Director Rolf Gibbs—whose short films have gained recognition at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, for the past three years—has secured his first spot representation, signing with bicoastal Bedford Falls.
Gibbs comes aboard as the studio has instituted several key changes, including naming Tom Korsan its executive producer. A veteran rep, Korsan had most recently been head of sales for Santa Monica-headquartered Stoney Road Productions, the parent to several commercial houses, including Bedford Falls, bicoastal Reactor Films, M-80 and MPH, as well as Santa Monica-based Message. Korsan takes the Bedford Falls’ executive producer reins previously held by Nancy Fishelson, who left the spotmaking business to pursue a career in interior design and the re-design of existing homes (see SHOOT "Street Talk," 12/17/99, p. 34). Mean-while, assuming Korsan’s former head of sales mantle is Michael Romersa, owner of Stoney Road. Romersa explained that he wanted to become more hands-on in the day-to-day operation of the Stoney Road shops.
Bedford Falls’ discovery of Gibbs is a fringe benefit of Romersa’s recent partnership with personal manager Beth Cannon, which resulted in the creation of Santa Monica-based talent management company Envision Entertainment (SHOOT, 3/3, p. 1). Reid Strathearn, a talent manager at Envision, who was at Sundance earlier this year, saw Gibbs’ film G and recommended that Bedford Falls check out the director. Romersa and Korsan did so, and pegged Gibbs as an up-and-coming talent who could make a smooth transition to spots.
G is an experimental film which garnered honorable mention from the Sundance jury. It offers a free-fall perspective of a camera being thrown out of a plane at 35,000 feet. The short film has generated considerable buzz, and inspired another director to helm a separate documentary about the making of G.
The year prior at Sundance, Gibbs’ documentary short about a funeral home director, The Last Guy To Let You Down, was selected for screening. And in ’98, Gibbs’ short, Whacked, about a young man who works at a golf ball-driving range, was screened at Sundance. Gibbs made Whacked during his first semester at New York University (NYU). The following semester—Gibb’s last at NYU—saw him wrap filming of The Last Guy To Let You Down.
In between that film and G, Gibbs directed a short entitled E-Male for French and German TV. The film is about two women who fall in love over the Internet, each thinking the other is a man.
Gibbs is no stranger to the advertising arena, having been a still photographer in Berlin and Paris prior to moving to New York in ’96 to study at NYU. His still shooting exploits included editorial fashion work as well as a mix of print ads for clients such as banks and automobile manufacturers. Korsan observed that Gibbs’ advertising and creative sensibilities are well suited to commercials, citing the director’s penchant for dark humor. However, Gibbs’ short films demonstrate considerable range, from narrative (Whacked) to documentary (The Last Guy To Let You Down) and experimental (G). The films’ reach extended well beyond Sundance. For example, Whacked won the Panorama Special Jury Award at the Berlin International Film Festival in ’97, as well as grand prize from Deauville in ’98. And The Last Guy To Let You Down was named best documentary short at last year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival.
Born in London, Gibbs grew up in Indonesia and New Zealand before spending most of his adult life in both France and Germany, where he established himself as a still photographer. He said he’s attracted to Bedford Falls as a company committed to developing him as a creative spotmaker. Gibbs added that he liked the fact that Bedford Falls is well connected in features, alluding to its partners, noted longform directors Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz. "I aspire to get into features, and Bedford Falls is committed to helping me develop in commercials as well as features," said Gibbs.
Also enticing to Gibbs was the spot medium itself. "Everything I’ve made so far has been for small budgets, with small crews and many people working for free," he related. "To get the chance to work with larger crews and budgets and to have to bring storytelling down to shorter versions, is a fascinating, very appealing proposition. Creativity in commercials is also getting better in the United States, and I wanted to be involved in that."
Gibbs comes aboard a Bedford Falls spot directorial roster that includes Kevin Donovan, Marcus Stevens, Jonathan Taylor and Marshall Vernet.
