Daly leaves RSA, Hashemi joins Independent

Jules Daly, president of RSA since 2001, is leaving her role after striking an independent producing deal with sister company Scott Free Productions under her own banner, Big Red Films. With Daly's move, long-time commercials producer David Mitchell has been named managing director of RSA. For Daly, the move to Big Red Films marks a return to making movies. Mitchell has spent the majority of his career producing commercials for RSA, including much of Jake Scott's work; highlights include Johnnie Walker's "The Gentleman's Wager" films with Jude Law and Budweiser's Super Bowl spot "Lost Puppy." Independent Films is adding director Amelia Hashemi to its roster. A former casting director who turned to directing, her commercial work includes films for Volkswagen, while her short films include "Don't Blame Us Cos We're Famous!," which won Best U.K. short at the East End Film Festival 2015, and "Night Out," which earned the London Calling Award as part of Film London in 2018. JSA is signing director Anh Vu for representation for all territories outside the U.S. With a background in CG, Vu started her career at Psyop in 2007 and was promoted from designer to director. Soon after that, she moved into directing live-action work and has worked with advertising clients such as Barclays, Buchanan's, Dell, Volkswagen, JBL, Samsonite and Stand Up To Cancer. Strange Beast is adding illustrator, animator and director Hannah Jacobs to its roster. Jacobs has worked on a range of projects, music videos and films, for clients such as The New York Times, Vogue, Vice and Penguin Books. Her work has been screened worldwide at festivals including SXSW, Tribeca, Annecy Festival and more. Framestore is appointing Vic Lovejoy as senior VFX producer in advertising. She previously freelanced with the creative studio, and has experience across film, television and commercials. Her career began at British animation house Aardman, and she has also worked with The Mill and MPC. Her credits include Mercedes Super Bowl spot "Fable." Industry veterans from Brand New School and Epoch Films are behind the launch of Recess Films, a new production company that is backed by Brand New School. The company opens in Los Angeles and New York and will work across commercials, films, series, and branded content. John Duffin will serve as Recess' managing director after 17 years at Epoch Films, alongside partners Jonathan Notaro and Devin Brook of Brand New School. Recess will operate independently from Brand New School, with its own roster of directors, including Ahmed Klink, Alastair McKevitt, Alexandra Gavillet, Fernando Cardenas, Marcus Ubungen and Rory Kellehe. 72andSunny production arm Hecho en 72 is expanding its North American operations and will now be known as Hecho Studios under the MDC Partners network. Tom Dunlap, previously chief production officer at 72andSunny, is becoming managing director of the company while it will be creatively led by executive creative director Gui Borchert. Borchert served as group creative director at 72andSunny for the last four years across several global clients including Starbucks, Sonos, and the L.A. Olympic bid. Hecho Studios' past work includes the production of documentary "Sugar Coated" and Emmy-nominated campaign "Google: Year in Search." Post production boutique Uppercut is partnering with bicoastal visual effects studio Zero to offer post-production services across editorial, animation, CG, VFX and finishing in New York City, Los Angeles and Boston. The bicoastal studios will be led by Uppercut owner/editor Micah Scarpelli and executive producer Kathrin Lausch, together with Zero founder Brian Drewes and senior producer Meg Bailey. 3D designer/director Georgiy Kuznetsov, aka Gosha, is joining Method Studios as creative director in Los Angeles. He has designed and created work for spots, websites and marketing campaigns and has created content for Apple, Facebook, Oreo, Campbell's Soup, IBM and Lexus He was most recently design director at ManvsMachine. Prior to that he was a motion graphics designer and 3D artist at Hue and Cry and The Martin Agency. Chimney, an independent content company specializing in film, television, commercials, and digital media, is opening in New York City. The company now has 14 offices worldwide following its founding in Stockholm in 1995. Chimney's U.S. presence will be led by CEO North America Marcelo Gandola, whose former experience includes chief operations officer at Harbor Picture Company; executive vice president at Hogarth; SVP of creative services at Deluxe Entertainment Services Group and VP of Operations at Company 3. Gandola will be joined by managing director Ed Rilli, former head of production of Nice Shoes, plus head of color Lez Rudge, colorist Vincent Taylor and chief creative officer/lead VFX artist Sam O'Hare. NYC-based audio post production studio Plush, led by president/composer Mike Levesque Sr., is adding audio and music shop Headroom to its roster. The expanded company will operate under the Plush banner. Headroom's composer/producer Jerry Plotkin will join the team, along with mixer/sound designer Evan Spear and producer Hanna Choi.

Daly leaves RSA, Hashemi joins Independent

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