Bruce Martin, whose six-year tenure as president of bicoastal RSA USA ended earlier this year (SHOOT, 4/30, p. 1), has returned to the spot arena as president and managing director of No Prisoners, Los Angeles. The new venture is a commercial production house launched by movie producer Todd Moyer, founder of No Prisoners 3DFX, a year-old, Los Angeles-based visual effects studio.
No Prisoners’ commercial operation opens with three directors: Barnaby Jackson, who left Pavlov Productions this past July, a couple of months before the live-action spot house was closed by Culver City, Calif.-based parent company Sony Pictures Entertainment (SHOOT, 10/15, p. 1); Jeff Richter, an editor turned spot/music video director; and Nic Mathieu, a European spotmaker who is making his first foray into the U.S. market.
Moyer cited Mathieu as an example of the kind of up-and-coming directorial talent with whom he’s forged relationships during his time as a producer and former talent agent. "What I was missing," related Moyer," was someone who could develop some of these young directors in commercials. For some time, that’s what I was looking for and now have finally found in Bruce. As I explore feature and longform projects for directors, I want to also provide opportunities for them in commercials."
Martin is enthusiastic about Mathieu’s prospects in the U.S., noting at press time that the 22-year-old director was being bid against several A-level commercialmakers on an undisclosed project out of a New York ad agency. Martin described Mathieu’s work as "performance driven, post-enhanced storytelling" that exhibits sophisticated visual sensibilities. Through Paris production house La Fourmi—which continues to rep him for European spots—Mathieu became an established commercial helmer with credits including ads for Superglue out of CLM/ BBDO, Paris, Aquafresh via Grey Advertising, Paris, Club Internet for Publicis, Paris, and Cacharel out of Paris agency Air. Mathieu served as director/editor on the Superglue and Aquafresh assignments. For the Club Internet and Cacharel jobs, he was director, editor and sound designer. Fluent in English, Mathieu recently relocated from France to Southern California.
Mathieu broke into the directing ranks with Hardline, a CD-ROM movie for Virgin Interactive Entertainment. He was writer, director, editor, CG artist and sound designer on the project, which was released worldwide this year.
Meanwhile, Jackson is another of Moyer’s colleagues, and the two are currently working on developing a large-format film. Jackson is no stranger to that medium, having credits including The Journey Inside, an Intel-sponsored ’94 release which was billed as the first IMAX film to tell a narrative story and utilize visual effects. He also recently directed a Pavlov-produced 70mm motion simulation film called Dynamite Train.
Jackson joined Pavlov three years ago to actively pursue a career as a commercial director. Initially best known in the spot arena as a visual effects supervisor (i.e. Coca-Cola’s "Dehydrated Man" via Creative Artists Agency, Beverly Hills, Mountain Dew’s "Alpine" for BBDO New York, Nissan’s "Altima" out of TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles), Jackson made a successful transition into helming. At Pavlov, he directed commercials for such clients as McDonald’s via Arnold Communications, Boston, Cheer for Leo Burnett Co., Chicago, and Honda for Dentsu, Tokyo. Jackson also served as director of four live-action trailers for Sony’s SDDS sound systems. The trailers take moviegoers on a sound and picture adventure that begins deep in the Pacific Ocean, travels through lush jungles and then dives into the mouth of an active volcano.
Jackson is well versed in live action and various visual effects disciplines. He broke into the business as a jack-of-all-trades at Los Angeles-based Showscan Film Corp., which was headed by visual effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull. From camerawork to effects to building a robot, Jackson received a formal education in filmmaking. During his Showscan tenure, Jackson supervised the development of a 65mm motion picture camera, the CP-65, which won an Academy Award for technical achievement. In ’88, Jackson moved to Trumbull’s then newly formed Berkshire Motion Picture Studio in Housatonic, Mass. He left Berkshire in ’90 to freelance produce a 13-part interactive project for a Japanese theme park. After wrapping that assignment, he co-launched now defunct Rocket Motion Pictures in ’91. Five years later, he joined Pavlov.
Rounding out No Prisoners’ core of commercial directors is Jeff Richter, who first gained spot prominence as an editor at Earthquake Edit, a company he founded seven years ago. Richter later formed Earthquake Productions, where he diversified into directing spots and music videos. But it wasn’t until this past June that he made a significant splash, when he directed Sway & Tech’s music video entitled "The Anthem" featuring various hip-hop artists. This led to Richter garnering spot assignments for Sprint via NKH& W, Kansas City, Mo., and Carl’s Jr. for Anita Santiago Advertising, Santa Monica.
After leaving RSA, Martin became familiar with Richter’s work and the two began talking. At the time, Martin had launched The Hub, a talent management and consulting company which also actively sought out new directorial talent. He was exploring the possibilities of working closely with Richter and when the No Prisoners opportunity came up, Martin brought the director into the company fold. Richter has since decided to focus on directing and is no longer editing at Earthquake Edit. His brother, Scott Richter, continues to cut via Earthquake.
Martin plans to build No Prisoners’ directorial roster and envisions adding comedy/dialogue helmers, though he doesn’t want the lineup to become "unwieldy." His focus is on No Prisoners’ current roster. For instance, at press time Martin was on his way to Detroit to call on automotive agencies, particularly for director Jackson. Martin noted that No Prisoners can represent "a solution" for car advertisers who often marry live action and visual effects, citing the visual effects resources and artists at No Prisoners 3DFX which his commercial shop can readily tap into.
That effects team was assembled by Moyer, initially to handle visual effects on Wing Commander, a 20th Century Fox feature released earlier this year. Moyer—who produced the film under the No Prisoners’ banner—claimed that his group of artists was able to deliver the visual effects for about half of what it would have cost a major studio. "Once we finished the film, I realized that I wanted to keep this team together," said Moyer, explaining the genesis for No Prisoners 3DFX. Key among these artisans were visual effects supervisor Chris Brown and visual effects producer Erik Strauss, both formerly with now defunct Boss Film. No Prisoners 3DFX maintains workstations and other effects support resources at its new studio space. Other digital effects artists on staff include Kent Estep and Christopher "Pink" Bonnstetter; the latter recently wrapped a Dolby Digital logo treatment and will work primarily on commercials. No Prisoners 3DFX producer Misato Shinohara is the liaison for spot clientele who want to access the studio for visual effects.
Moyer has several projects in development. He owns the rights to Battlestar Galactica, the former primetime series on ABC-TV, and plans to develop that into a feature film. No Prisoners 3DFX has also turned out visual effects for long- and shortform projects, including a package of Dodge spots as well as two soon-to-be-released features, Fortress 2 for FOX and The New Adventures of Pinocchio for New Line Cinema. FOX has also awarded No Prisoners 3DFX a portion of the effects work on the upcoming X-Men.
Prior to starting No Prisoners 3DFX, Moyer was president of Steamroller Productions, Steven Seagal’s production company in Los Angeles. While there, Moyer oversaw production of The Glimmer Man and Fire Down Below. Before that, from ’91-’96, he served as executive VP/ producer for Dark Horse Entertainment, Los Angeles, helping to establish the firm in feature film production based on comic book and pop culture-related material. He oversaw development of the company’s first three features: The Mask, Timecop and Barb Wire. Moyer was co-producer of Largo/Universal’s Timecop and producer of Barb Wire for Polygram. He earlier served as a literary agent at The Irv Schechter Company, Los Angeles.
Martin’s résumé is steeped in commercials. Prior to RSA USA, he served in a head of sales/executive capacity for 16-plus years at New York-based Steve Horn Inc. and its successor company, Steve & Linda Horn Inc. Before that, he was an executive producer at Bob Giraldi Productions, New York (now bicoastal Giraldi Suarez Productions).
