Executive producers Gower Frost and Jan Wieringa have partnered with director Michal Utterback to launch Zoo Film, a Hollywood-based production house specializing in commercials as well as emerging ad forms.
The shop opens with a major signing, director Simon West who has a pedigree spanning features (Con Air, The General’s Daughter, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) and commercials (Pepsi’s “Boy In A Bottle,” Cannes Gold Lion winner Little Caesar’s “Italian Feast”). Zoo’s directorial roster consists of Utterback, West, Luca Maroni, James Frost and Diane Van Ussel.
Gower Frost, James Frost and Van Ussel come over from Conceive, a sister shop to bicoastal/international Believe Media. Meanwhile Utterback was most recently at Believe–he and Gower Frost were not only part of the Believe/Conceive family, but had earlier been together when the director was at bicoastal The Artists Company and Frost was exec producer at the former Monkeyshine, a graphic design shop with ties to The Artists Company.
Gower Frost is perhaps best known for building the venerable international production house Jennie & Co as its owner/president. During his tenure, that house twice won the coveted Palme d’Or at the Cannes International Advertising Festival and expanded its reach from Europe to the U.S. The original roster of Jennie & Co directors included Alan Parker, Adrian Lyne, Terry Bedford and Alan Blake. Jennie & Co eventually closed when its directorial core moved into feature filmmaking, and Frost himself entered the indie film fray as a producer (Slayground, Finnegan Begin Again, A Gathering of Old Men). He later returned to the spot arena, developing a working relationship with Utterback over much of the last nine years, which led to the formation of Zoo.
Frost also has a track record with Wieringa, who produced for several Jennie & Co directors, including Lyne, Bedford and Blake, and later served as a producer on Finnegan Begin Again. Wieringa too has an extensive commercialmaking resume; hers spans both the agency and production house sides of the business. On the latter front, she was an executive producer at now defunct Propaganda Films, working on such noted fare as director David Fincher’s Nike spots and Michael Bay’s lauded “got milk” campaign, including the “Aaron Burr” ad that helped him earn a Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award as best commercial director of the year. (Bay now directs spots via his Santa Monica-based The Institute for the Development of Enhanced Perceptual Awareness, while Fincher’s commercialmaking home is bicoastal Anonymous Content.)
On the agency side, Wieringa served as senior VP of broadcasting at GSD&M, Austin, Texas. While there, she was active in commercials as well as longform. She had a hand in the launch of the agency’s film division and produced its first project, the IMAX format Texas: The Big Picture. On the spot score, she produced GSD&M’s iconic post-9/11 “I Am An American” campaign.
As a freelance producer, Wieringa worked on director Joe Pytka’s acclaimed John Hancock campaign, and Ridley Scott’s controversial Nissan Turbo Z commercials. In longform, she garnered the Sundance Film Festival’s Filmmakers Trophy for producing Powwow Highway for Handmade Films and Warner Bros. As a production exec at HBO, she exec produced several films such as The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains and Long Gone. Over the past year after exiting GSD&M, Wieringa has been developing several IMAX films, including Airspeed, to which director Chris Woods is attached. (Wood directs spots via Mirror Films, Los Angeles.) Wieringa has brought this and her other IMAX projects to Zoo.
ROSTER
West had been directing spots via Saville Productions, Beverly Hills. He continues to combine humor and big action as demonstrated in his recent Capital One “Vikings” campaign. After establishing himself at London production house Limelight, West made his first major mark stateside at Propaganda Films’ sister shop Satellite in ’93. Two years later, he shifted over to Propaganda. After Propaganda’s closure in late ’01, West came aboard the former Ritts/Hayden.
West’s body of ad work includes the earlier alluded to Pepsi “Boy In A Bottle” spot, which topped USA Today‘s annual Super Bowl spot poll in ’95; another Pepsi commercial, in which CG ants (created at Digital Domain, Venice, Calif.) carry a bottle of beer into their ant hole to the tune of KC & The Sunshine Band’s “Get Down Tonight”; the aforementioned Little Caesar’s Gold Lion winner; Mercedes-Benz’s “Smooth Ride,” which earned SHOOT “Top Spot” distinction; and high-profile pieces for such clients as McDonald’s, Sprite, Ford, and Miller Beer.
On the feature front, West’s latest movie, When a Stranger Calls, is slated for release in ’06. In addition to his feature filmography as a director, West served as an executive producer on the Ridley Scott-directed Black Hawk Down. West is also active in TV series; he is currently exec producing the CBS crime dramas, Close to Home and American Crime.
Meanwhile Utterback, who’s well known for his fashion and beauty ad sensibilities (Pantene, Covergirl, L’Oreal, Revlon), enjoyed a long run at The Artists Company, and then linked up with Believe. He has shot around the world, and worked extensively with celebrities such as Penelope Cruz, Charlize Theron, Natalie Portman, Katie Holmes and Kim Basinger. In addition to his directorial endeavors, Utterback will get the opportunity at Zoo to be actively involved in the development of new creative and business opportunities.
Maroni comes over from Plum Productions, Santa Monica. He plans to divide his time between New York and Milan, where he maintains (h) films. Maroni made his first industry mark as an agency creative. From ’87 to ’94, he worked at such ad shops in Milan as Leo Burnett, now defunct D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles, Young & Rubicam, McCann Erickson and J. Walter Thompson. It was in ’94 that Maroni landed a creative director’s post at the Milan office of Ammirati Puris Lintas; there he directed some select spots for agency clients.
In ’99, Maroni made the commitment to direct full time and left agency life, signing with Film Master, Milan and Rome, for European spot work. He later picked up stateside representation at bicoastal Original Film, then Plum. He launched (h) films in ’01. Among his directorial credits are stylized spots for such clients as Bacardi, Mercedes
Benz, Landrover and Alfa Romeo. A recent campaign he helmed for Breil watches combines artful imagery with understated comedy.
Van Ussel’s reputation is as a visual director who specializes in projects that call for high design elements, often meshing live action with motion graphics, post techniques and other disciplines. She is currently directing a Purina campaign, adding to a body of sophisticated design work in spots for such advertisers as Honda, Tyco and Sonicare. Van Ussel also earned an Art Director’s Club Merit Award for the main title sequence of the Rupert Wainwright-directed feature, Stigmata.
James Frost is a Conceive alum who is best known for his music videos featuring such artists as Coldplay, Norah Jones, The Beta Band, Stereophonics, Pearl Jam, Mercury Rev, Kylie Minogue, Aimee Mann, Royal Trux and Bright Eyes. Much of his music clip fare was produced via such houses as The Artists Company, RSA Films, London, the Los Angeles-based Rockfight and Conceive. The Coldplay video “Yellow” won assorted kudos, including best director of a new artist distinction at the ’01 MVPA Awards. His “Sunrise” clip for Jones gained “gung ho” rotation on VH1, receiving 50 spins a day.
Frost has also diversified into commercials, directing for 24 Hour Fitness via Hill Holliday, Boston, and a series of NFL Network spots for Young & Rubicam, New York. His ad fare exhibits prowess in storytelling, often marked by a quirky sense of humor.
Exec producer Gower Frost said that director Frost fits the profile of an emerging talent who will dovetail nicely with new media opportunities in the ad arena. Gower Frost noted that he partnered in Zoo primarily for the chance to continue to develop directors in both traditional commercialmaking and in new ad content genres. Frost said that Wieringa shares his commitment to nurturing and furthering directors’ careers, which they regard as the cornerstone of building and running a successful production house.
Zoo has assembled a sales force consisting of independent reps. Delores Hively and Dawn Goodburn of New York-based Buzz Management handle the production company on the East Coast. Covering the Midwest is Chicago-based Maureen Butler. And Yvette Lubinsky serves as West Coast rep.
