Global creative agency Wieden+Kennedy (W+K) has hired Orlee Tatarka as head of production for the independent network’s Portland office. In this role, Tatarka will lead W+K’s multidisciplinary production capabilities across Integrated Production, W+K Studios, and Joint. It’s the first time one leader will be responsible for the full remit of W+K Portland’s production capabilities, championing teams navigating all types of production and bringing groundbreaking creative ideas to life.
This marks a return to W+K for Tatarka who spent nine years at Wieden+Kennedy New York working on brands including Bud Light, Ford, Sprite, Nike, Jordan Brand, ESPN, Spotify, and Southern Comfort. Prior to this new appointment at W+K Portland, Tatarka was director of integrated production and a senior partner at Carmichael Lynch. In that role, she was able to flex her natural curiosity and lead a production department that produced work ranging from multimillion-dollar brand campaigns and complex websites to smaller budget work delivering multiple pieces of versatile content across all mediums. She helped revamp the in-house production capabilities and amplify the creative role of production.
Jess Monsey, managing director, W+K Portland, said, “Orlee not only shares our creative ambitions, she also shares our curiosity for experimentation in the kinds of things we make and how we make them. We’re incredibly excited to have her charting out the future alongside us.”
Hermeti Balarin, executive creative director, stated, “Orlee is a true modern leader. She has a unique vision and understanding of production, bags of empathy, and fearlessness under pressure.”
Tatarka shared, “For me, this was the job. It was one that I didn’t see for myself a decade ago, but it’s also the one that I’ve always been working toward. Throughout my career, I’ve challenged myself to stay open, inquisitive, and honest, bringing clarity to our increasingly complex roles and remaining in a place between comfort and discomfort, which is where so much of the very best work happens. This way of working is embedded in W+K’s DNA, and I’m so honored to have returned home.”
Executive creative director John Petty added, “With her experience and curiosity, Orlee represents the perfect balance of innovation and consistency. It’s exactly what the industry and audiences everywhere demand right now. With her as a partner, I look forward to turning dreams into reality and making some history along the way.”
The W+K Portland office works with Fisher-Price, Hewlett Packard, KFC, Nike, Old Spice, Procter & Gamble, Supercell and Samsung, among other clients.
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More