Director Boris Damast has joined bicoastal Celsius Films for exclusive representation in the U.S. He will work out of the companys newly-opened Los Angeles office.
Damast just completed a three-year stint with bicoastal Bedford Falls. His credits include MCIs Basketball, Surfer Dudes, Tow Truck and Lecture Hall for Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer/Euro RSCG, New York; Utz Potato Chips Diner and Teacher for MGH Advertising, Owings Mills, Md.; and Locked Out for McDonalds out of DDB Chicago.
Damast has also directed a one-hour episode of The Invisible Man for the USA Network, and the feature film Pros and Cons, which debuted at the Aspen Film Festival in February.
A native of Australia, Damast was a creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi, Melbourne, from 86-88. He then moved to Toronto and joined Baker Lovick/BBDO (now BBDO/Canada), where he served as national creative director until 92.
His directing career began in the early 90s. Its the old cliche: I always wanted to direct. And actually during my tenure at BBDO, I had directed many of my own spots, so I was able to walk away with a fairly decent reel.
His advertising experience served him in good stead: You come along with a lot of acquired knowledge about the inner workings of agencies, what it takes to get a commercial approved, Damast said. You also approach it with a great deal more product focus. You develop a very strong concern for how the commercial ultimately works in the marketplace, and what it is that the product is supposed to be doing. That may sound pretty fundamental, but I think you see a lot of spots that are executed almost in spite of the product. I think an agency background-the discipline-does really help you tremendously in directing commercials.
After leaving BBDO/Canada, Damast set up Damast Gordon & Associates, Toronto, with fellow director Steve Gordon (SHOOT 11/6/92, p. 6). Damast explained, We were a satellite company of Derek Van Lint & Associates (DVLA), Toronto. He set us up in business [and] it did extremely well. However, I was getting much more work out of the United States, and it just became too much of a problem commuting back and forth between Toronto and L.A. Eventually the two companies merged to become the now closed comm. bat films [SHOOT, 2/2/96, p.1], while Damast moved to the U.S. and signed with now defunct Harmony Pictures. He joined Bedford Falls in 97 (SHOOT 3/7/97, p.1).
Celsius Films executive producer Bob Fisher said he had always been interested in signing Damast. Fisher acknowledged, I first spoke with Boris three years ago, when I started Celsius. Boris was looking for a new home at that point, and elected not to go with me. Ive seen work that hes done over the past few years, and have always been a fan of his work. He was looking to make a move, and we began to have serious conversations about it. I think hes very talented.
Damast commented, I had a good run at Bedford Falls, but this opportunity came along with Bob, and I felt the timing was right. He is likewise enthusiastic about Celsius: Theres a very high degree of intelligence and commitment to the business [among the staff]. We [myself and my producer Andrea Kikot] spoke to several companies, and in the end, the Celsius package appealed to me the most: just the energy and enthusiasm-a lot of youthful vigor there-and a healthy respect for new technologies that are about to explode.
Through his Canadian rep (Torontos Angel Films), Damast is about to begin work on two new spots for an ongoing A&P Supermarkets campaign through Vancouver-based Rethink Communications.
Celsius Films directors include Mark Claywell, Christina Hodnet, Holly Paige Joyner, Jon Kane, Greg Ramsey, Mark Tiedemann, and Harvey Wang. The company also represents Lionel Mougin, Rob Sanders and Tom Vaughan of London-based HLA in the U.S.
Celsius is repped by head of sales Jack Fahey in New York on the East Coast, while Chicago-based Elizabeth Mang handles the Midwest and West Coast.
