New Directors Break Into Biz In Assorted Ways
By Robert Goldrich and Millie Takaki
Necessity is the mother of invention and when aspirants eye the director’s chair, ingenuity is unbridled. Consider one would-be helmer who made and marketed a salad dressing to raise enough money to finance spec and other work–not to mention a real-world spot promoting his salad dressing. He’s just one of the up-and-coming directors who’s making his mark in the industry, having recently landed stateside representation after his work in Canada scored at this year’s Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.
Or consider the case of another with a famous music icon father who has ventured out on her own to establish herself as a director of varied filmmaking disciplines, the most recent being commercials.
Then there’s a Rio de Janeiro-based production designer who made his spot directing debut last year, gained recognition earlier this month in SHOOT’s “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery for an environmental issue PSA and is about to see an episodic series he helmed debut on a hip web channel.
And there’s another who took a short route–make that the Student Academy Award-winning short film route–to generate momentum as a director.
These are just some of the artisans featured in this installment of SHOOT’s ongoing Up-and-Coming Directors series. Here are all of their stories:
After graduating from York Film School in Toronto, Alex Ogus started a salad dressing business to bankroll his short films and spec reel. The first commercial he directed was to pitch his salad dressing and it helped him land a slot on the directorial roster of Canadian shop Navigator. Shortly thereafter Ogus moved over to Code Film where his spotmaking career started to take hold, the big break coming with a Fight Network campaign consisting of the spots “Parking Lot,” “Construction Site” “Dog Walker” and “Bus Stop.”
The campaign–from agency Cossette Communication-Marketing in Toronto–centers on an average guy’s moronic quest to pick a fight with anyone in his immediate vicinity. The comedy dialogue package has been much lauded, the biggest score coming with a Gold Lion this year at the Cannes International Advertising Fest. This came on the heels of the campaign winning best of show campaign, gold campaign, gold single (“Parking Lot”) and Kari Award honors (for best actor performance) at Canada’s 2007 Bessie Awards.
The Fight Network work had production houses fighting over Ogus who in the aftermath of Cannes landed representation in the U.K. via Park Village, in Germany through Big Fish, in Russia via DTVMA, in Sweden via Esteban and in Malaysia with Planet Films. And while he remains at Code Film, he recently finalized separate representation in the Montreal ad market via Cinelande.
Yet his most significant representation deal was made stateside as he came aboard Santa Monica-based TWC. Ogus says he is committed to developing his career in the American market. He opted for TWC based on its boutique size and feel, its reputation in comedy, partner/executive producer Mark Thomas’ track record of helping to develop directorial careers and his high regard for the career building prowess and pedigree of executive producer Steve Ross, particularly for his exec credentials having worked with director Kinka Usher at House of Usher Films, Santa Monica. Meanwhile the entrepreneurial spirit reflected in his salad dressing and directorial pursuits lives on.
Not satisfied with the current choices in floor lamps for his Toronto loft, he created his own series of lighting concepts now available through Ogus Designs. The line of contemporary lamps has been picked up by assorted retailers from Beverly Hills to Manhattan; they’ve been featured in Azure, Style at Home and Toronto Life and have become popular props for films and commercials. Adria Petty
Describing herself as “obsessed with culture”–pop and otherwise–Adria Petty has explored the former in a feature documentary about Paris Hilton, which captures a side of the heiress that’s quite a departure from the TMZ norm. And now Petty’s culture study has led her to make her first major foray into commercialmaking, coming aboard Santa Monica-based harvest, her first career spot roost.
“I like the idea that great, clever spots can make an impact on the marketplace and on our culture–I think the new Dove commercial [“Onslaught,” which is this week’s “Top Spot,” directed by Tim Piper of Ogilvy & Mather, Toronto] is a great example of that,” says Petty. “And I feel like I’m coming into this area at a great time. In fact, I’m pleasantly surprised by how noncommercial agency people are willing to be.”
The latter assessment is based on her first two harvest-produced jobs: a McDonald’s project for the mainstream English and Hispanic markets (via del Rivero Messianu DDB, Coral Gables, Fla.), which she wasn’t at liberty to discuss in detail since it hadn’t yet broke at press time; and a Target assignment for Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Suffice it to say that the McDonald’s spot doesn’t brand the client until the very end. “It’s a positive vibe piece which only at the conclusion identifies McDonald’s,” she relates.
And Target’s “Portal” shows people walking through the doors of Target department stores–only the doors are in the great outdoors, right in local communities. And with each opening of a different set of doors, portals of opportunity open for those in the community, reflecting that charitable donations Target makes to local neighborhoods (based on a percentage of customer purchases), amount to some $3 million a week.
“Working with the creatives at Wieden was the best film experience I’ve ever had,” she relates. “It was collaborative, fun, yet grounded in marketing, with us branding Target through the ever opening doors, reflecting the multicultural community of Target customers and combining and being playful with 2D and 3D elements in the process.”
Petty came to harvest with a music video background and the feature length “culture of celebrity” documentary on Paris Hilton. “I went on a tour to a bunch of different production companies and had a soulful connection with [harvest partner/executive producer Bonnie Goldfarb]. It all clicked and made sense, she understood my work and my intent, while certain other houses were telling me I’d be dreaming if I thought I’d be working in commercials…I appreciate the trust, commitment and the belief that Bonnie and harvest have placed in me.”
Indeed there have been some naysayers, as Petty herself was born into a culture of celebrity, residing in the shadow of rock icon Tom Petty. When she and Anna Gabriel (daughter of Peter Gabriel) initially worked as a directing team some years ago, “people thought we were dilettantes. But Anna has become a photographer, visual artist and is contributing through social documentary work. And I’ve been working hard for a long time.”
That hard work includes her serving as an intern and then an assistant at director Jonathan Demme’s company, and then as an assistant for director Penny Marshall. Petty then went back to film school (she earlier made short films while at Sarah Lawrence College), studying at NYU Graduate School, and then dovetailing into directing music videos.
Petty spent the past couple of years working as a marketing consultant at Warner Bros. Records, helping to break in new artists. Among her music video directorial credits are clips for The Dittybops, Stellastarr and Regina Spektor.
But now her focus is on commercials and collaboration with agency creatives. “Ad agencies have worked so hard to sell a script. And while I want to contribute, I have to respect what went into getting the project off the ground. I want to help bring that creative to life as best and as accurately as I can. And now the journey spans more than commercials in this market–it’s really important to cultivate an audience through virals, blogs, new forms. I hope to enjoy multi-platform experiences with agencies through harvest.” Christopher Hutsul
After debuting as a commercial director last year with an outrageous campaign for The Hargrave Pub produced by Untitled, Toronto, for Lowe Roche, Toronto, Christopher Hutsul has seen his career steadily progress and recently made two major changes in his production house status. He exited Untitled to come aboard Soft Citizen Films, Toronto, about a month and a half ago. And shortly thereafter he secured his first stateside representation, signing with Sleeper Films, the bicoastal shop launched by executive producer Alex Blum and veteran sales/marketing exec Drew Miller.
Hutsel took a circuitous route to the director’s chair. He graduated from the general arts program of the Ontario College of Art and Design. For his first two years professionally he focused on selling his art–including woodblock print creations and etchings–in galleries. “I found myself working hard for a minimum reward,” he recalls. “I also found myself working alone a lot and feeling isolated. I wanted to put a creative energy back into work that would make me feel more part of society at large.”
Sans any experience in journalism, he landed a job at the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest daily newspaper. He established himself as a journalist, columnist and cartoonist there over the next five years. He enjoyed the gig and more importantly, he says, “It taught me that if you can get an opportunity to work in an industry and prove yourself, it doesn’t necessarily matter if you have the traditional experience normally required. By being creative and having a fresh outlook–and not having the politics of others who are trying to get into that industry–you can really prosper.”
Having learned not to limit himself, Hutsul eyed a career in advertising, initially thinking about copywriting and then the long-term goal of becoming a creative director. “But when I started getting into it, I got intrigued by directing, being able to draw from my writing experience, my storytelling via comics in the newspaper and my art background for art direction.”
At the time, Hutsul’s wife, Tory Osler, was an executive producer at Untitled. She arranged to bring Hutsul into the company for a look-see and he snagged The Hargrave Pub assignment from Toronto agency Lowe Roche. The spots are an on-the-edge hoot. For example, in “Hair,” a teenage daughter is in a parked car’s front passenger seat, next to her mother who’s behind the wheel. The shy daughter works up the nerve to ask her mom one of those awkward puberty-related questions: “Is it okay to grow hair down there.”
Without skipping a heartbeat, the mother responds, “No, you’re a freak.”
A super offers advice, which explains the mom’s immediate off-the-cuff response. It reads, “Save your right answers” for trivia night which is every evening at The Hargrave Pub.
The three-spot campaign–which also included a high school counselor and the son of a hospitalized mother saving their right answers–put Hutsel on the directorial map. “If that campaign didn’t go well, I’m not sure where or what my career would be today,” says Hutsul.
But as it turned out, the pub fare laid a foundation for Hutsul to build upon, his latest completed job being a viral spot for Mac’s convenience stores’ WTF frosty orange drink from agency Bos, Toronto. With different directors given the creative freedom to create spots explaining where WTF juice comes from, Hutsul came up with a robot humping a pommel horse to produce the refreshing beverage.
Other Hutsul-helmed commercials include Lipton Brisk’s “Hunter” for DDB Toronto, in which an errant rifle shot hits a man drinking Lipton tea and he doesn’t even seem to notice. The tagline, “Make taste your dominant sense.”
And there’s a Toronto Zoo “music video” spot titled “Hiss At You” for Lowe Roche in which a Madagascar cockroach plays the guitar and sings. He warns that if you get in his grill, he will “hiss at you.”
At press time, Hutsul was about to embark on an assignment for Shaw Communications, a telecommunications company, out of BBDO Toronto. Gualter Pupo
This production designer extraordinaire recently picked up an honor in that discipline from the AICP Show on the strength of Burger King’s “More Mayo” spot directed by Bryan Buckley of bicoastal/international Hungry Man for Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Miami. Among other notable collaborations was the lauded MINI Cooper “Counterfeit” fare, also helmed by Buckley and production designed by Pupo.
So it’s no surprise that Hungry Man recognized a special talent in Pupo and last year supported his transition to spot director with an offbeat TV promo ad for 89 FM Radio in Sao Paulo, Brazil, produced by Hungry Man’s Rio de Janeiro office. Pupo makes his home in Rio.
Titled “Meaningless,” the combo live-action/animation/post/visual effects 89 FM spot carried considerable meaning for Pupo, generating momentum for his directorial career. Via Hungry Man Rio, he has helmed an ambitious live-action/effects/animation commercial for petroleum company Petrobas (Lubras motor oil), a mixed media music video for performer Carlinhos Brown and a recently wrapped spot for a Latin American Internet service.
His latest ad credit is a PSA for the Onda Azul Foundation which was featured earlier this month in SHOOT’s “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery. Out of Rio de Janeiro agency QUE, the mixed media commercial shows how certain chemicals degrade water, turning pristine oxygen rich H2O into a swampy quagmire, the poignant visual payoff being a dead, oxygen-starved fish in a dark murky lake bed.
“It’s been a tremendous ride, having the opportunities to continue to production design while moving into directing,” says Pupo.
“My experience as a production designer working with Bryan [Buckley] I think helped make me better equipped to become a director. And Hungry Man has been quite supportive of that.”
Indeed that support has manifested itself yet again with Strange Detective Tales, an animation series that Pupo is directing for Hungry Man TV, the production house’s web channel on which several episodic series have already debuted.
Based on the comic book series by Jesse Bausch and James Callahan, Strange Detective Tales is premiering on Hungry Man TV (www.hungrymantv.com) this month.
Phillip Van
An interactive ad for Tide’s Pure Essentials line (Procter & Gamble) is the first spot wrapped by director Phillip Van. The project was produced by Los Angeles-headquartered Little Minx, a division of RSA which he recently joined.
It was Van’s short film work that caught the attention of Little Minx founding director Rhea Scott who assesses that Van “is a rare find who has the ability to tell poignant original stories on the tightest of budgets.” She envisions him as a collaborator with agencies not only on commercials but new media forms.
Currently winding down his commitments as a student at NYU’s graduate film program, Van has helmed notable short film fare, including Dunny, which scored on the festival circuit, gaining exposure at U.S. shows as well as Berlin and Austria fests, among many others.
His most prominent short, though, is High Maintenance, a comedic, tongue-in-cheek look at how male/female relationships might evolve in the future, offering a wry commentary on the direction that consumerism and romance are headed today. He gained a good portion of the funding for the short from the Berlin Film Festival, after being deemed a winner in its competition gleaned from 3,000 applicants to make a short. Based on a script by Simon Biggs, which Van then redrafted in part, High Maintenance scored assorted honors, including a 2007 Student Academy Award (silver) for best narrative, earning distinction as the winning U.S. entry and one of four films worldwide chosen for Kodak’s showcase at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, garnering the ’07 Gen Art Film Festival Grand Jury and Audience Awards for best short, winning the ’07 HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival Grand Jury Award for best student short and the ’07 Delta Fly-In Movies competition at the Sundance Film Festival.
At press time, Van was about to embark on a short for Little Minx’s Exquisite Corpse project (SHOOT, 10/5) in which he will make a short film inspired by the last line of a short made by one of his directorial colleagues at Little Minx. The Little Minx initiative, designed to showcase its directors’ talents, is based on the surrealist parlor game Exquisite Corpse in which players develop a story piecemeal, each participant providing input line by line to create a bigger, sometimes outlandish tale. A new short debuts every two weeks, the kickoff short being one by Little Minx’s Laurent Briet that debuted on www.littleminx.tv on Oct. 1, followed by director Chris Nelson’s on Oct. 15. The order of Little Minx directors following Nelson consists of Malik Hasan Sayeed, Josh Miller, Van and Fatima Robinson. The shorts are custom made for download to iPhone, iPod and PlayStation Portable, casting a wide net of new media outlet exposure as new media entertainment studio Idealogue (working in concert with Little Minx on Exquisite Corpse), targets content aggregators, social networks, blogs and sharing/trading between and among peer groups.
Having already demonstrated his short film acumen, Van is eager to take on commercials and related ad forms. He observes, “I think there’s more than a little irony in the fact that a medium that is by definition for commerce also thrives on the most creative and artful concepts and voices in the world. There’s no place better than commercials for truly unique, subversive, original and compelling ideas.”
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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