Production house SPLENDID & Co has added director Lesley Chilcott to its roster. An award-winning filmmaker, documentarian and producer, Chilcott began her career in the commercial world. She then diversified into the documentary arena as a producer of notable films such as the Academy Award-winning An Inconvenient Truth, the Barack Obama biographic film A Mother’s Promise for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, It Might Get Loud about legendary guitarists The Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White, and Waiting For Superman for which she received an award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Documentary from the PGA. All four of these documentaries were directed by Davis Guggenheim.
Chilcott's current documentary CodeGirl, which she directed and produced, was released last month. The film tracks the story of 5,000 girls from 60 nations as they competed in an entrepreneurship and coding competition by Technovation. Chilcott made the unprecedented move of releasing the film for free on YouTube before it hit theaters and in conjunction with Google’s Made with Code. In the five days it was available, it hit nearly one million views, and viewing parties among teen girls took place in countries all over the world including 64 Google offices worldwide.
Chilcott’s ad directing endeavors have largely been in the lifestyle realm, spanning spots for brands such as Motorola, AT&T, Corona, M&Ms and Cover Girl. Having wrapped CodeGirl, her move to SPLENDID marks a focused interest in commercials.
“SPLENDID stood out to me as a highly inventive company that not only supports their talent but is ingenious in the way that they source truly interesting and different work,” said Chilcott.
“Lesley brings such unique skill to our roster with her experience as a documentary filmmaker and commercial director,” said Erin Tauscher, SPLENDID partner and executive producer. “Her ability to elicit incredible performances from real people as well as trained actors really stood out to me when I watched her body of work for the first time.”
Taylor Ferguson, EP and Tauscher’s partner at SPLENDID related, “I’ve known Lesley for years. She’s a real influencer in the documentary world and that is exciting to us. Her work exemplifies emotional courage and truth in storytelling.”
Chilcott’s work has taken her around the world, from the states to Cologne, London, Moldova, Brazil and Costa Rica, and has allowed her to collaborate with such agencies as BBDO, Razorfish, Weber Shandwick, DDB Chicago and Grey Advertising.
SPLENDID & Co was founded in 2002 and is a Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) certified company.
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either — more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More