Succession (HBO) has marked both an expansion and a progression for Andrij Parekh, an accomplished cinematographer for 20 years who continues to lens short and long-form fare. Among his credits are multiple episodes of Succession , including the Adam McKay-directed pilot which debuted in 2018. The spreading of career wings for Parekh is reflected in that acclaimed series’ “Hunted” episode which last month landed him his first-ever Emmy nomination--not as a DP but for Outstanding Directing for a... Read More 

NEW YORK -- Jason Kilar, a former Amazon SVP who became CEO of WarnerMedia a little more than three months ago, has made some seismic changes in the company’s executive suite. Robert Greenblatt is out after just over a year as the chairman of WarnerMedia Entertainment. Also exiting are Kevin Reilly, WarnerMedia’s chief content officer, and Keith Cocozza, EVP of marketing and communications. In a note to WarnerMedia employees informing them of this and several other key moves, Kilar wrote, “I want to thank... Read More 

NEW YORK -- A federal judge on Friday (8/7) ruled in favor of efforts by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to eliminate antitrust decrees which had prevented studios from owning movie theaters. The Paramount Consent Decrees had been in effect for more than 70 years. The decrees were put in place originally to thwart major studios from monopolizing the motion picture industry through their ownership of film distribution and exhibition. Resulting from a Supreme Court ruling against Paramount and several other... Read More 

Nathan Young, group strategy director at Periscope, has stepped down from the presidency of 600 & Rising, the organization he co-founded in order to give a strong voice to Black advertising professionals, advocating for their hiring and advancement. Young resigned during a special meeting of the 600 & Rising board of directors and officers on Thursday (8/6). The move came after “careful consideration and deliberation with the board members,” according to an industry letter sent out by... Read More 

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A politically charged episode of "black-ish" from 2017 that was shelved by ABC has found a home on Hulu, a corporate sibling of the Disney-owned broadcast network. "I cannot wait for everyone to finally see the episode for themselves," series creator Kenya Barris posted Monday on social media. Barris said he hopes the half-hour episode, titled "Please Baby Please," fulfills its original intent: to inspire vital dialogue about "where we want our country to go moving forward and, most importantly... Read More 

SAN FRANCISCO -- Award-winning creative agency Eleven has hired Andre Gray as executive creative director. Operating out of the San Francisco office, Grey will lead creative development with chief creative officer Mike McKay for Eleven’s diverse portfolio of clients including Samsung, Pella, JSX, Electrify America and Dignity Health. Gray most recently worked at TBWA/NEBOKO’s Amsterdam location, serving as the global creative director for Adidas and Gatorade. Since 2017, Gray developed widely recognized... Read More 

NEW YORK -- Prompted by this year’s rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and in acknowledgment of the ad industry’s continued lack of diversity, The One Club for Creativity has rebranded its annual Here Are All The Black People multicultural conference and career fair back to its original name: Where Are All The Black People. The event, typically held in person in New York, is this year available online to a global audience running September 22-24, and will address the new realities of race, inclusion... Read More 

NEW YORK -- Sally Antonacchio, owner/executive producer of The Artists Company, is a production vet whose accomplishments span assorted major projects as well as being the recipient back in 2012 of the Jay B. Eisenstat Award, the AICP’s highest honor. But even for the most experienced and decorated pro, these are unprecedented times given the impact of the pandemic on filmmaking. The Artists Company, Antonacchio and director Gregory Maya, though, were up to the task, being among the first to navigate this... Read More 

NEW YORK -- Moxie Pictures has signed comedy filmmaker Ben Fogg for global representation spanning commercials and branded content. He had not previously been signed in the U.S. The director’s recent exploits includes campaigns for Vauxhall, Kelloggs, BBC and UNICEF. Fogg describes himself as “part director, part writer, part stand-up comic and ALL stone-cold-player with 15 years experience in commercials.” His eclectic body of work is defined by its comic flair, nuanced performance and improvisational... Read More 

LOS ANGELES -- Veteran business and media executive Sarah Chase has been named COO and executive producer at Wild Bill, a creative content production company and commercial agency jointly run by co-founders Samantha Hart and James Lipetzky. Chase spent much of her career working under the close mentorship of actor Alan Alda. Prior to joining Wild Bill, she served as COO at Alda Communication Training Company (ACT), teaming with Alda to build it into a multi-million dollar company that was structured as a one-... Read More 

SAN FRANCISCO -- Advertising agency Camp + King has promoted Rikesh Lal and Jesse Dillow to executive creative directors. As co-creative directors, Lal and Dillow have been responsible for the agency’s creative output over the years. Lal, an art director, and Dillow, a writer, first worked with agency principals Roger Camp and Jamie King at Publicis & Hal Riney almost 15 years ago. “I’ve been fortunate to work with Rikesh and Jesse for more than a decade, and I’ve watched firsthand as they not only became... Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) -- This year's New York Film Festival will be held largely virtually and in outdoor screenings, organizers said Thursday while unveiling a lineup featuring new films from Chloe Zhao, Steve McQueen and Azazel Jacobs. The major fall film festivals, which often jockey for the chance to premiere the season's top films, have this year worked in concert to salvage what they can from a more limited array of films and a drastic reduction in attendees. Many of the films selected by Film at Lincoln Center,... Read More 

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Sumner Redstone, who built a media empire from his family's drive-in movie chain, has died. He was 97. ViacomCBS Inc., which he led for decades, remembered Redstone for his "unparalleled passion to win, his endless intellectual curiosity, and his complete dedication to the company." Redstone built the company through aggressive acquisitions, but many headlines with his name focused on severed ties with wives, actors and executives. In multiple interviews, he said he'd never die. His tight-... Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) -- Even mock elections require wall-to-wall coverage, so when Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine set out to document Texas' Boys State, the week-long summer camp of civics simulation run by the American Legion since 1935, they hired seven cinematographers to stay close to a handful of the 1,100 participants -- all 17- and 18-year-old boys, some with very real political ambition. In the often patient and plodding world of documentary filmmaking, it was an intense pace keeping up with the campaigns of... Read More 

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Athletes Stephen Scherer, Jeret Peterson and Kelly Catlin have two things in common: They all reached their dream of becoming Olympians, and they all died by suicide. Olympians are known for pushing their bodies to the extreme but much less understood are the mental and emotional rigors paving their road to greatness. Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian in history, says he had suicidal thoughts even at the peak of his remarkable swimming career and calls depression and suicide among... Read More 

Regal movie theaters have been closed for almost five months in the U.S. due to the coronavirus pandemic, but they are gearing up to open on Aug. 21. And this time it might just stick. Exhibitors have postponed plans several times as cases spiked in various cities. Mooky Greidinger, the CEO of Cineworld, which owns Regal, said that almost all of their attention is on safety protocols and sanitization efforts as they gear up for the big day. Masks and social distancing will be required for... Read More 

NEW YORK -- With film and television production starting to resume, visual effects companies in New York State are gearing up to capitalize on a projected boom in demand. Eager to get back to work but wanting to do so safely, producers are expected to rely more on virtual production and other visual effects techniques to reduce the need for travel, locations shoots and crowd scenes. Buoyed by community support from Post New York Alliance (PNYA) and financial incentives provided by New York’s Film Tax... Read More 

BROOKLYN, NY -- Blue Table Post, the studio founded by Emmy-winning editor Oliver Lief, has recently expanded its talent roster with editors and colorists experienced in both entertainment and advertising. Blue Table has also developed a semi-remote collaboration process where clients can work from the shop’s private garden terrace. Talent joining the studio roster on a nonexclusive basis are editors Crandall Miller, Katie Pehowski and Dean Gonzalez, as well as colorists Liz Fornango and CJ Dobson. Taking on... Read More 

TikTok and its U.S. employees are planning to take President Donald Trump's administration to court over his sweeping order to ban the popular video app, according to a lawyer preparing one of the lawsuits. The employees' legal challenge to Trump's executive order will be separate from a pending lawsuit from the company that owns the app, though both will argue that the order is unconstitutional, said Mike Godwin, an internet policy lawyer representing the employees. Trump last week ordered... Read More 

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Maria Ressa says she didn't take Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte seriously when he declared four years ago that "corrupt" journalists weren't "exempted from assassination." "In 2016, it was really, really laughable. And I thought, 'Oh, doesn't matter.' I laughed," said the country's most well-known journalist and leader of the independent Rappler news organization. Grim reality set in as Ressa was arrested and thrown in jail, targeted in a series of criminal cases and convicted this summer... Read More 

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- "America's Got Talent" topped the ratings last week, but it faces the absence of Simon Cowell, seriously injured in an electric bicycle accident. Cowell, the NBC talent contest's creator and linchpin of its judging panel, underwent surgery for a broken back last Saturday, just before the show kicked off its live episodes this week. Kelly Clarkson, who came to fame as the first "American Idol" winner when Cowell judged the singing contest, was to step in as his temporary replacement. Fox News... Read More 

Oscar-winning director ( La La Land ) Damien Chazelle takes the plunge with this short film centered on a Hollywood stunt man whose parachute fails to open during a leap from a skyscraper. The man’s life then flashes before our eyes as he recalls a life of thrills, adventure and suspense performing all manner of stunts, some death-defying, in movies dating back to the silent era. Titled “The Stunt Double,” the film--lensed vertically--is the latest installment of Apple’s “Shot on iPhone”... Read More 

“So what?” That’s how President Jair Bolsonaro replied in April when a journalist asked him about the more than 5,000 deaths caused by COVID-19. Today, Brazil has reached the mark of 100,000 deaths and nearly 3 million people contaminated by the new coronavirus. These are not just numbers, but actual people, entire families scarred by grief and mourning. That is why the Yanomami and Ye’kwana Leadership Forum is launching a new spot for the campaign #MinersOutCOVIDOut. Created by Wieden+Kennedy... Read More 

WEBTOON™, a publishing portal for the distribution and consumption of web-based comics, averages more than 64 million monthly active users--16.5-plus million of whom read daily. More people consumer WEBTOON series than watch most TV shows. To further promote awareness of WEBTOON, agency Fred & Farid Los Angeles created the Stories To Obsess Over campaign featuring celebs in cinematic films obsessing over WEBTOON. With the advent of the pandemic and quarantine--causing millions of people to... Read More 

Directorial duo Rubberband, handled by production house SMUGGLER, continues their collaboration with Lewis Del Mar in this music video titled “TV.” Supporting the NYC-based group’s sophomore album AUGUST, the video had rubberband in conjunction with lead animator James Stewart use pandemic-sparked restrictions and production limitations to their advantage, creating a tactile, stop-motion animated kaleidoscope-like piece of work. It’s the literal manifestation of multimedia overload as... Read More 

Coming out of quarantine during the pandemic necessitates making some adjustments as evidenced by this Snickers spot in which a man is dressed for a Zoom meeting--when instead his visitors show up in person. As his wife and guests look on in amazement at this less than casually attired guy, the ad ends with the line “Maybe You Just Need A Snickers.” Titled “First Visitors,” the :15 was directed by Jess Coulter of production house O Positive for agency BBDO New York. The comedy commercial’s... Read More 

Production company Superprime’s Loren Denis has teamed with long-time creative partner and boyfriend Anthony Vibert to direct this short film entitled The WALLS Between Us. The film highlights the human propensity for taking the freedom to move about for granted and the drastic shift that occurs when that freedom is suddenly removed. While under lockdown orders together in Paris with their infant, for the first few weeks making a film was the furthest thing from Denis’ and Vibert’s minds. As... Read More 

Roger Federer pays two special fans a surprise visit for a game of rooftop tennis in a new campaign for Barilla, created by We Are Social Milan. The fans in question are two young Italian girls who, during Italy’s coronavirus lockdown earlier this year, created a tennis court between two rooftops in their hometown of Finale Ligure. The pair, Vittoria Oliveri and Carola Pessina, became a global sensation when a video of them playing a 12-shot rally between two rooftops went viral. Struck by the... Read More 

This spot for Organic Doggie Treats delves into the inner thoughts of a canine who reflects on years of wearing a collar, being muzzled and restricted by a leash. The pooch then observes that in turn people are whining about wearing a little mask--a tad self-centered, don’t you think. Man’s best friend gets a kick out of the irony--and isn’t afraid to say so. Kiran Koshy of production house Slash Dynamic directed the pro-mask wearing PSA which is titled “Muzzled.” Koshy also served as creative... Read More 

Audi Australia has partnered with The Monkeys, part of Accenture Interactive, to promote its new Audi Q range of SUVs. The collaboration has yielded the “Irresistibly Advanced” campaign. Director Noah Marshall and co-director Nick Kelly of Sweetshop teamed on this campaign film which features a re-composed version of the song “Strangers in the Night” by composer Elliott Wheeler and contemporary jazz singer Kristin Berardi. The launch of the new campaign aligns with Audi Australia appointing The... Read More 

Created in partnership with Maserati, this film from Austin, Tex.-based ad agency CALLEN unveils the automaker’s Trofeo collection. CALLEN, production partners and the Maserati team collaborated on this international production shoot from virtual locations all over the world. Maserati has expanded the Trofeo collection: the Levante is joined by Ghibli and Quattroporte. The Ghibli and Quattroporte Trofeo are the fastest Maserati sedans ever. “These are beautiful, powerful machines. In making... Read More 

Celebrating this year’s Shark Week, Discovery and The Home Depot have invited a rather unusual, yet fitting guest to join in on a couple’s backyard festivities. A fully CG shark lounges poolside in this concept from Discovery Branded Entertainment executed by The A Team, a creative co(lab). Shark Week 2020 is currently airing on Discovery Channel through Sunday, August 16. This brand integration project, featuring a live-action set outfitted by The Home Depot, combined a socially distanced... Read More 

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