Bicoastal HKM has added a pair of directors who have received recognition as up-and-coming talents in recent years: Siraj Jhaveri and Matt Ogens. The latter was included in SHOOT’s New Directors Showcase in 2005 based largely on the strength of his work for WildAid via J. Walter Thompson, New York, and a Ping Golf campaign for The Martin Agency, Richmond, Va. The SHOOT Showcase honor came on the heels of Ogens earning Young Guns distinction from the emerging directors showcase of the same name developed by Young & Rubicam, New York.
Jhaveri’s emerging talent kudo came back in ’01 when he made the grade for inclusion in Saatchi & Saatchi’s New Directors Showcase at the Cannes International Advertising Festival. At the time he was with now defunct Shelter Films, after which he relocated to Europe later in ’01, joining @radical.media and focusing on music videos and commercials. The director currently resides in New York.
Jhaveri made his first filmmaking mark while a student at Rhode Island School of Design. There he worked on a number of short films, including Ma Baap, a personal documentary about his parents that won prizes at international film festivals and was exhibited around the world. Jhaveri’s work drew the attention of MTV’s Abby Terkuhle, the head of its on-air promotions department, who hired him as a producer in the mid-’90s. Jhaveri’s endeavors there included writing and directing MTV promos and TV spots.
MTV then dispatched Jhaveri to India to help launch MTV India, for which he directed a series of humorous promo spots that went on to be short-listed at Cannes. He then returned to New York and became supervising producer at MTV Labs, a creative resource founded by MTV president Judy McGrath. There he wrote and helmed short experimental films before earning the Saatchi Showcase recognition.
OGENS Ogens comes over to HKM from now defunct Headquarters. He recently wrapped three projects: a Splenda assignment for the Web, mobile phones and video on demand; an unscripted five-spot package for ESPN via Ground Zero, Marina del Rey, Calif.; and a Tylenol commercial out of Deustch, New York.
“My background is in unscripted filmmaking, documentaries and television,” said Ogens, “and as such it’s been very important for me to approach spot work both from that standpoint and the more traditional narrative perspective.”
While a student at Tulane University, Ogens directed and produced Ray of Hope, a documentary principally shot behind the walls of the Louisiana State Penitentiary. He also directed and co-wrote the shorts Harvest and 101. The latter was screened in competition at the ’05 Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Other directorial highlights include: sequences of a Victoria’s Secret fashion show for CBS; a VH-1 pilot, Players, profiling hip-hop artist Ludacris; Who’s Got Game? which is an MTV series on street basketball (exec produced by Magic Johnson); and Country Music Television’s All Access Big & Rich. Following Hurricanes Rita and Rita, Ogens spent three weeks as one of a handful of filmmakers brought in by the Red Cross to document the devastation. He shared his experiences with SHOOT’s readership in a column last October titled “Gulf Coast Diary.” The Red Cross plans to use the work of Ogens and his filmmaking colleagues to assess the relief organization’s tactics, and to possibly cull PSAs from the footage.
Last month, Ogens’ Timeless for ESPN received two Sports Emmy nominations (best feature and best cinematography). He is currently helming an FX Network pilot set inside the Louisiana State Penitentiary.
