Phasmatrope Studios, a Haverford, Penns.-headquartered production house headed by director Jeff Odiorne and executive producer Jonathan Isen, has added director Guy Quinlan and extended its reach with the launch of a New York office under the aegis of Christine DoRego. Formerly a producer at Dallas-based ad agency The Richards Group, DoRego joins Phasmatrope as head of sales.
The New York-based Quinlan has just wrapped his first Phasmatrope job, an online spot/mock movie trailer for Vitamin Water via agency Stick and Move, Philadelphia, featuring star NFL quarterback Donovan McNabb of the Philadelphia Eagles.
First establishing himself as a producer in the business, Quinlan learned the ropes at Wells Rich Greene, New York, transferring to Milan to produce commercials worldwide. There he introduced numerous U.S. directors to the Italian market.
Quinlan then jumped over to the production house side of the business, becoming New York-based executive producer for now defunct The End. Four years later he went freelance in New York, producing for U.S. and European agencies. During his freelance tenure, he started to garner directorial assignments. He amassed directing credits on 10 viral web films and 10 shorts shot on location in Europe.
The opportunity at Phasmatrope then emerged. “Jon Isen was looking for a director who was walking the new media line and Oscar Thomas [producer at Driver Media, New York] said ‘I have the guy,'” said Quinlan. “The timing was perfect.”
Quinlan added that he feels “a like-minded connection” with Isen and Odiorne as they look to bring advertising and entertainment together in “relevant new forms of worldwide media.”
N.Y. digs Phasmatrope’s New York office is housed in the Ed Sullivan Theater complex. The aforementioned DoRego had been a producer at The Richards Group for the past four years. She moved up the ladder there, having joined the Dallas agency in ’01 as a production coordinator.
Like DoRego, Odiorne has deep ad shop roots, having made a successful transition from agency creative to commercials director. On the agency side, he was creative director/cofounder of Odiorne Wilde Narraway and Partners, San Francisco. He first was part of a directorial team, the Odiorne Brothers, with Peter Odiorne. The Odiorne Brothers launched Phasmatrope in ’05, going on to gain inclusion in SHOOT’s New Directors Showcase the following year. Through work directed by the Odiorne Brothers, Phasmatrope earned five gold and three silver Best of TV awards at the ’07 Philadelphia Ad Club ADDY Awards.
By that time, The Odiorne Brothers had split up–as a directorial team and then from a business standpoint when Peter Odiorne exited Phasmatrope in late ’06 to form Sleeping Tree Films in New York and Bryn Mawr, Penn.
The Phasmatrope directorial roster now consists of Jeff Odiorne, Quinlan, Steve Andrich, Scott Whitham and Billy Paul. The latter three helmers joined the company earlier this year.
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More