U Ground has added director Jacques Rey to its roster. Rey comes over to the L.A.-based production house from bicoastal/international Propaganda Films, which has represented him since early 1997.
A graduate of Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, Rey began his career in the early 90s, working as a storyboard artist and then as a production designer on feature films (e.g., Batman & Robin) and music videos (Busta Rhymes Fired Up, Ice Cubes We Be Clubbin).
According to Rey, it was around the time he began doing production design that he first forayed into directing. I was doing it [production design] as a means to get more involved in the whole production, he said. Besides providing employment, it was kind of a way of educating myself in what I was going to be seeing as a director. It also helped make me knowledgeable in how to get things done extremely quickly.
Reys first spot through Propaganda was a big-budget, special effects piece, Factory, for Cheetos via DDB Needham Chicago-a break the director owed to Propagandas strong working relationship with DDB executive producer Greg Popp. In addition to live action, the spot used heavy design, CGI and animation (from Renegade Animation, Burbank) to create an industrialized fantasy Cheetos factory.
Reys other credits include nine spots (shot in four days) for 7-Up via Young & Rubicam, New York, a quick-cut, youth-oriented campaign characterized by what Rey termed gross, lewd humor. He completed a six-spot package for the Humane Society via Glennon & Company, St. Louis, which offers humorous reasons why people should have pets. Rey also directed a comedic Southwestern Bell spot via DMB&B, St. Louis, in which a generals phone conversation, from a missile command center to the president, gets repeatedly interrupted by incoming calls.
While Rey credited Propaganda with successfully helping build his reel, he said he was seeking a smaller production company, one that could offer greater attention and help him concentrate on his goals. I just felt it was better to go to more of a boutique shop, he explained. I like comedy a lot, I like great visuals, and I also like movement, kinetic energy. Thats basically where I want to go. They dont all have to be comedy, but they have to fulfill two of the three.
U Ground president/executive producer Andy Rosen said he looks for directors he can offer something. For someone like Jacques, I feel very motivated and passionate, he said. I feel I can play a part in his career. And having been a company that had, and still has, a lot of European talent, I was looking for somebody local and someone who is very focused on advertising.
What clinched the deal for Rosen was Reys impressive work. What I look for [in a reel] is intelligence, Rosen said. It either hits me or it doesnt, and when it does, I get excited: I cant see a life without it. Jacques work is very funny, has incredible composition, art direction and set direction.
U Ground, which recently formed a strategic alliance with bicoastal, Chicago and Atlanta-based Crossroads Films (SHOOT, 1/15, p. 1), represents a directorial roster composed of Rey, Paul Andresen, the bolexbrothers, Peter Christopherson, Daniel Gruener, Hammer & Tongs, Rad-ish, Marc Over, Mike Wang, Martin Weisz and Harvey White. The company is repped by Santa Monica-based Lisa Giminez on the West Coast; Chicago-based Susan Prickett in the Midwest and New York-based Commercial Artists Management on the East Coast. U Ground is now also sometimes going by its former moniker, The Underground.
