Bicoastal The Famous Group has signed director Pete Chatmon. He’s already wrapped his first job at his new roost–a campaign for Spectrum starring Sister, Sister actress/model Tamera Mowry out of agency Castells.
Chatmon’s work over the years spans commercials, shorts, TV and features. His recent TV directing endeavors include episodes of ABC sitcom Black-ish, Freeform’s hit Grown-ish, OWN’s Greenleaf drama, and Netflix’s Atypical. Other TV credits include The Last O.G., Grey’s Anatomy, Insecure and American KOKO. Chatmon continues to develop episodic shows while booking directorial gigs for upcoming broadcast, cable and streaming seasons.
No stranger to advertising and branding, Chatmon through his digital studio TheDirector spent the last decade directing, shooting and editing content for agencies and Fortune 500 companies. Busy with multiple TV and film projects, he felt it time to join a production company with a national presence. “The Famous Group is a high profile production company which spends every day finding opportunities I would miss being on the set,” he said. “They understand that I’m a teller of stories, mostly fiction, but always real.”
Chatmon’s film career broke right from the gate, with Sundance selecting his NYU thesis film, 3D starring Kerry Washington. Another one of his shorts, Blackcard, premiered on HBO. His debut feature film Premium, starring Dorian Missick, Zoe Saldana and Hill Harper, premiered on Showtime after a theatrical run. Chatmon additionally wrote, produced and directed 761st, a documentary about the first all-black tank battalion in World War II. Chatmon also received the Tribeca Film Institute’s “All Access” Award for his screenplay $FREE.99.
“Pete has a gift for directing cinematic lifestyle, strong performances and star talent,” said David Kwan, managing director of The Famous Group. “Spectrum was the perfect campaign for Pete because of his ability to direct strong dialogue from film and TV celebrities, creating a sleek look and feel influenced by his premium filmmaking experience.”
From Restoring To Hopefully Preserving Multi-Camera Categories At The Emmys
When Gary Baum, ASC won his fourth career Emmy Award earlier this month, it was especially gratifying in that the honor came in a category--Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Half-Hour Series--that had been restored thanks in part to a grass-roots initiative among cinematographers to drum up entries. Last year the category fell by the wayside when not enough multi-camera entries materialized.
In his acceptance speech, Baum appealed to the Television Academy to keep multi-camera categories alive. He later noted to SHOOT that editors also got their multi-camera recognition back in the Emmy competition this year. Baum hopes that after resurrecting multi-camera categories in 2024, such recognition will be preserved for 2025 and beyond.
A major factor in the decline of multi-camera submissions in 2023 was the move of certain children’s and family programming from the primetime Emmy competition to the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ (NATAS) Emmy ceremony. For DPs this meant that multi-camera programs last year were reduced to vying for just one primetime nomination slot in the more general Outstanding Cinematography for a Series (Half-Hour) category. It turned out that this single slot was filled in ‘23 by a Baum-lensed episode of How I Met Your Father (Hulu).
Fast forward to this year’s competition and Baum won for another installment of How I Met Your Father--”Okay Fine, It’s A Hurricane,” which turned out to be the series finale. Two of Baum’s Emmy wins over the years have been for How I Met Your Father, and there’s a certain symmetry to them. His initial win for How I Met Your Father was for the pilot in 2022. So he won Emmys for the very first and last... Read More