Elle Ginter–who earned inclusion into SHOOT’s 2016 New Directors Showcase, and was selected earlier this year for the DGA and AICP’s Commercial Directors Diversity Showcase–has come aboard the roster of Sanctuary Content, the production house headed by founder/EP Preston Lee.
Ginter has already wrapped her first project with Sanctuary, a Father’s Day spot for Buffalo Wild Wings out of TBWAChiatDay, Los Angeles. The ad showcases Ginter’s skill for capturing honest, intimate moments in sweet simplicity as a girl bonds with her dad while watching sports.
Ginter took a circuitous route to directing. After getting her degree in journalism, she moved to Boston where she began working on a whale-watching boat. A chance meeting with a casting director led to work as a PA on local feature sets. On the sets she quickly worked her way into the camera department, eventually becoming a 1st AC before finally landing back in New York City as a writer and art director on commercial shoots.
Driven to add insight into modern culture, and to use her work to give a voice to those who may not have one, Ginter wrote and directed the short Why We Wake, in which she explores depression in an honest and artful manner. The body of directing work she’s carved out over the past couple of years reveals her unique style for blending the intimate and surreal moments of everyday life in unexpected ways. Ginter earned a slot in SHOOT’s 14th Annual New Directors Showcase on the strength of her docu short Sugar Plum. The film profiles professional ballerina Lindsey Croop who reflects back to her childhood as she prepares to fulfill her dream of dancing the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy.
Lee related, “I’ve been watching Elle’s work for some time. She’s passionate, excited, hungry, and incredibly creative–and, at 29-years old, she’s just getting started. I’m honestly humbled to get the opportunity to work with talent like her and the entire roster at Sanctuary.”
Ginter said that she knew a traditional, larger production company wouldn’t be the right fit, “My career has been fairly untraditional at this point. When I talked to Preston, I realized he’s a really out-of-the-box person and inspires that kind of thinking in everyone around him. Every time I talk to him I leave feeling energized…That’s something we have in common–trying to do things in a new, fresh, creative way and that’s something I look forward to growing at Sanctuary.”
