A FIRST FOR THE REEL! After years of managing the Reel solo, I am delighted that industry pro Nancy Reid has joined the Reel as VP/development.
In that role, Nancy will spearhead the Reel’s expansion in the coming months. We plan to widen our coverage and become involved in multiple media to connect and serve our growing readership and advertisers the best way possible.
Having spent more than 20 years in film/video production, Nancy knows the songs. She’s been a general manager of production and post companies and was a sales/marketing executive for some of Chicago’s most prestigious facilities.
Suffice to say, her experience runs the full gamut of content creation and production/post services, so she knows what she’s talking about. She has managed projects for major ad agencies, corporations, associations, television programming for broadcast and cable, production of indie films and webcasts and so much more.
Nancy also brings her strong marketing experience to bear as a consultant to several local companies.
One of our special collaborations will be with next month’s Social Media Week, the first major conference to be held on this vast subject since the Chicago Convergence four years ago.
Call Nancy at 312/560-0542; Email, nancylreid@earthlink.net.
EURO RSCG’S FIRST director of integrated production is the thoroughly knowledgeable Elena Robinson, who is “a creative person with understanding of traditional production, but total, real world and hands-on understanding of digital and back end,” says Euro’s CCO Jason Peterson.
Prior to rejoining Euro, Robinson was an EP and director of production at Liquid Thread, where she was in charge of developing and managing all digital resources.
Robinson worked with Euro twice earlier, first as a senior producer and then as a senior interactive producer. She has also worked with the big local agencies on major brands.
HOW MANY HOLLYWOOD ACTORS get an official day named after them here? Umm, practically none. That’s why it was very nice of Gov. Pat Quinn to proclaim Aug. 19 “Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez Day” in Illinois and also formally recognize the work of the Chicago International Film Festival, now in its 47th year.
The governor will state the proclamation at Festival’s Summer Gala Friday where Sheen will receive a Silver Hugo for his lengthy 40 years of Career Achievement.
“Illinois’ outstanding creative community is just one of the many reasons the Chicago International Film Festival is a great success year after year,” Quinn states. “In recognition of their many contributions to the arts and other charitable causes, I hereby proclaim Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez Day in Illinois and welcome their continued support of our state’s film industry.”
The Summer Gala is being held at the AMC River East theatre, for the screening of Sheen’s latest movie, “The Way,” directed by his son, Estevez, with an expected attendance of more than 400. A reception at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers
TOWERS PRODUCTIONS’ massive four-part series, The Civil War 3D, called “the most ambitious 3D series ever produced for television,” has wrapped 10 weeks of non-stop production. It will debut this fall on Discovery’s 3D Channel, the joint partnership between Discovery Communications, Sony and IMAX, which started airing 24/7 last February.
ROGER EBERT’S NEW BOOK, Life Itself, his dramatic story of his incredible life and career, will hit bookstores Sept. 13. Ebert has been reviewing movies for the Sun-Times since 1967 and he is the first film critic ever to win a Pulitzer Prize.
Ebert’s wife, Chaz Ebert, producer of At the Movies and Ebert Film Festival, will be honored at Women in Film’s annual Focus Awards Gala Oct. 13, along with Hollywood set decorator Karen O’Hara, who won an Oscar for Alice in Wonderland, and Grossman & Jack’s enduring Linda Jack.
GET A LAUGH at Phunny Business: A Black Comedy, the acclaimed doc about a former South Side comedy club that was produced Filmworkers Club’s Reid Brody and L.A. based director John Davies, when it plays Aug. 27 and Sept. 1 at the Gene Siskel Film Center.
Brody says the doc has been sold to Showtime and talk about a sequel is brewing.
CHANGING TIMES. For more than 30 years a fixture in everyone’s bookshelf, the print Creative Directory has given way to an exclusively virtual version.
“We decided to make the change to a web directory with our last edition in April and have a redesigned directory that’s also more user-friendly for the smaller screen,” says Kurt Hansen, who’s run the business for most of his and the Creative Directory’s life. The Directory was founded by his mother, Beverly Hanson.
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