Mr. Boomboom, a sister shop to bicoastal/international Believe Media, has added director Laurent Briet to its roster. Briet had been at Little Minx, a division of RSA. His credits include the first short, Rope A Dope, in the Exquisite Corpse-style series of films on littleminx.tv designed to promote that shop’s up-and-coming directors. Also to his credit are spots for such clients as Sprint, Mercedes-Benz and Calvin Klein as well as music videos for Death Cab for Cutie, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Mellowdrone, among others….Passion Pictures, London, has launched Strange Beast, a company that will rep an international roster of emerging filmmaking talent, including Encyclopedia Pictura, Amautalab, Lorenzo Fonda, The Blackheart Gang, Takeo, and James Price. The new venture is committed to developing creative opportunities for these artists across all media platforms including commercials, web based media, music videos, short films and art exhibitions. Strange Beast will be based at Passion’s U.K. premises and is being run by former freelance agency producer Nicola Finn….New York-based design/animation/FX studio Psyop is going public, raising $29.4 million through a deal whereby it will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Fortissimo Acquisition Corp. Following the closing of the transaction, Fortissimo will be renamed Psyop and the company will attempt to have its shares listed on NASDAQ. Psyop’s current creative heads and management team will remain in place, including executive producer Justin Booth-Clibborn who will become CEO of the newly public company….Editor Claudia Reda-Walker has joined Bond, the New York-based creative editorial/visual effects design boutique opened in ’06 by editor Jeff Beckerman. Reda-Walker was most recently at rhinoedit, New York…..
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 and Mario Feil, as well as such up-and-coming filmmakers as Glenn Stewart and Chris Fowles.
Nakamura Whitehouse, 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