By Brian Diedrick
Director Geoff McGann has joined the roster at V12 Commercials, a division of Studios V12, Santa Monica. With experience as both a helmer and an agency creative, McGann said he hopes to concentrate on developing branded entertainment projects at his new production company home.
McGann told SHOOT he’s begun developing and pitching three such projects for V12, although he wasn’t able to publicly disclose details of the concepts at press time. "The war seems to have had an accelerating effect on the possibilities of clients looking at non-traditional motion picture advertising," McGann asserted. "We’ll know in a few weeks whether these [projects] we’re pitching are going to go through."
V12 partner/executive producer Steve Lavy indicated that he was excited to have McGann, an old friend, coming on board. After being out of touch for several years, the two men reconnected this year through mutual friend Mark Fenske—a creative guru who’s now on the teaching staff at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Adcenter in Richmond, Va.
"Geoff’s a known entity in the marketplace," Lavy said. "I worked with him when I was at [now defunct] Propaganda, when he was still an agency creative. We also worked together while I was at [Santa Monica-based editing house] Superior Assembly."
While McGann will also be available for traditional :30s and :60s at V12, it’s clear that his enthusiasms lie in developing longer, branded, entertainment-style fare. This is the direction McGann’s been pushing his career the last three years, and he asserted that in V12, he may have finally found the perfect platform to realize his aspirations.
Prior to signing with his new roost, McGann ran his own production company, the now defunct Strong Films. "My [longtime] producer Paul Mannix and I started our own place, and it went well for a little while," McGann stated. "But we were operating too lean, and you can’t do that these days, when you need a certain size company to be able to realize projects for your client up front. Neither, though, do you want to have too much overhead, and that’s part of the attraction of V12—they seem to strike a good balance between the two."
For a short time after Strong’s demise, McGann was on the roster at Hollywood-based RAW Progressive Entertainment’s commercial division, but he exited the operation without ever taking on a project. Although RAW is interested in developing branded content style projects, "we had some disagreements, and I’m sorry it didn’t work out," McGann offered.
Prior to opening Strong, McGann spent about a year—from 2001 to ’02—as creative director at Ogilvy & Mather (O&M), Los Angeles. "I was basically hired to start an entertainment division there and do something really different," McGann related, "but fairly soon after I came on board, Sept. 11 happened, and the agency as a whole adopted a more conservative approach."
McGann’s move to O&M represented his return to his roots as an agency creative. McGann started his career with Portland, Ore.-based Wieden+Kennedy (W+K) in ’87, working first as a copywriter and later as an art director. During the next five years, McGann worked primarily on Nike, which provided opportunities to collaborate with directors like Joe Pytka of PYTKA, Venice, Calif., and David Fincher of Propaganda. (Fincher is now with bicoastal Anonymous Content.)
In ’92, McGann formed his own creative consultancy, freelancing as a creative director and art director on campaigns out of agencies including W+K and DDB Chicago. At the same time, he began to pursue a directing career with help from Pytka, who encouraged his ambitions and even lent McGann equipment to help him get started. Among McGann’s first projects was a Nike spec spot called "Miners," which he conceived and directed. The spec was purchased by the client and aired during the ’93 NCAA basketball championship tournament.
That same year, McGann signed with his first production company, the now defunct O. Pictures, before moving to bicoastal HSI Productions in ’95. After a two-year stint with HSI, McGann moved over to Los Angeles-based A Band Apart for two years, and then to now defunct production company Manifesto for a short stay.
Prior to coming aboard O&M in ’01, McGann was on the directorial roster at bicoastal M-80.
NEW BEGINNINGS
V12 has an "agency culture," according to McGann. "Day to day, people are here working in the space, as opposed to the normal model, where production companies just staff up from job to job. Not a lot of production companies have a culture, and we have one here."
McGann traced the V12 culture to its postproduction capabilities. "It’s a huge benefit to be at a production company whose roots lie in postproduction," he said. "We can put together top-to-bottom production packages here when clients ask for them. We’ve got in-house tools here that I have daily access to—from editorial to design to digital compositing to finishing to sound. Every day, people are here working on some aspect of production or postproduction, and the interplay is going to be fun to be a part of."
McGann joins a V12 directorial roster consisting of David Hwang, Daryl Goodrich and Linzi Knight. V12 is represented by independent reps Rachael Finn and Mary Saxon on the West Coast; Robin Pickett in the Midwest; and Michael Eha on the East Coast.
Review: Writer-Directors Scott Beck and Bryan Wood’s “Heretic”
"Heretic" opens with an unusual table setter: Two young missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are discussing condoms and why some are labeled as large even though they're all pretty much a standard size. "What else do we believe because of marketing?" one asks the other.
That line will echo through the movie, a stimulating discussion of religion that emerges from a horror movie wrapper. Despite a second-half slide and feeling unbalanced, this is the rare movie that combines lots of squirting blood and elevated discussion of the ancient Egyptian god Horus.
Our two church members — played fiercely by Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East — are wandering around trying to covert souls when they knock on the door of a sweet-looking cottage. Its owner, Mr. Reed, offers a hearty "Good afternoon!" He welcomes them in, brings them drinks and promises a blueberry pie. He's also interested in learning more about the church. So far, so good.
Mr. Reed is, of course, if you've seen the poster, the baddie and he's played by Hugh Grant, who doesn't go the snarling, dead-eyed Hannibal Lecter route in "Heretic." Grant is the slightly bumbling, bashful and self-mocking character we fell in love with in "Four Weddings and a Funeral," but with a smear of menace. He gradually reveals that he actually knows quite a bit about the Mormon religion — and all religions.
"It's good to be religious," he says jauntily and promises his wife will join them soon, a requirement for the church. Homey touches in his home include a framed "Bless This Mess" needlepoint on a wall, but there are also oddities, like his lights are on a timer and there's metal in the walls and ceilings.
Writer-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Wood — who also... Read More