Director/DP Damien Toogood has signed with Accomplice Media for U.S. representation, and stepped straight into working with DDB San Francisco and its creative director Sam Brown.
“Damien’s visual style and quirkiness, when it came to casting, were exactly what we were looking for,” Brown said. “Utilizing his skills in cinematography, in addition to his directing talent, made our collaboration a smooth and exciting process. He’s also a very funny guy!”
Toogood was previously represented by Believe Media’s comedy unity Dapper. He has directed spots for Dodge, Samsung, Ford, Nescafe and Hyundai, among others. His work has been recognized in awards from Cannes to One Show, D&AD and others as well as garnering millions of views online.
“Damien is a storyteller. He’s a funny guy and his work lands very naturally in the comedy and performance world,” observes Accomplice Media executive producer Jeff Snyder. “He also has a lot of range and interests. You see it in projects like UNOS (a PSA for the United Network for Organ Sharing) that have touches of humor but tend toward the heart-warming. He is brimming with ideas and energy.”
As well as being a director and cinematographer, Toogood has worked with both agencies and clients on ideation and scripts. Among his recent efforts is the UNOS spot. Produced in conjunction with Publicis, New York, the spot has generated more than 45 million unpaid views. His “Guilt Trips” spot for the Australian rail company V/Line was part of a broader campaign out of McCann in Melbourne that won a Cannes Festival of Creativity Grand Prix for Creative Effectiveness.
“Script and cast, that’s all that matters,” said Toogood. “Comedy is binary and elusive. It’s either funny or it’s not, which is why I have a strong vision and love working closely with the team as the spot evolves in pre-production.”
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
The one rule to follow is that... Read More