WEST HOLLYWOOD-Natalie Hill has joined Tony K. as executive producer of commercials in its West Hollywood operation. The K. studio also maintains its long-standing London base headed by Eugenia Kaye, who holds management responsibilities for the overall company.
Hill comes over from Strato Films, a Los Angeles-based hybrid spot/music video house headed by director Paula Walker and director/DP Rolf Kestermann. Hill was at Strato for the past eight years, the first four as a line producer before being promoted to executive producer.
At Tony K., Hill takes over from Tony Kaye himself who has abandoned his earlier-announced intention to stop directing in order to focus on managing and serving as exec. producer for the company (SHOOT, 7/3/98, p. 1). At that time, Kaye succeeded Los Angeles-based exec. producer Eileen Terry, who departed after six and a half years with the shop.
Kaye, who at press time was in Berlin, commented tongue-only-partially-in-cheek that he was "essentially fired" from the company’s executive producership by the directing team of Amy Hill and Chris Riess, who recently received a DGA nomination for Best Commercial Director of the Year (SHOOT, 2/5, p. 1).
"I was no bloody good as an executive producer so I’m back to being a director again," related Kaye who recently helmed a spot assignment for AT&T via Foote, Cone & Belding, New York. "Amy and Chris told me I ought to go out and get a top executive producer like Natalie Hill, so I did. I didn’t have any choice; I didn’t want to lose them. And now they’ve been named DGA nominees-that’s something for us to build on."
At press time, Riess and Hill were finishing a job for the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center from Glastonbury, Ct., ad agency Cronin & Company. This comes on the heels of a Hill and Riess-directed American Academy of Dermatology spot for Campbell Mithun Esty, Minneapolis.
Hill will exec. produce for a directorial roster that in addition to Kaye, Hill and Riess, includes: Walter Kehr, Greg Kohs, Young Kim and Julie Jason. Director Jason Harrington recently left the company to join bicoastal/international Propaganda Films (SHOOT, 1/22, p. 1), which handles him throughout the U.S. According to Hill, Tony K., London, currently represents Harrington in the U.K.
Hill related that Strato had been "the only company I had ever been on staff with" prior to coming aboard Tony K., "so making a move wasn’t an easy decision. … But ultimately, I went for it. Tony is an exciting, charismatic person and the talent here is of extremely high caliber."
Kaye has also been controversial, as evidenced by his much-publicized directorial credit dispute with New Line Cinema over American History X as well as a changeover in management of Tony K.’s London office. The latter, according to the European trade press, entails litigation between Kaye and David Wardlaw, former managing director of the London operation.
The aforementioned Eugenia Kaye again began overseeing the company-which encompasses spots, long-form and multimedia-in May 1998. She is a Yale graduate who started working with Tony Kaye in London during the late ’80s. After a career break in the mid-’90s, Eugenia Kaye, who is Tony’s wife, resumed her lead managerial role at the studio. Carole Savoie, senior manager at Deloitte & Touche, Los Angeles, is financial advisor for Tony K., which plans to move its Southern California quarters to Santa Monica’s Bergamot Station art enclave later this month.
