Director Ruben Fleischer, who’s been active in both commercials and music videos, has signed with bicoastal Sandwick Films for exclusive spot representation. He was most recently repped via bicoastal Smuggler.
Fleischer’s credits include ads for such clients as Burger King for Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Miami, the G4 videogame cable channel out of agency 72 and Sunny, El Segundo, Calif., and Levi’s for Bartle Bogle Hegarty, Tokyo.
In the music clips arena, Fleischer first gained recognition in 2003 for DJ Format’s “We Know Something You Don’t Know,” a low-budget piece that featured guys in furry animal outfits break-dancing on the streets of Los Angeles. That video may have been a precursor to one of Fleischer’ funnier ads, a viral spot for Ribena via Grey, London, which showed rapping and break-dancing Los Angeles Police Department officers cruising the streets in their tricked out squad car.
Besides spots and videos, Fleischer has diversified into other fare, including comic pieces for ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live, a feature documentary on the extreme European car race titled The Gumball 3000, and an MTV pilot about pro skateboarder Rob Dyrdek and his bodyguard, Big Black.
Fleischer said he was drawn to his new spot roost in large part by the opportunity to team with executive producer Bill Sandwick, citing the industry vet’s track record in building directorial careers.
It was a self-started grass-roots initiative that put Fleischer on the filmmaking map. Working in Web site design before landing several gigs as an assistant on feature films, Fleischer began directing his own self-financed short films. He posted the work on a Web site that he designed (www.ruben.fm), which he uses as a showcase for his varied content. That outlet helped to generate exposure and momentum for his filmmaking.
Fleischer comes aboard a Sandwick Films’ directorial roster that consists of Jeff Gorman, Dave Merhar, Rawson Thurber, John Curran, Steve Kessler and the recently signed Newton Thomas Siegel. The company is repped by Mary Ford of Mary Ford & Co. on the East Coast, Nikki Weiss of Nikki Weiss & Co., in the Midwest, and Stacey Altman of Stacey & Co. on the West Coast.
