John, O’Reilly start up new company

Copywriters Judy John and Michael O’Reilly, fresh from Gold and Bronze Lion wins respectively at this year’s Cannes International Advertising Awards show, have teamed up to form a new commercial production company called Guerrilla tv.

Both O’Reilly, who won a Bronze Lion for a psa for Cystic Fibrosis, and John will direct. John comes from Taxi, and O’Reilly was freelancing with Cossette Communication-Marketing. Executive producer, also from Cossette, is David Medlock.

Before joining Taxi, John drew a lot of attention to herself in Toronto under the name Two Cities Advertising, when she won a packet of awards for a series of low-budget commercials promoting the Lovecraft store.

Her new production company will position itself as a creative resource dealing directly with clients.

Parting Partners’

executive producer Sarah Ker-Hornell is leaving the The Partners’ Film Company after four years with the company to join LTB Productions. Ker-Hornell will be an executive producer at ltb with responsibilities for the Canadian market.

Her move is effective Oct. 1.

Revolving doors

Revolver staff are firing off in new directions as the mostly music video house sets up in a new deal with commercial producer Stripes.

As of Oct. 1, Revolver will stop commercial production and become a music-only production company run by Stripes’ Ross McLean and John Smythe. The new company will operate out of Stripes’ and Partners’ Ontario Street building.

At the same time, Revolver’s Don Allan will join the Partners’ roster as a director while Revolver directors Curtis Wehrfritz and Floria Sigismondi are hanging their own sign with Stripes’ Albert Botha.

According to Allan, Revolver went looking for some production depth. Thus the move to Stripes, which will benefit from some additions to the creative roster, he says.

Revolver’s move has no effect on operations at TOPIX Computer Graphics and Animation, currently housed in the same Queen Street West building. topix will take over all three floors currently used by both companies and turn it into a graphic design center, according to topix’s Chris Wallace. topix is planning on moving a motion-capture studio in-house, the first of its kind in Toronto. (Motion-capture uses motion sensors to capture 3D co-ordinates of live-action movements for application in computer-generated models.)

The Steve Chase

It appears as though the estimable Steve Chase is heading to Partners’. Word has it that the latterly Otherworld director and helmsman of the much-talked-about Bank of Montreal ‘It is possible’ campaign, will be setting up with Partners’ here.

One story has it that executive producer Peter Davis will be moving over from The Directors Film Company to join Chase in a new satellite operation.

No word on a name yet, but it seems more than likely that the Chase name will appear on the shingle.

New from Labatt

While much attention is focused on the jockeying around of Molson Breweries among its existing agencies and several new suitors, rival Labatt is said to be going ahead with a new pool of commercials.

This will be the second flight from Labatt’s new agency, Ammirati and Puris.

The agency’s first attempt at reinventing beer advertising, launched this spring, met with somewhat indifferent response from the agency community and puzzlement in some circles of the production industry over a&p’s decision to use such American directors as Mark Chiat, Peter Smillie and Pam Thomas.

Well, this time around, it’s apparently an all-Canadian show. Partners’ Dale Heslip is said to have picked up the Blue brand assignment, and directors Rob Quartly and David Wellington have been given the nod, it seems, on Blue Light and Genuine Draft.

Speaking of MacLaren

Maclaren:Lintas, the major Molson incumbent which is fighting to protect its Canadian brand, got a shot in the creative arm with the arrival of Lesley Parrott.

After heading broadcast production at J. Walter Thompson for more than a decade, Parrott, who presided over the department during a run of great commercials such as the Diet Pepsi ‘Taste Above All’ campaign, rejoins MacLaren to run broadcast, as well as administration of the agency’s creative department.

Parrott takes over from Nicole Tardif, who has departed.

Parrott’s move out of jwt comes as little surprise after her close associate there, creative director Marlene Hore, left to BrainStorm with one-time McKimmer Ron Telpner at the Toronto office of bcp.

This is actually a reunification between Parrott and the newly installed MacLaren president and creative conscience, Peter Lanyon. The two met in the early 1980s at MacLaren and worked together at the Glouster Group, a creative spin-off formed under the creative stewardship of Dennis Bruce and Marty Myers.

Meanwhile, back at jwt, broadcast production will be headed by Nansi Thomas, who is stepping in to fill Parrott’s role.

Thomas and Parrott are doing a kind of agency shuffle. Thomas was with MacLaren for about eight years before joining jwt in 1988. At MacLaren, she had a hand in two of the agency’s biggest commercial productions, the trend-setting Molson Canadian pool directed by Bruce Dowad, ‘Dancin’ in the Street’ and ‘Sea Cruise,’ and the Imperial Oil ‘Esso No Trouble’ campaign.

Thomas’ official title is director of broadcast services.