A student commercial she directed at Art Center College of Design earned Kathleen Lorden a slot in SHOOT's 11th annual New Directors Showcase last month at the DGA Theatre in NYC. Entitled "Funeral," the charmingly dark comedy spec piece has a couple deciding if they should put the money they were saving for a car towards a funeral for the guy's stepmom. As we later see them motoring about in a new Kia Soul, clearly they have come up with a burial alternative.
"Funeral" helped Lorden secure her first career spot production house representation as she recently signed with TWC. She was one of 35 helmers selected for the 2013 SHOOT New Directors Showcase. The debut screening of the Showcase reel, a panel discussion with six of the promising directors, and an after-party highlighted the celebratory evening.
At the other end of the filmmaking continuum earlier that same day at the SHOOT Directors/Producers Forum, also at the DGA venue, several directors whose accomplishments span an Oscar win, several Academy Award nominations, Emmy-winning and -nominated efforts, shared insights into their work and careers. Those notables included Joe Berlinger, Henry-Alex Rubin, Bryan Buckley, Cynthia Wade and Matthew O'Neill.
Additionally, the Forum featured panel discussions exploring visual workflow sparked by the increased prominence of digital cinematography, new forms of content opportunities evolving for the production community, and publicity/marketing means towards gaining exposure and coverage for projects meriting awards show circuit attention.
Below is a rundown of the daytime Forum and evening New Directors Showcase held May 23 at the DGA Theatre. Included are videos of the panels/sessions. Unfortunately, the event videographer had camera problems causing several of the videos not to be complete. The Screening Room session was not taped but the trailers from work discussed is included. The opening portions of the Fresh Produce and Project Awareness panels were not taped. The remainder of the panels/sessions are shown in their entirety. SHOOT regrets that we cannot bring the full videos to readers' attention but remarks from panelists not in the videos are included below, in today's SHOOT >e.dition, SHOOT's June 14th print issue and PDF versions.
Screening room
This kickoff session continued a mini-Forum tradition which began in 2012 when the short film Asad was screened and its director Bryan Buckley of Hungry Man discussed its backstory. It was the first screening of the film for the advertising/filmmaking community–and Asad went on to earn a 2013 Academy Award nomination for Best Live Action Short film.
SHOOT carried over that Oscar pedigree to this year's Forum, opening with a pair of filmmakers who each earned Short Subject Oscar nominations in 2013–Cynthia Wade for Mondays at Racine, and Matthew O'Neill for Redemption, which he helmed with Jon Alpert. After screening trailers for both shorts, a discussion–moderated by SHOOT editor Robert Goldrich–had the directors comparing their prior Oscar nominations with their most recent. Five years ago, Wade won the Short Subject Documentary Oscar for Freeheld, which told the story of Laurel Hester, a dying policewoman who wants to leave her pension benefits to her life partner, Stacie, but that request is denied. Hester fights to gain that right so that her same sex partner can afford to keep their house.
Mondays at Racine tells the story of two sisters–Rachel and Cynthia–who run a beauty salon on Long Island. Every third Monday of the month, their salon, called Racine, provides free beauty and support services for women undergoing chemotherapy. The sisters–who lost their mother to breast cancer–are determined to give women who are losing their hair, eyebrows and eyelashes a sense of normalcy and dignity during a traumatic, uncertain time. The loss of hair and its impact on personal image evolves into a poignant, moving look at womanhood, motherhood and marriage.
Wade noted that a major difference between her two Oscar nominations was the political pressure associated with the first as gay marriage rights were just starting to emerge as a top-of-mind social issue. Initially attracted to the personal story of Hester, Wade later found political considerations being brought to bear once the short began to find an audience and gain recognition.
Another striking difference for Wade was the fact that all of the women in Mondays at Racine are alive whereas Hester never lived to see Freeheld get accepted at Sundance or win an Oscar. Wade noted that it's meant a great deal for her to have the women in Mondays at Racine–some still battling cancer, some in remission–to be able to share in the film's success, have parties and watch the Oscars. In fact, Wade brought the two sisters who run the Racine salon–as well as Cambria Russell, one of the cancer patients in the film–out to Hollywood to attend this year's Academy Award ceremony.
As for O'Neill, he and Jon Alpert have made the Oscar shortlist three times in the last four years, with Redemption earning them their second Short Subject Documentary Oscar nomination–the first coming in 2010 for China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province. This nomination was special in that the filmmakers pledged to the mothers whose children died in a massive earthquake that the documentary would get people to pay attention to what happened and help to fight for those kids' and their families' rights.
Redemption meanwhile tells the stories of unemployed people who are left to make a living by collecting cans and bottles off the streets of New York–at a redemption rate of five cents per can. Redemption introduces us to Nuve, a young mother who is supporting not only her two kids but helping her sister and nephews. Then there's Susan, a senior citizen who has to supplement her Social Security income to keep her head above water. There's Walter, a 60-year-old Vietnam War vet and former short order cook whose canning keeps him financially afloat. And Lily is a Chinese woman who shares a one-bedroom apartment with six other people. In the street, she befriends others. In one scene, she passes by an outdoor cafe and observes that it must be "amazing to enjoy food at a restaurant."
O'Neill noted that the three Academy Award shortlistings and two nominations are meaningful because they reflect a consistency in quality of work. He related that while a filmmaker can get lucky and score one nomination, to be in the hunt multiple times underscores directorial and storytelling acumen.
Wade and O'Neill also share the bond of having diversified successfully into commercialmaking. O'Neill has directed dozens of spots via Rascal Films, including a World AIDS Day-related PSA sponsored by Chevron for New York agency mcgarrybowen.
Wade has helmed several branded content projects, including perhaps most notably a feature-length documentary for Hershey which introduces viewers to a K-12 boarding school the company has created through revenue from chocolate sales. The school is home to at-risk children from low-income families. Wade directed the project independently for agency Arnold New York. She recently landed a spot production company roost, joining Recommended Media, headed by industry vets Stephen Dickstein and Philip Detchmendy.
As for their next endeavors, O'Neill and Alpert are working on a documentary which uncovers and delves into the link between learning disabilities and incarceration in Oklahoma. Some 65 percent of incarcerated adults in the state have learning disabilities with many of those being people of color who aren't getting the necessary attention and treatment in under-funded public schools.
Wade is in varying stages of four documentaries, including one exploring a little known ecological disaster in Indonesia, another examining the history of violins, and one in which wives of former NFL players are dealing with the brain damage incurred by their spouses by virtue of playing in a violent game.
See trailers from the Screening Room session:
Click here or scroll to the bottom to view the video.
Fresh Produce
This "Fresh Produce" session highlighted the different forms of content opportunities emerging for the production community with panelists Rebecca Skinner, exec producer/managing director of HSI, Matt Bonin, chief production officer of Ogilvy & Mather, Kristen Finch, director of digital production for Grey NY, and Hafeez M. Saheed, head of production/exec producer of Nickelodeon Creative Advertising reflecting on various such projects. Additionally Ross Dabrow, VP sales at T3 Media, touched upon new demands in archival footage, and attorney Jeffrey A. Greenbaum, partner in entertainment and advertising law firm Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz (FKKS), addressed legal issues arising from the intersection of advertising and entertainment. Goldrich moderated.
Skinner saw HSI produce The Unsinkable Henry Morgan, a half-hour documentary screened during the course of the Sundance Film Festival and then debuting nationally two days later on the Sundance Channel. Michael Haussman of HSI directed the documentary for NY ad agency Anomaly. A blend of documentary, entertainment and branding, the film brought Captain Morgan of rum fame to life, raising awareness that he was an actual historical figure of significance (SHOOTonline, 2/1 and 4/19).
The Unsinkable Henry Morgan underscores the atypical forms of content coming out of HSI in addition to its mainstream spotmaking. For example, Skinner took an idea scripted by Haussman and sought a match with a luxury brand, successfully doing so via client-direct branded entertainment for Bulgari.
Skinner also connected HSI with Justin Timberlake for a documentary project, directed by John Urbano, a young talent she "discovered" about a year ago. Timberlake gravitated to Skinner based on the trust forged between the two on prior music video work.
Though HSI wasn't involved in On Freddie Roach, an acclaimed HBO documentary series about Roach–a world class boxing trainer coping with advanced Parkinson's disease–the production house's The Malloys directed the show. Now to further diversify its long-form work, Skinner noted that HSI recently hired Justin Cooper, producer of On Freddie Roach, as director of development. Currently he already has a couple of TV projects in development for the production house.
As for Bonin, he noted that Ogilvy too has made a key hire–this one in its in-house Eyepatch Productions, securing director Brandon LaGanke, formerly of TBWA Worldwide NY. Bonin affirmed that Ogilvy will continue to collaborate with outside directors and vendors but explained that agencies today have to not only conceive of projects but execute them internally at times for clients.
Meanwhile Bonin cited a recent IBM project as a prime example of a new form of content at Ogilvy–a one minute stop motion video of individual carbon monoxide molecules repeatedly rearranged to show a boy dancing, throwing a ball and bouncing on a trampoline. A Boy and His Atom was certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the "smallest stop-motion movie."
Bonin noted that this project advances IBM's vision of harnessing the processing power of an atom for data storage and other uses. Within 24 hours, A Boy and His Atom had a million views. At press time the tally was 4 million-plus views and counting. Director was Nico Casavecchia of 1stAveMachine with a team of four IBM scientists (Andreas Heinrich, Christopher Lutz, Ileana Rau, Susanne Bowman) serving as animators. A Boy and His Atom recently made the shortlist for the inaugural Innovation Awards at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity.
Forum panelist Finch, director of digital production at Grey New York, leads a team of 22 digital producers and project managers, oversees the digital production studio and handles relationships with social media partners, technology companies and production vendors. Among the examples she cited as atypical content forms from Grey was a developing integrated campaign for Pantene featuring Zoey Deschanel, and the acclaimed Canon Project Imagin8tion initiative, a contest that solicited submissions of still photos from the public at large, with commercials on air and online promoting the competition and drumming up entries. From those 96,000-plus photos, eight images were selected which served as inspiration for and appeared in when you find me, a short produced by Oscar-winning filmmaker Ron Howard, directed by Bryce Dallas Howard and shot on the Canon Cinema EOS C300.
Canon USA's Project Imagin8tion was honored by the Next Awards in the Integrated Campaign category last year. And when you find me was one of 11 live-action short films to make the Oscar shortlist this year.
Saheed joined Nickelodeon Creative Resources three years ago, helping it evolve into Nickelodeon Creative Advertising. At first blush people think the operation is centered on promos for the network. And while it is involved in off-channel promotion for Nickelodeon projects, that's a far cry from what the overall entity is about. Instead Saheed, who came to Nickelodeon after a tenure as a producer at Saatchi & Saatchi NY, has built something quite unique at the network with an entirely different core business–namely major mainstream advertisers, and then seeking outside sources and talent (directors and production houses) to help realize a creative campaign's vision. Projects have been generated for such clients as Tide, Scrubbing Bubbles and Bounty. For the latter, the directors were the Doctor Twins, a past selection for the New Directors Showcase. Nickelodeon Creative Advertising has also turned out nonbranded content for the likes of Nationwide Insurance.
T3 Media's Dabrow screened a clip to demonstrate the growing trend of clients wanting to incorporate YouTube videos into new work and how YouTube, Vimeo and the like have become a new source for content. He screened an Audi spot made from a mix of archival footage and video sourced from YouTube and Vimeo. T3 Media works with leading video libraries such as those of Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, National Geographic and The New York Times.
Attorney Greenbaum noted that myriad legal issues have arisen from new forms of advertising/entertainment content. He noted that years ago it would have been farfetched for a production house to seek ownership of material it produced for an agency or client. But now there is more of an opportunity for production companies to gain equity in an entertainment-driven project it has developed and produced. He suggested that companies start asking more questions up front to establish an understanding as to whether an ownership stake is possible as opposed to the conventional work-for-hire scenario.
See portion of Fresh Produce Panel:
Click here or scroll to the bottom to view the video.
Visual Workflow
The growing prominence of digital cinematography has caused artists, entrepreneurs, businesses and ways of working–including workflow from pre-pro to production and postproduction–to evolve dramatically in a relatively short span of time. This "Visual Workflow" panel tapped into the perspectives of different key players in production and post. Panelists were Michael Cioni, CEO and founder of Light Iron, a postproduction company specializing in on-site dailies, digital intermediate, archival and data services for projects originated on file-based motion cameras; colorist Billy Gabor of Company 3; Lynn Gustafson, a.k.a. "Gus," rental manager at ARRI CSC, who's in charge of coordinating the daily camera rental activity and managing the digital workflow department; Steven Poster, ASC, national president of the International Cinematographers Guild (ICG), Local 600; pioneering 3D director and producer James Stewart who heads Geneva Film Co., Toronto, and is with the L.A.-headquartered Tate USA 3D division T-3D; and Bradford Young, winner of the 2013 Sundance Cinematography Award: U.S. Dramatic for his work on a pair of films–Ain't Them Bodies Saints and Mother of George. Goldrich served as panel moderator.
Cioni stressed the need for education, noting that many masters of the film craft have not seen the need to learn all they need to know about the workflow implications of digital cinematography. He noted that the industry movement is not a transition but rather a transformation to digital. And those unwilling to get involved and educated about this transformative experience will have a hard time staying relevant. Cioni has served as digital intermediate supervisor on features such as 42 and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. His career thus far has spanned a couple of hundred theatrical movies, experience which he said has gotten him to the point where he can leverage technology to attain a lower price per frame–lower not just monetarily but in terms of stress, time, confusion and headaches. Across these metrics/areas, Cioni said that the price per frame on the average production is going up. But digital and technological expertise can reverse that trend.
Gabor provided a colorist's perspective, observing that each feature project that comes to him is a unique animal in terms of workflow. Each, he affirmed, is akin to "a technology startup" as clients look to partner with him to execute and often define the workflow going forward. A tremendous amount of work both on the front end and through the DI process is necessary. "We look at ourselves," said Gabor, "as an extension of the camera department," setting the color pipeline to help the DP to realize his or her vision.
Meanwhile Stewart has directed 3D spots for such clients as Toyota, Samsung, Lexus and Sprint, collaborating with traditional and digital ad agencies. His 3D short, Beatrice Coron's Daily Battles, was recently screened at this year's TED Conference to rave reviews. Stewart related that a set workflow is vital to a 3D project–and has become more common in VFX-driven movies but not necessarily in other film genres. Stewart said that in 3D, there are many things that you can't easily fix in post, thus making careful planning and preparation all the more important. He noted that you in a sense have to "fix it in prep." He added that getting the post people involved early is a key message that needs to be imparted to the filmmaking community at large when it comes to realizing the full potential of 3D.
Cinematographer Poster's filmography includes Rocky V, Donnie Darko and Southland Tales, which was chosen for the Cannes Film Festival competition. His work on Mrs. Harris earned him an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or Movie. Poster also was an ASC Award nominee for Outstanding Feature Cinematography on the basis of Someone to Watch Over Me directed by Ridley Scott. Relative to workflow, Poster, ASC, picked up on the education theme brought up by Cioni.
The ICG national president said that Local 600 has been involved in a substantive education program relative to digital and workflow for its rank-and-file artisans with companies such as Light Iron aiding in that learning experience. Poster further noted that there are assorted workflows, quoting a colleague, Leon Silverman, president of the Hollywood Post Alliance and general manager of the Digital Studio at Walt Disney Studios, who quipped that workflows are like snowflakes–no two are alike and when they hit the ground, they disappear.
Yet at the same time, with all these workflows and transformative change, in one key respect there's a perennial constant–the cinematographer being in charge of the image. "Nothing has changed," related Poster on that front. DPs, he observed, would choose an emulsion–now they choose a camera. They choose lenses, filtration, design the lighting. And now their control in a sense has become more expansive, continued Poster, citing his experience shooting the first episode of the Netflix series Hemlock Grove. Working with a union DIT and a Technicolor cart on the set, Poster directed the coloring of the master. And while Poster was shooting, the DIT would direct the coloring of the rest of the scene. Poster said he would come in and supervise a bit and at the end of the day, they ended up with complete dailies that looked the way they should.
Also offering a DP's perspective was Young who in addition to his aforementioned Sundance-winning efforts has diversified into commercials, shooting on the ARRI ALEXA for director Mark Pellington of production house Wondros, and lensing anamorphic with the ALEXA for director Chris Milk of @radical.media. While Young shot 35mm for the Sundance-honored feature Ain't Them Bodies Saints, he deployed the RED Epic on Mother of George.
Now that the DP can exert greater influence with the prospect of live color grading, for example, Young noted that it behooves cinematographers to be more communicative and assertive relative to what their vision is and what's needed for a project.
ARRI CSC's Gustafson noted that the evolution of his shop underscores the change that has taken hold in the industry. When he started, the typical ARRI CSC customer would rent a camera, buy some film and move on. But now ARRI CSC is providing much more than a camera and lenses. He recalled that just three years ago for the groundbreaking ALEXA shoot on Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, ARRI CSC found itself having to buy post equipment. ARRI CSC has since evolved from a film camera rental facility to a camera/digital/postproduction rental facility, as Gustafson guides and assists clients with workflow paths that are specific to their projects and needs.
See the Visual Flow panel:
Click here or scroll to the bottom to view the video.
Project Awareness
SHOOT co-owner Gerald Giannone, who is also director of The SHOOT Publicity Wire, moderated this session–Project Awareness: The Journey From Good Work to Widely Recognized & Award-honored Work–which explored how to gain exposure and generate awareness for a film, elevating its stature at major festivals and on the awards show circuit. Panelists were: Jill Bauer, co-director and producer, and Ronna Gradus, co-director, producer and DP on Sexy Baby, a documentary about sexiness and the Cyber Age; director Bryan Buckley of Hungry Man whose Asad went from an unknown passion project to a Best Live-Action Short Oscar nominee this year; SHOOT's Goldrich; and Gary Faber, partner in Entertainment Research & Marketing (ERm), a custom market research and marketing consulting company, specializing in delivering consumer feedback on packaged goods, movies, live theater, video games and all other forms of consumer entertainment and advertising. Faber formerly served as an executive VP, marketing at Weinstein Co. and prior to that as sr. VP marketing at Miramax.
Faber noted that if a filmmaker aspires to win an Oscar, he or she should not immediately jump to the next project but instead be available and accessible for interviews, appearances and whatever means of exposure is needed to get some valuable attention from decision-makers. To put it simply, the immediate objective is to get people to see your film–for Oscar consideration, obviously, the coveted audience consists of some 5,700 Motion Picture Academy members.
First-time filmmakers Bauer and Gradus saw their Sexy Baby become a film festival darling and gain coverage across major media outlets, a key get being a story on ABC.com which begat more stories in print, radio, TV and online. The co-directors noted that getting the right publicist made all the difference in the world. They initially had a publicist on Sexy Baby who left much to be desired. But as soon as they switched to a savvy publicity pro, media momentum started to build for Sexy Baby.
Buckley recalled that the film festival circuit was integral to Asad generating interest and an audience. Debuting and winning the short film honor at last year's Tribeca Film Festival provided an invaluable launching pad, beginning an odyssey of some 40-plus festivals for Asad, earning top honors at some 10 of them, each putting the film up for consideration on the Academy Awards shortlist. It's not until a film goes from shortlist status to being one of the final five Oscar nominees that media coverage becomes relevant. Buckley related that they went to a publicist/strategist during the shortlist period and he told them there was nothing he could do, that hiring him at this juncture would be a waste of money. It's when you graduate from the nominating committee (which culls the field down to the final five nominees) to the full Academy membership (which votes on the Oscar winner) that the media/marketing/PR push comes into essential play. Buckley said that once the five nominees are announced, it's like running for political office until the Oscar is won.
Goldrich noted that a good publicist or industry staffer with knowledge of the outlet he or she is pitching can make a world of difference, presenting relevant projects, prospective stories and info of interest to the publication's print and online readership. And while we live in an email/electronic communications age, a well-placed phone call providing editors and reporters with certain context can also prove invaluable in generating coverage.
On a separate front, Giannone asked Faber to address the use of focus groups and working with filmmakers to make changes to a movie in order to make it more appealing to an audience. Faber recalled that during his Weinstein Co. tenure, "we were relentless about testing films. Directors didn't always like that." But it's important to know what 300 strangers in a dark room think of your work, he noted, then asking how much footage his fellow panelists Buckley shot for Asad, and Bauer and Gradus for Sexy Baby. About 230 hours of footage was lensed for the feature-length Sexy Baby, and four hours for the short Asad.
From all that footage, the ideal, said Faber, is to pick what will help you "get the most playable film possible, the best response possible," especially because the word-of-mouth dynamic is still so critical. He remembered working with Michael Moore on such documentaries as Fahrenheit 9/11 and Sicko, with footage navigating through different people and stories. The decisions as to which people and storylines to keep in a documentary are key, assessed Faber, and research can at least provide "a compass" indicating what paths or directions to possibly consider pursuing.
See portion of the Project Awareness Panel:
Click here or scroll to the bottom to view the video.
In The Director's Chair: Henry-Alex Rubin
The Forum wrapped with two afternoon In The Director's Chair sessions moderated by Goldrich–the first with Henry-Alex Rubin, followed by an interview with Joe Berlinger.
An accomplished commercialmaker (as 14 Cannes Lions would attest) with production house Smuggler, Rubin is also known for his documentary fare, including Murderball which he and Dana Adam Shapiro directed–and which went on to win the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and to earn a Best Documentary Oscar nomination in 2006. Murderball chronicled wheelchair-bound, full-contact rugby players striving to make the Paralympic Games in Greece.
Rubin recently directed his first fiction feature, Disconnect, which centers on three stories–the impact of cyber bullying on a family whose father is distant from his wife and kids; a couple victimized by online identity theft yet enduring a greater problem within their own relationship; and a TV journalist who jumps on a career-making story involving exploitation and her connecting with a teen who performs on an adult-only website. The film's cast includes Jason Bateman, Hope Davis, Frank Grillo and Andrea Riseborough.
While a large part of Rubin's career has entailed making reality look cinematic–as he's done in Murderball and assorted commercials–Disconnect posed a different challenge, one he defined as trying to make things that are contrived seem like the truth. His goal for Disconnect was to make it seem like the audience was eavesdropping on the actors and their situations in each scene. Towards that end, the director brought his documentary sensibilities to bear on the fiction narrative.
Observing that screenwriter Andrew Stern pulled the film's storylines out of the headlines, Rubin delved into those real-life situations for his research, talking to people who have experienced identity theft, bullying or seduction online through pornography. He interviewed these folks and put them in front of the actors to help move towards a more real script and more realistic performances. Rubin referred to these real people as being "our shadow cast." Their experiences and anecdotes reinfused the script and many of the actors spent time with these people to gain further insights.
Rubin additionally worked with his commercial and documentary collaborator, cinematographer Ken Seng, in a docu manner. He smiled that he drove Seng crazy in one regard–not telling him where the action would be so he would be forced like a documentary cinematographer to find it and capture it. The DP had to always be ready.
Also helping to capture those real moments that are worthy of eavesdropping was the shorthand by which Rubin and Seng communicate during a shoot. The two often don't have to speak to each other, instead using a series of hand symbols and gestures so as not to interrupt the actors during lensing. Rubin and Seng developed their own sign language over the years because of all the documentary subjects they worked on together. These same hand motions and gestures came in handy for Disconnect.
The movie's sense of reality was also facilitated by selectively hiding cameras. There was a scene, for example, where actor Grillo portrays a father confronting his son and a friend about cyber bullying. Seng filmed the kids as Grillo gave a riveting performance which scared the daylights out of the youngsters. Grillo then thought Seng was going to lens a reverse shot of him, only to be informed that his reverse had already been shot by a hidden camera through a nearby window. This brought a dimension of realism that might not have been captured with conventional coverage.
Rubin's spot credits include the lauded Burger King "Whopper Freakout" online fare from Crispin Porter + Bogusky, as well as notable work for Samsung (a moving "Sport Doesn't Care" commercial screened for the Forum audience along with the trailer for Disconnect), Reebok, AT&T, Volvo, Budweiser, T-Mobile and Jet Blue (the subtly comedic "Cab Jam").
See In the Directors Chair session with Henry-Alex Rubin:
Click here or scroll to the bottom to view the video.
In The Director's Chair: Joe Berlinger
An Oscar nominee and seven times nominated for an Emmy (twice winning), Joe Berlinger sports a filmography which includes such landmark documentaries as Brother's Keeper, Paradise Lost and Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. He has also diversified meaningfully into commercials and branded content via @radical.media, including directing and producing the first six seasons of Iconoclasts (for Grey Goose Vodka) on the Sundance Channel, helming the Power of Dreams documentary series for Honda, and turning out assorted ad campaigns, including the ambitious Cadillac commercials (a :60 and eight :30s) that broke during last year's Summer Olympics telecasts. (Berlinger directed the people/dialogue aspects of the Cadillac campaign which entailed extensive shooting worldwide while @radical's Jeff Zwart helmed the automotive performance sequences.)
The Forum session started with two projects as a discussion launchpad–Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory and Paul Simon's Graceland Journey: Under African Skies. Paradise Lost 3 earned an Academy Award nomination, a DGA Award nom, and a pair of Emmy nominations last year while Under African Skies also garnered an Emmy nomination in 2012. In some respects, the two documentaries reflect Berlinger's great filmmaking range. Paradise Lost 3 was the third in a trilogy for which directors Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky doggedly persevered for some 20 years to realize justice for Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr. who were arrested in 1993 for the murders of three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, and found guilty, with Baldwin and Misskelley sentenced to life in prison and Echols landing on death row. Berlinger and Sinofsky embarked on the first documentary, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills nearly two decades ago, originally intending to chronicle the story of three teenagers gone bad with the committing of a heinous crime. Instead the film–which won an Emmy in '97 for Outstanding Achievement in Informational Programming–cast doubt on the verdict and was instrumental in marshalling support for the teens as wrongfully convicted. Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, an Emmy nominee in 2000, was a vehicle for further advocacy on behalf of the convicted trio, with Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory uncovering additional inconsistencies in the prosecution's case and then including a final modification after Echols, Baldwin and Misskelly–having served 18 years in prison–were set free last year via a legal maneuver known as an Alford plea.
By sharp contrast, Under African Skies, which Berlinger directed solo, came together relatively quickly–singer/songwriter Paul Simon agreed to make the film in April 2011, there was a 10-day shoot in July, and by January 2012 the documentary was being showcased at the Sundance Film Festival. The celebration of music aspect conveyed in Under African Skies represents quite a counterpoint to the dark areas explored in the Paradise Lost trilogy. Under African Skies chronicles the return of Paul Simon in 2011 to South Africa and to the roots of his seminal album Graceland, released in 1986. Simon prepares for a 25th anniversary concert as he reunites with the South African musicians whose work spawned Graceland. But Simon's exploration of the journey that led to the Graceland album is more than a commemoration of breaking musical boundaries and bringing together diverse cultures. Simon also deals with the controversy attached to Graceland, namely the political backlash he received back then for allegedly breaking the UN cultural boycott of South Africa, which was designed to end the apartheid regime.
The awards recognition for both Paradise Lost 3 and Under African Skies was gratifying for Berlinger on two major fronts. For one, last year's Academy Awards ceremony carried special significance. Berlinger walked the red carpet with Baldwin who seven months earlier was serving a life sentence without parole. Even though the documentary didn't win the Oscar, Berlinger told Forum attendees that being there with Baldwin was one of the great experiences of his life.
Berlinger also shared with the Forum audience that the industry acclaim and the hand that Paradise Lost 3 played in helping to realize justice for the West Memphis Three came at a pivotal juncture for him. It was at a point when Berlinger was questioning the value of social documentary and whether he should even continue in the discipline as he had emerged from a draining legal battle with Chevron over his documentary Crude. Ultimately, Paradise Lost 3 helped to rejuvenate Berlinger's belief in social documentaries, sparking his decision to remain involved in this form of filmmaking that's a cornerstone of the Fourth Estate.
Crude tells the story of Ecuadorians who sued Texaco (since acquired by Chevron) some 19 year ago, alleging that waste and pollution from the company's oil production over three decades caused indigenous people living in Oriente region villages to contract cancer as well as other environmental-related diseases. In 2005, one of the villagers' lawyers contacted Berlinger, inviting him to look into the case. Berlinger ultimately decided to pursue the story, scrutinizing both sides, an investigation which yielded Crude.
But then Berlinger himself became part of the litigation. Chevron sought the outtakes from Crude–some 600 hours in all–to search for proof it was being treated unfairly by Ecuador's government and that the country's court system was rigging the case against the petroleum company. A U.S. District Court judge ruled in Chevron's favor in May 2010. A couple of months later, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals limited the scope of that decision, curtailing access to some 500 hours of unused footage.
Then in January 2011, the same 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan upheld the original lower court ruling, forcing Berlinger to turn over the full 600-plus hours and emails related to the film. The silver lining for Berlinger was that at least he won the right to show his film.
Still, the litigation was draining emotionally and financially. On the latter score, Berlinger said the budget for making Crude was $1.2 million and his legal expenses were $1.3 million in trying to fight Chevron.
Berlinger finds the Crude decision chilling and disconcerting, noting that the case was cited as precedent in New York City's recent battle against documentarian Ken Burns to gain notes and outtakes from his film The Central Park Five which tells the story of five wronged men convicted in the 1989 rape of a Central Park jogger. A New York federal judge ultimately quashed the NYC bid for access to Burns' material.
Removing this chill is all the more critical, said Berlinger, because "the independent documentarian is the last bastion of independent reporting–even if that documentarian has a point of view. I try to create balanced films and show both points of view but some filmmakers have much more of an advocacy mission that still is a type of reporting [that can be valuable]."
As for what's next on Berlinger's docket, among the projects are a documentary about reputed Boston crime boss James Whitey Bulger for CNN Films, and on the branded content front a series of web films for American Express, an account Berlinger worked on back in the day when he was an Ogilvy & Mather staffer.
See the In the Directors Chair session with Joe Berlinger:
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New Directors Showcase
SHOOT's New Directors Showcase marked its 11th year with a screening, panel discussion and after-party at the DGA Theatre in Manhattan, which provided perspective on how far the event has come while underscoring the evolving prospects for aspiring helmers. On the former score, with a decade-plus of honoring up-and-coming talent through this competition, SHOOT has found it increasingly commonplace for a development to spark not only memories of prior Showcases but also reflections on the career progression to prominence of assorted directors.
A case in point was the recent release of Oblivion starring Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman. The sci-fi feature, which opened to favorable reviews, was directed by Joseph Kosinski who eight years ago was in SHOOT's 3rd annual New Directors Showcase. At the time, he was breaking in with Anonymous Content. Earlier this month he came aboard the roster of Reset, reuniting with company founders and former Anonymous colleagues, director David Fincher and managing director/exec producer Dave Morrison.
The very same 2005 New Directors Showcase that introduced Kosinski to the ad community at large also included director David Gray–who at the time was a noted agency creative who had signed with Hungry Man to pursue a full-time directing career. Two years later, while still at Hungry Man, Gray was at the DGA Awards ceremony in Los Angeles as a nominee for Best Commercial Director of 2006. Gray is now with Station Film.
Indeed, we could go on with achievements of assorted Showcase directors over the years yet most striking and equally if not more relevant is the fact that the current crop too has in a relatively brief span already accomplished a great deal. For example, consider Stephanie Martin who was selected on the basis of her short film Wild Horses. She made the film through the American Film Institute (AFI) Directing Workshop for Women. Martin was one of only eight aspiring directors chosen for the AFI program, getting the chance to make her film through the immersive year long tuition-free fellowship conducted each year at the AFI.
Then we have a 2013 Showcase director whose work has positively impacted society. Stephen Reedy was selected in large part for The Forge, a short film that was produced by Eric Lim whose sister committed suicide. She had left her brother money to become a producer. He then did just that by seeking out Reedy and producing an emotional short that is designed to promote suicide prevention. The Forge debuted on actor Rainn Wilson's website, SoulPancake, and has registered more than 200,000 views thus far—with moving comments/reactions from those who have contemplated suicide as well as surviving family members and friends of suicide victims.
Another notable accomplishment in this year's Showcase centers on a $487 investment in a spec spot, "Grad Gift," that ended up winning Chevrolet's Route 66 Super Bowl ad contest. That $487 commercial ran on last year's Super Bowl. It was directed and funded by Zach Borst who has since come aboard the roster of The Artists Company.
And then there's Lance Edmands whose feature film Bluebird opened the World Narrative competition earlier this month at the Tribeca Film Festival. Bluebird shows how even the slightest action can have the most impactful consequences, in this case on a small logging town in Maine. Edmands, who's repped as a spot director by Washington Square Films, earned inclusion into the SHOOT Showcase on the strength of such work as Chevrolet's Bridgeville Episode 3 webisode. His background also includes editing commercials and features such as Lena Dunham's Tiny Furniture.
Reedy and Martin are two of 16 directors who do not yet have production house affiliations. These 16 directors fill 15 slots when you include one directorial team, Neaman/Southworth consisting of Brian Neaman and Michael Southworth who met as assistants at Crew Cuts. They have been editing at Crew Cuts for the past seven-plus years. Under the banner Neaman/Southworth, they broke into the directorial ranks. Helping them earn a slot in the Showcase was MTVx's Inside Joke–Michael Che on Gentrification series.
The remaining unaffiliated directors are: Erik Anderson who was selected in part for the Chevrolet spec piece "Heirloom"; Michele Atkins for a Levi's/AFI online spot titled "Back To Basics"; Chuck Blumberg for the ASPCA online spot "Puppies Are Not Toys"; Carmen Chaplin with A Time For Everything, a short for Jaeger LeCoultre; Ellen Houlihan for the spec "Todd Glass For GLSEN"; Ian Kammer with a moving Amnesty International spec PSA entitled "Vanish"; Jamie Kingham who scored for a Boys & Girls Club marketing video; Kyle Lavore for the short Up A Hill; James Mann for "Handmade Portrait: Chain Reaction," an ETSY branded content piece; Denis Parchow for the online Steiff spot, "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark"; Corydon Wagner for the Ecoimagination.com spec spot, "Capture The Wind"; and Anthony Wilson for a National Domestic Violence Hotline PSA titled "Mistake," which had originally been a spec spot.
Neaman/Southworth are one of four directorial duos to earn slots in the 2013 Showcase, the others being: Brewer consisting of Ben and Alex Brewer who are with PRETTYBIRD; Los Perez, aka Tania Verduzco and Adrian Perez, who are with Cortez Brothers; and Mark and Amanda–Mark Pallman and Amanda Speva–of ONE at Optimus.
Mark and Amanda, Brewer, Los Perez, Edmands and Borst are among the Showcase directors with production house affiliations, the others being: Olivier Agostini of Kontagious for his Malibu International Film Festival online spot "Endangered Species"; Ross Ching of A Common Thread for a Popsicle spec ad; Grainger David of Hungry Man for the short The Chair; Ben Liam Jones of Mustard Film Company for an NSPCC/Childline's online spot; Kathleen Lorden of TWC for the Kia Soul spec spot, "Funeral"; Adam Makarenko of FRANK Content for his short Lost; Phillip Montgomery of Anonymous Content whose web film, Raising an Olympian–Henry Cejudo, was part of the ambitious P&G "Thank you, Mom" campaign; Andreas Ohman of ACNE Production for a GE China spot; Gabriel Olson of Station Film for the Chevy spec, "Make A Wish"; Noah Paul of atSwim for The Sins of Kalamazoo, a webisode for Bullett Media; and Aion Velie of Wild Plum for Ford Fiesta's "Moments–Dog Days," a piece of branded content.
SHOOT's 11th annual New Directors Showcase offers a total of 35 up-and-coming helmers filling 31 slots (27 individual directors and four duos). Some 20-plus of the Showcase directors attended the evening Showcase event.
Speakers, panel discussion
Kicking off the 2013 Showcase proceedings was DGA's Laura Belsey, a director whose body of work spans TV, features, spots and documentaries. Belsey, who developed and teaches the commercial directing class at the Graduate Film School of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, has seen her students earn inclusion into the SHOOT New Directors Showcases over the years. She noted that the DGA is excited to be a lead sponsor of the New Directors Showcase and wanted up-and-coming directors to be aware that the Guild welcomes them and plays an important role in preserving their creative rights across all disciplines, including commercials and branded content. She cited as an example the right of a filmmaker to have a director's cut to convey his or her creative vision for a commercial or piece of branded entertainment.
Belsey in turn introduced SHOOT publisher and editorial director/co-owner Roberta Griefer to the capacity turnout at the DGA Theatre. Griefer introed the debut screening of the 2013 SHOOT New Directors Showcase Reel, which contains a sampling of the work from each Showcase helmer. (To see that Showcase Reel and to read interviews with each new director, visit nds.shootonline.com.)
Griefer then moderated a panel discussion featuring Showcase directors Reedy, Martin, Montgomery, Lavore and the team of Mark and Amanda. Reedy, Martin and Lavore are not yet affiliated with a production house. Montgomery is with Anonymous Content while Mark and Amanda's roost is ONE at Optimus. Offering production house and ad agency context, respectively, to the discussion were Bonnie Goldfarb, co-founder and executive producer of harvest, and David Rolfe, director of integrated production at BBDO New York.
All the directors shared backstories on their recognized Showcase work with Reedy and Martin touching upon aspects covered earlier in this article. Lavore got the directorial bug during his freshman year in high school when he saw Alfred Hitchcock's North By Northwest and Rear Window. He described himself then as a kid with a Sony Handycam who made "terrible films," yet they were projects that represented a learning experience. Lavore then took a career detour, landing a job in the hospitality industry and for a number of years was no longer engaged in filmmaking. When he ultimately returned to directing, he found his hospitality industry tenure to be helpful, noting that working with the public and colleagues in that context helped him learn to empathize with people and characters. That empathy is evident in his darkly comedic short Up A Hill.
Montgomery earned inclusion into the Showcase in large part for his P&G "mom-u-mentary" Raising an Olympian–Henry Cejudo, one of nine shorts he directed in the online "Thank you, Mom" campaign from Wieden+Kennedy and digital/online branded marketing shop ZiZo. Each short focuses on the mom of an Olympics athlete, chronicling her contributions to her child's success, with recollections from the athlete. Cejudo recalled his family's adversity, moving every two to three months because rent had become unaffordable, at one point actually having to live in a crack house. His mom was in the U.S. illegally and thus could not attend his biggest moment, winning the Gold Medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Cejudo reflected on the absence that eventful day of the most important person in his life, the one who inspired him and sparked his belief that he could accomplish anything as long as he worked hard. His mom has since become an American citizen.
Montgomery was an apt choice to direct a batch of "mom-u-mentaries" given his documentary savvy, first recognized with his feature film debut #ReGENERATION, which explored the state of activism–or the lack thereof–among young people in America. Narrated by Ryan Gosling, #ReGENERATION had a successful run on the festival circuit and was released theatrically last year.
Mark and Amanda's Showcase berth was earned in part by their branded content Artisan Series for Bombay Sapphire. Both Midwestern born and bred–Mark growing up in Indiana, Amanda in Illinois–Mark and Amanda first met at post house Optimus where they became fast friends and filmmaking partners. Mark originally wanted to be a musician while Amanda aspired to editing. She quipped that she lacked the "attention span" to become an editor but her film school training, getting exposed to commercials at Optimus and connecting with Mark all translated into their forming a directorial duo.
Harvest's Goldfarb assessed that the 2013 crop of directors accounted for "the best reel we've had in 11 years" since SHOOT started the Showcase. She said the work reflects a group that is better educated and has access to more filmmaking tools than their counterparts of years ago. While she's encouraged over what "new voices" can bring to the table, Goldfarb also noted that the directorial marketplace is crowded. When she first started her career, Goldfarb recalled that directors used music videos and commercials as stepping stones to features. Now in sharp contract you have feature filmmakers "wanting to get into our [advertising] world."
Still, Goldfarb noted that the 35 directors who got into the Showcase have a leg up on other aspiring helmers but added that this is not a time to rest on one's laurels. She encouraged directors to continue honing their skills. "My one request–make sure the communication is always efficient. Every cut needs to advance your story." This is particularly important not only in commercials but also as branded content offers more longer form opportunities.
Rolfe advised new directors to "rely on your representation and producers but do your own homework." He observed that a great director is "a great collaborator"–with DPs, actors, creatives, producers et al.
Rolfe affirmed that "the great directors I have used over the last 15 years" all worked in tandem with great people. "Directors are defined by the teams they put around them."
See the Meet the New Directors Panel:
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After-party; sponsors
After the New Directors Showcase panel, directors and a cross-section of the advertising/entertainment community gathered for an after-party downstairs at the DGA venue. The night capper provided a unique opportunity for new directors to network with agency and production house decision-makers. Conversely production house execs got the chance to get better acquainted with those directors in the Showcase mix who are seeking production company affiliations.
For the fourth straight year, the New Directors Showcase evening event was expanded to include daytime proceedings, SHOOT's Directors/Producers Forum.
Lead sponsors of the SHOOT events were the DGA, harvest and ONE at Optimus. Silver sponsors were FKKS, Company 3 and Method Studios. And Bronze sponsors were the Nevada Film Office, Light Iron and T3 Media.
