News to groove on from production land

Stardust Studios gets representation in France/Netherlands
Bicoastal U.S. creative production company Stardust Studios today announced a representation deal with Resource Paris and Paris-based production company Les Telecreateurs that will offer Stardust's talents as live-action directors, designers, animators and visual effects artists throughout France and The Netherlands. Stardust's owner and creative director/director Jake Banks (pictured left) recently teamed with Paris-based Callegari Berville Grey through Les Telecreateurs to create the new look for – while also designing and directing – the global cross-media campaign for Hugo Boss Green. The bold print and TV ads star Golden Globe-winning actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Banks is also currently directing a spot for Bouygues Telecom through Les Telecreateurs via DDB Paris.

JWT appoints Guy Murphy as Global Planning Director
Bob Jeffrey, chairman and CEO of JWT, announced the appointment of BBH's deputy chairman, Guy Murphy, 42, as JWT's global planning director, reporting to Jeffrey and collaborating closely with Craig Davis, JWT's chief creative officer. Says Jeffrey: "Having helped introduce account planning nearly 40 years ago in London, with a department led by legend Stephen King, we have a rich legacy in this realm that continues on today across the globe with our talented strategists and planners. Now's the time to turn it up several notches, to reclaim our planning leadership on a worldwide level, and we have hired Guy, who will be based in London, to lead this charge." He adds: "JWT's creative Renaissance is well under way; this summer we won 35 Lions at Cannes, putting us on par with the top creative shops in the world. At this point in our continuous, rapid development, we're focused on strategy, since it's never been more critical for JWT, especially on behalf of our client brands."

In his role as deputy chairman, Murphy helped BBH in London earn two consecutive Campaign "Agency of the Year" crowns. Murphy, often lauded for the effectiveness of his work at industry competitions, and himself a champion of creative thinking, notes: "Planning has reached something of a crossroads, at JWT and for the industry. I find myself asking, 'What would Stephen King do?' especially as he was media-led in his invention of planning 1.0." Murphy adds: "I place a high value on creativity, and I intend to lead and support JWT's planners around the globe in their production of the most inspiring and contemporary briefs. In addition, I want to help create the environment for more great work to be sold."

Millennium Pictures signed director Kerry Shaw Brown.
As a former Creative Director with Campbell-Ewald, Brown has a wide-ranging creative background which includes writing, art direction and production design, music production, and, of course, directing. His gift for highly-visual storytelling – which lends itself both to dramatic and comedic spots – is complemented by his eye for lighting, compositing and post effects. He won a 2001 Emmy Award for his PSA, "Fetch," created for the nonprofit organization Adopt-A-Pet. As an agency creative, he has garnered multiple Caddy, Telly, and Mobius awards, was a finalist in the London International Advertising Awards, and been honored at SXSW and the Austin Music Awards.

"Ultimately, I would like to be known as a director of beautifully executed visuals and epic stories," says Brown, who cites Ridley Scott as an idol, for his taste and range. "Every now and then it's important to complement a crowd-pleasing action film with an intimate portrayal of someone bringing a beloved pet back to life."

Brown recently completed spot projects for Victory Motorcycles, Suzuki, and Polaris. Brown’s recent episodic Television credits include "The UnDetectables," a mini-series he developed and directed for the Discovery Channel. He is also spending inordinate amounts of time trying to find a cure for "The Stupid Gene," a show created for the sole purpose of saving mankind from its own stupidity by showing how stupid people can really be.

Ten Music sets the mood for Seven Days in a Sentra
Ten Music has helped give the new Nissan Sentra campaign via TBWA/Chiat/Day, a soundtrack of indie and unsigned bands. "Seven Days in a Sentra" rolls out in seven :30 TV spots and a two-minute video broadcast online. The spots feature Marc Horowitz and chronicle his experiences living in a Nissan Sentra for one week. Music is a continuous thread running across the project's many platforms, which spans TV, web-banners, Advan, Bluetooth, Nissan USA's website (www.NissanUSA.com), and a MySpace page (www.myspace.com/7daysinasentra) and blog (www.7daysinasentra.blog.com) dedicated exclusively to the campaign's star. The campaign will feature the licensed music in the spots as well as in a streaming and downloadable format online.

"Music was a key element of the new Sentra campaign," said copywriter Steve Howard, noting that the right music would make Nissan connect with its youthful urban target but the wrong music could make the brand seem completely out of touch. "We needed to find undiscovered underground bands. The ones people will be talking about a year from now. We turned to Ten Music because we figured if anyone could find these bands they could. The timeline was tight but within days we had great and truly unexpected music for all of our spots. And we all seem a lot cooler now when we talk about music."

"One of the hurdles of this project was finding music that not only fit the budget, but was from a band that saw the opportunity that the campaign presented," says Ten Music Executive Producer Rachel Dunn. "We were able to get out there and find great music from lesser-known bands that helped create the soundtrack to Marc’s life. There is so much amazing undiscovered music out there and we're excited to be able to create an outlet for the public to hear it, while delivering the right sound for the brand."

In addition to sourcing the music – which includes the bands The Red Thread, Tapes n Tapes, and Essex Green – Ten acted as a liaison for the client and agency, pitching the project to labels and securing all the licenses. "Given time and budgetary constraints and the experimental cross-platform innovations involved, it was our job to help the artists navigate the process and look at the project as a great opportunity for them."

Music tracks used in the campaign include:
Sukiyaki by Oranger, Enough for You and Me by Conner, Martha Avenue Love Song by Innocence Mission, Your Magic is Working by Of Montreal, Gotta Get A Problem by Mates of State, Spaghetti O Western by The Orange Peels, Diablo by Josef Malik, Be Good by Tokyo Police Club, Eighth Dimension She Was by All Good Funk Alliance, Better 3 Groove by Beef Wellington, Bewley In White by Bibio, Polyamore by Don Tiki, Ofhas by Midwest Product, Moon Song by Seksu Roba, Mackerel Sky by Pine*AM, Major J by From Bubblegum to Sky, and L-O-V-E by Irving.