Crossroads Films has created a new division entitled Merge@Crossroads, acting as the music video house for all Crossroads companies in addition to incorporating new media and design.

Joseph Uliano will head the division, formerly exec producer and partner of Crash Films where he created its music video division. Previously, Uliano was owner and exec producer of One World Productions in LA and London, also focused on producing music videos.

"I decided to come to Crossroads because they have so many divisions," explains Uliano. "Over the past year or so I had been receiving offers from various companies when Cami Taylor [a partner in Crossroads] came in at the last moment. Basically, I was ready to work once I met with her because I was so impressed with the Crossroads environment."

Merge will focus on developing a roster of directors and designers to create a division comprising of individuals experienced in art, advertising, music, fine art, filmmaking and digital media production.

"Crossroads already has Safe, a new media and design company in New York (see Boards Online - Issue 127), but in terms of Merge it's the coming together of art, advertising and music," says Uliano. "Bill Barminski and Sean Watson are two designers that we have who are respected and known in both the fine arts and Internet worlds."

"Crossroads already has people that have a technology background, able to work in a lot of different areas," continues Uliano. "Individuals here are not simply commercial or music video directors. Sean [Watson] came from Disney's promotions department, so now he's capable of going over and creating promotions for, say, Fox or ABC. Crossroads has an infrastructure in place to facilitate such talents and this is one of the main reasons that I came here."

Merge@Crossroads has hit the ground running with director Nancy Bardawil currently shooting Bon Jovi's latest music video "One Wild Night" before their One Wild Night 2001 world tour while Jeff Gordon, who had previously only shot music videos, booked three commercials last week. As Uliano puts it, "the conscientiousness of the sales force here proved that we made the right move. Not being a corporate structure and being privately owned makes Crossroads so much more accessible for us, and so much easier to get things accomplished."

The present roster of directors at merge consists of Nancy Bardawil, Bill Barminski, Betsy Blakemore, Jeff Gordon, Sean Watson and Ruben Whitmore II who followed Uliano from Crash; Jeff Richter joins from Earthquake Productions in LA, while Jesse Peretz, Francine McDougall and Russell Bates, Risa Mickenberg and Ron Cicero also join the Merge roster.

The roster of directors will also focus on commercials at X-ray while focusing on music videos through Merge.