The ambitious duo of agency publicist Erik Bright (pictured) and independent distributor executive Alex Klenert (pictured) have teamed up to launch the Santa Monica-based publicity firm Prodigy PR.

The highly regarded partners have more than two decades of experience between them and position Prodigy as a one-stop shop covering corporate clients, unit publicity, festival and market strategy, theatrical campaigns and distribution consultation.

Publicists Sheryl Tirol and Emilie Chan will work alongside Bright and Klenert as well as a team of support staff.

Bright most recently served as a partner at Insignia PR and has handled a gamut of assignments from corporate publicity for Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park Entertainment to festivals, markets, unit and theatrical campaign publicity as well as brand campaigns. His credits include Crash, Little Miss Sunshine, Sideways, Invincible and The Matador.

Klenert has relocated from New York, where his last appointment was as vice-president of publicity at THINKFilm, where he developed and implemented theatrical and award campaigns for more than 50 films including the Oscar winning documentary Taxi To The Dark Side, Murderball and Half Nelson. At Donna Daniels PR before that he served on numerous theatrical campaigns and handled corporate communications for Sony Pictures Classics and The New York Film Critics Circle.

Prodigy’s initial client roster includes Hyde Park Entertainment, Das Films, PCB Productions with Keith Arem, Nuclear Mango, Scenechronize, Seventh Synchrony, Variance Films, and XYZ Films.

Bright and Klenert are already lining up the festival campaign for Tribeca world premiere Open House and handled Red White & Blue and Suck at SXSW. Bright will be in Cannes taking meetings with potential clients.

Theatrical campaigns are in the works for IndiePix’s Women Without Men and After The Cup: The Sons Of Shakhnin United and Spoken Word, both from fledgling distributor Variance Films.

“Publicity isn’t a one-size-fits-all game,” Bright said. “Every individual, project or company has a unique set of needs and goals.  At Prodigy, we take pride in being able to give our clients the personal attention to really uncover and assess those needs, as well as the experience, contacts and technical expertise to put a fully-customised PR campaign into action.”

“We want film-makers, studios, and production companies to recognise Prodigy PR as a place where they know that they are going to get more than just hired-gun publicists,” Klenert said. “Our best work thrives upon deeper participation with our clients. Our goal is to not only maximise the PR efforts for an individual project – be it a genre film, a documentary, or a studio blockbuster – but also position that project to benefit from cross-platform opportunities that otherwise may not be on the client’s radar.”