ARDMORE, Penn.-SBK Pictures, Ardmore, Penn., has added food/tabletop director Viktor Budnik to its roster. Budnik was most recently represented by Five Union Square Productions, New York.
"Food is a huge part of advertising and we felt that Viktor was doing nice work and could offer creative solutions to our clients," explained Jeffrey Berry, president/director at SBK.
Budnik began his career more than 20 years ago as a still photographer, where he owned and operated his own studio that was first based in Northern California before moving down south to Venice. He initially got involved in shooting food when a friend challenged him to prepare a dish of his choice and then take a still photograph of it. While he claims it wasn’t the best picture he’d ever taken, the experience got him hooked.
During the ’80s, Budnik shot print for both publishing houses and advertising agencies, as well as over 30 cookbooks, subsequently forming many relationships within the ad world. He claimed that, at the time, there was a big shift from shooting food as a still, stagnant entity to something more beautiful and inviting.
Budnik’s initial foray into commercialmaking came in ’95 when Beth McConnell, then creative director (now a freelance creative director) at Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer/Euro RSCG, New York, suggested he try his hand at tabletop directing for Messner clients Lean Cuisine and Stouffer’s. McConnell had been working for the agency on several print jobs.
At the same time, Budnik scored a similar opportunity when he hooked up with director Jim Beresford of Dallas-based commercial house The James Gang. "Jim was instrumental in helping me make the jump from print to directing because he literally picked me up and dropped me in boiling water. He taught me a lot," related Budnik, who directed spots with The James Gang for Coors Light, Don Pablos and QFC, a supermarket chain out of Seattle.
The sum of his experiences with Messner and The James Gang afforded Budnik the opportunity to put a reel together and start shopping for commercial representation. Budnik was briefly represented as a tabletop director by WertsFilms, a spot production house run by director Bill Werts. When Werts joined San Rafael, Calif.-based Industrial Light+Magic Commercial Productions (ILMCP), the WertsFilms office in Los Angeles became ILMCP’s Southern California headquarters (SHOOT, 3/28/97, p. 1), leaving Budnik looking for representation again.
He talked to nearly 20 production companies before signing that summer with Five Union Square, New York, where he directed such spots as Ragu’s "They’ll Say" and "What Do You Think?" and Entenmann’s "Cereal Bars" and "Fruit Tarts." Both the Ragu and Entenmann’s assignments were for Bates, New York. Budnik was also represented by Toronto-based The Partners’ Film Co. from ’97 to ’98 for Canadian projects.
Budnik joins an SBK directorial roster of Berry, company VP Jim McGorman and Christopher Yurkow. The company’s sales force consists of independent reps Cindy Nelson in New York, Deborah Zwayer in the Midwest and Celeste Anlauf on the West Coast.
