NEW YORK — Photoplay (http://photoplaynyc.com), a production outfit headquartered in Sydney, Australia, with offices in Auckland, New Zealand too, has entered into the United States’ commercial market by opening a New York office. The company was opened in 2009 by a trio of pros that have a background in advertising, film, TV and design. Their launch concept was to work in any medium, whether it's TV, the Internet, film or mobile devices.
Here in the US, Photoplay is able to gain traction through the acquisition of Razr, the young experiential production start-up launched a year ago by Mitchel Elsen. Elsen (pictured) will stay on board through the acquisition and will evolve into the company’s managing director, overseeing all North American activities.
“We’ve been talking for a while now about how to best work together, and the acquisition just felt right,” remarks Elsen. “They’re great people and we have the same vision and ambition. As a global company, I’m confident we’ll be have an even larger creative impact.”
Oliver Lawrance, co-founder and MD of Photoplay in Sydney, adds, “It’s the perfect match and we’re ready. We’ve been producing top-quality work for the past five years in the Asia Pacific markets, and we feel confident our talent can successfully transition into highly competitive markets like the US.”
The company will launch their US office with heavy sales capacity on both coasts and the Midwest. Sara Barnthouse, currently based in San Francisco, will continue to handle West Coast sales together with Lisa Gimenez in Los Angeles, while James Deloye will cover the Midwest market out of Chicago. Dana Dubay will take on all East Coast sales duties together with Daryl Devlin of Bernstein & Andriulli, who will specifically focus on Photoplay’s digital and experiential efforts.