Bicoastal production house m ss ng p eces has brought Henry and Ssong–Henry Chen and Ssong Yang-aboard its directorial roster. Known for the Google “Homeward Bound” spot and well-received Hozier “From Eden” music video, the directing duo has been working with m ss ng p eces in recent months, turning out the Cannes-recognized Delta “Innovation Class” campaign and most recently a moving Amex documentary on “Tiny Superheroes.”
Chen and Yang first teamed up at the Rhode Island School of Design where they learned to explore, discover, and create. They galvanized around both the idea of human expression and also a focus on global and compelling stories that need to be told. Last year, they traveled to India to direct “Saroo Brierley: Homeward Bound,” a short piece for Google that has over a million views and was awarded the Young Directors Award at Cannes, won the AdStar Silver Innovation Award (2013), screened at Google Zeitgeist 2013, and was one of TED’s “10 Ads Worth Spreading” of 2014. The short is currently being developed into a feature film.
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