Creative production company Where The Buffalo Roam (WTBR) has signed director Jack Henry Robbins for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content. This marks his first representation in the advertising arena.
Robbins’ filmography as a writer and director includes features and shorts; two of the latter made the Sundance Film Festival cut–Hot Winter: A Film by Dick Pierre in 2017, and Painting with Joan in 2018. Hot Winter: A Film by Dick Pierre was billed as one of the first films in American cinema to address climate change–as well as a hardcore porno with all sex scenes removed as to not distract from the conscious message. Next, Painting with Joan spoofed TV’s favorite art instructor, Bob Ross. Robbins also has to his credit a music mockumentary titled Ultimate Ultimate, which Comedy Central picked up when he was just 23. The network also piloted an episodic adaptation of the film.
Now Robbins, a USC Film School graduate, is bringing his offbeat filmmaking style to the advertising space, most notably with a viral web campaign for Hot Pockets.
Robbins’ other cinematic projects range widely from These Storied Streets, a documentary on America’s homeless crisis, to a feature-length comedy, VHYES, which had a theatrical run and was sold to Hulu in 2020 after being certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
More recently, Robbins has created and wrote an animated half-hour series in development with Bento Box, the creators of Bob’s Burgers. He sees his storytelling style as Christopher Guest-ian, with an eye to comedic realism and the self-reflexive, but has the ability to shift his aesthetic to fit the needs of each project. He’s also well-versed in editing and, consequently, has a precise eye.
“Jack is a really engaged and talented writer/director, on top of being an hilarious and lovely guy,” remarked Simon Mowbray, creative director at WTBR. “I met him through my husband, who owns a plant shop. He told me about this too-tall, very strange and funny guy he met there who made films. This is L.A., so even tall and odd filmmakers aren’t exactly thin on the ground. Anyway, we went to see Jack’s film VHYes, and it was bizarre, strange, and touching. It made me laugh a whole lot.”
Robbins added, “I take on every project with a sneakiness to make the viewer think, with the hope that my films make the world feel a bit more agreeable and a whole lot more fun. I look forward to bringing my experience and worldview in a way that is complementary to the WTBR team.”
WTBR maintains offices in Oakland and Los Angeles. Robbins is represented by Artists First Management for film/TV writing and directing.
From Restoring To Hopefully Preserving Multi-Camera Categories At The Emmys
When Gary Baum, ASC won his fourth career Emmy Award earlier this month, it was especially gratifying in that the honor came in a category--Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Half-Hour Series--that had been restored thanks in part to a grass-roots initiative among cinematographers to drum up entries. Last year the category fell by the wayside when not enough multi-camera entries materialized.
In his acceptance speech, Baum appealed to the Television Academy to keep multi-camera categories alive. He later noted to SHOOT that editors also got their multi-camera recognition back in the Emmy competition this year. Baum hopes that after resurrecting multi-camera categories in 2024, such recognition will be preserved for 2025 and beyond.
A major factor in the decline of multi-camera submissions in 2023 was the move of certain children’s and family programming from the primetime Emmy competition to the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ (NATAS) Emmy ceremony. For DPs this meant that multi-camera programs last year were reduced to vying for just one primetime nomination slot in the more general Outstanding Cinematography for a Series (Half-Hour) category. It turned out that this single slot was filled in ‘23 by a Baum-lensed episode of How I Met Your Father (Hulu).
Fast forward to this year’s competition and Baum won for another installment of How I Met Your Father--”Okay Fine, It’s A Hurricane,” which turned out to be the series finale. Two of Baum’s Emmy wins over the years have been for How I Met Your Father, and there’s a certain symmetry to them. His initial win for How I Met Your Father was for the pilot in 2022. So he won Emmys for the very first and last... Read More