Director Chris Wilcha has come aboard the roster of Park Pictures. Already at his new spotmaking roost, he has turned out jobs for Hyundai and Canon.
For the latter out of Dentsu America, Wilcha directed “Barcelona” in which a young couple embarks on a quest to re-create what had been a botched photo at the place where the woman’s parents first met. The commercial is the first in Canon’s “Your Second Shot” Project, which gives people the opportunity to re-do tragically missed photo ops.
Wilcha’s second Park-produced spot, Hyundai’s “Classroom,” is part of the car company’s “Hope on Wheels” campaign out of Innocean Worldwide. The subtle but intensely moving “Classroom” hauntingly employs an emptied-out classroom as a visual metaphor for children lost to cancer.
As a filmmaker, Wilcha is perhaps best known for ushering the hit storytelling show This American Life from Chicago Public Radio to television via Showtime.
“We’ve been huge fans of This American Life for a long time,” said Jackie Bisbee, partner/exec producer of Park Pictures, “and were amazed at how Chris translated people telling stories on the radio into visually innovative television without altering the soul of the original.”
Wilcha served as director and co-executive producer of This American Life, which earned two Emmys in 2008–one for Outstanding Nonfiction Series, the other for Outstanding Direction for a Nonfiction Series. Wilcha shared the directing honor with Adam Beckman for the “Escape” episode of This American Life. That same year This American Life also scored recognition at the International Documentary Association Awards.
Prior to Park Pictures, Wilcha was repped for spots by Chelsea. His body of work spans commercials, pilots, and shorts. His has earned a reputation for blending narrative filmmaking detail with the emotional realism of the documentary.
His first-person documentary, The Target Shoots First, which chronicled the director’s stint in the marketing department at mail-order record club Columbia House, garnered a shelf full of festival awards and aired on Cinemax and the Sundance Channel. His other documentary projects include The Social History of the Mosh Pit, Second Hand Stories, and I Pity the Fool. Wilcha recently moved from New York to Los Angeles where he is currently developing a project for producer-director Judd Apatow.
Oscar Nominees Delve Into The Art Of Editing At ACE Session
You couldn’t miss Sean Baker at this past Sunday’s Oscar ceremony where he won for Best Picture, Directing, Original Screenplay and Editing on the strength of Anora. However, earlier that weekend he was in transit from the Cesar Awards in Paris and thus couldn’t attend the American Cinema Editors (ACE) 25th annual panel of Academy Award-nominated film editors held at the Regal LA Live Auditorium on Saturday (3/1) in Los Angeles. While the eventual Oscar winner in the editing category was missed by those who turned out for the ACE “Invisible Art, Visible Artists” session, three of Baker’s fellow nominees were on hand--Dávid Jancsó, HSE for The Brutalist; Nick Emerson for Conclave; and Myron Kerstein, ACE for Wicked. Additionally, Juliette Welfling, who couldn’t appear in person due to the Cesar Awards, was present via an earlier recorded video interview to discuss her work on Emilia Pérez. The interview was conducted by ACE president and editor Sabrina Plisco, ACE who also moderated the live panel discussion. Kerstein said that he was the beneficiary of brilliant and generous collaborators, citing, among others, director Jon M. Chu, cinematographer Alice Brooks, and visual effects supervisor Pablo Helman. The editor added it always helps to have stellar acting performances, noting that hearing Cynthia Erivo, for example, sing live was a revelation. Kerstein recalled meeting Chu some eight years ago on a “blind Skype date” and it was an instant “bromance”--which began on Crazy Rich Asians, and then continued on such projects as the streaming series Home Before Dark and the feature In The Heights. Kerstein observed that Chu is expert in providing collaborators with... Read More