Bob Fisher, owner/executive producer of Celsius Films, New York started his company in ’96, hoping that a move on the temperature scale would heat up the production biz. Previously, Fisher was exec. producer/partner at bicoastal Fahrenheit, and was based in its New York office. In three short years, Celsius has evolved from a small band of gypsies with one tabletop director and no place to call home into a production house with seven directors, all of whom turn out ads in a wide range of styles.
Recent work from the company includes the Mark Tiedemann-helmed spot "Newlyweds," for DuPont’s Farberware cookware, via Young & Rubicam, New York. Highlighting the cookware’s non-stick surface, the spot features a couple trysting in the kitchen and as a result burning a pot on the stove. Tabletop director Greg Ramsey-the first director to sign with Celsius-recently lensed "Gelatin," a humorous spot for Boar’s Head ham out of Hill Holliday/Altschiller, New York. The commercial features rival hams going through a gelatin assembly line. Fisher calls it "the only funny tabletop spot I have ever seen." Also currently airing are a series of Jon Kane-directed promos for VH1’s Behind the Music series via Rubin Postaer & Associates, Santa Monica. Shot in black and white, the documentary style ads feature rock stars talking about their history in the business. For instance, in "Mick Jagger/Runway," the head Rolling Stone talks about starting out as a serious musician and ending up, basically, as a runway model. Fisher says these spots, shot without scripts, are among the higher profile work coming out of Celsius at the moment.
"There were a lot of egos involved with those people, and trying to get them to relax and be themselves and come up with an interesting story," Fisher recounts of the VH1 ads. "Jon sat them down, let them relax, talked about what we were doing, and then got a performance out of them."
Kick Start
Where Celsius is today is a couple of light years away from its founding in September of ’96. The beginning of Celsius came about after differences ended his partnership in Fahrenheit, a company Fisher co-founded in ’90 with Michael Romersa, owner /president of the Stoney Road family of companies. (Romersa still counts Fahrenheit among his roster of companies, which also includes bicoastal Bedford Falls, Reactor Films, and Moss/Petermann/Holtzman.)
"It was a dispute over the company’s finances-executive producers never argue over creative differences. It’s always about money," Fisher jokes about the end of his association with the company. Later, says Fisher, came a protracted legal dispute over Fahrenheit’s loss of several key staffers to his new company. "Let’s be careful. I didn’t take them," contends Fisher. "Some key people elected to join me [at Celsius]."
After leaving Fahrenheit, Fisher knew he wanted to stay in production, but wasn’t sure how to start again. "I called some of the people I worked with and told them I was leaving," he recalls. "Everyone wanted to know what I was going to be doing. Out of that grew Celsius. I couldn’t get the Fahrenheit name, but I wanted to play off the fact that everyone had associated me with Fahrenheit-and I wanted to be able to benefit from that. So I came up with Celsius."
Fisher had a name, but he didn’t have any directors, a staff, reps or office space. "It was kind of funny how we started. There was a debate going on among all the people, where they would say, ‘ You opening?’ I would say, ‘You coming?’ And they would reply, ‘We’re not coming unless you’re opening.’ And I kept saying, ‘I’m not opening unless you’re coming,’ " Fisher recounts.
Fisher finally decided to start his new venture by calling several people and telling them, "I’m opening Monday at 9 a.m. Anyone who wants to be there, terrific. If you’re not there, I’ll find other employees. That’s how we started."
That Monday, Fahrenheit director Greg Ramsey, head of production Stephanie Oakley, and sales rep Kathy Misrock showed up for work at the newly formed production house. Later, Dana Schwartz, the former Fahrenheit production manager, signed on at Celsius.
"We opened at nine and booked our first job at noon," Fisher recalls. "It was a $100,000 Taco Bell spot. [via Bozell Worldwide Costa Mesa, Calif.-the account is now with TBWA/ Chiat/Day, L.A.] You’re sitting there going, ‘This is great! I’ve been in business one day and I’m making money. Projecting this out, I can do about $25 million in business a year and I’ll make a few million bucks.’ That’s the flaw in projections. I didn’t book my next job on Tuesday. It was a couple of weeks."
With Ramsey, a core production staff and a job in hand, the next task was to find a temporary home. "We didn’t even have stationery. We were making stationery on a photo copy machine. Frank Stiefel, a longtime friend, was kind enough to give me office space and to float my first job for me." (Stiefel is president of Hollywood-based Stiefel & Company.)
Downtown
Celsius eventually found a home in New York’s Union Square. The company currently has a staff of nine, including an in-house East Coast rep, Jack Fahey. (Celsius is repped in the Midwest by Susan Prickett and on the West Coast by Claire Worch of Claire & Company, Manhattan Beach, Calif.)
Ramsey, Tiedemann and Kane are the company’s busiest directors at the moment, Fisher says. The most recently signed director, Christina Hodnet, who also directs spots in Canada through Toronto-based Partners’, specializes in ads featuring kids. Hodnet is also the only non-New York-based director on the roster, splitting her time between Toronto and Los Angeles. Fisher characterizes former music video director Holly Paige Joyner, who left bicoastal OneSuch Films to join Celsius, as an actor’s director with an offbeat viewpoint. Cameraman/director Mark Claywell, who left Fireside Productions, Atlanta, to move to New York, brings a strong visual style to the table, according to Fisher. He characterizes Noble Jones as strong in graphics and editing.
"What we’ve created is a core group of directors who are really terrific people to work with as well as being talented. I think the strength of this company is that people at the agencies really like working with us. We get a lot of repeat business. That’s what I’m most proud of," says Fisher of his current lineup.
"We’re very careful about who we sign," says head of production Oakley. "We look for directors who will fit in and who won’t find themselves competing against one another for the same jobs."
Both Fisher and Oakley are happy with the current roster and aren’t looking to expand. "I’m not actively seeking directors right now. However, if someone interesting becomes available, we would always find the space," relates Fisher.
The one area where Fisher is looking to expand is to become bicoastal. Currently, the company has a production office at Hollywood Center Studios, Hollywood, but does not have a full-fledged production staff in place or any L.A.-based directors other than Hodnet. "To be truly bicoastal, you need an executive producer and head of production out there," Fisher says. The flip side is that being New York-centric has aided Celsius in attracting directors who are based in New York.
"Although most directors now live in L.A., there’s a certain niche we fill by having directors who reside in New York who do the vast amount of their work in New York," he says. "The bulk of the creative still comes out of New York, and it’s nice to be able to have a director who can go to a meeting with you when you pitch versus being a phone voice."
Asked to define what sets Celsius apart, the affable Fisher quickly resorts to his favorite adjective: terrific. "We have a terrific staff who have made this an interesting place to be. I like it that people at agencies, even when they’re not shooting with us, like to come by and hang out. I’ve had agency producers in here baking cakes for parties. At 1:00 every afternoon, we hold a Tae-Bo class. We’re trying to expand that so that people from other production companies and agencies show up to do Tae-Bo, and then have lunch."
Is Tae-Bo-the current exercise craze that features a combination of martial arts, kick boxing and aerobics-shrinking ad biz waistlines all over Manhattan? "No, because we’re all starved afterwards and we gorge ourselves on food," Fisher says with a laugh.u
