Joel Rodriguez, formerly of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, has joined 180 LA as creative director. At Goodby he focused on all media and digital projects, working on Sprint, HP, Hyundai and Comcast….Editor Jeff Landsman, formerly of Outsider, Chicago, has joined Chicago-based Foundation, reuniting him with former Red Car colleague James Lipetzky, co-owner of Foundation….Live-action directorial duo The Docter Twins–Jason and Matt Docter–has come aboard DUCK (formerly animation house Duck Soup Studios), Los Angeles, for exclusive representation. The Docters are slated to take on their first project at their new roost–a series of four comedy spots for Wienerschnitzel out of agency DGWB, Santa Ana, Calif., working in tandem with DUCK’s animation team….Los Angeles-based director Jamie Sterba has gained representation and production support in Canada via an association with Sparks Productions, Toronto….Douglas Wilkinson has joined bicoastal design/VFX/animation/live-action studio Buck as visual effects supervisor. His experience includes tenures as a freelancer and on staff at such shops as SWAY Studios, Culver City, Calif., and Digital Domain, Venice, Calif. Among his most notable spots are Hummer’s “Video Game” directed by Joseph Kosinski of bicoastal Anonymous Content for Modernista!, Boston, and Heineken’s “Beer Run” helmed by David Fincher of Anonymous Content for Wieden+Kennedy, Amsterdam…Karol Marrs has been promoted to executive producer at bicoastal Moxie Pictures. She had been head of production at the company for the past four years. She first worked with Moxie CEO Robert Fernandez at his prior roost, @radical.media….
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