Director Chris Muir has joined Eleanor, the production house under the aegis of executive producer Sophie Gold. He comes aboard a directorial lineup which includes Kate Cox, Woods, Adrian De Sa Garces, Kacper Larski, Elias Ressegatti, Kelsey Taylor, Sean Thonson, Dawit N.M. and Alice Waddington.
Muir continues to be repped in his native Canada by production company Radke. Gold sought him out upon learning he was not currently being handled by a U.S. production company (earlier he had been repped by Little Ugly in the American market).
“Chris is so exciting to me because I love his technique,” said Gold. “There’s this element of heightened reality in his commercials, with a patina of the surreal. It demonstrates to me his total commitment to craft and visual storytelling, and that’s a combination to which creative people will always respond.” Eleanor has already booked its first job for Muir who will be heading off to Mexico in mid-December for the shoot.
The director’s work is visually interesting, entertaining and produced with an assortment of effects tricks that always work to propel the story forward such as his “Proline” spot for the online gaming service OLG where athletes in the midst of competition suddenly are lifted into the sky and transported into an ethereal, illuminated plus sign, which transforms into the OLG app on your smartphone. Another example of Muir’s mettle is insurance company Desjardins’ “Your Selfie Life” which compresses a woman’s adult life over 20 years into over 150 quick-cut “selfies” shown in a time-lapse narrative. And for Coke, Muir takes a runaway bottle of the beverage on a wild ride, pursued hotly by two young winter athletes.
Muir got his start as a classically-trained theater actor, graduating from the highly regarded program at the University of Windsor, but came to realize it wasn’t his calling. A fascination with photography, picked up from both his father and grandfather, led him to a life behind the lens, working first as a photographer who focused on editorial assignments, and later as a DP in commercials. He’s been directing on his own now for the past five years.
He believes that where he’s at now, both personally and professionally, shows that his life and career have come full circle. “Given my training as an actor, I can speak with the cast about how it would feel for them to be in these heightened situations, and my background in photography and cinematography helps me articulate what I’m after with the DP. It ties together all of the things I’ve done before in a way that’s really enjoyable and gratifying.”
Eleanor is represented on the East Coast by Anya Zander and Jenn Johnson of Hustle, in the Midwest by Matt Bucher of Obsidian Reps and on the West Coast by Melissa Ross of Melissa Ross Represents.
