Downing Joins Biscuit, Knucklehead Signs Mankovsky and More

Director Michael Downing is joining the commercial roster at Biscuit Filmworks. Downing has directed spots for brands including Samsung, Netflix, Subaru, T-Mobile, Mazda, VW and many others. His recent "Pep Talk" commercial for Netflix won awards at Cannes and The One Show. Other work includes Super Bowl spot "Sky Diver" spot for Bud Light. Downing joins Biscuit for both U.S. and U.K. commercial representation from Epoch Films; he continues to be repped by Partners Films in his native Canada. Prior to entering the world of directing, Downing formed an experimental theatre company in Toronto. Knucklehead has signed director Tomas Mankovsky for U.S. representation. He will remain with Blink for representation in the U.K. market. Polish-born Mankovsky grew up in Sweden and started his advertising career as a creative at Fallon in London. There he worked with clients such as Sony, Orange, BBC and Cadbury on campaigns that garnered awards from Cannes, D&AD, Clios, Epica, BTAA and the Creative Circle. He made the transition to directing full-time in 2009 and has worked on spots for brands such as Ikea, Diesel, H&M, Infiniti, O2 and Nissan. Creative production studio Eskimo has promoted David Martinez to the role of executive producer for the West Coast. During his career, Martinez has produced campaigns for brands including AT&T, PayPal, Red Bull and LG, and worked closely with Nike, particularly on its Instagram channel and Nike Women social networks. He has also worked at cable network Reelz and production company Conscious Minds. Director Max Sherman has signed with Blink for first commercial representation outside of his native Canada. Sherman specializes in comedy and his work includes advertising for Office Max and Axe, and a spot for Lubriderm that has just broken out of OPC Toronto. Sam McLaren has joined Toronto-based Fort York VFX as executive producer. Her commercial production work has won numerous awards, including a Gold Lion at Cannes for the Perlorian Brothers-directed "Prison Visitor" spot for Vim, and most recently a Silver Health Lion for Sick Kids' "Better Tomorrows," directed by Mark Zibert. She has collaborated on several Super Bowl spots out of DDB Chicago, including Bud Light's "Magic Fridge" and Joe Pytka's Budweiser commercials featuring the Budweiser Clydesdales and Dalmatians. Prior to her move into the world of VFX, McLaren was an executive producer at Panic & Bob Editing. L.A. and London-based editorial company Stitch has added two editors to its roster based in Los Angeles. Jason Lewis was previously a freelance editor working at some of L.A.'s top creative agencies, including 72andSunny. He got his start at Venice Beach Editorial, the in-house post facility at TBWA/Chiat/Dayand has worked on worked on brands including McDonald's, Activision, Playstation, Visa, Nissan and the NFL Network. Andrew Leggett joins from Arcade Edit, where he has worked for the past five years. Prior to that he was with Beast and its predecessor company, FilmCore, after launching his career at Jigsaw Edit. His work includes spots for brands like Samsung, Adobe and Microsoft. Flavor has added Blake Huber to its Los Angeles staff in the position of VFX Supervisor. Most recently, Huber was lead flame artist for MPC, and prior to that, he had been freelancing with Flavor and other design/VFX companies, including Big Block, Brand New School, Digital Domain and Logan, since 2013. He has worked on commercial spots for the likes of Discover Card, Geico and Samsung. He began his career as a 2D animator working with Fuel and Brand New School. Optimus has hired editor Jacquelyn London to work in its Santa Monica office. London has cut spots for automotive brands Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat and Jeep, and has worked with other name brands including Garnier, Sony and Beats, among others. She has also worked with music video directors such as Chris Applebaum, Sam Bayer, Anthony Mandler and Mark Pellington. For the past four years, London was an editor at Sunset Edit, and before that she spent five years at Bonch. She started her career as an assistant editor on the teen drama series "The O.C."

Downing Joins Biscuit, Knucklehead Signs Mankovsky and More

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