Backyard has signed director Stuart Douglas for U.S. commercial representation. He brings to the Marina del Rey-based production company a stylized approach which fuses impressionistic portrait photography with intimate storytelling and can be seen in projects for Ford, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Guinness, Nike, Sony, Land Rover, Saab, Volvo, Sainsbury’s, BBC and Jeep, among many others. His work for Carlsberg, Guinness and Pepsi went on to receive industry recognition at such competitions as the Cannes Lions, The One Show and the British Arrows. Douglas’ endeavors span actors and real people fare.
Douglas studied photography at Barking Art College and later joined forces with his brother to start the photography duo, The Douglas Brothers. The pair leveraged their unique approach–simultaneously taking photos of the same subject with different cameras–to shoot portraits of Cindy Crawford, Liam Neeson, Daniel Day-Lewis, Salman Rushdie and numerous others that went on to be featured in such publications as American Esquire and The New York Times. The brothers were then commissioned to shoot and direct several short films for a major Adidas campaign, sparking Stuart’s career as a commercial director. Since then, he has gone on to direct a wide range of distinctive campaigns spots for top brands that were shot all over the world. In 2003, Douglas launched London-based production company Nice Shirt Films, alongside his business partners, for the U.K. commercial market.
London-native Douglas recently made his way to Los Angeles. Prior to joining Backyard, he had been repped by Believe Media in the U.S. ad market.
Backyard VP/executive producer Kris Mathur said, “We recently finished shooting with Stuart in the South Island of New Zealand where he directed our inaugural campaign with a creative team from Saatchi & Saatchi NY. It was a massive project and we were able to witness firsthand his mastery of visual storytelling, collaboration and pure direction on a large scale. He’s a great fit for Backyard.”
Douglas said of his new roost, “Backyard has a really great history and pedigree in the industry and I was really impressed with the forward-looking direction they’re taking. We also have very similar creative visions so it was serendipitous that we are beginning this new chapter.”
