voyager production company

Brandon Kapelow

Brent foster, caitlyn greene, charles frank, chrris lowe, christopher nataanii cegielski, marcus tortorici.

The Good Life - Kia

The future of learning - multiverse, 75 years - dick's sporting goods, become the best you - ang, share something real - meta, in this together, clinical compassion - msk, voyager is a production company purpose-built to support filmmakers  .

Like the space program we’re named after, Voyager is the vessel by which we explore and expand the boundaries of commissioned storytelling. We produce films ranging from broadcast commercials and branded content to original documentaries and narratives. Our mission is to connect the dots.

"75 Years" by dir. Charles Frank

Charles Frank's latest for DICK'S Sporting Goods 75 year anniversary campaign is live!

Share Something Real

Dir. Brandon Kapelow's heartwarming new spot for Meta is live!

"Unearthed" by dir. David Terry Fine

...lands on Scientific American home page

No One Left Behind

Dir. Brent Foster's latest for CAMH

"God's Time"

Official Trailer Now Live!

Run Without Rules

"In Tandem" lands Vimeo Staff Pick

Directed by Charles Frank & Chrris Lowe

The Home Depot

Knock Knock

Time Magazine

Dir. Brandon Kapelow's photojournalism feature

The Diamond

wins big at Camden International Film Fest

Rule Your Day

Voyager signs new versatile comedy, lifestyle and visual storytelling director

"SWNB" wins Audience Award

at Salem Film Fest 2020

TRANSMISSIONS

Dream Teams: Kindred Spirits Andrew Hutcheson and Charles Frank on an 8-Year Production Voyage

Celebrating their eighth anniversary this year are executive producer Andrew Hutcheson and director Charles Frank [left and right above, respectively], who co-founded the Brooklyn-based production company Voyager in 2015. With the best part of a decade spent collaborating as creative partners and building a roster of talent that reflects their shared ambitions, the pair sat down with LBB’s Ben Conway to discuss their joint voyage so far.

Long before Voyager was being recognised at Tribeca and other prestigious festivals for its documentary and narrative features, and garnering awards from the likes of the CLIOs, D&AD and One Screen for work with adidas, McDonald’s and more, Andrew and Charles met on Andrew’s senior thesis film at college. A “wide-eyed high school kid with a pretty decent DSLR kit”, Andrew describes his first impressions of the younger Charles - who he had hired to film the behind-the-scenes for the project - as that of amazement.

“He sat me down to watch his high school work and I was just stunned,” he says. “It was raw and had all the trappings of a one-person-band production, but I saw something in there that was lacking from many of my peers: a unique combination of passion and innate skill. I was impressed and, to be honest, a little intimidated that here I was completing film school with this ‘large’ production, and this high school kid had more of a voice to his work than anything I’d made to date.”

Charles says he was equally “in awe” as he witnessed his soon-to-be partner pull together his entire hometown, housing and feeding an army of filmmakers in rural New Jersey. One overnight shoot even saw the local fire department show up to wet down a stretch of road to enhance the moonlight. “I was like, ‘Who the hell is this guy and how did he pull this all off?’. He's the kind of person you want in your corner. When he's around, it feels like anything is possible, no matter how crazy it may sound.”

Soon after this initial meeting, Andrew realised that his true passion in filmmaking lay not in directing but in problem solving, and offered to produce a film for Charles. The film was a labour of love and did modestly well at festivals but, more importantly, set Andrew on the producer career path and brought the pair closer together as a duo. 

“Once Andrew and I believe in an idea, a person, or pursuit, we go all out,” says Charles. “He’s one of the best creative problem-solvers I know. He can operate 20 steps ahead while also considering every imaginable roadblock and solution. He makes everything seem possible if you just chip away at it one well-considered step at a time.”

Their commercial debut for Hasbro then followed, kickstarting their careers in adland and prompting the formation of Voyager.

Motivated simply by the desire to sustainably make films they believed in - without straining friendships and family ties with countless Kickstarters and maxed-out credit cards - the pair turned to commercial work to help bring their production company dream to life. Both a “wonderful sandbox” to hone their skills in and a means to fund passion projects, the pair initially started - but failed - to take the advertising scene of Boston by storm. Seeing that their “top-notch crew” invariably came out of LA and New York, they wisely hit the reset button and birthed Voyager - this time in Brooklyn.

In the wild west of early branded content, Andrew says they “eked out a foothold” in that space - all while avoiding the rapidly expanding, “rat-race” start-up culture that was rampant at the time. “Voyager has always been founded on holistic growth, never wanting to outpace our quality control or our ability to make meaningful work that we care about, with people we respect, in a way that’s sustainable for all of us.” He adds, “We continue to help remind each other of that tenet and, more than anything, it’s helped to keep everything in perspective.” 

Historically independent “self-starters”, their teamwork on this journey revealed the importance of community to both men, who embraced this new-found sense of belonging as a two-piece. “He brought me into his world, his dream of building something bigger than himself, and I immediately knew I wanted to be a part of it,” says Charles. “I am still so grateful that he let me in and was open to my ideas as to how we could rebrand, team up and start something new together. I think in many ways, we offered each other the last missing link we both needed to get to where we are today.”

Having both grown up with a wealth of positive self-made role models, they both had - and still have - a desire to succeed on their own terms. In the early years, this caused a natural friction that propelled them out of their comfort zones - but after finding themselves in a creative “funk” around 2013, Andrew says that their partnership and the subsequent creation of Voyager became an unignorable pathway to shared success.

Above: Charles and Andrew in 2013

“At the time, I couldn’t internalise it more than the idea of: ‘I just want to work with this person’, but looking back on it 10 years later, I think it was me recognising I’d found a kindred spirit. We’re very different people but where it counts, we’re the same. We’re both very driven and naturally independent, and yet we’re drawn to wanting to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.”

In Voyager’s honeymoon period, the duo learned that building a company is “much like a marriage”, sharing how they had to develop healthy communication and a foundation of trust to progress. “There's so much value in the way that we process and see roadblocks differently,” says Charles. “We now often joke that it's like a two-step verification process when we run problems and solutions by each other. In some instances, we can now even pause and think about problems through each other's eyes, which is a beautiful and extremely valuable thing.”

Andrew agrees, saying that adapting to everyone’s unique approach to work and communication is what fosters a successful collaboration. Reinforcing that the ‘who he’s working with’ is more important than the ‘what he’s working on’, he adds, “The best ideas can come from the most unlikely places if you’re only willing to get out of your own way and listen.” 

After building Voyager with the idea that commercials would support their filmmaking ambitions, Charles says it’s “a big win” when they find space to produce an original film they’re passionate about.

“I know Andrew feels the same whenever I get to direct original films,” he says. “He produced a narrative feature called ‘God's Time’ which was recently acquired by IFC and he's now producing a very exciting documentary feature that I can't yet share much about - but it's super cool! I'm working on one right now that Andrew has worked tirelessly to set up and protect. It's indirect, but it always makes me feel proud that our collaboration with the company has led to something sustainable and freeing.”

Above: Trailer for 'God's Time' 

Occasionally, client work and passion projects can be one and the same - a philosophy that Charles in particular has explored. One such project that Andrew is particularly proud of is ‘Junk Mail’, a film for the colour-processing equipment company X-Rite. “When it launched, the film received millions of views, got written up all over the internet and the client had a working example of how their tool was used with interviews to back it up.” He continues, “It was incredibly rewarding at such an early stage of our careers to work with a client who believed in us so wholeheartedly and I feel like I'm constantly trying to recapture that feeling with every job we take on.”

More recent work that captures this spark includes a unique production made with the Autism Society which involved keeping the crew, client and agency a quarter mile away from the set to adapt to their protagonist - a young man with nonverbal autism. “We spent time with our main subject prior to production, just hanging out without cameras so that when the shoot day came around, he was only ever seeing familiar faces,” says Charles. “It was a tricky production in many ways but it was so gratifying to work on this idea and see it through, knowing we were doing what was best for the people on screen.”

Another recent challenging commercial project saw the team’s budget and scope reduced just before filming. However, Andrew explains that they “found a way to keep the initial soul of the spot intact” by going to their documentary roots, making the community a key character in the film, and scaling back to a skeleton crew to buy themselves an extra shoot day. “That allowed us to get those magic moments that occur when people forget the camera is there and just be themselves.”

Above: 'Junk Mail' documentary short

Now living in different states, it can be more difficult to find time for the co-founders to socialise outside of work, but Andrew says “it’s just like old times” when they’re able to. “Whenever we're in the same city,” adds Charles, “we have to find the best sushi spot and enjoy an omakase together (complete with a sake pairing). One time the tuna from Shiro's in Seattle was so good that we cried.”

Over the years, the pair have shared many memorable moments such as this - not just as colleagues and creative partners, but as close friends. After taking up running as a hobby around the same time, the pair have experienced some “gorgeous runs together”, says Andrew, sharing that it’s one hobby they can find communion in even when geographically separated. “There have been some great sojourns out to Martha’s Vineyard [an island in Massachusetts] in the offseason over the years, a memorable week spent hiking in the Grand Canyon, and plenty of times seeking thrills watching horror movie after horror movie.”

For the producer half of the duo, the biggest lesson learnt along the way has been “the importance of empathy”, and learning to overcome obstacles instead of believing in their infallibility. Meanwhile, Charles looks back at the path travelled through the eyes of his high school self, with gratitude for the confidence that his partner instilled in him from the moment he showed him his early work. “Andrew has taught me that the greatest gift you can ever give someone is to believe in them.”

So be it traversing rocky terrain - in a literal sense - or rather navigating the trials and tribulations of running a production company together, the pair have inspired and learnt from each other greatly. And still, Andrew and Charles continue to develop a confident working relationship that shows no signs of slowing down after eight years of voyaging. 

How 4 SU students founded ‘Voyager,’ a film production company

Courtesy of Sophie Penn

Maria Raad, Robby Shaffer, Sophie Penn and Charlie Hane (left to right) decided last October they would take the spring semester off to launch their film production company.

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Syracuse University junior Sophie Penn and her three classmates are often asked why they didn’t go to a film hub like Los Angeles or New York City to create their own film company during their remote semester.

Robby Shaffer, a junior, defends the group’s choice to work out of Austin, Texas — it gave them the opportunity to fully commit themselves to Voyager, their film production company.

“Everyone’s like film, movies, LA, New York,” said Shaffer, co-founder of Voyager. “Why aren’t you going there? Isn’t that where it’s happening?

Voyager focuses on making video advertisements and marketing pieces for local businesses. The company’s mission is to give its clients products that no one else in the market is going to have, setting them apart from other businesses, Shaffer said.

The film company is fully self-funded, and all of its inventory is equipment that the four students in SU’s College of Visual and Performing Arts have acquired over the years. Altogether, they’ve been able to build up a production inventory upwards of over $10,000, giving them the professional means to put out the level of content produced by their competitors.

Voyager has both a business side and a production side of the company. On the business side, each member of the team tackles a separate role. Penn is the operations manager, and SU junior Maria Raad does the branding. Shaffer is in charge of branding and social media. SU junior Charlie Hane is responsible for the finances. Each collaborates on all aspects of the production.

Having backgrounds as filmmakers helps the group “bring more disruptive and cutting-edge ideas” to their work, Shaffer said. He and the rest of the team go into each project with the mindset of creating work that is of the same caliber as Super Bowl commercials.

“We really don’t want to be a commercial agency, that’s not what we are,” Hane said. “We’re filmmakers.”

Penn, Hane, Shaffer and Raad initially considered taking a leave of absence during the summer but came back to campus last semester. They would have Zoom meetings three times a week, and they officially decided around October to take the spring semester off. One of the main reasons behind their decision was that productions at VPA kept getting shut down due to the pandemic, Penn said.

The team of students choose to move to Austin, Texas, because they believe it has a strong sense of community and it’ll offer the ability to network well. Courtesy of Sophie Penn

The group officially moved to Austin, Texas on Jan. 10 to launch Voyager. They knew that, if they went to New York City or LA, they would all have to get day jobs just to pay rent. For them, Austin is where they saw the most opportunity.

“Now that we’re here I think that we made the right decision,” Raad said. “This city has a big sense of community which you don’t have in New York or LA which I think is really helpful for us to grow our network. Once you meet one person they will make sure you meet everyone they know. They want you to succeed.”

Raad took a class last semester in the Newhouse School of Public Communications, where she had to make an artificial production company. She went to Penn before class and asked ‘What’s a good name?’ to which Penn responded ‘Voyager?’

Later on, when thinking about what to call their company, Penn and Raad thought it was fitting to stick with that name. For Raad, Voyager represents “changing your perspective,” a mindset that she takes into all of her work.

Penn, Hane, Shaffer and Raan all plan on returning to campus in the fall to pursue their degrees in filmmaking. However, they hope that they can bring Voyager back to Syracuse and “show our families that this is a thing to be reckoned with,” Hane said.

“Everyone says that film people don’t make money and that they don’t care,” Raad said. “I want to show people that you can be successful and do what you love at the same time.”

Published on February 10, 2021 at 11:27 pm

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For the first time Rosatom Fuel Division supplied fresh nuclear fuel to the world’s only floating nuclear cogeneration plant in the Arctic

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Casey Benjamin, Free-Spirited Saxophonist, Dies at 45

A musical voyager who wouldn’t be limited by genre, style or even instrument, he brought exuberance to the Robert Glasper Experiment and other groups.

By Alex Williams

Casey Benjamin, who brought colorfully expansive saxophone flourishes to the Grammy-winning Robert Glasper Experiment and added rich layers of texture to recordings by Solange, A Tribe Called Quest and many others, died on March 30 in Maryland. He was 45.

The cause was pulmonary thromboembolism, his brother, Kevin Benjamin, said. He did not say where in Maryland Mr. Benjamin died.

Known for his willingness to experiment, his exuberant stage persona and his trademark swirl of hair, often streaked with teal or red, Mr. Benjamin was a founding member of the pianist Robert Glasper’s combo, which, the critic Nate Chinen wrote in The New York Times in 2012, “specializes in deep, immersive grooves , nourished as much by hip-hop and R&B as any known species of jazz.”

“Black Radio,” the band’s fourth album on the venerable Blue Note label, featured guest appearances by the neo-soul singer Erykah Badu, the rappers Lupe Fiasco and Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def), and others. It won the 2012 Grammy Award for best R&B album and rose to No. 15 on the Billboard album chart. Mr. Benjamin shared another Grammy with the band in 2015 when “Jesus Children,” a Stevie Wonder cover, won for best traditional R&B performance.

Whether collaborating with Mr. Glasper or the critically acclaimed vibraphonist Stefon Harris in the band Blackout, Mr. Benjamin showed off his distinctive voice on his primary instrument, alto saxophone. In an obituary, the jazz bible DownBeat wrote that he “possessed a fluid, round sound on the alto saxophone and a unique sense of phrasing.”

But he never let himself be limited by genre, style or even instrument; he created a rainbow of sounds using not only reeds and woodwinds but also a vocal synthesizer manipulated with a keytar (a keyboard instrument worn with a strap around the neck), along with other synthesizers and effects pedals.

“Everything is basically about textures ,” he said in a 2012 video interview. “My love for synths, I try to translate it into everything I’m doing. Even with a woodwind instrument, I try to emulate a Moog , or some sort of keyboard or analog synthesizer.”

As Derrick Hodge, the bassist and composer who worked with Mr. Benjamin in both the Experiment and Blackout, put it in an interview, “Before Casey would ever play a note, you would see him, and something about his energy just exuded freedom — ‘Hey, let’s get into something that just speaks to us, that feels real.’”

Mr. Benjamin’s many collaborations included appearances on “We Got It From Here … Thank You 4 Your Service,” the 2016 comeback album by A Tribe Called Quest, and on Solange’s chart-topping album “A Seat at the Table” that same year.

Along with Mr. Glasper, Mr. Hodge and many others, Mr. Benjamin played on “Love Will Find a Way” (2019), the first solo album in nearly two decades by the Earth, Wind & Fire vocalist Philip Bailey.

Earlier that decade he had toured with Patrick Stump, the lead singer of the band Fall Out Boy, in support of his 2011 solo album, “Soul Punk.” During a recent Fall Out Boy concert in Milwaukee, Mr. Stump paused to pay an emotional tribute to Mr. Benjamin:

“I don’t say this lightly. He was probably the most talented musician I’ve ever met anywhere.”

Even when playing in support of other artists, Mr. Benjamin viewed himself less as a sideman than as a fellow musical voyager.

“Ninety-nine percent of my career I’ve been hired to be myself,” he said in a 2018 interview with the website HighBreedMusic . “‘I want Casey Benjamin; just let him do what he does.’ Because I’ve created this lane for myself, I created this sort of thing that only I can do.”

Casey Bryon Benjamin was born on Oct. 10, 1978, in Brooklyn, the youngest of three children of Gentle Benjamin, a television video producer from Grenada, and Julieta (McAlmon) Benjamin, a nurse assistant from Panama.

Casey was already showing an interest in jazz by the time he was 4, and by 8 he was learning to play piano, with saxophone soon to follow. Growing up in South Jamaica, Queens, he was also surrounded by the sounds of the Caribbean in his neighborhood. “With Caribbean and Latin culture, the party aspect is always deeply ingrained in the music,” he told HighBreedMusic.

After graduating from the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in Manhattan in 1996, he studied music at the New School for Social Research in Greenwich Village, where he met Mr. Glasper, setting in motion a collaboration that would help define his career.

In recent years, he toured with his own band. A solo album is scheduled to be released later this year.

In addition to his parents and his brother, Mr. Benjamin is survived by his sisters, Nicole Benjamin and Cristina King, and his partner, Whitley Davis.

Addressing the audience at the recent Fall Out Boy concert, Mr. Stump recalled his taciturn stage persona in the band’s early years, and said that Mr. Benjamin had helped change that. “His authority for joy was pervasive,” he said. “And to be in his presence was to understand that music is supposed to be joy. We’re supposed to share this together.”

Putting it more simply, Mr. Stump said, “He taught me to smile onstage.”

Alex Williams is a reporter in the Obituaries department. More about Alex Williams

Rosatom Starts Production of Rare-Earth Magnets for Wind Power Generation

TVEL Fuel Company of Rosatom has started gradual localization of rare-earth magnets manufacturing for wind power plants generators. The first sets of magnets have been manufactured and shipped to the customer.

In total, the contract between Elemash Magnit LLC (an enterprise of TVEL Fuel Company of Rosatom in Elektrostal, Moscow region) and Red Wind B.V. (a joint venture of NovaWind JSC and the Dutch company Lagerwey) foresees manufacturing and supply over 200 sets of magnets. One set is designed to produce one power generator.

“The project includes gradual localization of magnets manufacturing in Russia, decreasing dependence on imports. We consider production of magnets as a promising sector for TVEL’s metallurgical business development. In this regard, our company does have the relevant research and technological expertise for creation of Russia’s first large-scale full cycle production of permanent rare-earth magnets,” commented Natalia Nikipelova, President of TVEL JSC.

“NovaWind, as the nuclear industry integrator for wind power projects, not only made-up an efficient supply chain, but also contributed to the development of inter-divisional cooperation and new expertise of Rosatom enterprises. TVEL has mastered a unique technology for the production of magnets for wind turbine generators. These technologies will be undoubtedly in demand in other areas as well,” noted Alexander Korchagin, Director General of NovaWind JSC.

For reference:

TVEL Fuel Company of Rosatom incorporates enterprises for the fabrication of nuclear fuel, conversion and enrichment of uranium, production of gas centrifuges, as well as research and design organizations. It is the only supplier of nuclear fuel for Russian nuclear power plants. TVEL Fuel Company of Rosatom provides nuclear fuel for 73 power reactors in 13 countries worldwide, research reactors in eight countries, as well as transport reactors of the Russian nuclear fleet. Every sixth power reactor in the world operates on fuel manufactured by TVEL. www.tvel.ru

NovaWind JSC is a division of Rosatom; its primary objective is to consolidate the State Corporation's efforts in advanced segments and technological platforms of the electric power sector. The company was founded in 2017. NovaWind consolidates all of the Rosatom’s wind energy assets – from design and construction to power engineering and operation of wind farms.

Overall, by 2023, enterprises operating under the management of NovaWind JSC, will install 1 GW of wind farms. http://novawind.ru

Elemash Magnit LLC is a subsidiary of Kovrov Mechanical Plant (an enterprise of the TVEL Fuel Company of Rosatom) and its main supplier of magnets for production of gas centrifuges. The company also produces magnets for other industries, in particular, for the automotive

industry. The production facilities of Elemash Magnit LLC are located in the city of Elektrostal, Moscow Region, at the site of Elemash Machine-Building Plant (a nuclear fuel fabrication facility of TVEL Fuel Company).

Rosatom is a global actor on the world’s nuclear technology market. Its leading edge stems from a number of competitive strengths, one of which is assets and competences at hand in all nuclear segments. Rosatom incorporates companies from all stages of the technological chain, such as uranium mining and enrichment, nuclear fuel fabrication, equipment manufacture and engineering, operation of nuclear power plants, and management of spent nuclear fuel and nuclear waste. Nowadays, Rosatom brings together about 350 enterprises and organizations with the workforce above 250 K. https://rosatom.ru/en/

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