Director Phil Brown has signed with Venice-based Backyard. He had most recently been with Tate USA, Santa Monica, and continues to be repped in Canada by Industry Films.
Brown’s ad industry experience spans the agency and production house sides of the fence. A U.K. native, Brown got his start as an art director at Aberdeen, Scotland-based agency Formula. He made his spot directing debut by way of a competition sponsored by Creative Review; Brown helmed an Absolut Vodka ad, “Absolut Intrigue,” which garnered attention. He then moved to Canada and took an art director position at BBDO Vancouver.
During his BBDO tenure, Brown took another stab at directing when a creative colleague, Bradley Wood, from Palmer Jarvis DDB, Vancouver, offered him an assignment for Fong’s fresh poultry, “Dead Chicken,” which was short listed at the Cannes International Advertising Festival in ’98. Brown and Wood teamed to create the darkly humored spot in which two elderly women are not allowed to board a city bus with a live chicken–so they strangle it.
Shortly after the Cannes recognition, Brown landed spot representation as a director via Radke Films, Toronto, and then in the U.S. at bicoastal The Artists Company. He later shifted from the latter for a stateside representation stint with the former Metro Pictures, and then briefly at bicoastal/international Partizan in ’02. That same year, he moved his Canadian representation to Industry Films, Toronto. In ’05, he signed with Tate for stateside representation.
Brown has gained a reputation as a visual director whose work often reflects a candid yet stylized realism on scales both large and small. Brown’s body of work also reflects a human element ranging from emotionally heart warming to humorous. His credits include high profile campaigns for Volkswagen, The Canadian Ministry of Energy, and Pfizer. Over the years Brown has directed for such major brands as Pepsi, Molson, Sony, Ikea, Samsung, Ford, Toyota, Lexus, Coors, Budweiser, Kia, Visa and MasterCard.
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More