Creative collective Variable has added director Lloyd Lee Choi to its roster of filmmakers, editors and producers. His nine-minute lesbian love story for the U.K. ice cream brand Cornetto, 40 Love, won a Silver Lion in Cannes in 2014. Narrated by pop star Lily Allen, who also has a small role, it’s the engaging tale of a young line judge who gets knocked out by a female tennis star’s wicked serve. Already smitten, this kicks off a roundabout and slightly flirtatious involvement between the two that leads to a much-anticipated kiss.
The recognition 40 Love earned came on the heels of Choi’s spec spot for Chevrolet, “Maddie.” Told in a backwards timeline, it opens with a young woman and her dog at the vet, where viewers assume the dog is going to be put down, and then spools out in reverse as we see her and the pooch essentially growing up together. Created as an entry into a user-generated content contest, the spot didn’t win, but sparked much industry attention for Choi whose body of work includes TV commercials and branded content short films. Among his recent credits is a chilling spot for the PlayStation videogame Under Dawn which makes use of the Robert Frost poem “The Road Not Taken.”
Like many of the Variable talents, and typical for filmmakers of his generation, Choi not only directs but often edits his own work. At Variable he’ll continue to approach projects as a director/editor but he noted, “I also love collaborating with talented editors.” Lloyd first became aware of Variable’s work on Vimeo, where several of Variable’s short films have also been selected as Vimeo Staff Picks, the most recent being Rocket Wars, a five-minute exploration of a decades-old ritual that takes place every Easter on a remote Greek island. “I think we were drawn by a mutual love and respect for each other’s work,” Choi observed. “We started chatting and eventually connected in New York.”
Tyler Ginter, Variable partner and EP, said, “Lloyd is a great match for the vision we have here at Variable, which puts a high value on authenticity and visual language in the work we do, whether it’s our own personal projects or for the many brands and agencies we collaborate with.”
