Director Marty Weiss has joined Trail Head, the Santa Monica production/post/visual effects house headed by executive producer Gary Buonanno. Trail Head, which opened eight months ago, is part of the Michael Romersa-owned, Santa Monica-headquartered Stoney Road family of production houses. Weiss comes aboard the company after nearly three years at Pavlov Productions, Culver City, Calif., the commercial division of Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Weiss was introduced to Buonanno by Trail Head’s Los Angeles-based independent West Coast sales rep, Rachel Finn of Rachel Finn Represents. Finn’s husband, freelance DP Bruce Finn, had worked with Weiss on some projects. Buonanno assessed that Weiss has done "some really great conceptual work and his agency background is such that he really gets the business."
For his part, Weiss began looking for a new roost because he "just felt it was time to move on." The director-who is known for both visual and dialogue-driven comedy (seen in the spots "Space Party" for Budweiser via DDB Needham Chicago, and "Better With Age," a Levi’s spec that is part of the New York Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection)-was attracted to Trail Head for several reasons, including his rapport with Buonanno, the house’s posting capabilities, and its Stoney Road association which also encompasses longform opportunities. "Having post in-house is a fantastic thing," said Weiss. "And it’s great to be in a company that wants to manage its directors on other fronts." Trail Head’s post/ effects capabilities stem from a creative affiliation with Post Logic Studios, a Hollywood-based video and audio post house whose Santa Monica facility is located next door to the production company. Trail Head also has a staff editor, Patrick Fraser.
After earning an MFA in film at New York University’s Tisch School for the Arts, Weiss started his career at DDB Needham Chicago where he was mentored by executive production director Grant Hill. Weiss worked his way up to senior producer while also serving as a director at the agency’s in-house production arm Zone One. "When I met Marty, I was immediately struck by two things," Hill recalled. "First by his focus, intense creativity and his desire to make a difference. And second by how overwhelmingly nice he is. In this business those two traits are usually mutually exclusive."
Weiss spent a year at his first full-time directing roost, San Francisco-based Complete Pandemonium, before joining Pavlov. His final job at Pavlov was for Northwestern Hospital via Leo Burnett Co., Chicago. Next week he heads for Amsterdam to shoot five spots for Renault out of Saatchi & Saatchi, Milan. The European assignment (produced by the agency) is a continuation of a serialized campaign.
Weiss rounds out a roster that also includes directors Barry Young and Minneapolis-based Joe Schaak. In addition to Finn, the company is repped on the East Coast by Roxanne Artesona of Roxanne & Co., New York, and in the Midwest by Marguerite Juliusson and Dawn Ratcliffe of Juliusson/Ratcliffe, Chicago.
