Believe Media has launched Dapper, a production division dedicated to comedy. Heading up the new venture are executive producer David Lyons, who serves in that same capacity at animation house Moo Studios, and director Roderick Fenske. Dapper’s directorial roster includes Fenske, Adam Cameron, Henrik Sundgren, and Short Malone. Additional director signings are expected soon.
Both Lyons and Fenske began their careers in London; Fenske as a writer and creative director at various UK agencies. While Fenske was at TBWA, executive creative director Trevor Beattie recognized his talent behind the camera. This led Fenske to eventually direct for Acne in Stockholm and then Hungry Man in the UK and US where he garnered awards worldwide including D&AD, Cannes, Eurobest and more with campaigns for brands including Coca Cola, Honda, Alfa Romeo, and Las Vegas Tourism. Prior to Dapper, Fenske was most recently with B-Reel.
Lyons started out at Limelight, London, before moving stateside and founding Moo Studios, which last year (SHOOTonline, 9/10/13) entered into a partnership with Believe Media. Moo is repped as a division of Believe for animation, digital and motion-graphics oriented work as well as postproduction services. The arrangement has extended Believe’s creative reach, rounding out its lineup of directorial talent. The partnership also allows Believe to offer a full range of postproduction services, letting its clients access complete in-house delivery of a project from inception to post.
While Lyons still heads Moo, plans call for the appointment of a new exec producer in the coming weeks to take over for him in that capacity full-time.
Cameron began his directing career as half of the directing duo Joe Public at Stark Films in London before landing stateside with Headquarters. At the latter, Joe Public twice earned DGA Award nominations as Best Commercial Director of the Year on the basis of work done in 1999 and 2001. Joe Public split in late 2006, with Cameron’s first roost as a solo helmer being Biscuit Filmworks, followed by various shops such as Great Guns and now Dapper.
Sundgren had been with ACNE, working on both sides of the Atlantic, helming various jobs ranging from visual surreal comedy to absurdly dry, dialogue-based humor.
Short Malone is a directorial duo comprised of Alan Short and Seamus Malone, best known for their work at Aardman Animations spanning commercials, short and feature fare. They served as supervising animators on the Aardman/Sony CG feature Arthur Christmas.
Director Candice Vernon has joined production house Eleanor for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content. She has already wrapped several jobs at Eleanor, which waited to announce her until they had a body of work together.
Via Eleanor, Vernon made history as the first Black director on a Febreze commercial. The “Small Spaces” campaign marks a major departure from Febreze’s typical blue-and-white world. The home of the “Revolving Door” commercial is a beautiful array of bold sunset hues, African prints, and African art.
Vernon said, “I asked myself, what feels right to me? What feels new? I wanted to bring an essence of not just Black Americans but the full diaspora. I wanted to make a statement that we’re not a monolith.”
Following the success of the “Small Spaces” campaign, Febreze brought Vernon back for a comedy-infused trifecta exploring the hilarious situations that call for an air freshening hero.
Febreze Brand VP Angelica Matthews said, “About two years ago, we realized the consumers that were the most loyal to Febreze were the African American consumers. And the more we learned, the more we realized the richness that we were really missing. So we said we have to go beyond just Black casting, we need to get Black directors that truly understand the culture that truly understand how to bring authentic performances out on screen. We really looked around the industry and noticed there’s actually a shortage of African American directors who have experience doing commercials. When we all saw Candice’s reel, we could all tell the passion for the craft, passion for really trying to help us from where we are to where we’re trying to go.”
