Fancy Content, Executive Producer Robert Wherry’s new production company, may
have a name with flourishes, but its approach to the business is as straight as
an arrow.
The L.A.-based company (www.fancycontent.tv) opens with a roster that includes John Mastromonaco, the directing team known as Rad-Ish, the comedy expert Alex Grossman and the British director Rob Sanders. In making the move, Mastromonaco has shuttered Argyle Films, his long-running production company home. Rad-Ish joins from Assembly Films – where they worked with Wherry prior to his launching Fancy – while Grossman joins from HeLo. Sanders also joins Fancy from Argyle.
To view the directors’ work, click here.
Wherry comes to Fancy Content from the
aforementioned Assembly, where he was Partner and Executive Producer. Prior to that he was Partner & EP at Go
Film, which he co-founded in 2000 and left in 2010. In launching Fancy, Wherry has relocated to
the West Coast. He’s also establishing new relationships with talents like Mastromonico,
Grossman and Sanders, while reuniting with the Rad-Ish team. Comprised of Austrians Moritz Friedel and
Christoph Chrudimak, Wherry introduced Rad-Ish to the US when he flew to
Austria to recruit them for Go Film.
Being part of this new endeavor has
energized Mastromonaco, a veteran filmmaker who started his career in his
native Canada and is known for his work with comedy and dialogue scripts. “Robert’s
got a great track record as an EP, and more importantly, he’s got a genuine
passion for our business that you don’t see that often these days,” the
director says. “As a production company
owner, you need to know how to manage careers, build long-term relationships
and stay relevant in a fast-changing business. And he’s got all of these
skills.”
Wherry says the mantra at Fancy
Content is to support creativity, content and clients. “We honestly believe in
the power of creativity to connect with audiences, move hearts and blow minds,”
he notes. “Our goal is to help brands tell their stories and produce
advertising that’s compelling and effective, and we approach this task with the
utmost respect for the agencies and clients we’re collaborating with and the
directors, producers, artists and craftspeople we’re teaming with.”
Born in Bermuda, Wherry attended the
University of Tennessee before moving to New York City to pursue a career in
front of the camera. He appeared in
numerous daytime dramas (better known as soap operas) and TV commercials before
moving into production, starting at the legendary UK and US-based production
company BFCS. He later joined HKM and then co-founded Go Films.
During his years at GO he worked on a
wide range of award-winning ad campaigns, culminating in the shop’s work on the
2008 launch of the explosive videogame title Halo 3. The campaign they produced
won the Grand Prix at Cannes, along with winning honors from Clio, the AICP
Show, D&AD and The One Show.
Over the years Wherry has teamed with a number of directors who’ve gone on to become well-known and lauded in the industry. The list includes talents like Mike Mills, Noam Murro, Roman Coppola, Simon McQuoid, Allan Van Rijn, Bob Brooks, Andrew Douglas, and Ivan Zacharias. “You know you’ve done a good job as an EP when the directors with whom you’ve worked are more famous than you are,” Wherry quips.
This kind of behind-the-scenes success
is not lost on someone like Mastromonaco. “A lot of EPs see their job as crunching numbers and making budgets
work, but Robert’s approach is more strategic,” he says. “It’s not just about
getting his directors work, but it extends to every aspect of the relationship
with the agency and the client, from the treatments to the calls all the way
through production. At each point along the way, Robert remains a consistently
positive guy who’s a pleasure to be around. I find his passion contagious.”
Fancy Content is represented on the East Coast by Jared Shapiro of Moustache, in the Midwest by Gay Guthrey of Gay Guthrey & Associates and on the West Coast by Jeanie DiMaggio of DiMAGGIO.