Uncommon is thrilled to announce the appointment of James Guy as its new Chief Production Officer. The hire marks a pivotal moment for the studio as its previous CPO Charlie Gatsky Sinclair becomes its first President of Brands and Entertainment. James will report directly into Charlie as well as working alongside Head of Production Goldie Robbens.

Charlie first joined Uncommon in January 2021, and has since built a team of experts across every discipline to support and execute some of the studio’s most ambitious work of late. Projects include the award-winning B&Q ‘Flip’ celebrated at D&AD, Cannes Lions and British Arrows for film craft and production design. As well as notable global campaigns for brands such as Beats by Dre, Pinterest, Formula E, Jordan and ITV.

As well as overseeing one of the biggest entertainment rebrands in history for EA SPORTS FC launching their new vision to the world in a star-studded live streamed event in Amsterdam earlier this year.

Prior to Uncommon, Charlie’s career spanned music, entertainment, film and broadcast with stints at Warner Music and Driift as well as achieving an award winning career across advertising working with the likes of Mother, Fallon and most notably leading production at BBH.

Charlie’s vision of blending line production, design, talent, art and motion has created a unique production model for Uncommon. An approach enabling the studio to flex and work in different ways — building a bespoke offering across every project to maximise the potential for brands and partners. Affording Uncommon growth into new and exciting capabilities across experiential, digital and long form entertainment. Technology has spearheaded projects such as WWF’s ‘Future of Nature’ — which used AI to imagine the bleak future of UK nature if it continues to be destroyed, and what is possible if we act now.

The model has also enabled co-production possibilities rarely utilised within the industry such as partnering with the UN and YouTube to create the moving documentary series ‘We Were Here’ bringing together refugees with top YouTube Creators to tell their powerful stories to millions around the world. This project was produced at Uncommon and exec’d by Alma Har’el through Lief.

Charlie has grown the studio’s presence in the world of entertainment — exec producing Uncommon first feature production for Nick Cave and Warren Ellis — ‘This Much I Know to Be True’ directed by Andrew Dominik (Netflix Blonde, The Assassination of Jesse James). The film premiered at Berlinale and SXSW and achieved critical acclaim including The Guardian’s Film of the Week as well as being listed in NME’s top films of last year.

Most recently she has been behind the studio’s second feature ‘In Camera’ — alongside partners PRETTYBIRD, BBC Films, BFI, Public Dreams Ltd. — recently shortlisted at London Film Festival and British Independent Film Awards.

Charlie Gatsky Sinclair, President of Brands & Entertainment at Uncommon said: “James has long been associated with the best of the creative output the UK has seen to date. We are honoured to have him join the team at this pivotal time of the studio’s growth. The excellence in both output and talent development will continue to flourish under his and Goldie’s leadership.”

James Guy, Chief Production Officer at Uncommon added: “Uncommon is one of the few places in the market currently that not only offers a varied output but is actually managing to push it through. Building on this way of working, I look forward to leveraging the production department to be an essential partner for creatives to continue to make more interesting work.

As it embarks on its new chapter and expansion to the US, it is even more vital to have a production department that pushes for (and understands how to) do things differently, with the rigour and craft Uncommon have come to expect. Very exciting times ahead.”

MORE ABOUT JAMES GUY

With a distinguished 20-year career, James brings a wealth of experience and a proven track record in producing iconic campaigns for globally recognised brands. James’s most significant impact so far where he built his career was during his 15 year tenure at Wieden + Kennedy London. During his final 5 years at W+K, he held the position of Head of Integrated Production, where he was directly responsible for all output, leading some of the agency’s most memorable campaigns including Nike Londoner as well as work for the likes of Honda, Three, Lurpak, and Coca Cola.

In 2022, James took a step away from agency life to help set up and serve as the Executive Producer for Art Practice, a makers studio founded by acclaimed photographer Dan Tobin-Smith, Mike Skrgatic and James Allen, founders of Time Based Arts.

It was during this stint at Art Practice that James was instrumental in setting up the partnership between AP and Love Song, via his long time agency relationship with director Daniel Wolfe (Love Song’s founder and Director.) In the time spent working together this collaboration between companies resulted in 3 of the most notable pieces of work the industry has produced in the last few years; C4 masterbrand Idents, the EE Rebrand and Camille Summers-Valli’s music video for Mette.