Director Rick LeMoine, formerly with Biscuit Filmworks in Los Angeles, his roost for the past nearly four years, has joined bicoastal Chelsea.
LeMoine is known for his conceptual and performance-driven work, including much people-based comedy, and has directed over the years for such clients as Heineken, Fed Ex, Toyota, Ikea, Pepsi, Intel, Mastercard, Xbox, and McDonald’s. Among his latest credits is a Carnival cruise line campaign for Boston agency Arnold. The campaign is observational in nature as a spokesman shares what he likes about the Carnival experience as he walks about the ship, revealing little pockets of fun and features along the way. LeMoine has also had occasion to venture into some longer form branded content fare at Biscuit, including a web short for Toyota Highlander out of WestWayne, Atlanta (now 22squared).
“I’m interested in human beings and human behavior,” he related. “And that often involves human foibles and the comedy that arises from that. As long as it’s a human story and has some truth to it, I’ll probably be interested in the project.”
That interest spans commercials, varied forms of branded content, features and TV. The chance to diversify into different disciplines and genres was one of the factors that drew him to Chelsea. LeMoine also cited his comfort level with company partner Lisa Mehling, whom he worked with years back at @radical.media, the job Mehling and partner Allison Amon have done with championing directors’ careers at Chelsea, the caliber of the shop’s directorial talent, and the fact that Chelsea has a full-service New York operation.
On the latter score, LeMoine said that being based in New York sometimes kept him out of touch with the goings on at L.A.-headquartered Biscuit. He now looks forward to being “part of the culture” at Chelsea.
Creative roots LeMoine’s industry roots are on the agency side as a creative. He was a copywriter and founding partner at Cliff Freeman and Partners, New York, before moving over to the former Ammirati & Puris, New York. LeMoine then reunited with Steve Miller, his creative partner at Cliff Freeman, and the two freelanced for awhile, most notably on work for ESPN.
“We pitched ESPN on doing creative for a package of promos if they would let us direct it,” recalled LeMoine. “That was back in the day when they would say ‘yes’ to such a request. That job resulted in Miller and LeMoine co-directing more lauded spots for ESPN Sportscenter, catapulting them into the industry as a directing team in 1996.
The LeMoine/Miller directing duo established itself with @radical.media, turning out assorted notable jobs, including Computer Associates’ “Amnesia,” a comedy spot for Young & Rubicam, New York, which earned a primetime commercial Emmy nomination in 2002. The next year Miller and LeMoine embarked on individual directing careers.
