Multicultural agency commonground has brought veteran producer Brendan O’Malley on board as executive producer of both broadcast and digital across all businesses in New York. Prior to joining commonground, O’Malley ran his own graphics production company and has spent the last three years on an extended assignment producing TV, radio and Internet content for the Asian/American market for Verizon and Subaru. He spent 18 years as sr. partner/executive producer at Ogilvy NY creating award winning work on several blue-chip brands including American Express, Miller Lite, Maxwell House Coffee, Post Cereals, NYNEX, Dove, SAP and Delta. A Brooklyn-born native, O’Malley got started in advertising at Young & Rubicam NY after graduating from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Cinematography. O’Malley has worked as an art director, copywriter, film director and producer. He is a voting member of the Directors Guild and the Emmys. Additionally, O’Malley has produced advertising work that has won Cannes Lions, ADDY’s, One Show, Clio’s, Effies, 3AF and is Emmy nominated….Director John Poliquin has joined Hiccup Media, the hybrid creative strategy, content production and post house founded in 2006 by former agency producer Rob Simone and editor/director Michael Cruz. Fashion/lifestyle helmer Poliquin’s credits include Urban Outfitters, Diet Coke, Burberry and H&M. Poliquin is also known for his music video work, which includes a 2012 Juno Award win. He also directed the 2011 found-footage horror film Grave Encounters and its 2012 sequel Grave Encounters 2, as well as shot videos for “The Next Star,” a popular talent show airing on the youth-oriented Canadian television network YTV….Flame artist Chris DeCristo has joined Los Angeles-based digital production and design company Timber as Lead Flame. DeCristo has amassed a broad body of work over his many years in production and VFX. He has freelanced for visual effects and design studios before landing at Timber, including Superfad, Digital Domain, Method and Psyop. During that time he lent his talents to numerous advertising campaigns for brands including Sony, IBM, Hyundai, Kia, HP, Lexus, Bacardi and Nike. Prior to his time freelancing, DeCristo cut his teeth at CBS Digital (CBS Television) where he worked for 12 years, nine of which were as a VFX supervisor/flame artist. He became a sr, Flame artist in 2001 and went on to supervise many top TV shows, including Touched By an Angel, X-Files and The Sopranos, and was twice nominated for an Emmy….
Writers of “Conclave,” “Say Nothing” Win Scripter Awards
The authors and screenwriters behind the film โConclaveโ and the series โSay Nothingโ won the 37th-annual USC Libraries Scripter Awards during a black-tie ceremony at USCโs Town and Gown ballroom on Saturday evening (2/22).
The Scripter Awards recognize the yearโs most accomplished adaptations of the written word for the screen, including both feature-length films and episodic series.
Novelist Robert Harris and screenwriter Peter Straughan took home the award for โConclave.โ
In accepting the award, Straughan said, โAdaptation is a really strange process, youโre very much the servant of two masters. In a way itโs an act of betrayal of one master for the other.โ He joked that โYou start off with a book that you love, you read it again and again, and then you end up throwing it over your shoulder,โ crediting author Robert Harris for being โso kind, so generous, so open throughout.โ
In the episodic series category, Joshua Zetumer and Patrick Radden Keefe won for the episode โThe People in the Dirtโ from the limited series โSay Nothing,โ which Zetumer adapted from Keefeโs nonfiction book about the Troubles in Ireland.
Zetumer referenced this yearโs extraordinary group of Scripter finalists, saying โprojects like these reminded me of why I wanted to become a writer when I was sitting in USCโs Leavey Library dreaming of becoming a screenwriter. If you fell in love with movies, or fell in love with TV, chances are you fell in love with something dangerous.โ
Special guest for the evening, actress and producer Jennifer Beals, shared her thoughts on the impact of libraries. โIf ever you are at a loss wondering if there is good in the world,โ she said, โyou have only to go to a... Read More