Thursday 1 May 2008

NewsReel 01/05/08

As always, please send any news and press releases to sam@thereel.net and we'll do our best to include it here.

A handy ANDY GRANDY for the Master Chief
McCann Erickson and T.A.G San Francisco won the biggest prize at the 44th ANDY Awards held in New York last night. Their campaign for the launch of the eagerly anticipated third installment in Microsoft’s Halo series, featuring the mighty Master Chief, won the coveted GRANDY and $50,000 prize money. For many the highlight and keystone of the whole ‘Believe’ campaign was the beautiful diorama TV spot, as featured in September’s Reel.



To see the full list of winners, including a healthy UK contingent, click here.

Another director
Another Film Company’s recent signing Martha Delap was among the winners at last week’s television BAFTAs for her direction of the nation’s favourite potty mouthed chef in Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares.

Tim Marshall, Another’s Managing Partner, recently said of her signing, ‘We’re very excited to be involved in introducing such a young and dynamic talent into the commercials world. Martha makes programmes that have great popular appeal; they look good, are engaging and honest. A move into commercials makes perfect sense.’

Martha’s first commercial with Another is already in the can (and on The Reel), directing the nation’s favourite diminutive mockney chef Jamie Oliver in Sainsbury’s ‘Feed Your Family for a Fiver’ campaign for AMV BBDO.

Downing Wan-da
Wanda in Paris has signed new director Michael Downing for European (excluding UK) representation. Before joining Wanda, Michael attended the American Film Institute where he made a short film called 'Fine', which won a student Oscar. He is now directing a Toyota commercial for Wanda, which will hopefully hit The Reel soon.

Epoch Films sign Collision
Epoch Films has announced the signing of established music video collective Collision for UK commercials representation. From an animation and graphics background, award-winning Collision have developed a distinctive voice through an inventive approach to filmmaking. Working in a mix of live-action and animation they’ve already worked with some top-notch indie bands including Radiohead, the Killers, Franz Ferdinand, Scissor Sisters, Editors, the Zutons, and the Bees, and they’ve just delivered the latest promo for the Young Knives. Their first work through Epoch London is a cinema and viral campaign for Mother re-launching Covent Garden called ‘Spring Renaissance’.

Some more Stinkers
Stink has signed creative and directing duo Dark Fibre. They’ve recently made waves with their ‘Stuff of Life’ spot for Amnesty International and have previously produced David LaChappelle’s glossy Oscar shortlisted film ‘Rize’ and produced and directed serious telly like ‘Living Goddess’ for More4 and ‘Zombie Town’ for Channel 4.

Blink…and they didn’t miss him.
Blink has signed Argentine director Nicolas Kasakoff for commercial representation in the UK. The ginger haired dynamo loves the idea of working with Blink, ‘As anybody who could distinguish between apples and bananas, I could easily recognise Blink as a high-class company not only in the UK but worldwide. In addition to that, their visual and narrative style seemed to be totally aligned with my way of thinking.'

Jason Studholme, Blink’s managing director, obviously enticed by his director’s fruit-recognising abilities, is also delighted with the arrangement, ‘I happened to be doing a Motorola job in Buenos Aries with Patrick Daughters which gave me the opportunity to get to know Nico. I discovered that as well as being super talented he is also a lovely person and I heard nothing but good things about him locally. The die was cast.’

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