WRITER/DIRECTOR ANDREW DAVIS, the South Side native best known for his Chicago-set and made action features, will receive Chicago Screenwriters Network’s inaugural Founders Award on Wednesday, Sept. 12 at the Mayne Stage Theatre in Rogers Park, starting at 6:30 p.m.
The Founders Award is part of the ceremony that will award prizes to the top five winners of CSN’s annual Chicago Screenwriting Contest.
Davis was chosen, says CSN president/screenwriter Colin Costello, because “he represents everything that’s good about Chicago filmmaking.” This is also the first Chicago award ever presented to Davis.
A writer, director, cinematographer and producer, Davis launched his illustrious career with a semi-autographical indie film, “Stony Island,” in 1978 and went on to win accolades for his Chicago-made classics “The Fugitive,” “The Package,” “Above the Law” and “Code of Silence.” He is currently in preproduction on “Pretty Boy Floyd.”
Davis was back in Chicago for a week in late May for the NATO Summit, along with two other famous Chicago filmmakers, Haskell Wexler and Mike Gray, who were here to shoot a doc about the NATO protests. We’ve been tipped that Davis will debut the doc, or part of it, at the awards ceremony.
We (that is, moi) will have the honor of presenting the award to Davis.
The Founders Award is named in honor of Ed Bernero (“Criminal Minds,” “Third Watch”) who in 1995 founded the organization through messages posted online, and Christina Miller (“General Hospital”) subsequently organized CSN in the flesh. The new CNS iteration, with new leadership and a new meeting location, currently boasts nearly 500 members from Chicago and the Midwest.
Costello promises other program treats yet to be announced. “We want to bring a little Hollywood glitz to the group,” Costello says. Awards evening details here.
CRAMER-KRASSELT/CHICAGO has added the new award-winning team of SVP/group creative directors Jimmy Olson and copywriter Derek Sherman, who are reunited after having worked together five years ago at Energy BBDO and Y&R.
Olson has returned to Chicago after a year’s stint as CD at Factory Design Labs in Denver, and Sherman joins from SVP/CD at Leo Burnett. They have worked on such top brands as Audi, Bud Light, Starbucks, Apple, Wrigley, Kellogg’s, McDonald’s and many others. Coincidentally, Olson began his advertising career out of college at C-K, Milwaukee.
With addition of the two new heavy hitters, and the recent appointment of SVP/ECD Derek Green, says EVP/CCO Marshall Ross, “We see so much potential in where C-K can go in the future, and, frankly, where Chicago as a creative center can go. So we’re going to be very aggressive about talent going forward. And we couldn’t be happier about how this is beginning.”
CHANGING TIMES. Particle recently promoted Dominic Morris to sound designer/mixer after four-and-a-half years with the company as an assistant to chief engineer Katie Mindeman. Particle is Morris’ first and only employer, having joined after graduating from Columbia College, where he studied film and gravitated to audio and sound design.
His projects this year have mostly been Leo Burnett’s new McDonald’s Happy Meal campaign that introduced new animated characters – some 20 spots so far this year that Particle has sound designed and mixed.
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