Compass Films, New York, has signed director Kim Dempster. She comes over after having departed bicoastal Lovinger/Cohn & Associates just prior to it being dissolved by company partners, president Jack Cohn and director Jeff Lovinger (SHOOT, 4/9, p.1).
Dempster had worked through Lovinger/Cohn since Sept. ’97. Previously, she had been a partner/director in now defunct New York-based shop Metro Films, which she helped form in early ’95; before that, she spent a year and a half directing out of now defunct O. Pictures.
Compass executive producer/head of sales Kathrin Lausch said she and her partner, executive producer/head of production Lise Ostbirk, met Dempster through mutual friends. Lausch explained that, although the company is known primarily for the international directors on its roster (namely Berlin-based Nico Beyer, Denmark-based Jan Gleie and U.K.-based Dan Nathan), they have always been interested in American directors, "especially if their reel is internationally on a certain level and [demonstrates] that they can work all over the world."
She noted they found this in Dempster’s reel, which displays European spots such as Pantene’s "Hair Talks" via Grey Advertising, London, and a German Nivea spot, as well as a most recent U.S. spot for Acuvue contact lenses out of McCann-Erickson, New York, that was filmed in South Africa.
Lausch said they both liked Dempster immediately, and were also impressed at the wide range evidenced in her work, which spans fashion and beauty, lifestyle and people. "It has a sensibility we liked," said Lausch. "And she’s worked in Europe a lot, so it just made sense."
For her part, Dempster had talked to a number of companies after leaving Lovinger/Cohn and found the best fit in Compass, which she praised as a "young, hip, edgy" company. "I feel like I belong [at Compass]," said Dempster. "I feel my reel belongs with the rest of the directors here; there’s a common style."
Feeling that her reel had begun to be a little more conservative at Lovinger/Cohn, Dempster said she has lately focused on garnering work with more of an edge to it. She has had success, as evidenced by a pair of assignments she cited: two Sprite spots, "Tyson" and "Alan Iverson" for Burrell Communications, Chicago; and "Would You Stop?" a PSA for Prevent Child Abuse Illinois out of the Chicago Creative Partnership.
"My original reel was very surreal and it kind of got me started doing beauty work," related Dempster, who initially line produced for such directors as David Fincher and Dominic Sena (both of bicoastal/international Propaganda Films) before she launched her own spot directing career. "The last eight months, I’ve really set my mind to trying to get a new kind of work. And [Lausch and Ostbirk] totally get the direction I’m going in; the stuff they pulled out to put on a new reel is the same stuff I love."
Lausch hopes that the addition of Dempster serves to broaden the industry’s perspective of what Compass Films is about. "In as much as we have these international directors who have an international sensibility," said Lausch, "and who shoot a lot in Europe, they definitely have a lot of American spots on their reels. We’re not that exotic of a company; I think we are pretty established as an American production company-and I think Kim is adding to that as well."
Lausch said they are bidding on several jobs for Dempster and related the company expects to announce another director signing soon.
Dempster joins a Compass roster also composed of Beyer, Gleie, Nathan, Kenan Moran and Don Hannah. The company is repped on the West Coast and in the Midwest by Deborah Marlowe and Ron Hoffman, and on the East Coast by Lisa Austin.
