Music supervisor George Drakoulias, best known for his feature film work (Blades of Glory), has joined New York-based Search Party. Drakoulias’ signing comes on the heels of his successful collaboration with the Search Party team on Hammer and Coop, the six-episode online series created by agency Butler Shine Stern and Partners, Sausalito, Calif., in support of the 2007 Mini Cooper and Cooper S cars. Director Todd Phillips of Moxie Pictures directed the series, an homage to 1970s and ’80s cop buddy shows…..Andrew Clarke has joined JWT New York where he will lead creative efforts globally on Diageo’s Smirnoff. He comes over from Carmichael Lynch, Minneapolis. Kash Sree, who had been freelancing at JWT New York, now comes on staff to oversee creative on Unilever’s Sunsilk….Senior Flame artist Rachel Mills has returned to Golden Square Post Production, London, after nearly a year on maternity leave. She came to Golden Square in ’03 from Glassworks, London….Editors Inome Callahan and Lee Gardner have joined Radium, the digital studio with shops in San Francisco, Santa Monica and Dallas. Callahan’s experience includes serving as editor at Mad River Post, San Francisco. Gardner had been freelancing, frequently working with Radium; earlier he was a staffer at now defunct Western Images. Callahan will be based in Radium’s San Francisco studio while Gardner works out of the Santa Monica office….Kristin Redman has come aboard Detroit-based creative editorial house Start (a sister company to Universal Images) as executive producer. She previously served as head of production at Leo Burnett, Detroit.
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