Name Andreas Neumann | ||
Andreas Neumann (born February 20, 1967 in Munich, Germany) is an entrepreneur, film producer, record producer and photographer. He is widely known by the nickname "Dre."
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Personal life
Andreas Neumann is married to international supermodel, Khadidiatou Donatelli Neumann, commonly known as Khadija. They currently live together in Los Angeles, CA with their daughter Khadija Emma Neumann, born in 2005.
Business
Dre began his career at the age of 22 when he founded the advertising production company, Bliss Ltd.
In 1994, he was named Head of TV production at Grey Europe. At age 27 Dre was the youngest person to ever hold that position. He was responsible for all European TV advertising production, managing 55 subsidiary agencies with a department of fifty people, and produced over three hundred TV commercials a year with an annual budget of $50 million.
Dre produced a series of celebrity commercials with French director Roger Vadim for U.S. companies Slim Fast and Procter & Gamble. The success of the commercials inspired Dre and Vadim to collaborate on a feature film project titled "Module." Sadly, before work on the film could be completed, Vadim died in Paris, France, at the age of 72.
After leaving Grey in 1999, Dre started his own media company Zenturio Group Ltd. with Patrick Graf von Faber Castell. There, he produced the world’s first 360-degree “Dome Theater” movie for Volkswagen with a budget of $20 million. The movie, which is a seven-minute short, is one of the main attractions at the VW Autostadt and was directed by Tom Ackerman ASC. Shot in the Czech Republic, Italy, and South Africa, the film represents a benchmark achievement in special venue technology.
Joined again with Patrick Graf von Faber Castell, and with MTV veteran Peter Ruppert, Dre then financed and founded Songpeople.com, which is the largest online music research company currently used by BBC Radio 1, MTV Europe, Jazz FM and all major record labels including Sony BMG, Warner Music Group, EMI, Virgin Records and Sanctuary Records.
In 2005–2007, he was a co-founder of GUM, a division of Saatchi & Saatchi London. While there, he developed multiple, large-scale brand-integrated projects, including the documentary Pure Spirit of Brasil, featuring Seu Jorge. The project had its premier in the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and is co-produced by Oscar nominated director Fernando Meirelles. He was also co-founder of Legion along with Malcolm Crease and Ulf Ekberg; the firm is dedicated the joining together brands with entertainment properties. In 2008 Dre co-founded Talenthouse.com along with music producer Nellee Hooper. In May 2009 both founders left the company to focus on other businesses. Currently, he is the Head of Studio of a UX Design Agency Idean in Los Angeles
Performance
In 2007, Dre was cast as General Maisel in the short film, Patricide, which tells the story of the last day of life of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.
Photography
In addition to music production, Dre is an internationally renowned photographer, specializing in the world of fashion and global brand advertising. His subjects have included Pele, Lenny Kravitz, Barry Bonds, Dwight Howard and Pierre Cardin and he has created ad campaigns for brands such as Canon, Alfa Romeo and Vogue.
Dre was also responsible for the creation of the entire visual presentation for legendary songwriter Diane Warren's new project DUE VOCI. He photographed the album cover and all other images to be used worldwide to portray the dynamic and talented pair Kelly Levesque and Tyler Hamilton Tyler Hamilton (singer) who sing a selection of Diane Warren's greatest loves songs. The album is scheduled for release on Universal Records together with a PBS TV Special on June 8, 2010.
In early 2011 Dre was asked to design, produce and photograph the album cover and interior artwork for the Herb Alpert Album I Feel You, released that same year. Dre’s photography work was well received, and he went on to direct a series of music videos from I Feel You as well as a documentary film centered on Herb and Herb's wife, Lani Hall. The documentary is currently in post-production with a release date TBD.
Music
In 1998 Dre Produced and Directed the video of the radio-friendly single "Life Is a Flower" by Ace of Base which was certified the most-played track on European radio for 1998 and sold more than 250,000 copies in the UK, peaking at number 5. Andreas had to be trained to fly a jet fighter in order to complete production of the video on an Air Force base in north Sweden. At the conclusion of the 10-day shoot, Andreas was granted honorary membership in the Royal Air Force of Sweden by the General of the base.
In 2000, he collaborated with the Berman Brothers and co-produced the Grammy award-winning, multi-platinum selling Who Let the Dogs Out by the Baha Men. In 2007, he was Executive Producer along with Rick Blaskey of Soul Classics by Mica Paris.
Dre is also the Executive Producer of the music project, Havana Jazz Club. The Havana Jazz Club is an extraordinary artistic collaboration. Here, for the very first time ever, the finest and most memorable of the actual vocals from the pinnacle of American jazz greats like Ray Charles, Louis Armstrong, Etta James, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and others are meticulously extracted from their original recordings and then used as a base of performance for players from the legendary Buena Vista Social Club and other truly extraordinary Cuban artists of today who would reflect the history and tradition of Afro-Cuban music and create something new, distinctive, unique and everlasting.
StarClub
StarClub Ltd is Dre's latest venture in the music industry. He joined the web startup in 2009 alongside fellow German entrepreneur, Bernhard Fritsch. Bernhard and Dre envisioned StarClub as a next generation entertainment technology company with a focus on branding as well as distribution. Dre currently serves as Creative Director and Chief Branding Officer for StarClub Europe.