Design and production studio Imaginary Forces has named Anita Olan to the position of exec producer/general manager of its New York office.
The move is a homecoming for Olan. One of the company's longest-tenured employees, she spent over a decade with IF, both in its Hollywood and New York offices. During this time she worked on every aspect of the company's business, from leading its production department and developing strategy and creative for major network rebranding efforts to producing innovative entertainment content for such clients as Animal Planet and Lexus.
Olan returns to IF after having spent two years working on a variety of freelance projects, including developing, directing, and producing a pilot for NBC and serving as Creative Director at Frame by Frame, a design and post-production company based in Rome, Italy. During this time she also led IF's creative and strategic development on five short films for Lexus' L Studio (
www.lstudio.lexus.com ).
Olan's mandate will be to help the New York office continue to grow and expand on its wide palette of work, as well as take a hands-on role in the development of new opportunities for its roster of directors, including Karin Fong, Mark Gardner, and Steve Fuller.
A native New Yorker, Olan graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, where she earned a Bachelor's Degree in Art History and Italian and a Master's in Comparative Literature. She joined IF in its production department in 1998 and worked her way up from Producer to Head of Production and Executive Producer. Her interests overlapped both the execution of the studio's work and the strategy and creative behind its rebranding and design projects, according to Houghton.
As IF's Hollywood-based Head of Production, she oversaw the studio's output across disciplines, including all of its commercial production for such brands as Honda and Nike, as well as its work in feature marketing, titles sequences, and network branding. During this time the studio worked on such films as MEN IN BLACK II, THE STEPFORD WIVES and THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, among others.
Olan also played a key strategic and production role in the studio's work for a number of media clients, leading the IF the team on its groundbreaking Lifetime rebranding projects in 2000 and 2006, as well as its USA Network "Characters Welcome" rebrand, which rolled out in 2005. Olan not only helped create the WHOA SUNDAY program for Animal Planet, but also supervised every aspect of its production, working from IF's New York offices.
