Apple Box Productions has some new blood in its Toronto, Vancouver and Edmonton offices to pump up its very healthy Canada-wide heart. The company has signed on one new director, welcomed back another, convinced a third to exclusive representation and added a sales rep in Toronto.

Of the directors, one is Canadian and two are American. The local boy is Toronto-based Istan Rozumny, who recently left Mad Films after three years.

‘I think the primary reason for my moving over to Apple Box is I thought it was time to shake things up,’ says Rozumny. ‘A change every once in a while is good. You work with different people with a different energy and a different way of doing business. It’s good to get a new breath of energy.’

ABP executive producer J.J. Lyons describes Rozumny as ‘an up-and-comer [who’s] got a great eye and a very beautiful reel that caught me right off. It’s very stylized, very fashiony.’

Rozumny, who is repped in Quebec by SWAT Films, says one of the key attractions of Apple Box is that the shop does a lot of business outside Toronto but still maintains a strong presence in Canada’s biggest market.

‘What I’m really hoping to do is explore the opportunities out in Vancouver and Edmonton and keep on working in Toronto,’ he says. ‘Going with Apple Box will give me the opportunity to work right across the country, from Vancouver to Quebec.’

Lyons admits ABP’s three offices are attractive to directors.

‘If I’m a director I want to be everywhere, in all three, four or five markets; it’s a real advantage,’ he says, adding ABP is considering opening a fourth office on the East Coast.

L.A.-based director Craig Worsham agrees. Worsham returns to the ABP Toronto roost after going out nine months ago. While he continued to work out of the Vancouver and Edmonton offices, Worsham explored other opportunities in the Toronto market. Now he says he’s happy to be back under one banner for the entire nation.

‘It’s nice to come back,’ says Worsham. ‘I’m also coming back to what almost feels like a different company. A lot of changes have been made in Toronto, for the better. I think it’ll be a good partnership.’

Worsham, who deals mostly in comedy spots, says he is looking forward to getting boards over the ABP fax machine in Toronto once again.

‘I [wish I] could be shooting every day,’ says Worsham, who is repped in the U.S. by Tantrum Films. ‘It’s not a money thing. I just love shooting.’

The third new talent on the ABP roster is Detroit-based director/cameraman Barry Meier. Executive producer Lyons says he has been a great admirer of Meier’s since the days the two worked together at Toronto’s Maxx Productions.

‘He is probably one of the foremost automotive directors in North America, with some really phenomenal work,’ says Lyons. ‘He’s a real gadget guy. He’s built his own car rigs and his own tripod heads. He has a great eye for cars and it really shows in his work.’

With the new additions, Lyons reflects on the expanding ABP roster and is pleased with what he is seeing.

‘It’s one thing to have a whole bunch of directors, but it’s another thing to have a good roster where you’ve got the comedy/dialogue directors, fashion, tabletop directors and others, as opposed to having a bunch of people on the shelf who just sit there,’ he says. ‘We can really go after all types of work with [these] great reels.’

In addition to its new directorial talent, ABP has also welcomed sales rep Cheryl Munroe to the Toronto office. Munroe comes to ABP from the agency side, having been an account executive/agency producer with Corporate Communications in Halifax. She also worked at the Calgary chapter of Ogilvy & Mather.

‘I wanted to get into production on the agency side, but the opportunity lies for me here to really learn about production,’ says Munroe. ‘I’m very passionate about it. That’s why I know I can sell it.’

In other ABP news, one of the shop’s foremost Canadian talents, director Mitch Gabourie, has signed a deal with New York’s Conspiracy for representation in the U.S. *

-www.appleboxproductions.com