Welcome to the Special Fall 2017 Edition of SHOOT’s Directors Series. Our mix of profiles includes several filmmakers whose work has entered this season’s Oscar conversation, including Sean Baker for The Florida Project, Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton for Battle of the Sexes, Stephen Frears for Victoria & Abdul, Craig Gillespie for I, Tonya, Todd Haynes for Wonderstruck, Reginald Hudlin for Marshall and Dee Rees for Mudbound.
Within this group, there are strong ties to commercialmaking. Gillespie, who’s with MJZ for commercials and branded content, is a DGA Award winner (and four-time nominee) for Best Commercial Director of the Year. The Dayton/Faris duo, which made its first feature splash with the lauded Little Miss Sunshine, has enjoyed ad biz success during a long, ongoing tenure at production house Bob Industries. Haynes is repped in the spot/branded content arena by Moxie Pictures. And last year Baker earned a Tribeca X Award nomination, a competition that celebrates branded storytelling, for the short film Snowbird starring Abbey Lee, part of a fashion campaign for KENZO.
Also in the SHOOT Series lineup of profiles are Miles Jay of Smuggler, who recently won the primetime commercial Emmy Award for Squarespace’s “Calling JohnMalkovich.com”; and Damian Kulash who’s breaking new branded ground at Park Pictures. The lead singer, guitarist and founder of rock band OK Go, Kulash has successfully extended his reach into filmmaking as reflected in Morton Salt’s “The One Moment which has won assorted accolades including six Cannes Lions this year along with a Wood Pencil at the D&ADs, and an AICP Show honor for Best Production. The Cannes bounty consisted of a Gold Digital Craft Lion, a Gold Design Lion, a Silver Film Craft Lion, a Bronze Film Craft Lion, a Bronze Film Lion in Viral, and a Bronze PR Lion.
Meanwhile our ensemble of up-and-coming talent consists of: a noted actress who’s making her directorial debut with an upcoming HBO documentary; a music video/spot/short film helmer who’s gotten his first meaningful taste of long-form fare via a Netflix TV series he co-created; a still photographer who has successfully diversified into moving imagery, directing spots, shorts and branded fare on both sides of the Atlantic; a filmmaker who brings agency creative chops and BBC production experience to her first production company affiliation in the U.S.; and a director at one with nature, adept at the deployment of drones, and who made a major mark with a short film that scored on the festival circuit.
And then in our Cinematographers & Cameras Series, we meet three DPs—one who has lensed eight Sundance Film Festival premieres in the past seven years; another who’s in pre-pro on his sixth feature for the same noted director, the last release being a Disney live-action film that sprung from the beloved animation classic Beauty and the Beast; and a lenser who too enjoyed a recent return engagement with a director/writer for whom he previously collaborated with in both the feature and TV series worlds.
