A substitution and an addition mark the field of commercial directors reported on earlier this month (SHOOT, 11/7, p. 1) who are participating in the 2004 series of "Dreams" short films, presented by Sony and Young & Rubicam, New York. Tim Godsall of Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles, replaces Biscuit founding partner Noam Murro, who had to bow out after garnering his first feature film, The Ring 2.
Meanwhile, director Jonathan Darby, who recently joined bicoastal Original Film (SHOOT, 10/10, p. 1), has been added to the "Dreams" lineup, which now consists of 10 directors, each creating and helming a short captured on a Sony 24p HD camera.
The other eight directors are: Dante Ariola of bicoastal/international Morton Jankel Zander (MJZ); David Cornell of bicoastal Headquarters; Elma Garcia of MJZ; Matthias Hoene of bicoastal/international Partizan; Erick Ifergan, who just returned to bicoastal Believe Media; Erich Joiner of bicoastal Tool of North America; Stacy Wall of bicoastal Epoch Films; and Hype Williams of bicoastal RSA USA. The theme of the shorts this year is simply "Magic."
SHOOT caught up with the newest "Dreams" directors—Darby and Godsall—this week. They reflected on their inclusion in the "Magic" endeavor. "I’m glad to do something four times longer than I’ve ever done," said Godsall in reference to the four-minute limit on the length of the "Dreams" short. "I saw the 2003 ‘Dreams’ films and found them to be a nice surprise in terms of the variety of different looks and storytelling versatility that they achieved."
Godsall, who’s best known in the ad arena as a comedy director, had been planning to do a short film anyway to diversify his mix of work. But he’s put that short on the backburner for now so that he can focus on the Sony project, his first foray into HD. At press time, he was exploring "Magic" storytelling possibilities.
Earlier this year, Godsall-directed work produced by Toronto-based untitled earned two Silver Lions at Cannes: one for a Canadian Hockey Association campaign ("Golf," "Cop," "Grocery") via Palmer Jarvis, DDB, Vancouver, B.C.; and the other for a Rogers AT&T Wireless spot, "Peggy’s Ring," out of MacLaren McCann, Toronto.
Meanwhile, Darby is no stranger to shorts. Prior to entering the spotmaking arena, he wrote and directed a short film, Contact, which went on to receive an Academy Award nomination for best live action short in ’93. The Sony project will be the second short of his career. Darby’s résumé also includes documentaries, a feature (Hush starring Jessica Lange and Gwyneth Paltrow) and of course, commercials (Kraft, Dupont, Ameriquest, Blue Cross).
Though he wasn’t at liberty to publicly discuss details of his planned "Magic" short at press time, Darby related that it will tell the story of a child who comes to terms with a bereavement in the family. In doing so, the director will try to reflect what he said has been described as "the quiet intensity of magic in everyday life, which we often pass by until we come up against a milestone in life."
This will be the first time Darby works in HD. "I’ve been asked to for certain projects, but I didn’t find them to be the ideal marriage of form and content," he said. "This story we’ve found for ‘Dreams,’ though, has that potential."
Darby added that he regards being included in the "Dreams" field as an honor. "The shorts have been incredibly interesting the past two years," he observed. "For a director, this is a creatively inspiring assignment, with the opportunity to push into new frontiers a bit."
The third annual series of hi-def "Dreams" shorts is slated to debut in mid- to late March of ’04.
