Creative studio UNIT has hired Phil McCluney as an executive producer, He will be responsible for strengthening existing client relationships and will be expanding UNIT’s offering in emerging areas of the VFX, production and postproduction industry.
In his 20-year history, McCluney has produced commercials, animated media, shorts and documentary films working across agencies, production and postproduction. His wealth of creative and production experience has led him to work with agencies worldwide including Uncommon, Mother, McCann Erickson, Fallon, Joint, Anomaly, BMP DDB and DDB UK, including a role client side at Deliveroo as executive producer and lead producer for Google during a stint at 72andSunny in Amsterdam. He was also a post producer at The Mill and an EP at production companies B-Reel and Dog Eat Dog.
His portfolio includes producing for brands such as Amazon, Google, MINI, Volkswagen, Audi, Unilever, Expedia, Barclaycard, Sony, Facebook and most recently British Airways and Formula E. His latest film project was with Oscar winner James Lucas on a short film Paint the Dragon’s Eyes, an Iris film festival “Best of British” selection shown on All4. Other film projects include EP’ing director Ryan Hope’s documentary Skin which received wide acclaim, premiering at the SXSW festival, and a documentary for YouTube about their creators Zoella, Tomski and others for Anomaly.
McCluney was a founding member of the APA interactive group APAi, a digital and integrated group with the aim of implementing unified processes across the industry.
McCluney said, “Throughout my career, I’ve always had such a solid experience working with UNIT. They are real problem solvers and it’s great having sound and picture under one roof. I was very happy when they asked me to join the team and grow their client base. I want to make all producers that come to us feel they are having the very best service, the highest standard of work possible and who feel supported all the way through.”
Ian Luxford, UNIT managing director, said, “Having known and worked with Phil for some years now, he has a fantastic reputation for having one of the calmest heads in the game. Phil’s experiences on the brand side, agency producing and in VFX houses will be invaluable to UNIT. It’s incredibly exciting that he is on our team now, and I look forward to seeing how his ideas and energy can help us expand our offering to UNIT and our clients.”
Maggie Smith, Star of Stage, Film and “Downton Abbey,” Dies At 89
Maggie Smith, the masterful, scene-stealing actor who won an Oscar for "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" in 1969 and gained new fans in the 21st century as the dowager Countess of Grantham in "Downton Abbey" and Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films, died Friday. She was 89. Smith's sons, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, said in a statement that Smith died early Friday in a London hospital. "She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother," they said in a statement issued through publicist Clair Dobbs. Smith was frequently rated the preeminent British female performer of a generation that included Vanessa Redgrave and Judi Dench, with a clutch of Academy Award nominations and a shelf full of acting trophies. She remained in demand even in her later years, despite her lament that "when you get into the granny era, you're lucky to get anything." Smith drily summarized her later roles as "a gallery of grotesques," including Professor McGonagall. Asked why she took the role, she quipped: "Harry Potter is my pension." Richard Eyre, who directed Smith in a television production of "Suddenly Last Summer," said she was "intellectually the smartest actress I've ever worked with. You have to get up very, very early in the morning to outwit Maggie Smith." "Jean Brodie," in which she played a dangerously charismatic Edinburgh schoolteacher, brought her the Academy Award for best actress, and the British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) as well in 1969. Smith added a supporting actress Oscar for "California Suite" in 1978, Golden Globes for "California Suite" and "Room with a View," and BAFTAs for lead actress in "A Private Function" in 1984, "A Room with a View" in... Read More