Miss Jones, a company providing design, live action production and visual effects to ad agencies, networks, TV stations, feature film studios, record labels and emerging media, has opened under the aegis of executive producers Tracy Hauser and Bronwen La Grue.
The new venture is a sister shop to, but operates autonomously of, Windmill Lane Productions, a Santa Monica commercial and music video house headed by exec. producer Ben Dossett and director Meiert Avis. Miss Jones takes over space in the Windmill Lane building that previously housed Ground Zero, the ad agency that recently moved to Marina del Rey, Calif.
Hauser, who will oversee marketing and live action production at Miss Jones, was formerly exec. producer at Culver City, Calif.-based Pavlov Productions, the commercial production division of Sony Pictures Entertainment. Hauser left Pavlov earlier this year and was succeeded by Paul Kawasaki (SHOOT, 1/29, p. 7).
La Grue, who’s in charge of spot postproduction and production of other media at Miss Jones, was formerly head of postproduction at Windmill Lane. In addition to La Grue, Miss Jones features several other Windmill Lane alums: Scott Denton-Cardew; Philip Owens; Stefan Smith; Charlie Whisker; and Mark Wurts. This five-member collective will team to design and direct spots, motion graphics, titles sequences, print advertising, collateral materials and Websites. With the most appropriate artist taking the lead role depending on the project, they work together from storyboard through completion, accessing such resources as a shooting stage, visual effects and post equipment. Dossett explained that Windmill Lane and Miss Jones share the stage facility. Currently, he added, Miss Jones is utilizing Windmill Lane’s Flame and SGI seats. But Miss Jones is in the process of buying its own workstations for effects, compositing and post, according to Dossett.
"Advertising production is becoming more about multi-disciplinary problem-solving and we formed Miss Jones to address this changing environment," related Dossett. "We also recognize the cross-disciplinary demands of convergent media and interactive advertising which are on the horizon."
Denton-Cardew formerly served as a motion graphics designer at Windmill Lane from April ’97 to April ’99. His work can be seen in the creeping end titles for ESPN2’s "Knowledge" campaign-which last month won the Belding Awards’ best-of-show Sweepstakes honor (SHOOT, 5/8, p. 8)-via Ground Zero. Denton-Cardew’s other credits include high-tech motion graphics for a G-Shock watches spot out of McElroy Communications, Newport Beach, Calif., and the ID, stationery and posters for Soldier Child International, an organization that rehabilitates child soldiers in Uganda. Prior to Windmill Lane, Denton-Cardew made his initial mark in graphic design at Gen-X publications Raygun and Huh.
Owens served as a director, visual effects artist, offline editor and technical director at Windmill Lane. Prior to coming aboard the company in ’95, he directed several music videos, designed for MTV/Europe, and helmed key sequences for the videowall of U2’s ’92 "Zoo TV" tour
Smith was a visual effects artist at Windmill Lane starting in ’94. While there, he employed the Flame on such spots as Atlantis Resort’s "Once Upon Our Time" via Ground Zero-for which he created complex light effects and oceanic textures-and Italian sportswear company Sergio Tacchini’s "Tennis e Oltre" which combined live action footage of athletes with a CGI environment.
Whisker has extensive experience blending live action and visual effects on clips and spots. Since joining Windmill Lane in ’93, he’s applied a painterly touch to such commercials as Pontiac’s "The Scream" out of DMB&B, Troy, Mich., for which he recreated the colors and textures of an Edward Munch painting. Whisker has also directed spots for Pontiac Sunfire via DMB&B, and MCI through Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer/Euro RSCG, New York.
A former editorial cartoonist and industrial designer, Wurts joined Windmill Lane in ’96, serving as a visual effects supervisor, set designer, character animator and match moving artist on assorted spots. He animated the backgrounds and character movements in the aforementioned "Scream" for Pontiac. He also designed a menagerie of CGI animals for an MCI campaign from Messner. Additionally, Wurts designed a hallucinatory computer graphics sequence for the feature film The Wasp Factory, now in postproduction at Windmill Lane.
Miss Jones is currently in production on two projects. The shop is art directing and designing all packaging and promotional materials for Melissa Etheridge’s next album, and designing and directing a new three-spot campaign for ESPN via Ground Zero which combines live action, computer animation, compositing, stock footage and motion graphics.
Miss Jones is repped for commercials by independents David Wagner in the Midwest and Andrew Halpern on the West Coast. An East Coast rep will be hired shortly.
