Director Tony Lee has signed with Big Picture Communications, New York, formalizing an affiliation that began last year.
Some of Lee’s credits include Nassau University Medical Center’s "In Step" via MARC USA/New York (formerly MARC Advertising), which he made while freelancing with Big Picture, and the music videos "I Still Love You" for Monifah, made as a freelancer with A Go Go Films, Santa Monica; and "Permanent" for Roni Size, which Lee directed during his tenure at former roost Bullet Films, London.
A native of Chicago, Lee graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1991, with a BFA in photography, and in ’93 received an MFA in film from Columbia University, New York. After graduation, he relocated to the Los Angeles area and started directing videos featuring professional skateboarders, for sporting goods labels like DC Shoes and freshjive. After a brief stint at 915 Films, which folded soon after he joined in ’95, Lee freelanced as a director and still photographer until ’98, when he signed with the now defunct Barracuda Films for U.S. representation. Later that year, Lee came aboard Bullet and spent the next eighteen months commuting to London to direct U.K. spots and clips. Since exiting Barracuda and Bullet in ’99, Lee has directed episodes of MTV’s Making The Video, as well as clips for production houses like A Go Go Films and Planet, Inc., Hollywood—a company with which Lee has a non-exclusive relationship for music videos.
Big Picture has gone through some organizational changes in the last year, and though managing partner/executive producer Ava Seavey maintains freelance relationships with helmers Gene Cernilli, Ben Dolphin, Pavel, Ed Buffman and Changa Bell; currently Lee is the company’s only formally signed director. With Lee, Seavey hopes to take the firm in a new direction, focusing solely on directors who are just starting out: "I want Big Picture to be known as a company where you can find up-and-coming directors who want to do high-concept work that might be budget challenged," said Seavey. "There aren’t a lot of companies that want to do creative work, and that know how to and are willing to work in the [low-] budget parameters."
Seavey first saw Lee’s reel last year, when rep Patti Paul, of Patricia Paul & Associates, Chicago, asked her to take a look. Paul had repped Lee at Barracuda, and the pair had kept in touch after Lee left the company. Seavey recalled, "Tony was someone Patti thought a lot of, and she wanted to hook him up with someone in New York or L.A., [so] she made some phone calls on his behalf." Seavey liked the reel, and spoke with Lee on the phone several times over the next few months. "I showed his work to some producers to get some feedback, and got very good responses," related Seavey.
Eventually, Lee started freelancing for Big Picture, and was likewise impressed with Seavey. "I liked Ava’s enthusiasm for my reel," he recounted. "Big Picture is a smaller company, and I like the idea of that, too. Ava’s an experienced executive producer. … She’s very well versed in dealing with agencies."
Right now, said Seavey, "I’m going to focus my marketing attentions on Tony and the next two or three directors that I sign—[though] I have not made a decision about signing any other directors at this moment; I want to keep Big Picture very small." She cited Lee’s background in still photography and music videos as part of his appeal, praising the director’s "urban sensibility" and "visual storytelling style."
Currently, Big Picture’s sales are handled by Seavey and in-house rep John Nagel.
