By Robert Goldrich
Talk about shortlists–directors Frank Budgen of Gorgeous Enterprises, London; the Traktor collective from bicoastal/international Partizan; and Suthon Petchsuwan of Matching Studio, Bangkok. These are the only helmers to rank among the top 25 most awarded directors each of the past six years in the annual Gunn Report. Based on a compilation of key award show results, the Gunn Report encompasses more than 30 TV/cinema competitions. From this research, the Gunn Report has annually named the industry’s top production houses, directors, ad agencies, commercials, campaigns and clients.
While Budgen and Traktor are familiar names in the stateside market, Petchsuwan has hovered below U.S. industry radar. But Santa Monica-based production company Thomas Winter Cooke (TWC) is looking to change that, having signed the director for exclusive representation in the American ad market. (See story, p. 1).
Thomas finalized the deal during a trip this month to the eighth annual Asia Pacific Advertising Festival (AP Ad Fest) in Pattaya, Thailand. He made the trek based on his interest in Petchsuwan’s work and the assessment that the director’s storytelling sensibilities would translate well to U.S. advertising.
While he found what he expected in Petchsuwan and was able to successfully secure the helmer, Thomas also discovered much he hadn’t anticipated. He described the AP Fest as a mini-Cannes, with less of the carousing, a depth of notable work, a record high attendance drawn from different parts of the world, and a formal “Fear No Change” theme.
The latter held poignancy in light of what the region has been through recently, most notably the tsunamis that brought death and devastation to coastal communities across South Asia. Additionally, Southeast Asia is currently coping with a bird-flu scare.
AP’s “Fear No Change” also brought new directorial talent to the fore, as five helmers from different markets (China, India, Japan, New Zealand and Thailand) made short films based on that theme. The films were screened for festival delegates, with some of the work impressing Thomas.
Speakers at the AP event included marketing executives from McDonald’s in China, and Procter & Gamble in Asia, Australia and India.
The festival competition drew in excess of 4,000 entries, including more than 1,000 TV or cinema spots, nearly 200 film craft entries and another almost 200 interactive pieces.
Taking the AP’s top Best of TV prize as well as a Gold Lotus Award was “Husky Girls” for Tokyo’s Ajinomoto Stadium, created and produced by Dentsu, Tokyo. Directed by Dentsu’s Jun Kawanishi, the ad features a young Japanese man who has seemingly arrived in bachelors’ paradise, a city inhabited by beautiful women. The only turnoff is that all of them speak in coarse, hoarse voices. They got that way by cheering during soccer games at Ajinomoto Stadium. So the man ends up dating a far less attractive looking woman with a normal voice.
The aforementioned Petchsuwan also scored at the AP competition, with “Balloon”–a spot he directed for Twin Lotus Herbal Toothpaste, out of agency Ongoing, Bangkok–winning a Gold Lotus Award.
According to the ’05 Gunn Report, Petchsuwan was the world’s most awarded commercials director of 2004. But he’s not the only Thailand-based helmer to perform well. Ranking second in ’04 was Thanonchai Sornsriwichai of Bangkok production house Phenomena. There was a tie for third place among three directors: Budgen; Traktor; and Antoine Bardou-Jacquet of Partizan Midi Minuit, London and Paris.
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More