Hollywood-based Über content has secured director Eliot Rausch for U.S. commercial representation. Recognized for his visual and editorial storytelling as well as a penchant for capturing real people, Rausch has to his credit ad campaigns for such clients as FUELtv and Bud Light. Before signing with Über content, Rausch described himself as “a one man band wearing several hats–working as producer/director/editor for an array of different clients” via his own production company Phos Pictures. He began his career as an editor and then as a motion designer working with clients such as Motorola, Cisco, Fox Sports, MTV, Nintendo, Boost Mobile, Red Bull, and NBC. Seizing an opportunity from FUELtv to also direct some of the projects he was editing, Rausch was able to finally bring all of his filmmaking talents to bear. He is currently working on his first feature-length documentary, 8 Lives (working title), and hopes to have it completed for the 2011 festival circuit….Margaret Johnson, Christian Haas, and Erik Vervroegen have been promoted to executive creative directors at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco. They join Rick Condos and Hunter Hindman, who were named executive creative directors earlier this year….
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