Utopic has signed director of finishing Christopher Elliott to the Chicago-based post production/digital media company's roster of multi-disciplined talent. Elliott joins Utopic after a ten-year stint as Red Car/Chicago's director of finishing. Prior to that position he was on the staff at Optimus, where he worked with Tim Kloehn, Utopic's co-owner and editor.
Christopher Elliott, Utopic's new Director of Finishing
Elliott's move to Utopic also reunites him with fellow Red Car alumni, Kevin O'Rouke, Utopics motion graphics designer, who came onboard in June. Kevin is a two-time AICE nominee for Best Motion Graphics Design.
I'm very excited to be reunited with Chris. He's an innovative talent who brings both creative and technical ingenuity to the craft of finishing - and is an invaluable addition to our team, says Kloehn. Utopic has evolved into a hybrid post production and digital media company with seamless cross-platform capabilities, and we're still in growth mode. The signing of top-caliber talent like Chris is key to taking our company to the next level.
Christopher Elliott's credits include a long list of national spots, such as McDonald's Super Bowl 2013 spot, All American https://vimeo.com/77644652 and McDonald's Mighty Wings Play Offs, https://vimeo.com/77645214 - both directed by Joe Pytka, as well as Reeses Puffs Ultimate Sessions,and Miller Light See and Say, https://vimeo.com/77644653 and Dating.
In addition to working on a prestigious roster of commercials, Elliott has lent his talent to a number of short films and documentaries, including, NEA Big Read Series directed by Larry Bridges. Also, he edited the animated short Stubble Trouble for Calabash Animation, which earned an Oscar nod in Best Animated Short Category in 2001.
As the director of finishing I enjoy working closely with the editor and agency creatives early in the creative process, says Elliott. I really thrive on the challenge of finding those opportunities to plus every scene and exploring new ideas throughout the finishing process. My favorite days are when the room is flowing with creative energy - and I know that the final commercial has exceeded a client's highest expectations.
Christopher Elliott first discovered his passion for storytelling early in life. He started editing music videos for a local video production company while he was still in high school, and was a professional editor before he could drive. His early work experience also includes cutting local commercials and on-air promotion for PBS station WSIU. While at WSIU.
A graduate of Southern Illinois University, Elliott earned his degree in Mass Communications and Fine Arts with a minor in Marketing. The River to River Run, a documentary directed and edited by Elliott, was honored by The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences College Awards for Best Documentary.'
He got his start at Optimus in 1993, working in the library, and quickly moved up to assistant editor. Elliott was promoted to on-line editor in 1997, and went on to cut a number of high-profile national sports teasers for NBC, CBS, and FOX, while finishing national spots for clients such as, Anheuser-Busch, Nintendo, and Wrigley Gum. He made the moved to Red Car in 2003 as online editor, finishing national campaign for a diverse mix of clients that included Miller/Coors, McDonald's and Jeep. In 2010 Red Car promoted him to director of finishing.
Its great to walk into a company where I have established relationships with so many people, says Elliott. I'm excited to be part of such a forward thinking company and accomplished, collaborative team of talent.
Utopic is committed to creating an open-architecture creative environment where top-caliber talent can work as a collaborative team to create visually compelling spots that engage audiences and connect them to brands - across multiple platforms, says Utopic president, Jan Maitland. Christopher Elliot is a master at providing innovate, creative solutions that push the boundaries, and set his work apart from the crowd - and that's what Utopic is all about.
With the addition of Elliott and recent signing of O'Rouke, Utopic continues to vet new talent that will further elevate its work and expand its capabilities as an integrated post production/digital company.
About Utopic:
Utopic is an award-winning one-stop hybrid post production/digital company dedicated to providing agencies and brands with multi-platform integrated VFX, editorial, production, audio and interactive services. Its collaborative consortium of artists and producers offer a seamless approach to everything from traditional broadcast commercials and promos to complex interactive rich media, web content, mobile apps and virals. Utopic's mix of work includes broadcast spots and digital media content for clients such as Samsung, Kellogg's, McDonald's, Toyota, GM, NBC, Kraft, Shelterbox and Sears, to name a few.
###
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Utopic has signed director of finishing Christopher Elliott to the Chicago-based post production/digital media company's roster of multi-disciplined talent. Elliott joins Utopic after a ten-year stint as Red Car/Chicago's director of finishing. Prior to that position he was on the staff at Optimus, where he worked with Tim Kloehn, Utopic's co-owner and editor.
