Its becoming more and more blurred, says Dana Garman, a directors rep at bicoastal RSA USA. She was surrounded by the merry chaos of the Sundance Film Festival awards party in an enclosed tennis court with a swing band on a stage and film people dancing joyfully after a week of sitting on their behinds in dark theaters. Garman was not disoriented. She was not talking about the weeklong rush of films and faces, nor of altitude sicknessaPark City, Utah, is 7,000 feet up.
She was talking about how quickly things in her business were moving; specifically, how the ranks of feature directors who cross over into spotworkaand vice versaawere growing at a fast clip. Garman and many other spot peopleaprobably more than any other yearawere at Sundance this past January. They were there to watch and to listen, to feel the pulse of youthful visual creativity, and hopefully, to grab a piece of fresh meat, the next hottie, a cool indie crossover.
Its not a stigma to be a commercial director anymore, so you have photographers, music video directors, film school graduates and feature directors seeking representation, says Matt Miller, president of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), whose member companies collectively account for some 1,000-plus directors. Theres a million commercial companies out there employing a million directors, notes Miller, tongue planted firmly in cheek.
Pamela Maythenyi, president of The Source Maythenyi, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based spot-production research firm, puts the actual number of commercial directors in the advertising market at around 4,200 or dangerously close to the number of people who live full time in Park City (6,900, according to the Chamber of Commerce).
Despite the crowded field, spot producers continue to search for new faces. Were just so inundated, we dont know where to begin, says Raquel Munoz-Flores, a directors rep at bicoastal HKM Productions, who also showed up in Sundance on the prowl. But we continue to look down other avenues.
Over the past few years, production companies have been looking down Madison Ave. for fresh directing talent, successfully crossing over agency creatives as directors (see SHOOTs Fall Directors Issue, 10/16/98, p. 7). And most recently, many producers are steering down Independents Ave., pursuing indie filmmakers.
The advertising companies are looking for ways to distinguish themselves or elevate themselves to new levels, says Ken Hardy, bicoastal/ international The Ends head of feature production, and a former agent (for 12 years) at Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Beverly Hills. He has been attending Sundance since 93. This year, Hardy was scouting for indies with crossover appeal. Looking to independent filmmakers is the right place to do it, he relates. Commercial directors tend to submerge themselves in the advertising world and sources of creativity get shut off. Fresh blood is good.
This year its the independent filmmakers [who are hot], says Dan Levinson, director and partner (with exec. producer Gary Rose) of bicoastal Moxie Pictures. In two years it could be something else.
Although Levinson was not at Sundance this year, he squired around his latest discovery, Todd Phillips, at last years gathering. I was giving Todd some moral support, says Levinson. Phillips (with Andrew Gurland) directed Frat House, which won the documentary Grand Jury prize at the dance in 98. When I met Todd, he showed me Frat House before the festival, recalls Levinson, and my gut feeling was this was a smart kid who knew how to listen. Phillips was one of last years big crossover hits. In his first season with Moxie he directed a full slate of high profile spots for ESPN, Miller Genuine Draft and Virgin Cola.
More significant, however, was the crossover success story last year of Christopher Guest, scribe and helmsmith of the popular 97 comedy Waiting For Guffman. Levinson saw the film and gobbled up Guest for Moxie, his first commercial roost, that spring. Guest was soon directing the comic 12-spot Naismith House and the improvisational 27-spot The Rick campaigns (both for ESPN via Ground Zero, Santa Monica). Eight months after signing with Moxie, Guest was booked by Cliff Freeman and Partners, New York, to direct a modest-looking FOX Sports campaign promoting its hockey coverage. The spots were shot on video on a shoestring budget, and they went on to dominate the national and international advertising awards circuit in 98, winningaamong many other trophiesaa Grand Clio for best campaign and four Cannes Gold Lions.
I grew up in the advertising business, relates Levinson. Im a director and my father was a director and for much of my life I thought feature directors had nothing to do with spots. But advertising is moving, its looking for new ideas and fresh voices. We thought the time was right.
The time was right, last year, for Levinson and Rose to create The Industry, a Moxie spinoff that is run by Lizzie Schwartz, a former assistant to Cary Woods who produces features for Miramax Films. The Industry specializes in crossing-over feature directors, and its roster at the moment is all indie: Allison Anders, whose latest feature Sugar Town (co-directed with Kurt Voss) premiered at Sundance this year; Wes Anderson, director of Rushmore; Albert Brooks of Lost In America; Wes Craven, the low-budget horror movie maestro; Whit Stillman, who boogied with The Last Days of Disco; John Waters, the underground Godfather (who has been rebranded as an indie); and Kevin Smith, the self-styled Jersey scrub who directed the Sundance hits Clerks and Chasing Amy.
Of these Industry rank and file, only Smith has clocked in hours, directing effective campaigns for MTV, Diet Coke and Nike Air. Kevins asset is that he is good with dialogue, says Schwartz. With one scene, he creates a whole world.
Smiths stablemates are not quite as industrious. Schwartz says that she is waiting for the right projects to come along for them, jobs that fit their personalities and talents. She also admits that it has been hard to sell feature directors to the spot industry. Youd be surprised. Agencies are daring. Clients are apprehensive, she says.
Meanwhile, The Industry and Moxie continue to benefit from a close relationship with Miramax Films, the indie mini-major. Levinsons wife Meryl Poster is co-president of production at Miramax and, according to Levinson, the company often steers him towards new talent with crossover promise. Levinson also is a friend of Scott Greenstein, co-president (with John Schmidt and Bingham Ray) of October Films, and Levinsons brother-in-law, Randall Poster, is a freelance feature music supervisor. According to Levinson, both men frequently give Moxie the heads up on new blood. Recently, Levinson milked his connections to hammer out a deal with independent Irish filmmaker Jim Sheridan (The Boxer, My Left Foot and In the Name of the Father) who helmed a Moxie-produced Mastercard spot, Mother/Daughter, in the Priceless campaign via McCann-Erickson, New York.
Indie Spots
Another big crossover success story this past year has been Propaganda Independent (also referred to as Independent), an offshoot of bicoastal/international Propaganda Films. Using a variety of name directors, Independent has produced a full deck of spots in just under a year, thanks to some masterful schedule juggling by executive producer Susanne Preissler, who estimates that the division has raked in billings of $9 million. Before going over to Propaganda, Preissler cut her teeth as a producer at Tate & Partners in Los Angeles, and later, as head of production at ad agency Lambesis in Del Mar, Calif. The idea behind Independent, according to Preissler, germinated while she was at Lambesis. I was on the agency side, says Preissler. I was doing an Airwalk campaign and I had just seen the movie Swingers, and I thought, oh my god, theres something about this director [Doug Liman]. I could just tell that he could do spots. I was able to meet Doug and ask him, do you want to direct these commercials? And I dont think he really believed me.
He believed. Liman signed on with Preissler to shoot Truant and Roach for Airwalk (see related story p. 44) and Preissler ran the job through Propaganda Films. Her project turned the head of Steve Dickstein, president of Propagandas commercial division, who proposed that she join the company and start a new venture devoted to crossing over directors.
The name suggests that the company specializes in indie directors, but Preissler demures. Dickstein came up with that name, she says, Dont ask me why. We look at all kinds of directors, not just independent, not just feature. For example, two of her European directorsaLasse Hallstrm (My Life As a Dog) who has directed spots at Independent for Nike, ESPN and Skyy Vodka, and Agnieszka Holland (Europa, Europa) who has directed for Skyy Vodkaaare arguably not indies. And to call Preisslers most recent signing an indieaLuis Mandoki, who directed the current Kevin Costner vehicle, Message In a Bottleais a stretch.
Dickstein explains to SHOOT that he named the company Independent as in independent from Propaganda. The double entendre of being associated with independent feature directors also gives the moniker an added dimension. Part of what I like to do when I create anything, says Dickstein, is to try and form something that people believe right away is part of a culture.
At the moment, the Propaganda Independent culture is a Whos Who of the independent film scene. Besides Liman who has directed spots for Airwalk, Reebok, Levis, Sony, Sector Watches, Fetish and Skyy Vodka, there are: Neil LaBute (In The Company of Men and Your Friends & Neighbors) who has helmed for Airwalk; Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects) whos directed MTV promos and spots for ESPN, Phillips Watches and Ameritech; Greg Mottola (Daytrippers) who helmed a campaign for Rossignol Rollerblades; Alfonso Cuaron (Great Expectations) whos worked for Nike and recently did five spots for Miller Genuine Draft.
I just crossed over Lisa Cholodenko [High Art], Agnieszka Holland and David Veloz [Permanent Midnight], Preissler says. For the most part these directors are considered art directors; obscure. Most people will say, you know, AThe director of High Art, Im not going to use her in a commercial. And thats okay, I understand that, but Im in a position where I can go to a client directly, and an agency, and say AI really think you should work with this person. And they trust me.
Skyy Vodka and Lambesis, its ad agency, trusted Preissler enough to use her three latestaand untestedaindie crossovers in a strikingly unusual campaign. Created by Lambesis creative director Chad Farmer, the campaign consists of three longish spotsaone by each directorathat are structured like short indie films and are intended for the European market and for screenings at film festivals. These indie spots soft sell the brand by featuring it discreetly, like product placement in a feature film, in order to target the savvy indie demographica25 to 35 year olds.
I think making commercials is an art form in itself, says Preissler. Yes were marketing products, but at the same time were approaching it in a very artistic way.
Sun Spot
Where does a spot production company or an agency without ties to Miramax go to pick up an indie? A film festival, naturally. Although some people prefer the tranquillity of Telluride or the attitude of New Yorks Gen Art or the superabundance of Toronto to the tradition and brand power of Sundance, most agree that Park City is the place to go to find the quintessential low-budget American product.
Its really almost exclusively an American festival, says Hardy. There are other shows that are bigger, like Toronto, but none of them have the concentration of independent American films like Sundance.
This is an important distinction for production companies and agencies that primarily serve the American market.
Most of the independent directors at Sundance share the same audiences that we are targeting, says Kecia Benvenuto, a producer at TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles, who was sent by Richard ONeill, senior partner/director of broadcast production, to observe the festival this year. The directors you see here [at Sundance] have done movies for very little money. So when you work on commercials with smaller budgets, as I do, these directors are undaunted, they know how to shoot with less resources, and they arent pricing themselves out of your league.
Ben Grylewicz, head of broadcast production at Wieden & Kennedy, Portland Ore., who attended the first week of the fest, agrees. We go to Sundance every year, he says, speaking for the agency. We go to see new things, directors and actors and the like. Last year we saw Todd Phillips and used him on a Miller project. I think indies are more open to doing this kind of thing, and when theyre young and hungry, theyre going to put more of an effort into it than maybe an established feature director whos done 5 or 10 or 20 big features. These young guys are used to working small and lean and fast. It doesnt scare them to do spots.
Despite its cachet as one of the premiere festivals in the world, Sundance today is still a fountain of youth, creativity and shoestring budgets. Jennifer Gentile, a young filmmaker who makes a living as an art director on commercials, music videos and low budget movies, got into the festival with her short Life History of A Star and announced her presence in Park City by distributing postcards that beckoned: Come see my movie! It was a mantra that echoed clearly through the high hills of Utah that week in a multitude of voices: Come see my film! Come see my film!
I cant believe Im here, gushes indie Tod Williams, introducing his first feature, The Adventures of Sebastian Cole, to a receptive festival crowd. This is what Ive always dreamed about, coming to Sundance.
In Park City, a visitor cant help shake the feeling that most American kids probably have shot a film, or want to, and that their most cherished hope is to screen their efforts here at Slamdance, Lapdance, Souldance, No Dance, Candance, Vandance, or any of the other tangos that revolve around this particular sun every January.
Robert Redford, strangely, refused to show at his own party this year. Attendees whispered that he had complained that the soiree had become more of a marketplace than a festival. This from the man who brought us The Horse Whisperer and other big-budget Hollywood films designed to turn a profit. It seemed patently unfair to many festival-goers that the Pontiff of Park Cityaas festival veterans call himawould carp about young bloods trying to score a deal.
Even if Redford wasnt there, spot industries and artists were, in force. Representatives from spot companies with feature divisions baby-sat pet films and directors. Spot directors screened shorts, features and documentaries. Some production and agency people arrived simply to browse. I just go to be exposed to new films, says Denise Rolfe, account manager at Razor, a boutique advertising agency in Salt Lake City. And others came to buy. There are two directors who I saw at this festival who Im mulling over right now, says Preissler. And Im going to talk to them and see what they are about.
Company Picnic
Dan Lindau, Cami Taylor and Nick Wollner, partners and executive producers at Crossroads Films, bicoastal and Chicago, were at Sundance this year to attend the out-of-competition premiere of Jawbreaker, a film produced by Stacy Kramer and Lisa Tornell in association with Crossroads Pictures, the new movie wing of the veteran spot house. According to both Lindau and Taylor, Crossroads Pictures helped find outside funding for Jawbreaker, which was written and directed by NYU Film School grad Darren Stein. Crossroads Pictures also was involvedaalong with New York-based indie production company Good Machineawith one of the small gems of the festival, an in-competition short written and directed by veteran spot and feature DP Tom Krueger. Fuzzy Logic, Kruegers first film, features a heartbreaking performance by Jared Harris as a blue-collar, alcoholic loser who is reunited with his long estranged son, a freckle-faced, middle-class kid who is at first repulsed and then strangely drawn to the father he has never known. Weve got our eye on Tom, says Lindau, who has booked the DP on many spots over the years, including a recent BellSouth campaign directed by Russell Bates of bicoastal X-Ray, a satellite of Crossroads.
Taylor and Lindau admit that Crossroads Pictures is a two-way street. It will keep spot directors happy by supporting their longform projects, and it will attract feature directors who might turn to spots. Most established commercial and video directors want to have that option [making films], says Taylor. And they want to have one-stop shopping. They want to have everything at one company, under one roof. That way, when they have their script, they can have someone make it whom they trust. Theyre not going to have to face a pack of wolves out there.
Alex Blum, executive producer/partner (with head of sales Tom Mooney and director David Cornell) of bicoastal Headquarters, also was in Park City. SHOOT caught up with him and his latest hire, Pasadena Art Center graduate Carolyn Coal, at 350 Main, a West Hollywood-style restaurant, where the pair held court in a lively dinner booth, surrounded by family and friends. Coal, a very promising talent who previously was signed by Harmony Holdings now defunct Chemistry (a.k.a. Harmony Pictures), directed Cache, a short film that was in competition. The intelligent way to manage a company and have a long-term relationship with the directors you are involved with is to take a long view, says Blum, who was at the festival to support his new director, and also to get some skiing in. Whatever advances their careers and makes them happy is the best thing for the company.
Coal shot Cache before joining Headquarters. The half-hour short is a somewhat gauzy melodrama about a gang of attractive girls who botch a bank heist and ruminate heavily on the meaning of life and death. Coals spot work is more impressive, especially her powerful 98 Clio award-winning Durex Condom spec, Its Claire, which features a :60 tracking shot of a passing highway guardrail paired with the voiceover of a phone conversation between a woman and a man who sounds as if he is awkwardly angling for a date. The upshot is that hes HIV positive, and he was instructed to call everyone he had slept with. The woman hangs up while the image of the guardrail disappears into a wall of light; a chilling moment.
Its a huge concern among people today that you might get one of those calls, says Coal, who wrote the spot as well as shot it with a Bolex from the back of her pickup truck. When the guardrail ends, it gives you a sense of the starkness of reality, the sense that this could happen to anyone.
Alexis Seely, executive producer of HKM Films, a West Coast feature film division of bicoastal HKM Productions, was in Park City this year with her associate, Munoz-Flores, and HKM director Jordan Brady whose indie feature Dill Scallion, a mockumentary about a feckless country music star, was shown at Slamdance. HKM Films is currently developing features for Richard Sears and Michael Karbelnikoffaspotsmiths on the parent company roster. For Seely, it was her fifth year in Park City. I go to look at directors and meet financers, she says. This year I met a couple of talented writer/directors with short films whom Im interested in. Seely is not only interested in their feature potential. I pass on to the commercial division the names of directors who have a strong visual sense that would translate to commercials, she relates.
Short Eyes
Park City indeed was crawling with spot people, and they made their presence known most conspicuously in the official calendar of events in the short film programs. Chel White, an animation spotmaker with bicoastal Curious Pictures, screened Dirt, a disturbing live action parable about a man who eats dirt, narrated by radio poet Joe Frank. Animator Corky Quakenbush of Hollywood-based Klasky-Csupo Commercials brought forth a new installment of a bloody stop-motion series of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer parodies (other episodes have appeared in previous festivals) entitled A Pack of Gifts, Now, in which Santa Claus is transformed into the diabolical Kurtz from Apocalypse Now. Rick Dublin of Dublin Productions, Hollywood and Minneapolis, premiered Bubble Pac, a twisted fable about a corpse wrapped in bubble-packing. Jarl Olsen of Santa Monica-based Fuel Design and Production, who is well-known for his graphics and live action work in spots, screened two shorts: Devil Doll, which stars the director as a sunbather who says Hi, my name is Jarl, will you read my screenplay? when a child pulls his nipple ring; and Cry Radio, an ingeniously droll satire about a desperate radio station that suddenly rockets to the top with DJ Bob the Sadman who spins music for miserable people. London-based Jeff Stark, who is represented for spots by bicoastal Manifesto, showed Desserts, which stars Ewan McGregor of Trainspotting as a fisherman who finds an eclair on a beach, takes a bite and is violently hooked and dragged into the sea; a case of the hunter caught by the game. Mark Osborne of Acme Filmworks, Hollywood, took home top honors for best short with his stop-motion animated More, which was shot in 65mm and tells the story of an E.T.-like character who invents a pair of glasses which makes the drab world appear beautiful.
In the longform documentary category, Sundance veteran Jessica Yu, who directs commercials through non.fic.tion spots and longform based in Santa Monica, screened The Living Museum, which documents the activities of a unique art workshop and gallery for patients at New Yorks Creedmoor Psychiatic Center. Yu is somewhat of a legend in film circles after her famous Academy Award acceptance speech (for Breathing Lessons, best documentary short, 97) in which she mentioned that her designer dress cost more than her film.
We did this Tampax spot, Yu says, characteristically telling it like it is during a lunch with SHOOT at the Yarrow Hotel in Park City. She was discussing her maiden voyage in advertising, directing a spec. It was considered a little risque for a spot for Tampax, she says, because it actually suggests that feminine products have something to do with a woman having her period.
Jon Else, another non.fic.tion spots director, won the documentary filmmakers trophy this year for Sing Faster: The Stagehands Ring Cycle. The film pulls back the curtains at the San Franciso Opera and features the stagehands who wrangle elaborate sets, props, lights and effects for performances of Richard Wagners 17 hour, four opera opus. Else, like Yu and many other documentary filmmakers, is an artist with a conscience. He is a graduate of Berkeley and Stanford, and was involved with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Mississippi during the 60s. He has directed a handful of powerful documentaries over the years, including The Day After Trinity (80) which is about the making of the atomic bomb. During the 80s he worked with San Francisco-based (Colossal) Pictures as a commercial DP. I felt surprised finding myself doing commercials, Else told SHOOT after winning the Sundance award. My generation had a lot of questions about commercials, you know, concerning what effects they have on society. For example, today, with sneaker ads, youre helping sell expensive shoes to kids. And with cereal ads youre basically selling sugar to children. We are paid a lot of money to do this and we all have to find out where we draw the line. You have to be very careful not to put your artistry to use for things that can be dangerous to the fabric of society.
Spot Posse
Perhaps more than any other film festival, Sundance is a group activity. Park City is not New York or Toronto or Los Angeles. It is a small town in the mountains. Its hard to get lost. Most festival-goers dont try. Groups of friends and professional associates make dates to meet at screenings, coffee shops, the festival hospitality center (which is generously equipped with free phones, newspapers and food), on ski slopes and at parties. They plan itineraries together or go their separate ways, drifting in and out of each others orbits. A fairly tight-knit group this year from the spotworld consisted of Benvenuto, Garman, Preissler, Rolfe, and Stephanie Stephens (management supervisor/partner at TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles). For the most part, this spot posseamembers of the Gen X/indie film generationawas at Sundance simply to test the waters and, according to Benvenuto, take the mystery out of it. They did so by avoiding the slopes and the Jacuzzis and spending every spare moment running from one screening to the next; as much as possible, in each others company.
Benvenuto produces for the Energizer account at Chiat/Day, which, according to her, has a small broadcast budget. Her interest in low-budget directors is strictly professional. Commercial production companies believe in independent filmmakers, she says. They scout the festivals. They go there with short films made by their directors. They use Sundance as a selling point. Its important that Chiat/Day be there because its important to bring back advance information for the agency about the creative climate. Because you can be sure there will be an independent filmmakers reel on your desk the day after.
As a result of her trip, Benvenuto is organizing agency screenings of Sundance fare. Can one go to Sundance, see a short film or a feature and predict that the director will be a good spot director? she asks. I dont know. Thats an ability I certainly dont possess.
Stephens came away from the fest convinced that comedy is the independent directors strongest suit. In advertising, people connect with a sense of humor, she says. Thats what Chiat/Day is all about. Thats what independent films are all about. They push the tolerance of consumer sensibilities. Comedy in independent film is dark and it trickles down into advertising. Ads these days have a darker sense of humor as a result.
But how easy is it to crossover these unfettered, ironic, independent spirits into the domain of product marketers?
People are really scared about taking someone who makes a two-hour film and having him do a 30 format, Preissler admits. SHOOT spoke with her on the front porch of the Badass Cafe in downtown Park City on a very chilly morning, the last of the festival. She had been in town for four days, accompanying her guinea pig crossover, Liman, whose latest film premiered here out of competition. It was one of the most sought-after tickets at the festival. The film is titled Go, and it is a visceral tour de force featuring L.A. youngsters who are tangled up in a screwy drug scam. The reality is, she says, if these directors are properly supported and guided, it can happen. Any director could cross over. The question is, do they have the personality or the desire? Thats where you separate the people who are going to make the transition from those who arent going to care to.
At the Eating Establishment on Main Street in Park City, SHOOT ran into Julianne Hausler, a partner and executive producer at bicoastal New York Office. She was working the festival on her own, independently scouting for indie talent. A young feature director will always be attracted to commercial directing, says Hausler, who, with her partner Cathy Pellow, once signed Peter Bogdanovich for spot directing and then dropped him for lack of bookings. Theyre drawn by the allure of fast money. But anyone who has ever signed feature directors and chosen to develop them, will attest to the fact that it takes a substantial commitment to build them. It takes a commitment from the company and the director. You have to demonstrate to an agency that someone can tell a story in 30 seconds. The transition is not a natural one, it has to be learned. You can be a great skier and switch to snowboarding, but youre going to spend a while learning the differences. And there are differences.
Flashback to the Sundance awards party on the final fest night, or as Randolph Pitts likes to say, at the end of the day. Pitts is the CEO of Lumiere Films, a Los Angeles-based feature company responsible for Leaving Las Vegas, among other notable independent movies. He was spotted on the edge of the dance floor, where he tells SHOOT that he has attended Sundance every year for the past eight years. I do just the opposite most of the time, he says, comparing himself to spot people. I try to get commercial directors into indie films. We were looking at Tony Kaye [of Santa Monica and London-based Tony K] before he did American History X, for example. And of course we used Mike Figgis [of Los Angeles-based Ritts/Hayden], who started in music videos and commercials. I used to have RSA send me a box of reels and Id go through it systematically. Its the thing to do. At the end of the day, everybodys looking for the next Michael Bay [of bicoastal/international Propaganda Films]. Pitts stared bleary-eyed at the crowd, and then with an impulsive wave of his hand, says,See you next year, before leaping into the fray, mixing it up in the happy jumble on the dance floor.u
