No Smoke has added Aram Rappaport to its directorial roster. He just directed via the production company an Optimum Cable campaign for The Martin Agency.
While this is Rappaport’s initial ad effort for No Smoke, it’s hardly his first time in the director’s chair. He opted to write and direct a feature film rather than attend college at age 18. While many pursue that path, few persist—as Rappaport did—to the finish line. The result of his journey was “Innocent,” an ambitious one-take drama starring Alexa Vega. He’s since written and directed more feature films, including “Syrup” starring Amber Heard, Brittany Snow, Shiloh Fernandez and Kellan Lutz (Magnolia Pictures), and “The Crash” (January 2017), which stars Minnie Driver, John Leguizamo, Frank Grillo, Dianna Agron and AnnaSophia Robb. Leguizamo introduced the director to No Smoke’s leaders.
This is fitting because Leguizamo actually stars in the Optimum ads, which focus on the company’s app. In “John vs. John,” Leguizamo, the character actor/comedian/cable customer, goes up against himself in various guises that represent his favorite content. As he interacts with his flirty woman, foreign chef and street-hustler selves, the audience learns that they can get all their favorite content on their smartphones. The 30-second ad tags with, “Optimum. Let’s connect more.”
Rappaport’s commercial credits include campaigns for Nike, Hasbro, Dalmore Whisky, One Teaspoon, Misfit Wearables, Betterment, Vroom.com and IT Cosmetics.
Writers of “Conclave,” “Say Nothing” Win Scripter Awards
The authors and screenwriters behind the film โConclaveโ and the series โSay Nothingโ won the 37th-annual USC Libraries Scripter Awards during a black-tie ceremony at USCโs Town and Gown ballroom on Saturday evening (2/22).
The Scripter Awards recognize the yearโs most accomplished adaptations of the written word for the screen, including both feature-length films and episodic series.
Novelist Robert Harris and screenwriter Peter Straughan took home the award for โConclave.โ
In accepting the award, Straughan said, โAdaptation is a really strange process, youโre very much the servant of two masters. In a way itโs an act of betrayal of one master for the other.โ He joked that โYou start off with a book that you love, you read it again and again, and then you end up throwing it over your shoulder,โ crediting author Robert Harris for being โso kind, so generous, so open throughout.โ
In the episodic series category, Joshua Zetumer and Patrick Radden Keefe won for the episode โThe People in the Dirtโ from the limited series โSay Nothing,โ which Zetumer adapted from Keefeโs nonfiction book about the Troubles in Ireland.
Zetumer referenced this yearโs extraordinary group of Scripter finalists, saying โprojects like these reminded me of why I wanted to become a writer when I was sitting in USCโs Leavey Library dreaming of becoming a screenwriter. If you fell in love with movies, or fell in love with TV, chances are you fell in love with something dangerous.โ
Special guest for the evening, actress and producer Jennifer Beals, shared her thoughts on the impact of libraries. โIf ever you are at a loss wondering if there is good in the world,โ she said, โyou have only to go to a... Read More