A NEW AD AGENCY called Houlihan Madison Most has been formed by Kevin Houlihan and Brad Most, for many years with the Chicago Creative Partnership. While HMM is clientless at the moment, it will compete for the former CCP Blue Cross account. Houlihan had been CCP president and chief creative officer; Most was head of client services. The Madison in their name is a nod to New York’s ad street.
IN PRODUCTION. Ogilvy brought in L.A.’s @Radical Media for a nine day Dove documentary style shoot, directed by Brett Froomer and produced by Laurie Stevens? Dennis Manarchy directed eight spots with a new look and approach for Bally Health Clubs, direct. I-Cubed’s Arturo edited, finished and provided the graphics. Janie Posadas produced for Bally? The feature “Stranger than Fiction” starts shooting April 25.
EMMA THOMPSON, who’s in Chicago starring in “Stranger than Fiction,” actor and alum W. Earl Brown and Northern Trust Corporation will be honored April 19 at DePaul’s Theatre School Awards for Excellence in the Arts. The 17th annual gala will be held at the Four Seasons Hotel’s Grand Ballroom. Tickets are $300 and include cocktails, dinner, awards, live auction, raffle, dessert and dancing. Call 312/553-2000 to reserve.
VOICES UNLIMITED talent Bill Lloyd was tapped as booth announcer for the April 11 Country Music Awards Show to be telecast live on CMTV. Currently, Lloyd is heard nationally on Ford and Midas Muffler spots and locally as the drive-time guy afternoons on WGN radio.
ONE WORLD PRODUCTIONS is living up to its name. No sooner did it return from Milan, Michael Neumann and crew headed for Del Ray, Florida to shoot a Turtle Wax spot featuring Japanese super tuned cars. Earl Weingarden of Michigan & Trumbull produced. Neumann’s Turtle Wax spots led to another car polish, A. Eicoff client Scratch Doctor from NuFinish. Neumann shot at Essanay, Wil Wilcox produced.
SHELLY ELIAS’ BIOGRAPHY is being written by Mary Rhoton who’d spent every Saturday morning for more than two years with the late composer and music producer. “I’m interested in getting input from other people about their experiences with Shelly,” she says. If you have stories to share, call Rhoton at 847/698-2735 or Email mrhoton@aol.com.
IRONICALLY, AS FILM OFFICES CLOSE, e.g. Wisconsin’s after 19 years, neighboring Indiana, which isn’t know as a hotbed of movie or spot production, is getting serious about the millions a hefty feature can bring to the state. Indiana will offer a wide range of incentives if the incentives bill that passed the house can get Senate approval.
LET’S HOPE REAL HARD that Leo Burnett wins the $100-$125 million Sony ad account. It would go a long way to help replace the $200 million Army account that marches off to a New York agency in June and provided so much work for so many. Burnett is one of seven contenders: New York’s Saatchi & Saatchi, Euro RSCG, BBDO; Fallon, Minneapolis; Team One, El Segundo, Calif., New York; Arnold, Boston and McKinney + Silver, Raleigh, N.C.
FILM EDITOR SHARON ZUREK of Black Cat Productions says that she’s going to either start producing features or take on indie projects as a distributor. Zurek averages editing one to two features a year with shorts in between. Her all-around assistant in all areas is Hannah David. In addition to a busy editing schedule, Zurek is artist-in-residence in editing at Columbia College.
Zurek reports that filmmaker Catherine Crouch is in the funding stage of another feature and sisters Dymphna and Christina Timmins, a graphics designer and corporate producer, respectively, have made a mockumentary video, “The Orphan Saint,” about the goings-on in a quirky small town.
YOU OUGHTA KNOW… April 1 marks the second anniversary for Bernie Pitzel and Denny Hebson’s Romani Bros. ad agency… Collective Soul rock band is Leo Burnett’s first musical artist-in-residence. Idea was to put contemporary artists and ad creativity in sync? Harold Ramis will receive the Distinguished Screenwriter Award at the Austin Film Festival Awards luncheon Oct. 22? George Marton’s Global Video invested $50, 000 in a high quality DVD authoring suite from SDI.
REACHING OUT TO YOU is the Museum of Broadcast Communications which is in search of additional radio and television promotional artifacts for display in its new 70,000-sq. ft. museum. Equipment or receivers aren’t needed (guess they have plenty). Construction is set to start in early July. Email a list of your donatable stuff to brucedumont@museum.TV.
