Stiefel+ Co., Santa Monica, has signed director Andrew Becker, who was most recently affiliated with Boxer Films, Los Angeles.
Formed by executive producer John Clark in late 1999, Boxer reassembled Clark and a contingent of directors—including Becker—who moved over from Culver City, Calif.-basedminus 30 films. Becker had signed withminus 30 films, his first commercial production roost, in early 1998 (SHOOT, 2/13/98, p. 8).
Stiefel+Co. president Frank Stiefel told SHOOT that he first saw Becker’s reel two and a half years ago, and found its contents very promising—particularly some ABC promo work he’d directed for former ABC dramatic series The City. "You rarely see that degree of sophistication in somebody new," added Stiefel.
After viewing the latest version of Becker’s reel, Stiefel thought the director had significantly developed his visual voice. "I’ve watched that reel grow and seen his visual sensibility become more confident," Stiefel commented. "But it was a very strong reel at a very early stage."
While noting that Boxer Films had helped him to develop as a director, Becker said he was looking to take his career to the next level. In Stiefel+Co., Becker found a firm with extensive production experience and knowledge. "My jobs were getting larger and larger," reported Becker, "and I was looking for a home where the ability to do those multimillion-dollar, multi-country jobs is second nature. Obviously, Frank has been around awhile and has seen and done everything. I realized that these types of projects wouldn’t be anything new or different, and that he’d be able to put them together with his staff quite easily."
Becker began his career as a researcher at ABC Sports, where his first assignment sent him to Cuba for six weeks to research and to be a Spanish-language interpreter during the Pan Am Games. He went on to become a segment writer/producer/director for Wide World of Sports and ABC’s Monday Night Football, which led to his first Emmy Award. While at ABC, Becker also directed a short film profiling inner-city youth in Michigan and Florida for the series NFL Sunday, earning a second Emmy.
Wanting to try a different approach, Becker joined MTV in ’91 to direct its extreme sports show, MTV Sports, for which he won a third Emmy. In ’94, he went over to Fox Sports, where his credits include a ’95 campaign he wrote, produced and directed for Fox Sports’ launch into televising NFL games. In ’95, he formed his own shop, the now defunct Buzz Pictures.
Shortly thereafter, Becker began working on the aforementioned TV series The City, for which he helmed 50 episodes. He recalled that he typically shot eight pages of script a day on location on the streets of New York City. "The City went on for a couple of seasons," said Becker, "and it really taught me [how] to … get a lot done in a short period of time. It was a good way of learning how to expedite filmmaking and do what was necessary, rather than doing everything you could think of." His longform directorial credits also include an episode of Law & Order.
It was helming the ABC promotional campaign introducing The City that piqued Becker’s interest in short form. Subsequently, he assembled his first reel of promo and spec work, which led to his signing atminus 30. One of his first jobs comprised two effects heavy spots—"Global" and "Quickly and Reliably"—for MCI Uunet via Donino, White & Partners, Atlanta. They show a world in which Internet service is unavailable and communication is made through archaic methods. "Global," for example, offers surreal visuals of thousands of paper airplanes flying through the night skies.
Becker collaborated with Los Angeles-based visual effects studio and design boutique A52 for the Uunet ads, which feature painterly tableaux in exotic locations composited from stock footage and original images shot against bluescreen.
"From the Uunet job," Becker recalled, "I’ve ended up doing a lot of large-scale telecommunications spots that encourage a lot of different faces—different nationalities, and different locations." His recent commercial credits at Boxer include "Anthem" for the New York Stock Exchange, out of BBDO New York, which was shot in New York, and in various countries in Europe; and "New Way" for AT&T via FCB San Francisco, which is highlighted by time-lapse footage depicting a shepherd and his flock walking through grazing fields over the course of one day.
Becker joins a Stiefel+Co. directorial roster also consisting of Craig Henderson, Peter Kagan, Andrews Jenkins, Peter Darley Miller, Marc Greenfield and Brett Froomer. The company is repped by Steven Monkarsh on the West Coast, Gay Guthrey in the Midwest and Peter Ziegler on the East Coast.
