4th Annual New Directors Showcase
On May 25, SHOOT unveiled its fourth annual New Directors Showcase reel. The 25 helmers–including three two-person teams–selected for the Showcase come from diverse backgrounds. However, the bond they share is great style, vision and commitment–whether it be reflected in comedy, visuals or storytelling. Helping fashion the Showcase lineup were entries from SHOOT‘s ongoing “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery, assorted submissions, and feedback from agency creatives and producers. Here’s a look at this year’s field:
John Immesoete
Backyard
Metro PCS’ “Anytime”
Metro PCS’ “In Network”
How did you get into directing?
I was an agency GCD and the parallel lines of responsibility and desire
finally crossed. It was something I always wanted to do and prepared myself to do. So when the opportunity presented itself, I jumped.
Why do you want to direct commercials?
Because The DaVinci Code wasn’t offered to me. Seriously, commercials are a great place to apply the skill of storytelling. No less a director than Martin Scorsese has expressed a respect for commercial filmmakers and the way stories must be told under a strict and tight format. Plus I know the ad world very well and it’s still a lot of fun.
What is your most recent spot project?
A series of virals for a web page called “Bosses From Hell.” They’re short two-minute films about the world’s worst bosses, the kind of people we’ve all worked for at one time or another. I shot three and there are more to come. Apparently there are a lot of lousy people to work for out there.
Do have plans to work in other areas–e.g., shorts, films, features or TV? Have you ever done any of that in the past?
I am writing a couple of scripts for films and have another one at the studios now. I wrote a couple of pilots for Fox Studio and had one shot last year. It was on the NBC schedule until the day before the upfronts–then they changed their minds. So I guess I’ve sort of been left at the altar once but that doesn’t mean I’m quitting.
My real dream is to pursue a path similar to Spike Lee’s. He’s really used his background and distinctive persona to his advantage in so many areas. That’s what I’d like to do. Look for my first film to be a gritty crime drama set in an Seed and Feed store outside Davenport, Iowa. Working title; “Kernel of Truth.”
What’s the best part of being a director?
Finally being able to wear a director’s viewfinder around my neck
everywhere I go and not look like an idiot, that’s been nice. Telling people I saw Tom Cruise on the lot when we were both “working,” that’s been nice. Getting the same bulk mailings from the DGA that Spielberg, Coppola and Woody Allen get – that’s been nice. Basically, the perks of joining an elite fraternity of three million and counting.
Actually, working with a lot of new and talented people on new projects every time is the best part. The job never seems stale. It’s just like creating beer commercials. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, there’s another way to violate a guy’s crotch or ass or manhood and still be funny.
What’s the worst part?
In no particular order:
A) Increased reliance on American Airlines. Proposed new tag line, “We love to cancel flights, overbook, and loosely ‘maintain’ a fleet of aging MD-80s…and it shows.”
B) I miss my old group. Getting entertained on a daily basis by some of the funniest, coolest people I know is a tough drug to give up. Mark Gross’ “Man watching fast-forward porn” and “This potato is my weiner” are bits not to be missed.
C) Between gigs, being referred to by my Mom as, ” one of those new modern ‘house husbands.'”
D) Still bitter disappointment of not being offered The Da Vinci Code. I
had a great call and wrote a hell of a treatment.
E) Just because I get the same bulk mail as Spielberg, Coppola and Woody Allen does not mean they will return my personal phone calls.
Review: Writer-Director Andrea Arnold’s “Bird”
"Is it too real for ya?" blares in the background of Andrea Arnold's latest film, "Bird," a 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams) rides with her shirtless, tattoo-covered dad, Bug (Barry Keoghan), on his electric scooter past scenes of poverty in working-class Kent.
The song's question — courtesy of the Irish post-punk band Fontains D.C. — is an acute one for "Bird." Arnold's films ( "American Honey," "Fish Tank") are rigorous in their gritty naturalism. Her fiction films — this is her first in eight years — tend toward bleak, hand-held verité in rough-and-tumble real-world locations. Her last film, "Cow," documented a mother cow separated from her calf on a dairy farm.
Arnold specializes in capturing souls, human and otherwise, in soulless environments. A dream of something more is tantalizing just out of reach. In "American Honey," peace comes to Star (Sasha Lane) only when she submerges underwater.
In "Bird," though, this sense of otherworldly possibility is made flesh, or at least feathery. After a confusing night, Bailey awakens in a field where she encounters a strange figure in a skirt ( Franz Rogowski ) who arrives, like Mary Poppins, with a gust a wind. His name, he says, is Bird. He has a soft sweetness that doesn't otherwise exist in Bailey's hardscrabble and chaotic life.
She's skeptical of him at first, but he keeps lurking about, hovering gull-like on rooftops. He cranes his neck now and again like he's watching out for Bailey. And he does watch out for her, helping Bailey through a hard coming of age: the abusive boyfriend (James Nelson-Joyce) of her mother (Jasmine Jobson); her half brother (Jason Buda) slipping into vigilante violence; her father marrying a new girlfriend.
The introduction of surrealism has... Read More