RSA Films has added the Freise Brothers–Nathan and Adam Freise–to its directorial roster for commercial representation. Known for cinematic, design-inspired storytelling, the duo has to its credit spots for the Newport Beach Film Festival, homeless assistance agency PATH, On Shoes and jeweler Atelier Minyon. But it was their own indie production of Tesla’s Not A Dream that landed the Freise Brothers firmly in the spotlight. The branded spec film depicts a Tesla in its electric car splendor visiting a surreal land of oil and gas, and captured the attention of visionary Tesla co-founder Elon Musk who tweeted to nearly 4 million followers that he loved the video.
“We admire and love working with brands that want to change the world in a creative way,” said Nathan Freise. “We were inspired after reading Nikola Tesla’s biography, then seeing David Bowie play him in The Prestige. We shot Not A Dream over two days in the desert and spent two months on post. We shared it on Tesla’s content page and started getting traction in the press. One night Adam was up late in Los Angeles with his newborn and thought his phone was malfunctioning because he kept getting pinged with Twitter notifications. I was in Taipei where my wife is from and was experiencing the same thing over breakfast. We got on the phone and realized Elon Musk had tweeted our Tesla film. That’s when we knew it had really caught on.”
Jules Daly, president of RSA Films, described Nathan and Adam Freise as “very talented storytellers with a unique cinematic style, drawing from backgrounds as designers in the architectural space, as well as nimbleness in visual effects.”
From Union, Missouri, outside of St. Louis, The Freise Brothers, 35, are twins. Adam focuses on actors’ performances while Nathan is in his element behind the camera. They thrive on the upfront collaboration with clients, as well as on-set production and post; both are versatile in animation, rendering and computer modeling from working as designers at architectural firms in Chicago. In 2008 they moved to New York for graduate school; Nathan attended SVA, while Adam went to the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture.
After collaborating on short film projects that were recognized in film festivals, Adam and Nathan moved to Los Angeles in 2012 via a stopover in Taos, New Mexico. There they filmed 4 Ton Dream, which uses the open country as a backdrop to invite the worn out to dream again. The Freise Brothers landed their first commercial representation at Biscuit Filmworks last year and earned a slot in SHOOT’s 2015 New Directors Showcase.
Eleanor Adds Director Candice Vernon To Its Roster For Spots and Branded Content
Director Candice Vernon has joined production house Eleanor for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content. She has already wrapped several jobs at Eleanor, which waited to announce her until they had a body of work together.
Via Eleanor, Vernon made history as the first Black director on a Febreze commercial. The “Small Spaces” campaign marks a major departure from Febreze’s typical blue-and-white world. The home of the “Revolving Door” commercial is a beautiful array of bold sunset hues, African prints, and African art.
Vernon said, “I asked myself, what feels right to me? What feels new? I wanted to bring an essence of not just Black Americans but the full diaspora. I wanted to make a statement that we’re not a monolith.”
Following the success of the “Small Spaces” campaign, Febreze brought Vernon back for a comedy-infused trifecta exploring the hilarious situations that call for an air freshening hero.
Febreze Brand VP Angelica Matthews said, “About two years ago, we realized the consumers that were the most loyal to Febreze were the African American consumers. And the more we learned, the more we realized the richness that we were really missing. So we said we have to go beyond just Black casting, we need to get Black directors that truly understand the culture that truly understand how to bring authentic performances out on screen. We really looked around the industry and noticed there’s actually a shortage of African American directors who have experience doing commercials. When we all saw Candice’s reel, we could all tell the passion for the craft, passion for really trying to help us from where we are to where we’re trying to go.”
Vernon brings a unique lens to... Read More