Director Francine McDougall has joined bicoastal/international Production League of America (PLA), a commercial/music video division of Chelsea Pictures, which has offices in New York, Los Angeles, and in Sydney, Australia. McDougall joined PLA in mid-March, coming over from bicoastal spot house X-Ray Productions and music video company Merge, both of which are satellites of Crossroads Films, bicoastal and Chicago (SHOOT, 3/2, p. 7). PLA’s executive producer, Jo Ann Thrailkill, previously served as X-Ray’s executive producer for music videos, and she left X-Ray to form PLA in January, bringing with her X-Ray helmers Evan Bernard and David Nelson (SHOOT, 1/12, p. 7). McDougall will be repped for both spots and music videos through PLA. Avion Film Productions, Toronto, continues to rep her for Canadian work.
Until recently, McDougall was unavailable for commercials because she was helming a feature: the New Line Cinema comedy Sugar & Spice, which was released in January. Prior to that, she directed a number of spots, including Kellogg’s Special K’s "Diet Debbie" (SHOOT "Top Spot of the Week," 1/15/99, p. 12) via Leo Burnett Company, Toronto, which she made through Avion. Among McDougall’s other credits is a four-spot campaign for Mother’s Cookies via Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners West, San Francisco (made while McDougall was at Palomar Pictures, Los Angeles): "Anthem," "Parade," "Pinks vs. Whites" and "Taffy." Spots directed while at X-Ray included Ethan Allen/E.A. Kids’ "Designing Kids," through Grey Advertising (now Grey Worldwide), New York.
The director’s recent work includes a Powerpuff Girls live-action, five-minute "mockumentary" called "The Pilot" for the Cartoon Network, which she made independently. McDougall has just completed a 20-minute documentary called The History of the T-Shirt for Jerzees, a division of sportswear company Russell Athletic. The film was produced by Persaud@Palomar Productions, a joint venture between Persaud Brothers marketing/promotions firm and Los Angeles-based Palomar Pictures (6/23/00, p. 1). Finally, she is finishing the DVD and home video versions of Sugar & Spice, to be released on July 17.
McDougall is a native of Sydney who first established herself as a still photographer. She eventually moved into music videos in the late 1980s, working as a freelance production manager and later a producer. McDougall moved to Los Angeles in ’92 and joined Palomar Pictures towards the end of the year as a producer. "I worked in all different departments there. I was producing music videos and short films and TV programs"—she laughed—"all the odd producing jobs fell into my lap".
McDougall became interested in directing while at the Sundance Film Festival in ’95 with a short film she had produced, The Junky’s Christmas. "I checked out all the short films and thought, ‘I could do something like this,’ " she observed. Determined to make her own film, McDougall promptly set to work directing the short Pig!, which was shown at Sundance in ’96. She followed this with another short, The Date, which was shown at Sundance the following year.
With The Date, McDougall’s directing career took off. "The film was playing in front of [the feature] Clockwatchers, which was meant to be one of the buzz films up at Sundance that year," she recalled. "I was still in L.A. during the first screening, and after the film ended, I got a call at Palomar. I picked up the phone, and it was these agents from William Morris. They were conference-calling me on their cell phones, standing in the snow, saying, ‘When are you getting up here? We want to meet you.’ " One of the agents was Alan Gasmer, who has been McDougall’s rep for feature films since soon after that first conversation. Palomar started repping McDougall for spots and music videos in ’97. She went to X-Ray Productions the following year.
Regarding her move to PLA, McDougall explained that she wanted to work with Thrailkill again, but was also interested in reuniting with longtime friend, Chelsea executive producer Allison Amon. McDougall and Amon met when both worked at Palomar, where Amon was head of commercials.
"It’s cool to be with a new, hungry, up-and-coming company," McDougall observed. "I really like the other directors here. We all have a similar [point of view]." Or, as Thrailkill put it: "We view Production League as a group of like-minded directors that have a specific style and image. And Francine just fits in perfectly." She continued, "While PLA is part of a bigger company, we do want to stay more on the boutique side of things. We want to keep it small and focused."
In terms of the PLA aesthetic, Thrailkill opined, "Most of the work that we have is comedy based. Francine’s reel is really hilarious—her short films in particular. She wrote those herself, so you know that she also brings a lot to the creative side"—to which McDougall added, "I do dark humor and broad comedy, as well." The director, however, is reluctant to pigeonhole herself, observing, "I’ve worked in all media—television, documentary, commercials, music videos, theatrical feature films—I think I have a little wider range than just dark comedy."
PLA reps directors Evan Bernard, David Nelson, and Brett Vapnek; and, for music videos only, the Monterey, Mexico-based directing team of Hermanos Ponderosa (Bobby Galeana Jr. and Mike Bonito, a.k.a. Alejandro Romero and Gustavo Hernandez). Chelsea Pictures’ directorial roster comprises Nicholas Barker, Anton Beebe, Simon Blake, Janusz Kaminski, Mehdi Norowzian, Alex Proyas, Steve Rogers, Peter Salmi and Andrew Walton. Chelsea’s Thru-Line division, which reps feature directors for spots, consists of The Haxans (Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sanchez, Robin Cowie, Gregg Hale and Michael Monello), Todd Solondz and Ben Younger.
PLA is represented by Chelsea/Thru-Line reps Marguerite Juliusson and Dawn Ratcliffe of Chicago-based Julisson/Ratcliffe in the Midwest; Mary Vandamme in San Francisco on the West Coast; and New York-based Chelsea executive producer/head of sales Lisa Mehling and rep Beth Davenport on the East Coast. Avion reps the PLA, Chelsea and Thru-Line directors in Canada.
