David Krall is stepping down from his positions as president, CEO and board member of Avid Technology, effective at the end of July. Board member and former chairman Nancy Hawthorne will step in as Avid’s interim CEO while the board initiates a search for a successor. Krall will be available to Avid as a consultant during the transition period….Los Angles-based Groove Addicts has secured several top composers, including several Oscar winners, for spot scoring through a newly forged alliance with music talent agency Gorfaine/Schwartz. Coming aboard the Groove Addicts roster for commercials are James Horner, James Newton Howard, Randy Newman, W.G. Snuffy Walden, Harry Gregson-Williams, Alan Silvestri, Mike Post and John Debney….Mary Espedal, senior producer at music house BANG/MOD’s studio in Stavenger, Norway, has moved to the company’s Southern California office as producer and will oversee West Coast production and coordination of BANG/MOD’s commercial and TV music operations. She will work closely with BANG/MOD’s New York senior producer and strategist Sara Russo, to coordinate assignments and productions being worked on jointly by the East and West Coast composer and sound designer teams….Mass Market, Psyop‘s visual effects boutique based in New York, has added producer Rich Rama, who comes over from Method Studios, Santa Monica. Since ’01 at Method, Rama has worked on such notable projects as Pepsi’s “Pinball,” Hummer’s “Monster” and Sears Tools’ “Aboretum”….
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