial win for How I Met Your Father was for the pilot in 2022. So he won Emmys for the very first and last... Read More