Standard Time, a content and design studio based in L.A., has made a number of new hires and promotions. On the latter score, Spencer Somers has been upped to creative director from associate creative director while Sara Karnowski has been promoted to account director.
Somers joined Standard Time in 2012 as a copywriter and has served as a creative problem solver for such clients as Starbucks, CVS Pharmacy, TOO FACED Cosmetics and olloclip. He’s been a key contributor—helping win new business, creating holistic campaign strategy, managing freelancers and partnering directly with a diverse set of clients. Somers is a graduate of the NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study, where he created one of the first mash-up movie trailers. His work was exhibited in 2013 at The Museum of The Moving Image in NYC.
Karnowski started at Standard Time nearly 18 months ago. In her new capacity she will lead both client side management and project management departments. She has international experience managing successful campaigns across a variety of media for such global brands as Red Bull, L’Oreal Paris, Lexus and Triumph International. It was while living in Cape Town, South Africa, a city bursting with culture and creativity, that she realized her love for all things creative.
As for Standard Time’s hires, Amy Marek has come on staff as production head in charge of the agency’s in-house production and postproduction divisions, as well as broadcast. And Ashley Jones has joined as associate creative director.
Marek began her content producing career at The Martin Agency and several years later moved to San Francisco to work at Camp+King where she led in all parts of the process from research and strategy to production, while also helping with new business. Key clients have included Expedia, Discover Card, Hanes, Experian and Pizza Hut. In the past year Standard Time has produced all video work in house for Sephora, Twitter, CVS Health, and Ole Smoky Moonshine.
Born and raised in Toronto, Jones has spent most of her career in New York City. She worked at the design firm RoAndCo where she was the studio’s art director in addition to leading all interactive design projects. In 2013, Jones was awarded a Young Guns award from the ADC. She then worked as an art director at Partners & Spade, where she combined her love for branding, art direction and the online world, to build holistic brand identities for a diverse portfolio of clients. Jones has experience with larger brands, such as Warby Parker, Target, Moda Operandi, and Etsy, as well as smaller brands such as M. Gemi, Frances Valentine and Loeffler Randall. She recently led the rebrand for Peloton Cycle.
Somers and Jones will lead Standard Time’s creative department and report directly to executive creative director Michael Sharp.
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