SHOOT’s fall season ensemble of up-and-coming filmmaking talent includes: a darling on the festival circuit who has scored on the documentary and narrative feature fronts; and a boom mike operator whose solo feature documentary directing debut emerged at this year’s Sundance Film Fest and then ran on HBO.
Also in the fall SHOOT up-and-coming directors mix are: a filmmaker whose work in long- and short-form fare, including an espnW.com online series, has her poised to make an impact in the ad marketplace; and an episodic TV helmer who is extending his reach from comedy to drama, and into commercials.
All four of these directors have recently landed their first formal production company roosts for representation in spots and branded content.
Here’s our fall collection of some promising directors to watch.
Rod Blackhurst
It’s been a rewarding festival season for director Rod Blackhurst. Back in April his feature filmmaking debut, the post-apocalyptic drama thriller Here Alone, won the Audience Award at the Tribeca Film Festival. And last month his Netflix Original feature documentary, Amanda Knox, which he teamed with Brian McGinn to direct, premiered to plaudits at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Here Alone introduces us to two groups of survivors deep in the woods who’ve encountered a ravaging virus. One group has managed to avoid infection; the other has been driven to violence, madness and blood lust. The cast includes Lisa Walters, Gina Piersanti, Adam David Thompson and Shane West.
Amanda Knox meanwhile takes us inside a much publicized murder case in Italy. Twice convicted and twice acquitted by Italian courts of the brutal killing of her British roommate Meredith Kercher, Knox—along with her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito—became the subject of global speculation over the decade-long case. Featuring unprecedented access to key people involved—including Knox, Sollecito, chief prosecutor Giuliano Mignini of the Italian town Perugia, and reporter Nick Pisa—coupled with never-before-seen archival material, the film explores the case from the inside out. Amanda Knox is a human story that delves into the facts of the case as well as the twisted intersection of true crime tragedy, justice and sensationalized entertainment.
Regarding the Knox documentary, Blackhurst commented, “People weren’t looking past the headlines to understand what had happened. They had developed these passionate ideas of who these people were, but nobody seemed any closer to figuring out what had really occurred despite the global media scrutiny. Past that we felt there was a place for the personal, human side of the story—to actually hear from the people involved—and to see how such a tragic event was turned into entertainment.”
For Blackhurst the prime challenge of making Amanda Knox was “taking a nearly decade-long story and turning it into a 90-minute film that was digestible and captivating. In this case, we had so many outside judgments and media narratives applied to Amanda and Raffaele that people had lost track of the humans at the heart of the story. That’s what we focused on.”
While Blackhurst and McGinn have separate directorial careers, they worked together on Amanda Knox based on a prior collaboration and the need to marshal resources and efforts to bring such an ambitious feature documentary to fruition. “Two directors could accomplish twice as much to develop and get Amanda Knox done,” explained Blackhurst. “This project kind of fell into our laps in 2011 when we were two young directors trying to make our way and start our careers. Brian and I had teamed as directors on some Funny or Die short films starring Dave Franco and Chris Mintz-Plass so we already had a working relationship. We figured that together we could take on the Amanda Knox story and make it a reality faster than if just one of us had.”
Blackhurst hopes the momentum generated by Amanda Knox and Here Alone (which is slated for a 2017 release since being acquired by Vertical Entertainment) on the festival circuit will translate into opportunities for him in features as well as other disciplines, including commercials. While he has ad industry fare to his credit, most notably a client-direct Airbnb branding campaign in 2014 consisting of five one-minute shorts, Blackhurst had diverted his focus for the most part to Here Alone for a year-plus while working off and on to develop and bring about Amanda Knox over a five-year span. He is now, though, looking to meaningfully diversify his activity with a return to short-form filmmaking, having recently joined the roster of bicoastal The Famous Group, his first formal exclusive affiliation for commercials in the U.S.
Blackhurst said of his desire to step up his involvement in spotmaking, “I’ve always loved short-form storytelling—commercials in particular because my job in the format is to find a way to fit all the emotion and tone and pace of a full narrative into 30 to 60 seconds.”
The alluded to Airbnb shorts captured the core idea/company mantra of immersing oneself in different cultures and communities when traveling. “Creatively, we wanted to create a series that captured a day in that specific place/destination from dawn to dusk, with imagery that felt like still images coming to life, single actions activating each frame,” explained Blackhurst. The campaign entailed shooting globally, including in Korea, Croatia, France, London and San Francisco.
Blackhurst’s earlier ad exploits also include a four-part branded content series for Wilson Tennis, and a Trek Bicycle project.
While Blackhurst is handled exclusively for spots by The Famous Group, when it comes to branded content, long-form commercial projects, corporate films and industrials, he works with a variety of production companies, including Table of Content, Heist, Something Massive and Rival School Pictures.
Daniele Anastasion
This year’s Sundance Film Festival was eventful for Daniele Anastasion in that she made a major splash there with her ESPN 30 for 30 short I Am Yup’ik which she teamed with Nathan Golon to direct. Centered on a 16-year-old Alaskan native who leaves his tiny village and travels across the frozen tundra to compete in an all-Yup’ik basketball tournament, I Am Yup’ik earned a Sundance Short Film Grand Jury Prize nomination. It also caught the eye of Natalie Sakai, founder/EP of ContagiousLA (CLA), who was at Sundance with CLA director Andrew Laurich whose comedy short A Reasonable Request was screening in the same program as I Am Yup’ik. Sakai was so favorably impressed with I Am Yup’ik—and Anastasion’s other work in short and long form—that she signed the director for spots and branded content. CLA thus became Anastasion’s first ad roost.
“I felt a connection with Natalie and Andrew,” recalled Anastasion. “I very much felt Natalie understood me and what I want to do. I had done some branded work and enjoyed the challenge of creating a tight 30 second or one-minute emotional nugget. Creative possibilities open up when trying to tell a story in a shorter amount of time.”
Among the alluded to other projects drawing Sakai to Anastasion was the director’s series Run Mama Run, which follows an elite runner whose unplanned pregnancy occurs while training for the Olympic trials. Run Mama Run, a story told through webisodes of 10 minutes apiece, can be seen on espnW.com.
Sakai said of Anastasion, “Run Mama Run made me fall in love with her work; the way she can make our failures beautiful is inspiring. Advertising needs more authentic storytellers like her, Daniele’s not going to like me pushing this because she wants to win on merit and not the gender movement going on right now, but the fact that she’s a woman is an amazing win for us. I’m a staunch advocate for launching female voices in the industry.” Also sparking Sakai’s interest was Anastasion’s first feature (co-directed with Eric Strauss), The Redemption of General Butt Naked, which garnered a Sundance Award in 2011 for Best Cinematography, was nominated for the festival’s Grand Jury Prize, and went on to receive an Independent Spirit Award nomination in 2012. The Redemption of General Butt Naked followed a former Liberian warlord as he seeks forgiveness from his victims.
Anastasion started her career in long-form documentaries, working with National Geographic initially as a production coordinator and moving up to producer. This experience led to continued long-form endeavors, including The Redemption of General Butt Naked.
Then Anastasion gained her first significant exposure to shorter form fare, serving as a creative producer and writer on Oprah Winfrey’s series Belief. “Done in the style of Planet Earth, Belief had me involved in snapshot profiles of people on spiritual journeys around the world,” she said. “It became a short-form boot camp for me. I spent quite a bit of time in the edit room trying to shape and polish these stories into a shorter digestible format.”
Belief further whetted Anastasion’s appetite for short-form projects. Her ad experience includes directing some branded content for internal communications use by the U.S. Postal Service as well as an assignment for Ogilvy. Anastasion, who is currently bidding on several jobs through CLA, noted, “Regardless of size or platform, branded projects have to attract and keep an audience. That means giving people something real and meaningful.”
Jason Benjamin
The Sundance Film Festival also played a part in Jason Benjamin landing his first spotmaking home. His feature documentary debut as a solo director, Suited, was well received at Sundance, nominated for the Grand Jury Documentary Prize and piquing the interest of Loretta Jeneski (a.k.a. “LJ”), partner and executive producer at bicoastal Nonfiction Unlimited which is known for repping noted documentary filmmaking talent in the commercial and branded content marketplace.
“Nonfiction reached out to me and I wound up having a number of meetings with Loretta,” related Benjamin. “LJ has a great understanding of documentary filmmakers’ skills and how to cross those over into the world of advertising. Nonfiction has a small, accomplished roster of directors, including such documentary filmmakers as Steve James and Barbara Kopple, people I grew up admiring. It’s an honor to be on the same roster as them and to have Nonfiction introduce me to the ad world.”
Suited meanwhile introduces us to the custom tailors at the Brooklyn, NY-based Bindle & Keep whose clientele include a diverse LGBTQ community. The documentary explores how well-fitting stylish garments carry deeper meaning relative to identity, empowerment and feeling good—particularly for transgender men.
After its Sundance debut, Suited went on to be shown on HBO in June. The film was produced by Lena Dunham and Jenni Koner, the creators and producers of the lauded HBO series Girls. Benjamin has worked as the boom-mike operator on Girls since that show’s inception, covering all six seasons. “I pitched Suited to Lena and Jenni who have been very generous to me,” related Benjamin. “They loved the idea and gave me enough money to shoot a 10-minute sample of what it would look and feel like. They took that to HBO which bought it as a 40-minute short. I started shooting and wanted HBO to be part of the process. I sent them a rough assembly of three character arcs. HBO saw that this needed to be a feature film. They added to the budget and the scope of the project. HBO, Lena and Jenni have been very supportive.”
Benjamin made his initial mark as a documentary filmmaker years back, teaming with Peter Chelkowski to direct Carnival Roots, a film about the people and music that fuel Trinidad’s high-energy Carnival. Released in 2002, Carnival Roots went on to play at the AFI Silverdocs (now called AFI Docs) documentary festival. After making that film, Benjamin got into the sound union in New York and began working in TV shows as a boom operator, gaining exposure and an industry education. He noted that working on various shows, including Girls, gave him the opportunity to see actors and directors working in a narrative context, which proved invaluable to helping him develop as a filmmaker.
That development is evident not only in Suited but also in Benjamin’s recent helming of In Conversation, a series of social videos for Gemfields featuring fashion and make-up bloggers Amanda Steele, Ciprianna Quan and Chriselle Lim that launched last month on Made to Measure or M2M, an online fashion video network also carried on iOS, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, and Xbox. In Conversation honed Benjamin’s short-form acumen, communicating style and fashion through a mix of interviews and footage. Benjamin described the project as a form of “native advertising” for Gemfields, heightening his interest in the discipline of spots and branded content.
Benjamin first became interested in short-form fare as a student, specifically early on when pursuing his MFA in documentary film at The City University of New York. “I was asked back then to produce and direct three one-minute documentaries,” he recalled. “I started to realize how much information you can fit into a minute. You learn about efficiency in storytelling, making you a smarter filmmaker, helping you communicate to an audience, to get a story across very quickly. I’ve been interested in commercials ever since.”
The director sees his documentary and commercialmaking sensibilities coming together, noting, “Documentary filmmaking for me is all about being an observer, a listener. It’s a unique way of creating narratives that transcends style and reveals higher truths. I’m super excited to be bringing my documentary background to commercials.”
While Nonfiction handles Benjamin in the ad arena, he has secured UTA to represent him on the documentary and narrative film fronts.
Todd Biermann
Also landing at his first home for commercialmaking and branded content is director Todd Biermann who has joined bicoastal integrated production studio Humble for representation in the U.S. and Canada. Biermann is best known for his work in TV, including recent episodes of Broad City, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Wrecked. Biermann brings well-honed comedic chops and over 10 years of experience to Humble.
Biermann attended film school at Temple University and cut his teeth in non-scripted television, filling roles from scouting and casting to directing and producing on hit shows such as TLC’s Trading Spaces. From there he segued into directing for scripted content with the FX hit It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. He has gone on to direct numerous half-hour cable comedies including Comedy Central’s Broad City (notably the “2016” episode featuring Hillary Clinton), TV Land’s Younger and The Jim Gaffigan Show, TBS’ Wrecked, and MTV’s upcoming one-hour Sweet/Vicious. Biermann was also slated at press time to direct episodes for the upcoming comedy The Mick on Fox.
This career experience spanning scripted and non-scripted material figures to serve Biermann in good stead in the ad arena. “From reality TV, I learned how to direct and get performances out of regular everyday people who are not used to being on camera. You work to get the best out of them as you do with actors on scripted work. Either way you find different ways to engage people, to keep them in a comfortable, fun environment. In comedy, you learn to keep things fast and loose, continually looking to find the funny, to connect with the rhythm in the scene. I also think my collaborative nature will fit well with commercials. I’m used to running a set as an open collaborative environment. I feel at times more a collaborator than a director. Television is a writer’s medium. The director is serving the story, what’s on the page. You need to be very collaborative to bring everything together.”
Extending Biermann’s creative reach has been his recent experience on Sweet/Vicious and Younger. He described the former as “mostly comedic but with weighty emotional elements. The story centers on a reluctant Batman and Robin vigilante team. There are dark and heavy moments, action and some comedic moments. It broadens my range. The same could be said of Younger. It’s a female-centered show with both comedic and dramatic beats. You learn how comedy and drama can counterweight one another, affecting an audience’s emotions, to feel some pain and then some levity.”
Biermann proactively pursued a commercialmaking connection, asking his manager to put out some feelers. Surveying the production companies that were interested in him, Biermann found himself most intrigued by Humble, feeling an immediate affinity for EP Shannon Lords and head of sales Harrison Elkins. “I plan to carve out time to accommodate the commercial world,” said Biermann. “Variety is the spice of life. The more I can get involved in different forms of storytelling, the more rewarding it is. My goal for my entire career has always been to keep evolving and challenging myself.”
Lords said of Biermann, “Todd has such a strong track record in the comedy space and is able to successfully adapt to a variety of styles and environments to get the most effective performances.”
