THIRTY-YEAR STAGING VETERAN John Kavanagh has left the Show Department after 27 years to join national, full service production company, Lakeshore Audiovisual, Inc. (LSAV), as VP/business development.
LSAV, founded and operated by Michael Giglio in 1995, specializes in staging, special events and conventions.
Headquartered on Chicago’s Northwest Side, it has offices and warehouse facilities in the major convention centers of Las Vegas, Washington, D.C. and Orlando.
At The Show Department, Kavanagh had been VP/sales and marketing, and had served as general manager, client development, show management, technical direction and sales.
L.A. LOVES CHICAGO, judging by the amount of L.A. spot houses shooting here the week of Oct. 22. Moxie will film BMO/Harris Bank spots for five days in the Loop; Backyard has a four-day shoot going for Mejier’s department stores; Hungry Man is back for WalMart, spending four days at suburban stores and Supply & Demand will do the honors for Dick’s Sporting Goods chain also at a suburban store. Essanay Studio & Lighting is providing all the trucks and equipment.
STORY’S TWO RECENT SHOOTS brought L.A.-based director/cameraman Scott McCullough here to shot GMC vehicles for Digitas driving on twisting and rolling roads along the Skokie lagoon in Winnetka. Then next week, another of STORY’S L.A. director/shooters, Blair Hayes, will film a JBL Speakers spot in a River North loft apartment.
FRIDAY’S THE NIGHT for the tenth and final climatic episode of Starz’ second season of “Boss” and actor Doug James (the series’ sinister sociopathic killer who’s actually a great guy in real life) says seeing the show at Market Bar & Restaurant will be a blowout. His band, Doug James and The Pocket, will start the evening at 7 p.m. We hear a couple of TV stations will be at Market to interview actors from the show.
BTW. Two of the “Boss” regulars have shown up in key roles in “Chicago Fire,” which doesn’t bode well for a third “Boss” series. But we can always hope.
TWO AREA PHOTOGRAPHERS – David Pavlina of Lake Zurich and Adam Johnson of Lombard were selected by director Ron Howard as local winners in Canon’s “Project Imagina10n,” where five celebrity directors – Eva Longoria, Jamie Foxx, Georgina Chapman (designer and co-founder of Marchesa), James Murphy (founder of LCD Soundsystem) and Biz Stone (co-founder of Twitter) — will direct short films based on consumer-submitted photographs in themed categories.
The celebrity directors are reviewing photos and will select one winner from the nine category in addition to Howard’s pick for the 10th theme. Pavlina and Johnson won in “Backstory” and “Setting” categories, respectively.
CHICAGO ARTIST IVAN BRUNETTI, famous for his New Yorker covers and cartoons, is Energy BBDO’s Creative Salon guest Oct. 18 to preview his book, “Aesthetics: A Memoior,” a survey of his cartooning and illustration career.
BBDO is hosting in conjunction with “The Big Draw Chicago,” a monthlong festival designed to bring people together “to draw, think and share.” From 4-to 6 p.m. at the agency’s 410 Wrigley Building offices. Snacks and drinks, of course.
SAVE THE DATE! The annual can’t-miss annual AICP show and party takes place Nov. 15 at the Cultural Center and more than 1,000 guests are again expected.
REEL MICHIGAN. Michigan’s fiscal year started Oct. 1 with $50 million to give away in grants for film projects – double that of the previous year — and a new Michigan Film Office director will be announced next week. He/she will replace Carrie Jones who resigned late this summer.
The grant pool also has an unspectified $8 million that had been reserved earlier for feature “Last Vegas,” that decided to film elsewhere.
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