Tom Dunlap is joining Deutsch LA as senior VP, director of integrated production. He formerly was director of integrated production at Wieden+Kennedy, Amsterdam, where his credits including serving as exec producer/producer on the lauded “Happiness Factory” spot for Coca-Cola….Director Daniel Benmayor has come aboard bicoastal Anonymous Content….Rockhard Films, West Hollywood, has signed director Rob Pearlstein whose Our Time Is Up received an Oscar nomination for best live-action short. Pearlstein first established himself in the industry as an agency creative….Executive producer Lisa Rich is joining bicoastal Smuggler in the newly formed company role of COO….Sound artist Herwig Maurer, known for his work on the feature Apocalypto, has joined the roster of Woodland Hills, Calif.-based Visual Music for spot representation….Editor Carrie Shanahan has come aboard Crash & Sue’s, Minneapolis. She earlier freelanced in New York and then was on the roster of Minneapolis-based Uppercut….Atlanta-based Crawford Post Production has hired Basil Iskandrian as creative director/designer. Iskandrian served previously as a senior video designer at Moxie Interactive, Atlanta, and a motion designer/After Effects artist at Spin Productions, Atlanta….
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