Los Angeles-based production company HOUND has further bolstered its brand content arm by adding director Ken Karpel to its roster. While attending film school in Australia, Karpel signed with a production company based on a first-year short film, and was already directing spots full-time by the time he graduated. From there, he was accepted into the University Of Austin, Texas Semester In LA Program, which led to him working on the show Pushing Daisies, and writing/directing segments for the variety program Not Your Average Joe Show. Karpel returned to Australia to write and direct commercials and television for Foxtel, Australia’s biggest TV studio. He’s since worked with Collider in Australia, Bakery Films in Germany, Target Pictures in Prague, and Esse House in the Ukraine. Directing content all around the globe, Karpel has worked with clients ranging from adidas, Jeep, Netflix, Nestle, UniCredit Bank and E.ON. Karpel’s distinct style and humanity-driven storytelling can be seen in the spots he directed for adidas and Jeep, clients which both trusted him so much they let him improvise scenes and work with the actors to develop compelling character arcs to play around with, most of which ended up in the final commercials….
Superseed, a bicoastal commercial production house led by executive producer Pola Brown, has signed Alauda Ruiz de Azúa and Felipe Gomez Aparicio, international directors of commercials and film. Alauda works out of Madrid and Felipe is based in Madrid and Buenos Aires. Both directors professionally go by their first names only. They work in English and Spanish, they have directed Spanish language commercials in the U.S. and will be collaborating with Superseed on U.S. general market productions for global brands. Felipe started directing commercials in 2006 and won a Cannes Bronze Lion in 2008 for the Pepsico spot “Kisses” and a Silver Lion for his “Duets” campaign for Brewery and Malting Quilmes. Other standout campaigns include work on Mercedes Benz in Brazil, as well as Volkswagen and Renault in Argentina. For VIVO he helmed a spot starring Brazilian football star Pelé. He also shot a Banco Francés campaign which won a Gold mention in “Financial Services” at the Effie Awards. Felipe directed The Story of Lucy, a three-minute short film with the agency Energy BBDO Chicago for the Johnson & Johnson brand Windex. It was shortlisted at the Clios. Felipe’s recent work is a series of short films for Renault (Publicis Graffiti) that he shot in Argentina and Chile. He works regularly for Del Campo, Brazil Almap BBDO, BBDO Argentina, Sra. Rushmore Madrid, F/Nazca, Brazil, Argentina JWT, DDB Sao Paulo, Argentina, Publicis Lisbon, Publicis Graffiti, and BBH Sao Paulo. Alauda wrote and directed two short films: Clases Particulares (Private Lessons, 2005) and Dicen (They Say, 2011), which combined have collected more than 100 national and international awards. She began her commercial career as a director in 2007. She has helmed spots for brands such as Toyota, Coca-Cola, Samsung, Once, Mapfre, BBVA, AXA, JCPenney, McDonald’s and Orange….
Creative and digital agency We Are Royale (Royale) has hired Chad Howitt as creative director. Howitt, who brings a background in live-action production, VFX and design, will be based out of the agency’s Los Angeles office. A versatile creative director and filmmaker, Howitt is adept at blending the worlds of narrative storytelling and visual effects. Prior to freelancing at Royale, he was a creative director at Wolf & Crow, collaborating on feature film projects, and ad campaigns for such clients as Apple and Google, as well as directing a Skull Candy headphones spot featuring NBA player Kevin Durant. Howitt previously served as a compositing lead at Psyop Los Angeles, and a designer/animator/compositor at Motion Theory, where he contributed to the award-winning HP “Hands” campaign, among others. With a decade of experience in the commercial industry, his client list includes notable brands such as VW, Honda, Marvel, Ubisoft, Under Armour, The Grammys, and Westin Hotels. In 2017, Howitt was one of 13 directors selected to participate in the inaugural AICP/DGA Commercial Director’s Diversity Program. His first documentary, Welcome to The Last Bookstore, has won several awards and screened at Academy Award-qualifying festivals, including AFI and Cinequest….
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More