Biography
Thom Fennessey is a multiple award-winning Producer whose career has traversed many mediums in entertainment. He has worked with some of the finest directors and artists in the business to create memorable entertainment.
Thom began his career in Los Angeles as an assistant to Julia Phillips, the Oscar winning Producer of "THE STING" "TAXI DRIVER", and "CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND". She then wrote the best selling book "You'll Never Eat Lunch in this Town Again", and she didn't, so he left.
At 23, He became a production Coordinator on low-budget films for Genesis Entertainment, as well as a sales coordinator, bringing him to the Cannes Film Festival numerous times, negotiating foreign film sales.
Thom was hired by Bob Giraldi, the award-winning director of television commercials and music videos, to work as his Production Manager. During the four years they worked together, Thom took on a number of responsibilities in production, which allowed him to shoot in locations all over the world. He started producing for Giraldi at the age of 27.
An opportunity arose to become a part of a team at Sony Pictures Imageworks, as a Visual Effects producer. The field of CGI at the time was a new frontier, and the project "WINGS OF COURAGE" was the first narrative 3-D IMAX film for Sony Pictures, Directed by Oscar winner Jean Jacques Annaud.
This led to a visual-effects laden Music video for Sony Recording Artist MICHAEL JACKSON, and a globally shot video for the track "Earth Song" from Mr. Jackson's'History' Album. As Line Producer, Thom was responsible for all foreign locations shot, which took place in Tanzania, Croatia (during the war), and the Amazon Jungles of Brazil.
Before opening Collaboration Factory, Thom worked as a freelance producer of commercials for The Gap, (directed by Michel Gondry) Mercedes Benz, American Express, and AT&T and many others. As part of the freelance world, he also worked for NBC studios for 6 years, as producer for On-Air promotional launches, winning a Promax and Chicago Film Festival award for his Busby Berkeley inspired launch of the Jenny McCarthy show.
Thom has produced Music videos and concert broadcast media for artists such as Creed, Foo Fighters, Chemical Brothers, Rage Against the Machine, Lifehouse, OKGO, Shinedown, and Smashmouth . (A large scale broadcast concert tour special for Avril Lavigne, inspired the opening of his own company, Collaboration Factory.)
Thom Line Produced a 13 Episode travel documentary Called "Sail Away" for the Discovery Channel.
Since 2005, Thom Fennessey has been the Owner and Executive Producer of Collaboration Factory, a film, television, and music video production company, which has created award winning music videos for recording artists as diverse as Katy Perry, Elton John, Selena Gomez, Emeli Sande, David Cook, James Blunt, Foo Fighters, Creed, Alicia Keys, Shinedown, Finger Eleven, Joss Stone, OKGO, R. Kelly, The Fray, and India Arie among others.
Collaboration Factory has also created broadcast television specials for Christina Aguilera(MTV), and Dave Koz, featuring Barry Manilow, Anita Baker and Johnny Mathis (PBS).
Thom produced a two-minute musical dance extravaganza for the 2011 Super Bowl for Chevrolet, featuring the cast of GLEE, with 60 dancers and acrobats, singing Dinah Shore's classic "See it in the USA". Hand picked to produce the commercial by the Executive Producer of Glee, Thom was thrilled when it was named one of the best commercials of 2011 by The New York Times and AdWeek.
In 2008 Thom was asked to produce a capital campaign documentary for Stanford University, filming all media for the Undergraduate Education Program, The media event helped surpass their alumni fund-raising goals by 4.3 Billion dollars.
Thom has also produced Jason' Gould's film "INSIDE OUT" which debuted at Sundance and was released by Strand Releasing; Annie DeSalvo's "WOMEN WITHOUT IMPLANTS" which premiered on Lifetime Channel; "NOW AND NOWHERE", by Jesse Atlas and Brent Bonacorso, and "WEST OF THE MOON", Directed by Brent Bonacorso, which won awards for Best Short Film at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, The Carmel Art and Film Festival, and the London Soho Rushes Film Festival, The Aspen Shorts Film Festival, and the Florida Film Festival. It premiered on television on the HD Shorts International Channel and PBS.
Thom Executive Produced Jesse Atlas' short film "RECORD / PLAY" which had its premiere at the 2012 LA Film Festival in June, and has won 5 awards at various festivals around the country as of September 2013. It was invited to screen at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. At the end of 2013 the film was shortlisted for the 2014 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film, though ultimately it didn't receive a nomination.
The success of a dance documentary entitled 'Movement One', directed by Jesse Atlas, featuring the work of Emmy nominated choreographer Teddy Forance and a cast of 23 exceptional dancers, has led to a new narrative dance film, entitled "KINESTHESIA", featuring the Emmy nominated Choreographers Travis Wall, Nick Lazzarini, Teddy Forance and Kyle Robinson which is now on the Festival circuit.
Early 2015 launched with spectacular success, as HBO's groundbreaking documentary series "THE JINX: THE LIVES AND DEATHS OF ROBERT DURST" won huge acclaim and ratings. Thom was the Los Angeles line producer for the initial interview with Bob Durst, and Collaboration Factory provided production services for the L.A. shoot.
