Tampa, Fla.-based Shoplifter Studios, a documentary film studio and extension of advertising agency PPK, has expanded its production and postproduction capabilities to serve as a full-service production house for commercial and branded content. Shoplifter’s in-house expertise supports feature-length and commercial productions of any size, with a dedicated team of postproduction experts offering editorial, sound design, color correction, motion graphics, VFX, 3D through final delivery. Shoplifter’s current commercial roster offers branded advertising, B2B, experiential, social media and influencer marketing production for clients across categories, including Big Lots Home, Tires Plus and PDQ Restaurants. Tom Kenney is owner and CEO of PPK and Shoplifter Studios. Shoplifter’s documentary film Nowhere Man and a Whiskey Girl, the heartbreaking story of folk musical duo Amy and Derrick Ross, received accolades from the Gasparilla, Arizona, Portland, Wyoming and Buffalo International Film Festivals, and the IndieFest Film Awards. Other films include Insufficient Funds and An Ode to Joy, with postproduction credit on Kaos at the Palms (available to stream this year)….
Star, a global consulting firm, has named Scott Tieman as global head of adtech & martech. Joining from Accenture Song, where he served as managing director of media, marketing and content operations, Tieman will be tasked with strengthening Star’s partnerships with key agency networks and bringing AI-driven marketing transformation and platform solutions to market. Tieman brings two decades of experience in marketing and media to Star. During his tenure at Accenture Song in San Francisco, Tieman managed a $300M marketing services client portfolio, doubled his team size and significantly grew sales through strategic partnerships and innovative business strategies. In his new role, Tieman will be based in Silicon Valley and report directly to Star’s CEO and co-founder Michael Schreibmann. Before Accenture, Tieman managed digital strategy and client services at Red Bricks Media….
James Earl Jones, Lauded Actor and Voice of Darth Vader, Dies At 93
James Earl Jones, who overcame racial prejudice and a severe stutter to become a celebrated icon of stage and screen — eventually lending his deep, commanding voice to CNN, "The Lion King" and Darth Vader — has died. He was 93.
His agent, Barry McPherson, confirmed Jones died Monday morning at home in New York's Hudson Valley region. The cause was not immediately clear.
The pioneering Jones, who was one of the first African American actors in a continuing role on a daytime drama and worked deep into his 80s, won two Emmys, a Golden Globe, two Tony Awards, a Grammy, the National Medal of Arts, the Kennedy Center Honors and was given an honorary Oscar and a special Tony for lifetime achievement. In 2022, a Broadway theater was renamed in his honor.
He cut an elegant figure late in life, with a wry sense of humor and a ferocious work habit. In 2015, he arrived at rehearsals for a Broadway run of "The Gin Game" having already memorized the play and with notebooks filled with comments from the creative team. He said he was always in service of the work.
"The need to storytell has always been with us," he told The Associated Press then. "I think it first happened around campfires when the man came home and told his family he got the bear, the bear didn't get him."
Jones created such memorable film roles as the reclusive writer coaxed back into the spotlight in "Field of Dreams," the boxer Jack Johnson in the stage and screen hit "The Great White Hope," the writer Alex Haley in "Roots: The Next Generation" and a South African minister in "Cry, the Beloved Country."
He was also a sought-after voice actor, expressing the villainy of Darth Vader ("No, I am your father," commonly misremembered as "Luke, I am your father"), as... Read More