Production house Chelsea has added Mel Fong as its U.K. sales rep. This comes at a time when Chelsea, with offices in NY, L.A. and London, is gaining momentum in the U.K. market with such work as the lauded “#Wombstories” and most recently “Dear White Parents” with the Brooklyn Brothers. Born in Singapore and raised in London, Fong fell into advertising at Tomboy Films representing leading British comedy directors Armando Iannuci, Kirk Jones and Declan Lowney. After taking a break teaching refugees and asylum seekers in London and traveling the world, Fong returned to advertising at 2AM Films where she repped an eclectic roster that included Harmony Korine and signed talentt–most notably Becky Martin (Peep Show, Veep). Seeking a different challenge, Fong moved to Rokkit to help showcase some of the best young directing talents of the time. Simultaneously, she co-founded Higher Pitch, a platform for women in advertising to show their personal artworks. Higher Pitch turned into a very well received exhibition in Soho. The Art Sells exhibition followed a year later and was held in a massive warehouse in Shoreditch due to a higher number of submissions. It was visited by over 600 ad people on opening night and was sponsored by Absolut Vodka. The idea then went to the Cannes Advertising festival and repeated the exhibition. After a stint working at Absolute Post as the marketing director for London and New York, Fong missed working directly with artists and she took on a range of independent production, post, and art companies as well as launching a new fine art concept: Not By Committee, which found brand sponsors for large scale art projects. Now she joins Chelsea which maintains a directorial roster which includes Amir Bar-Lev, Anna & Ewan, Jack Cole, Glenn F. Clements, Alex Gibney, David Gordon Green, Dumas Haddad, Adi Halfin, Nadia Hallgren, Bruce Hunt, Gregory Jacobs, Nadav Kander, Johan Kramer, Stacy Peralta, Alan Poul, Caroline Suh and Kevin Wilson, Jr….
Design-driven creative company Brand New School (BNS) has brought Zack Kortright on board as head of business development, EP and partner. Kortright’s focus is enhancing client experience on both the direct to brand front as well as in the agency space. Kortright joins BNS from The Mill, where he was an EP and head of brand partnerships. Before his tenure at The Mill, Kortright was an EP and head of business development with Hornet. Over the course of his career, he has collaborated with brands such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, Squarespace and Spotify via roles at The Mill, Hornet, Passion Pictures, and Not to Scale. Kortright’s work has garnered recognition from Cannes Lions, SXSW, Sundance, AICP, Clio and The One Show. Recent work at BNS includes projects for Slack, RayBan, Snap, Google, Facebook, and Adobe….
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either — more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More