A Mighty Big Launch

Blair Stribley, owner of Backyard, is pleased to announce the opening of Mighty Film.

Press Release from Mighty Film

Blair Stribley, owner of Backyard, is pleased to announce the opening of Mighty Film. Mighty will be a creative production home for filmmakers, writers and artists who work across a variety of media, including TV commercials and digital content. Mighty intends to be a powerful creative partner to its advertising and media clients.

Partnering with Stribley is Optimus President Tom Duff and his Optimus partners (Chicago and Santa Monica). The two companies will remain completely autonomous. Says Duff, "This is the perfect partnership because Mighty will operate independently, but will be able to utilize Optimus' post production assets to deliver a soup-to-nuts production experience when those opportunities arise. Blair and I have been friends for years, and we've collaborated on dozens of projects. We both felt the timing for offering this was ideal."

Stribley's vision for Mighty was born out of the changing world of advertising, and the need to provide a broad range of services. "Mighty will allow us to grow in a different creative direction and bring new filmmakers into the fold," says Stribley. "The core of Mighty's business will be TV commercials, but we will be fully integrated to create and produce for any medium. We've had incredible success with Backyard over the years, and we will continue to grow and evolve Backyard, but I'm also very excited to be building a new creative company." The Backyard brand continues to operate, retaining key current talent as they prepare for some highly anticipated changes on the horizon.

The Mighty roster will consist of directors Rob Sanders, Phil Brown, Rob Pritts and Jesper Ericstam and will gradually expand the roster while maintaining an intimate creative management approach to its work. Also joining Mighty are Executive Producers Kris Mathur and Eric Bonniot, and head of Production Cori Cooperider. The sales team includes The Family: Chris Zander, Diane Patrone, and Anna Rotholz (East Coast), Them Reps: Jimmy Waldron and Wendy Morrow (Midwest), and Brad Grubaugh and Mark Andrews (West Coast).

At launch, Mighty is already in production on a major automotive campaign with director Rob Sanders.