Sam Swisher has signed with Sugarhi as the company’s new managing director and partner. He comes together with company co-founders and long-time collaborators, the director/DP team of Jake Banks and Florian Stadler. Swisher’s experience includes being co-founder of Woodshop Studios, a production company specializing in food, beverage and product.
Banks said, “Florian and I couldn’t be more excited to bring on such an experienced executive producer to oversee our sales teams and work with our clients. Sam has been a real expert in the tabletop food and beverage world for over a decade. This move couldn’t come at better time at Sugarhi, as we are moving from a small startup to a premium ‘go-to’ creative solution in the industry. Sam brings the perfect balance of innovation and experience to each aspect of the production process. Sam’s track record for success speaks for itself.”
Swisher was drawn to the talent at Sugarhi, citing Banks’ expertise spanning motion design, animation, visual effects and live-action production. Swisher sees Sugarhi as “a value add for both agencies and brands alike. With little to no overhead, we can shoot and do postproduction from anywhere in the world. We are perfectly positioned as a one-stop shop for unparalleled visual freshness. We feel like we have developed the delicious recipe for creating and delivering captivating brand campaigns rooted in all kinds of crave-able, lick the screen-type, moments.”
Sugarhi recently finished a beautiful, conceptual commercial for Calphalon cookware, the campaign design for the launch of Michelob’s new Organic Hard Seltzer, and the creative campaign for Budweiser’s new 2021 Patriot Cans, as well as three individual campaigns for the American chain of fast casual restaurants. Denny’s and Zaxby’s also returned to Sugarhi as repeat clients.
Company co-founder and cinematographer Stadler added, “Combining Sam’s years of experience as a leader in the tabletop/food world, Jake’s vast experience in design, live-action and lifestyle, along with our deep and diverse shooting experience will be transformative.”
From Restoring To Hopefully Preserving Multi-Camera Categories At The Emmys
When Gary Baum, ASC won his fourth career Emmy Award earlier this month, it was especially gratifying in that the honor came in a category--Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Half-Hour Series--that had been restored thanks in part to a grass-roots initiative among cinematographers to drum up entries. Last year the category fell by the wayside when not enough multi-camera entries materialized.
In his acceptance speech, Baum appealed to the Television Academy to keep multi-camera categories alive. He later noted to SHOOT that editors also got their multi-camera recognition back in the Emmy competition this year. Baum hopes that after resurrecting multi-camera categories in 2024, such recognition will be preserved for 2025 and beyond.
A major factor in the decline of multi-camera submissions in 2023 was the move of certain children’s and family programming from the primetime Emmy competition to the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ (NATAS) Emmy ceremony. For DPs this meant that multi-camera programs last year were reduced to vying for just one primetime nomination slot in the more general Outstanding Cinematography for a Series (Half-Hour) category. It turned out that this single slot was filled in ‘23 by a Baum-lensed episode of How I Met Your Father (Hulu).
Fast forward to this year’s competition and Baum won for another installment of How I Met Your Father--”Okay Fine, It’s A Hurricane,” which turned out to be the series finale. Two of Baum’s Emmy wins over the years have been for How I Met Your Father, and there’s a certain symmetry to them. His initial win for How I Met Your Father was for the pilot in 2022. So he won Emmys for the very first and last... Read More