This time next year, Rosemary and David Deahl’s Big Deahl Productions should be settled into its new Los Angeles area location, as David Deahl continues his lengthy, acclaimed career as one of the world’s best tabletop directors.
“Everyone has been talking about our leaving Chicago, so we felt we should just get it out there,” says executive producer Rosemary Deahl, making the relocation official.
Big Deahl Chicago will remain intact, with tabletop director/shooter Todd Klein at the helm, who joined the company in 2013, supported by Deahl’s present staff of four and represented by Nathan Skillicorn.
In fact, the couple is flying out west this week, the first of several trips, to decide the place for Big Deahl Productions and where they’d like to put down roots.
The Deahls see working in LA as an opportunity that will expand their unique blend of tabletop and live action, a combination often requiring the skills of two directors.
Since directors go to where the client is, or the client comes to them, Rosemary Deahl says, there’s no need these days to work out of a large studio like their Bucktown 120,000-sq. ft., former furniture warehouse that they purchased in 1996 and converted into the largest commercially-dedicated facility between coasts.
She’s mum about the future of their property.
As for clients going where the director is, she points out two recent Big Deahl projects. A nine-spot campaign for Nestle’s low-call Skinny Cows bars brought LA-based Dailey agency to Chicago and Calcium came here from New York for Deahl’s shoot for their client, Eggland’s Best.
Not to mention David Deahl having been flown to places like Japan and Dubai to shoot tabletop food and beverages.
Moving west will also allow Big Deahl Productions to utilize its existing close-knit relationships with the LA production community “and position us to be even more globally mobile.”
“For as long as we can remember, we’ve toyed with the idea of living in Los Angeles,” Deahl says. “Now that our two children are grown and settled, we have the opportunity to go where our hearts have been for a very long time.”
