Backyard Productions, headquartered in Venice, has extended its reach internationally, launching a full-service office in Cape Town, South Africa. Dubbed Backyard SA, the new venture is a partnership with veteran executive producer Janette De Villiers who will act as the company’s managing director and will continue to separately maintain Groundglass, her South African production service company.
Groundglass has produced hundreds of international jobs over the years, including many for Backyard. Backyard SA will offer Backyard’s director roster to the South African advertising community and will serve as a resource for American advertisers wanting to shoot overseas.
“We’re partnering with a like- minded person in Janette,” said Blair Stribley, Backyard’s president/partner. “She has the personality and energy that fits right in with the Backyard brand, and Janette is known internationally for her exceptional production track record. This move gives our clients a great alternative location to consider shooting.”
De Villiers said of introducing Backyard’s roster to South Africa, “Creatively, they’re a very good fit for this market. More and more American advertisers want to shoot here and now they can with a trusted brand.”
In recent years, Backyard has gotten a lot of interest from clients considering production in South Africa which offers diverse locations, top-level crews, a deep acting pool and a very production-friendly environment. Plus, U.S. advertising dollars stretch further with the value of the dollar against the Rand.
DGA Spot Nominees: Lance Acord, Kim Gehrig, Tim Heidecker & Eric Wareheim, Andreas Nilsson, Ivan Zacharias
This year’s field of nominees for the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award recognizing Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials consists of a filmmaker who’s won the honor each of the last two years, another past winner, a five-time nominee, a helmer who’s just picked up his second career nod, and a duo garnering their very first Guild nomination. The latter is the directorial team of Tim Heidecker & Eric Wareheim of production house PRETTYBIRD. The director now going for her third consecutive DGA Award win is Kim Gehrig of Somesuch. The other past winner is Andreas Nilsson of Biscuit Filmworks. Nilsson won the honor in 2016 and now has three career nominations. Lance Acord of Park Pictures just earned his fifth career DGA Award nomination in the commercials category--his four prior nods coming in 2004, 2012, 2013 and 2017. And scoring his second career DGA nod is Ivan Zacharias of SMUGGLER who was previously nominated in 2023. The work Gehrig earned her third straight nomination on the strength of three entries: SiriusXM’s “A Life in Sound” for agency Uncommon; Nike’s “Am I A Bad Person?” for Wieden+Kennedy, and the Apple client-direct spot titled “Find Your Friends.” Nilsson’s latest nomination came for Hennessy’s “Board Game” out of Wieden+Kennedy London; Andrex’s “First Office Poo” for FCB London; the client-direct Apple spot “One More”; and Virgin Media’s “Whizzer” for VCCP London. Acord’s fifth career nod is for Volkswagen’s “An American Love Story” out of agency Johannes Leonardo. Zacharias’ second career nomination is for Apple’s “Flock” out of TBWAMedia Arts Lab. And the duo of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim nabbed their first... Read More