SXSW will be enhanced by the presence of Chicago pros

A MCGARRYBOWEN CONTINGENT and Comma Music’s Managing Director Bonny Dolan are heading for SXSW for a Thursday, March 17 panel called “Inside Out: How Did This Song Get into That commercial.” Dolan shares the stage with the agency’s ECD Michael Straznickas, CD/writer Dave Reger, music producer Brandy Ricker and Steve Ross, director of content production.

They will examine the rebranding of mayonnaise-alternative Miracle Whip, openly discussing the edgy campaign that featured the song “The Devil Takes Care of His Own” by the British band, Band of Skulls. At the Austin Convention Center, 2-3 p.m.

ALSO AT SXSW: ERIN SAROFSKY, president/CEO of Sarofsky, the West Loop design-driven company, is serving on SXSW’s Title Sequence Design Jury. She is the only Chicagoan on the dozen juries consisting of three judges each.

Sarofsky is joined on the design panel by filmmaker / graphic designer Henry Hobson and Emmy-winning filmmaker Dan Brown of production / design company Curiosity Shoppe.

 WOMEN IN FILM CHICAGO’S March 15 Editors’ Roundtable, “Post-Production for Commercials and Advertising: What You Need to Know,” is being hosted by creative editorial Cerise Films’ editor Gail Gilbert and producer Nancy Reid. 

Special guests are editors Kathryn Hemple of Cutters, the 2016 WIF Focus Awards honoree, and Katie Wroble of Optimus.

At Cerise Films, 213 W. Institute Place, 6:30-9 p.m. Free to members, $10, non-members.  To reserve a seat, Email oriana@wifchicago.org.

CIMMFEST, OUR ANSWER TO SXSW, will again host CIMMcon, a two-day conference with presentations from top industry professionals, film icons, artist entrepreneurs and music makers, April 16-17 in venues along Milwaukee Avenue in Logan Square.

CIMMcon is presented in conjunction with music industry incubator 2112 and film incubator Stage 18 and gives attendees unparalleled access to the people who create and market the business of making music and movies. Not quite a film market yet, but getting closer.

CIMMcon host is Martin Atkins, veteran of punk and industrial bands Public Image Ltd. and Killing Joke.

IN A MEDIA CONSOLIDATION, new Publicis Media will combine its six global agency brands – Starcom, MediaVest, Spark, Zenith, Optimedia and Blue 449 — into four global agency brands. Starcom and Zenith will each continue to operate as global agency brands. MediaVest/Spark will be a third large global agency brand and Optimedia/Blue 449 will form a global challenger brand.

POLITICAL SPOTS have been bombarding the airways.  But the only such locally-produced commercial we’ve heard about is the spot Jerry Vasilatos did for Ald. Bob Fioretti’s Senate run against Patricia Van Pelt in the 5th district. It’s airing on Comcast. 

WHAT’S NEW. A new optics room has been added to the services of Daufenbach Cameras. It’s a lens projection room with a state-of-the-art Gecko optics projector.

Chicago Film Archives has a new Kinettta Archival Film Scanner, thanks to the underwriting support of the DEW Foundation and the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation. Conceived and built by Chicago filmmaker Jeff Kreines, the scanner enables CFA to create images with up to 4K resolution to exhibit on super wide screens.

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