Learning from Smart People
By Robert Goldrich
It’s already been an eventful year for director Noam Murro of Los Angeles-based Biscuit Filmworks. To kick off 2008, he was nominated for the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award as best commercial director of 2007 on the basis of Volkswagen Golf’s “Night Drive” for DDB London, Orbit Gum’s “Affair” from Energy BBDO, Chicago, and the National Basketball Association’s “Remember” via Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco.
This marked Murro’s fifth DGA Award nomination in the past six years. (He won the coveted DGA honor for his work in ’04.)
On the heels of his latest DGA nom, Murro saw his feature directorial debut Smart People make its world premiere in late January at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The romantic comedy was well received, garnering favorable reviews. In fact, several critics observed that describing Smart People as merely a romantic comedy doesn’t do it justice. Some regard the film as not only a comedy but a poignant character study as people deal with personal loss, romance and fear of emotional growth. The cast includes Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker and Ellen Page (who was cast before her triumph in Juno). The film is being distributed by Miramax and is slated for an April 11 release.
Well informed
So while the film is indeed smart, did Murro himself learn any life’s lesson from Smart People? How does he feel the feature experience will inform his commercialmaking? (At press time Murro was in Europe directing a U.K. market spot project for an undisclosed client). How did his experience over the years in commercials inform his work on Smart People?
The answer to all the above is quite “simple,” according to Murro. “You learn no matter what you do. I’m not trying to dodge being specific. But it’s as basic as that. And it goes both ways–you bring to it and you bring from it, both for commercials and features. One informs the other.
“I do know,” he continues, “that if I’m invited again to do a feature and hopefully I will be at some point, I will try to bring more people from my commercial experience into that project. The people who work with me on a daily basis on commercials are the best in the world.”
For Smart People, Murro managed to bring in some of his spot community collaborators, including DP Toby Irwin and in pre-pro the director tapped into Biscuit executive producers Shawn Lacy and Gary Naccarato.
And while there are distinct differences in spot and feature filmmaking, ultimately the bottom line is the same, observes Murro, underscoring why his talented spot collaborators can successfully and rather seamlessly transition into the feature flow.
“Yes, commercials and features are different political animals,” relates Murro. “And they are slightly different creative animals in that with a feature you have a much more evolving story and character development. But the true essence at the end of the day is that you are still dealing with the same ultimate issue–how do you get what you want in your head across to an audience on film?
“For me, when you shoot eighty to ninety days a year for a decade, you can’t help but learn something about that,” he smiles. And operating within budgetary constraints is also nothing new to Murro who had to apply some of that acumen to Smart People.
“It was a relatively low budget movie. We shot it in twenty-eight days. That can be challenging but at the same time working fast and smart is sometimes the best way.”
As for the Sundance Fest, Murro says he had “a great time. I always wanted to go to Sundance but told myself I’m not going until I can go with a movie.”
Murro is grateful to get the opportunity to direct Smart People and to finally go to Sundance. And he is most gratified to continue his commercialmaking.
“I feel even more recharged creatively getting back into commercials now,” he relates. “I feel fortunate to have had such a great ride in filmmaking and I want very much to continue collaborating with creative people.”
Part of that ride has been the DGA Award recognition over the years. When SHOOT connected with Murro right after he received his latest DGA nomination, he shared, “The fifth time [being nominated] still feels like the first. I’m as excited and honored as I was the very first time. It never gets old to get this kind of recognition from your peers. A big part of the DGA honor is being included with the other nominees whose work I love.”
Murro was also conscious of what it takes to even get the chance to be nominated, acknowledging the agency artisans who not only provide rich creative but also trust him to help them realize their ideas. Without that trust, you cannot get the quality and range that merits DGA consideration, he observes.
And this fifth nomination was no exception in that the spots he entered into the competition showcase that range. “The idea is to put forth work that represents a variety of styles and tones–in this case [for his fifth DGA nomination] humor [Orbit’s ‘Affair’], heart [the NBA’s ‘Remember’] and visual [VW’s ‘Night Drive’],” he says. “I feel very fortunate.”
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More