Director Jesse Roth has signed with Mechaniks, the Venice, Calif.-based commercial/new media production house headed by executive producer Andrea Kikot and partner/director Boris Damast. Roth, recently recognized as a leading director from Group101’s class of 2007, joins a Mechaniks directorial roster that includes Damast, Michael Norman, Michael Cerny, Emmanuel Hoss-Desmarais, Plank and Sergio Guerrero….Editor and visual effects artist Will Hong has signed with HomeNYC, a Manhattan house offering editing, visual effects, design, finishing and production services….Elephant Post–the Santa Monica-based, high-end commercial finishing house offering standard and hi-def online editing, compositing and graphics–has gone bicoastal, opening a New York studio. Elephant Post was launched earlier this year by bicoastal editorial house Lost Planet….Shooters Post & Transfer, Philadelphia, has added editors/visual effects designers Chris Magliozzo and Mike Wardner. The former comes over from Crew Cuts in New York, while Wardner had been with San Francisco-based post studio Rough House Editorial….
Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey Launch Production House 34North
Executive producers Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey have teamed to launch 34North. The shop opens with a roster which includes accomplished directors Jan Wentz, Ben Nakamura Whitehouse, David Edwards and Mario Feil, as well as such up-and-coming filmmakers as Glenn Stewart and Chris Fowles. Nakamura Whitehouse, Edwards, Feil and Fowles come over from CoMPANY Films, the production company for which Cicero served as an EP for the past nearly five years. Director Wentz had most recently been with production house Skunk while Stewart now gains his first U.S. representation. EP Clancey was freelance producing prior to the formation of 34North. He and Cicero have known each other for some 25 years, recently reconnecting on a job directed by Fowles. Cicero said that he and Clancey “want to keep a highly focused roster where talent management can be one on one--where we all share in the directors’ success together.” Clancey also brings an agency pedigree to the new venture. “I started at Campbell Ewald in accounts, no less,” said Clancey. “I saw firsthand how much work agencies put in before we even see a script. You have to respect that investment. These agency experiences really shaped my approach to production--it’s about empathy, listening between the lines, and ultimately making the process seamless.” 34North represents a meeting point--both literally and creatively. Named after the latitude of Malibu, Calif., where the idea for the company was born, it also embraces the power of storytelling. “34North118West was the first GPS-enabled narrative,” Cicero explained. “That blend of art and technology, to captivate an audience, mirrors what we do here--create compelling work, with talented people, harnessing state-of-the-art... Read More