Sue Anderson and Lisa Topol have been appointed creative directors at TBWAChiatDay, New York. Anderson will have primary responsibility for ABSOLUT, and Topol will lead Kahlúa and Twix. Anderson began her career working at TBWAHuntLascaris in Johannesburg as a writer and later as a creative director. She worked on a host of local and international brands, including BMW, Land Rover and South African Airways. Nearly five years ago she joined Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam. She created the Nike Women’s Dance campaigns, and most recently she worked as creative director on Coca-Cola, Honda and LEGO. Topol began as a copywriter at Ogilvy & Mather, working on IBM as well as Sprite, Motorola and Miller. Following Ogilvy she spent several years at Wieden+Kennedy New York, where she spearheaded campaigns for Nike, Sharp, Jordan and ESPN. She then worked as a creative director at JWT, where she was responsible for brands such as JetBlue, Smirnoff, Schick and Nestlé….Caryn MacLean has been named a partner at bicoastal Union. She has served as executive producer at the editorial house, since it established Union NY in June 2008. That Manhattan venture launched with partners/editors Sloane Klevin and Geordie Anderson. MacLean serves as the N.Y. exec producer counterpart to partner Michael Raimondi who is based in the Santa Monica studio. Union also has a presence in London via an alliance with Marshall Street Editors…..Arsenal FX, the special effects boutique founded and owned by VFX artist Mark Leiss, has added VFX producer Yole Barrera. She joins a team that includes Leiss, exec producer Ashley Hydrick, Flame artist/compositor/graphic artist Joseph Grosso, and sr. VFX artist Terry Silberman. Barrera’s first project at Arsenal FX was producing the effects for this year’s MTV Movie Awards opening and sketches starring Tom Cruise….Toronto-based Holiday Films has signed director Julian Pugsley for Canadian representation….
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