Barton F. Graf has hired Savanah Brihn as chief strategy officer and promoted Sara Kastner to become the agency’s first chief operating offider. Brihn joins from McCann New York, where she was most recently SVP/group planning director, working on a number of clients and projects including NatGeo’s immersive experience to promote Darren Aronofsky’s One Strange Rock series. Prior to McCann, she held senior strategy positions leading brand innovation at MTV and agency Redscout working on MillerCoors and Pepsi. She also worked on brand strategy at BBDO across FedEx and Mars, and Fallon on Buffalo Wild Wings and Purina. As CSO, Brihn will oversee Barton F. Graf’s strategy department, working across all clients including Little Caesars, Diageo brands Bulleit and Kettle One, Supercell, Sour Patch Kids and Swedish Fish. Kastner joined Barton F. Graf in 2014 and most recently was head of project management, working across all clients. With two decades of experience in project management, she’s worked at agencies ranging from Fallon to barrettSF, and Wieden+Kennedy, where she spent nine years in project manager roles, including sr. project manager. In the new role of COO, she’ll continue to oversee all project management and drive creative-related operations for Barton F. Graf. Both Brihn and Kastner will report to agency founder/chief creative officer Gerry Graf and work directly with CEO Caroline Winterton who started at Barton F. Graf in May….
Global creative editorial company Nomad has further fortified its NY base with the addition of editor Jojo King. His credits include music videos such as Janelle Monae’s new single “Pynk” and Moses Sumney’s “Worth It,” films and spots for Vogue, Tommy Hilfiger, Adidas Originals, Marc Jacobs and Victoria’s Secret. Along with editing a recently released music video for indie star Lykke Li that was directed by Iconoclast’s Anton Tammi, King has also just wrapped jobs with Droga5 and Johannes Leonardo….
Stitch London has added editor Adriana Legay to its roster. She has worked regularly in the beauty/fashion world with major brands including Dior, YSL, Dolce Gabbana and Givenchy. welcome the brilliant Adriana Legay to their family of editors. Her other commercial credits include ads for Diesel (directed by Francois Rousselet), Orange (Martin Werner), Apple (James Gray), Dolce & Gabbana (JB Mondino) and Burger King (Simon Levene)….
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More