Ken Franchi Producer
Ken Franchi cut his teeth working with major production companies and studios including Paramount Pictures, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Tribeca Productions, Jersey Films, Apostle Pictures, The Howard Stern Show, and Hurricane Entertainment.
In 2004, Franchi founded Mount Vernon Entertainment, a premier music video, commercial, and branded content production company.
The company has produced music videos for: Band of Horses, Rise Against, Iyaz, Colbie Caillat, Five for Fighting, Imogen Heap, Remy Zero, Rachael Yamagata, and The 88, among others.
Additionally, Franchi and Mount Vernon produced memorable commercials for national brands like Pepboys, Friendly’s, The Scooter Store, Ashley Home Stores, Party City, and Bruce Springsteen.
Franchi also has an innate grasp on producing content for the Web; his experience there includes work with Atom Films, College Humor, Comedy Central, Starz Entertainment, and Funny or Die.
Franchi earned his degree from Emerson College. It was while at Emerson that he met Todd and the two forged their working relationship. In 2010, Franchi and Strauss-Schulson decided to use the Ulterior banner for all feature film and television productions.
Franchi is a native of New York, but now resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Hillary.
Todd Strauss-Schulson Director
Ever since his grandfather gave him a video camera for his Bar Mitzvah (after years of relentless pestering), Todd has been a one-man movie-making machine—directing, writing, shooting, and editing all of his own work.
Upon graduating from Emerson College, where he won numerous awards including Panavision’s prestigious New Filmmakers prize, Todd moved to Los Angeles. It wasn’t long before he was directing high concept music videos for major label artists. His most recent clip for Ben Lee, starring Tiffani Amber Thiessen, debuted on VH1’s Top 10 and spent 8 weeks on the Countdown.
His music video work led to a 6-month stint in China and Thailand, where he directed MTV Whatever Things, a more stylish version of Jackass with an all western cast. It became the most popular show on MTV Asia with an international audience of over 250 Million.
Back in the States, Todd has directed short films and TV shows with comic greats like Stephen Colbert, Richard Belzer, Lewis Black, Jeff Ross, Patton Oswalt, Colin Quinn, Jackie Mason, Laura Silverman, and Damon Wayans.
He has also worked on branding projects for national clients, including Sony Crackle, College Humor, Atom Films, Pepsi, Microsoft, Twix, Old Spice, Sierra Mist, Butterfinger, Philips, Nestea, Fender, Skoal Chewing Tobacco, Mountain Dew, Lipton, and Nestlé, among others.
Todd’s personal project Mano-A-Mano caught the attention of the William Morris Agency, who quickly signed him for feature film representation. The short was also a selection of the 2008 South By Southwest Film Festival. In 2009 South By Southwest asked Todd back to premiere his new short Big Pussy which was subsequently selected to screen at the world famous Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal.
His first feature film, A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas for New Line Cinema and Mandate was released by Warner Bros in 2011. The film stars: Kal Penn, John Cho, Neil Patrick Harris, Thomas Lennon, Danny Trejo, RZA, Patton Oswalt and Elias Koteas.
Todd is currently developing a number of features that Ulterior will produce.
Check out more of Todd’s work here: Todd’s Site