Jim Gosney, who spent the past nearly 22 years in advertising production with Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble (P&G), has joined MRA Advertising/Production Support Services as a production consultant. Gosney will be relocating to the Los Angeles area to open a West Coast office for the Cincinnati-headquartered MRA within the next few months. Serving as a consulting firm to assorted advertisers, MRA also maintains offices in Chicago, Detroit and New York.
Gosney most recently was associate director of commercial production at P&G. During the past three years there, he became known for his involvement in the advertiser’s groundbreaking HDTV spots. These included a landmark project in 1998—a :15 for Mountain Spring Fragrance Tide via Saatchi & Saatchi, New York—which was billed as the first commercial shot entirely in HD. Co-produced by Santa Monica production house Nolan/ LaMonte and New York-based Mustapha Khan, a division of Screen Gems, the ad, titled "Mountain Spring," was directed and shot by John Alonzo, ASC. Alonzo, whose feature DP credits include the acclaimed Chinatown, recently passed away after a long battle with cancer (SHOOT, 3/23, p. 9).
Gosney headed a P&G/Ad Agency Digital TV Task Force which facilitated learning about, and collaborating with agencies on, high-definition TV (HDTV) and other aspects of digital television (DTV). He has been a featured speaker at a number of industry seminars, and has authored several articles about HDTV/DTV. He was nominated by the Consumer Electronics Industry organization to join the Academy of Digital Television Pioneers.
Having recently retired from P&G, Gosney had varied experiences with the company. For instance, as an advertising production manager, he supervised production activities on a number of P&G brands, including Crest, Folgers, Tide, Orange Crush, Cascade, Duncan Hines, Jif, Oil of Olay, Bounty and Charmin. Also, during a four-year stretch, he managed P&G’s motion picture and video production company, Redna Productions.
Prior to P&G, Gosney served on the ad agency side as a writer/producer and account executive. He also was a motion picture production officer with the U.S. Air Force. Gosney has a degree in TV-Radio from Miami University (Ohio).
