Based on a compilation of results from 31 TV/cinema competitions, The Gunn Report ranks this year’s top commercial production houses as being bicoastal/international Partizan, followed by London-headquartered Harry Nash, then London-based Gorgeous Enterprises, and bicoastal/international @radical. media. Tying for fifth place were Bangkok-based Matching Studio, and the just-closed Propaganda Films. (Full coverage of The Gunn Report will appear in next week’s SHOOT.)….Director Martin Cannelakis has joined bicoastal Gartner. He comes over from bicoastal/international hungry man…Director Paul Street has joined Crossroads Films, bicoastal and Chicago, for U.S. representation. The British native, who is relocating to Southern California, was previously with Los Angeles-headquartered A Band Apart Commercials for stateside work….Feature filmmaker John Landis (Coming To America, Animal House, The Blues Brothers) has come aboard Los Angeles-based A Band Apart.35mm for representation as a spot director….Company 3, the Santa Monica-based telecine house, has taken the first step toward its anticipated launch of a studio in New York. Colorist Billy Gabor is relocating from Company 3’s West Coast operation to New York, where he will work out of R!OT Manhattan, joining a telecine team there that includes Victor Mulholland and John Bonta. Gabor establishes a Big Apple presence for Company 3 as it proceeds on constructing a New York studio of its own. Company 3 and R!OT are both part of the Liberty Livewire Pictures Group family of companies….SHOOT was provided with the wrong moniker for the renamed Burning Suits. The new banner is Creative Content Artists (CCA), the New York-headquartered post/sound design/mixing and visual effects company, with holdings that consist of New York houses Super Dupe, East Side Video, Lower East Side Studios, Arc Light, Crush and Post Perfect….Ceinwyn Clark has been named executive producer at Stimmüng, the Santa Monica-based music and sound design shop. Clark had previously served as executive producer at bicoastal tomandandy and HUM Music+Sound Design, Santa Monica….James Martin, formerly head of production at Santa Monica-based Milk Bar, has taken the executive producer reins at Audio Lounge, a Santa Monica-based sound design/ music house formed this summer by sound designer Jon Klok…. Chicago-headquartered Optimus has named its Santa Monica division Optimus West….
SUPERLATIVE Signs Director Claudia Abend For Spots and Branded Content
Latin American director/editor and documentary filmmaker Claudia Abend has joined SUPERLATIVE for her first U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content.
Abend's empathetic docu-style POV has garnered several international awards for the documentary films Hit (2008) and The Flower of Life (2018). Her spotmaking credits include such brands as Procter & Gamble, Nestle and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. SUPERLATIVE has already worked with Abend, together producing a new ad campaign for digital agency Tinuiti and The Honest Company, a consumer goods corporation featuring eco-minded products.
“We found Claudia through her poignant documentaries on the festival circuit,” said SUPERLATIVE creative manager Stefan Dezil. “We are excited about her textured narratives, emotional storytelling, and her powerhouse long-form storytelling abilities, currently on her third feature film. As SUPERLATIVE continues to build our brand after premiering our latest films at Sundance and SXSW, Claudia is the kind of multidimensional artist we are excited to partner with on branded content and beyond. Fluent in English and Spanish, her reel shows real prowess with infants, food and skin products, families both young and old. Great visual storytelling and inspirational doc work.”
Abend began her career in her native Uruguay, studying film and editing in college. “My dad would show me films like Citizen Kane,” she said. “I love cinema and became an editor. It was here that I learned all about communicating human emotion.”
From the get-go, Abend hit it big as a documentary director, teaming with Adrianna Loeff on Hit, a movie chronicling pop artists of Uruguayan music. Abend took home a Best Editing... Read More