David Rosen is giving Vitamin a dose of zest as executive producer of Vitamin, the design-driven production division of Filmworkers club.
He is helping to further amplify and integrate Filmworkers’ mighty production and post resources to broaden its scope of business as a more aggressive competitor in the brave new world of new media.
A commercial director/production veteran, Rosen devoted all of last year in Los Angeles to explore the changing tide of new media. “I developed ideas, pitched weberies and produced cross-platform projects. I found that world super fascinating.”
As the old business model of commercial production and distribution fades away, replaced by “pieces” for a myriad of new media outlets, Rosen finds “successful companies are the ones that can work across all genres and disciplines and deliver the best integration.
“Nowadays we do 20 different things for 20 different applications. The core message may have live action, a web, a broadcast and a mobile application,” he says.
But to achieve that high level of integration, he adds, “There is a certain amount of technical expertise, knowledge and challenge needed to translate the message into different media,” which Vitamin and Filmworkers’ companies, including its Dallas and Nashville branches and Lift design, can collaboratively supply.
But that’s not unique to Vitamin, Rosen concedes. Other companies have successfully made the transition. But Vitamin alone in Chicago , he believes, is finding new ways to integrate all the elements.
At Vitamin, Rosen heads a staff of eight. They are located in Amazon editing’s former space a convenient floor above parent Filmworkers Club.
Four directors comprise Vitamin’s creative core, although two of them — Ryan Dunn and Elliott Lim — are singularly known as Doppler when they team up for animation projects.
Dunn, Vitamin’s creative director, who also directs live action, came from Nike, Portland , Oregon , where he’d been a designer/art director in Nike’s brand design group. Animator and AfterEffects artist Lim was hired straight out of the Art Center of Pasadena.
New York-based triple threat Daniel Garcia directs live action, animation and effects. Design director/3D artist Ryan McDougal has an agency background.
Rosen can be justifiably called a Renaissance Man of commercial production. He’s done it all. He started his career as director of client services and then producer/rep at local production houses. He was Mark Androw’s partner in what was then called Chicago Story for six years, leaving for the opportunity to build a reel of his own as a director.
During the past 15 years, Rosen has directed an estimated 500 national spots, including “a lot of package goods, kids, dialog and performance. When someone asked, ?have I seen anything you’ve done,’ I said ?yep.'”
In the Midwest, Vitamin is repped by Melissa Thornley. She also sells for The Whitehouse, where she had been general manager of the Chicago branch. She moved back to Chicago after a stint in New York.
Vitamin is at 233 E. Ohio, phone, 312/664-9333. See
