Director and photographer India Sleem has joined the Somesuch roster for representation across music videos, commercials and branded content in the U.K. and Amsterdam. Her work spans global brands including Apple, Nike, McDonald’s, Fenty, Gap, Square, Converse, Chillys, Marie Curie and Vogue. This year, her work for Nike’s AirForce 40th Anniversary campaign was an Advertising Campaign finalist at The AICP Show. In 2019, she was named to The One Club’s Young Guns 17 winner for her work including her film The Game, a golden hour love letter to NYC’s basketball culture, and photo series “Indian Hills” for Dazed & Confused Magazine. Born and raised in Manchester, England, Sleem is based in L.A. She is currently in production on a short film, a semi-autobiographical look at growing up mixed race. She is also in development on her first feature film…..
Toronto-based production house Feels Like Home has added Paul Santana to its directorial roster for representation across Canada. He made his directing debut for the American Cancer Society with “Odds,” a film that earned him a slot in SHOOT’s 2005 New Directors Showcase and earned recognition at the AICP Show. Santana has gone on to work for brands including Nike, Coors, Budweiser, Samsung, Coca Cola, Jeep, Toyota and Chevrolet. A career highlight for Santana has been filming annual campaigns for Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism. Taking a break from L.A., these campaigns allow him to immerse himself within the natural beauty of the province and interact with the people there….
Eddie Gold, founder of The Gold Studios, has launched The Gold Directors, a U.K. production company featuring “vertical directors.” The new venture has assembled a lineup of U.K.-based directors–Philip Lawson, Rebekah Creative, Joe&Jackson and James Dean–who specialize in shooting for 9:16. Demand for vertical content has risen in recent years with SnapChat, Instagram Reels, YouTube shorts and TikTok driving it forward….
Havas Study Finds Resilience, Optimism In Time of Global Crisis
Havas has released the 2024 edition of its Global annual Meaningful Brands™ study, revealing newfound resilience and optimism during a period when global crisis has become the norm. Havas has measured Meaningful Brands™ annually since 2009, furthering a commitment to bringing data science, insights, and an understanding of people to the core of its strategic methodology across businesses, brands, and markets. “We have been investing in our landmark Meaningful Brands™ study for more than 16 years, and these insights now take on even greater prominence in our work for clients through our shared Converged strategy and operating system. We launched Converged to transform our client experience by building even more strategic bridges between creativity, media, production, and technology, and a shared understanding of today’s consumers is essential to this vision and to unlocking more meaningful growth for our clients and their brands,” said Yannick Bolloré, chairman and CEO, Havas. Commissioned with YouGov, “The Rise of the Change Makers” surveyed more than 156,500 respondents, finding that while 70% of people feel the world is going in the wrong direction globally, 69% won’t let the tough times keep them down. Across 24 markets and more than 2,600 brands, 67% of respondents reported being happy today and 59% feeling optimistic about the future. In 2022, The Collins Dictionary named ‘polycrisis’ its word of the year, but, as 2024 comes to a conclusion, ‘permacrisis’ is a more apt descriptor for a landscape where climate change escalates, the cost of living continues to soar, political differences are dramatized amidst the biggest democratic election year in history, and conflict, violence and humanitarian crises affect millions around... Read More