1. What are you working on today?
New business presentation and a top secret branding project.

2. What have you found is the best tool or innovation that has come out in the last year?
Twitter. Technically, it came out more than a year ago, but has fairly recently reached its tipping point in popularity ‘ so I am counting it for this year.

3. The project (film, television, commercial or music video) that most impressed you in the last year? Why?
The crazy new virals for Diesel (Pete the Meat Puppet, I want Your Hair, and Dance Party created by Farfar & Legs. They’re just so weird and disturbing and offbeat and I appreciate them on many different levels.
A) Diesel as a brand has the courage to put brand messaging like that out there.
B) Boutique creative shops like Legs are getting these kinds of opportunities.
C) As de-sensitized as I sometimes feel like I’ve become, there’s work out there that’s able to make me cringe and squirm.

4. The best or favorite project that you worked on in the past year? And why?
Brand consulting and content production of original online content for The Economist. It was exciting for me to help usher such an established brand in the print space into the online world where we’re walking that fine line between journalism and marketing. It’s been a year-plus long project with a lot of interesting challenges.

5. Name the top 4 artists on your iPod?
Elbow
Calexico
Mudcrutch
Laurie Berkner (for my 8-month-old daughter) – at least, these are the four who’ve been getting the most playtime…

Recent News
All Stand Up and Welcome Harold
Founded by Director/Producer Lee Scharfstein, creative development, creation and execution company harold group has officially launched in NYC. The boutique entity, comprised of four creative directors/directors, including Scharfstein, will act as both a creative services agency and production company, working in tandem with advertising agencies as well as direct to client.

“I surveyed the advertising landscape and saw a real need for a dynamic specialty firm,” noted Scharfstein. “Traditional as well as new media agencies often find a gap between their great ideas and the ability to creatively execute them. Harold’s passion for melding technologies to create multiplatform content will aid in making that vital connection with the target audience.”

Harold specializes in working closely with clients, shepherding projects from critical ideation all the way through the execution process. Because of harold’s nimble nature, the firm is able to work with clients and agencies on many different levels. A recent example of harold’s creative partnership abilities lie in the relationship it holds with the Economist (www.economist.com) as their sole brand consult and online content creation firm.

In order to provide fresh, creative campaigns, Scharfstein has assembled a varied cast of industry veterans and fresh new talent with a broad range of specialties and history of innovation. The team includes Telly Award-winner Marcel Lundberg, an experimental writer, producer and director whose work is heralded around several industries. His recent work has included projects as diverse as a celebration of 40 years of philanthropy for the Rockefeller Family Fund and a seven-minute product launch for prestigious luxury bath company Waterworks.

Up-and-coming filmmaker Zach Lipovsky earned his stripes as a contestant on Steven Spielberg’s On the Lot and winning Best Film at Vancouver’s Crazy8s film festival. While continuing to pursue Hollywood projects, he has applied his cinematic style and visual effects know-how to the commercial world, creating successful campaigns for K2r, French Loto, and McDonald’s.

Rounding out harold’s team is commercial and music video director Jamin Winans, a creative talent with several films to his credit, including widely distributed film festival-favorites 11:59 and Spin.

“The real challenge was in pulling together a team that could meet the diverse demands of our clients and produce quality, entertaining work.” Scharfstein commented. “I’m confident that this unique group will complement and inspire one another and help build harold into an industry mainstay.”

Harold has so far made inroads into an impressive cross section of the advertising industry, working on traditional commercials and long and short-form content for the web making innovative moves such as establishing partnerships with mobile phone ad content providers, and social networking marketers in the interest of integrating those platforms into the initial design of the marketing content – as opposed to them being an afterthought.

Zach Lipovsky
Zach Lipovsky has been creating award-winning content in the indie community for several years. He combines his acting and filmmaking experiences with his equally strong post-production skills to create visually stunning yet emotionally engaging films that reflect his diverse background. Recent accolades for his work include fifth place – out of 12,000 entries – on Steven Spielberg’s reality TV show On the Lot, during which he proved himself capable of performing on the biggest stages and showcased his unique flare for visual and creative storytelling. He also won Best Film at Vancouver’s prestigious Crazy8s film festival for his short Crazy Late.

Marcel Lundberg
Marcel Lundberg’s expertise and broad experience cover all aspects of production and post-production. By using the newest technologies to drastically streamline and reduce the overall impact of professional moving-image acquisition, Lundberg is actively reshaping popular expectations of video content. His recent documentary-style films – which he wrote, produced and directed for some of the nation’s leading institutions – have received three Telly Awards and tremendous critical praise. Aside from his work in the documentary genre, Lundberg creates “anti-corporate-style” films by shooting video as design, with each element holding a meaningful place informing the whole.


Lee Scharfstein
Lee Scharfstein is an accidental producer and director whose goal is to immerse himself in the world of content creation and learn as much as possible. This intense environment pushes Scharfstein to absorb everything in his surroundings and pour his knowledge into his work. Prior to settling in as a producer, Scharfstein, a native New Yorker, worked in a variety of producing and directing positions, methodically working his way up through this competitive industry.


Jamin Winans
Jamin Winans is a commercial and music video director who also generates fictional work. He is nearing completion on his upcoming feature film Ink, a modern pop sci-fi/fantasy about people who give dreams and nightmares. Winans’ film 11:59 – completed in 2005 – premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival. From there, the film continued its successful award-winning festival run and acquired worldwide distribution. While waiting for 11:59 to premier, Winans wrote, directed, edited and scored his smash-hit short film Spin, which has since played over 80 film festivals around the world, winning more than 40 awards. Winans wrote and directed a pair of critically acclaimed short films, Blanston and The Maze, through Double Edge Films – the film company he established to create original and independent work.