By Robert Goldrich
SANTA MONICA—Directorial duo Big TV! (a.k.a. Andy Delaney and Monty Whitebloom) of Studio, London, has come aboard Santa Monica-based harvest for exclusive spot representation in the United States. At press time, Big TV! had wrapped shooting of its first job under the harvest banner: a two-spot Volvo campaign for Euro RSCG MVBMS, New York.
Best known for a quirky sense of ad humor, Big TV! departed from that norm for the Volvo work, which promotes the automaker’s all-wheel drive sedan. Though Delaney and Whitebloom weren’t at liberty to publicly discuss the spots in detail, one is a cinematic action/adventure chase story, while the other is more along the lines of hot sheet metal performance.
The nature of the Volvo campaign, said Whitebloom, reinforces the decision to join harvest, which he and Delaney felt could help them stretch into other genres while maintaining the comedy work on which their reputation has been built.
Indeed, this is a time for Big TV! to stretch itself creatively, as the duo is currently casting for its feature directing debut, a New Line Cinema release titled The Ballad of Paul Finley, Accountant. Described by Whitebloom as an "offbeat romantic comedy," the film is scheduled to start shooting in late October. This means that Big TV! currently has a window of availability for spots. "Commercials are a prime focus for us," related Whitebloom, who said that the relationship with harvest is based on Big TV!’s initiative to make commercials a long-term career priority.
Delaney noted that what drew Big TV! to harvest was the fact that the company parallels Studio, which he, Whitebloom and executive producer Jayson Dwyer started a couple of years ago. He observed that both companies are boutique-size, enabling their principals to be hands-on involved in all projects. The two shops, he continued, also share the bond of being creatively driven. "They’re both filmmaking family-type companies," related Whitebloom, adding that he and Delaney felt philosophically simpatico with harvest’s founders, director Baker Smith and executive producer Bonnie Goldfarb.
There also is an element of continuity at harvest, where Big TV! retains its New York rep, the mono-monikered Gisela, who had been handling the directors first at Creative Management Partners (CMP) and then on her own when CMP’s sales operation closed. Late last year, when CMP principal Tim Case shuttered the firm to partner with director Tony Kaye in bicoastal Minder Media, Big TV! began exploring its spot roost options stateside, while continuing to be repped by Gisela in New York. Whitebloom said Gisela turned Big TV! onto harvest based on her relationship with that company as its staff East Coast rep.
Big TV! had earlier been repped in the United States by now defunct Propaganda Films. Prior to that, the directors worked out of Academy, London, and bicoastal/international @radical.media.
Whitebloom and Delaney remain active in music videos, as well-on both sides of the Atlantic. Big TV! directs European videos via Studio, and American music clips through David Naylor Associates (DNA), Hollywood.
Big TV!’s credits include videos for such artists as Macy Gray, Usher, Duran Duran, Natalie Imbruglia, Sinéad O’Connor and Lauryn Hill. For the latter, the Big TV!-helmed clip "Doo Wop" took home awards for best video of the year, best R&B video, best female video and best art direction at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards.
Commercial credits span Europe and the United States, with Big TV! helming for such clients as Eurostar, Peugeot, Kodak, Reebok, Halifax Bank, Mercedes-Benz, Skittles, Captain Morgan’s Rum, Claritin and Mitsubishi. The Mitsubishi fare for Deutsch LA found people lip-syncing in their cars to songs such as the New Radicals’ "You Get What You Give." Mercedes’ "Tipperary" was short-listed at the ’00 Cannes International Advertising Festival.
Big TV! comes aboard a harvest directorial roster that also consists of Smith, CJ Waldman and Frank Samuel. Harvest is repped by Gisela on the East Coast, and independent reps David Wagner in the Midwest, and Rebecca Reber and Brooke Covington on the West Coast.
Steve McQueen Shows Wartime London Through A Child’s Eyes In “Blitz”
It was a single photograph that started Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen on the journey to make "Blitz." As a Londoner, the German bombing raids on the city during World War II are never all that far from his mind. Reminders of it are everywhere. But the spark of inspiration came from an image of a small boy on a train platform with a large suitcase. Stories inspired by the evacuation are not rare, but this child was Black. Who was he, McQueen wondered, and what was his story? The film, in theaters Friday and streaming on Apple TV+ on Nov. 22, tells the tale of George, a 9-year-old biracial child in East London whose life with his mother, Rita ( Saoirse Ronan ), and grandfather is upended by the war. Like many children at the time, he's put on a train to the countryside for his safety. But he hops off and starts a long, dangerous journey back to his mom, encountering all sorts of people and situations that paint a revelatory and emotional picture of that moment. SEARCHING FOR GEORGE AND FINDING A STAR When McQueen finished the screenplay, he thought to himself: "Not bad." Then he started to worry: Does George exist? Is there a person out there who can play this role? Through an open casting call they found Elliott Heffernan, a 9-year-old living just outside of London whose only experience was a school play. He was the genie in "Aladdin." "There was a stillness about him, a real silent movie star quality," McQueen said. "You wanted to know what he was thinking, and you leant in. That's a movie star quality: A presence in his absence." Elliott is now 11. When he was cast, he'd not yet heard about the evacuation and imagined that a film set would be made up of "about 100 people." But he soon found his footing, cycling in and out of... Read More