Independent creative agency Zambezi has hired Tal Wagman as associate creative director. The writer teams up with art director Annie Johnston, who joined the agency in January. Wagman previously worked at Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles on Toyota and Bravo. Before that he worked in Toronto at the WPP agency Taxi on Koodo, Burger King and Mini Cooper, and at Saatchi & Saatchi Canada on Toyota, Wendy’s, Novartis’ Gas-X, and other brands. Most recently, Wagman led the digital effort for launching Toyota’s Prius Prime on the “Possibilities Now” campaign as well as the Toyota C-HR launch, collaborating with Bad Lip Reader. His work has been recognized at Cannes, Communication Arts, The Webby’s, and according to him, “many Canadian awards which no one has heard of”.
Wagman moved to Los Angeles to continue his advertising career while pursuing a side-hustle in stand up comedy.
“I thought I was good at standup,” said Wagman. “It was half the reason I came here. But with commuting to Torrance [Saatchi LA] every morning, the side hustle became impossible. I still write comedy, I just don’t perform it. What I try do is channel my humor into my ad work. Zambezi recognizes that, and that’s why I’m really excited about working here. I wanted to join an independent shop with an appreciation for comedy. It’s funny, I came to L.A. to do stand up, and Zambezi gave it to me, in the form of a stand-up desk. Actually, is that funny? I don’t know, and that’s why I’m not doing comedy.”
“Tal brings funny to Zambezi,” said Gavin Lester, chief creative officer. “There’s nothing more engaging than a brand story told with wit and humor. That’s Tal’s forte.”
Steven Soderbergh Has A Multi-Faceted “Presence” In His Latest Film
Steven Soderbergh isn't just the director and cinematographer of his latest film. He's also, in a way, its central character.
"Presence" is filmed entirely from the POV of a ghost inside a home a family has just moved into. Soderbergh, who serves as his own cinematographer under the pseudonym Peter Andrews (his father's name), essentially performs as the presence, a floating point-of-view that watches as the violence that killed the mysterious ghost threatens to be repeated.
For even the prolific Soderbergh, the film, which opens Friday in theaters, was a unique challenge. He shot "Presence" with a small digital camera while wearing slippers to soften his steps.
The 62-year-old filmmaker recently met a reporter in a midtown Manhattan hotel in between finishing post-production on his other upcoming movie ("Black Bag," a thriller Focus Features will release March 14) and beginning production in a few weeks on his next project, a romantic comedy that he says "feels like a George Cukor movie."
Soderbergh, whose films include "Out of Sight," the "Ocean's 11" movies, "Magic Mike" and "Erin Brockovich," tends to do a lot in small windows of time. "Presence" took 11 days to film.
That dexterous proficiency has made the ever-experimenting Soderbergh one of Hollywood's most widely respected evaluators of the movie business. In a wide-ranging conversation, he discussed why he thinks streaming is the most destructive force the movies have ever faced and why he's "the cockroach of this industry."
Q: You use pseudonyms for yourself as a cinematographer and editor. Were you tempted to credit yourself as an actor for "Presence"?
SODERBERGH: No, but what I did is subtle. For the first and... Read More