Charles Stone III of Brooklyn-based Storm (formerly C&C/Storm Films) and Rob Sanders of Helen Langridge Associates (HLA), London—Grand Prix winning directors at Cannes this year and in ’99, respectively—have extended their spot reach across the Atlantic. Each helmer gains expanded commercial representation through an agreement entered into by Storm and HLA.
The deal between the two production companies also involves three other directors. Per the arrangement, Storm will handle U.S. representation for HLA’s London helmers Sanders and Tom Vaughan as well as Amsterdam-based Othmar Sweers. Conversely, HLA will represent a pair of Storm directors in the U.K.: Stone and Trent Cooper.
Sanders’ directorial resume includes "Litany" for England’s The Independent newspaper, through Lowe Howard-Spink (now Lowe Lintas), London. The spot has won numerous honors at various award competitions, including the Grand Prix as well as the Journalists Award at Cannes in ’99. Other Sander-directed ads include Sony PlayStation’s "G-Police" via TBWA GGT Simons Palmer, London; and Quorn’s "Tune into Quornville" and "Pants," out of Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Young & Rubicam (Y&R), London.
Stone, of course, directed and co-wrote the much lauded Budweiser "Whassup" campaign for DDB Chicago. The series of spots took the Grand Prix and Journalists Award at the 2000 Cannes International Advertising Festival. And last month, the campaign copped the Grand Prize at the London International Advertising Awards (SHOOT, 11/17, p. 1).
Cooper’s credits include three client-direct spots: "Boy Scout" and "Surgeon" for Time Warner, as well as the National Football League ad entitled "Embezzler."
Vaughan helmed the Yellow Pages’ "Cleaners" and supermarket Sainsburys’ "Fishing Trip," both through Abbott Mead Vickers·BBDO, London, as well as department store Marks & Spencer’s "Party Food" via Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/ Y&R.
Sweers, who is repped in the Netherlands out of his own Balsa Films, has directed SNS Bank’s "Butcher" via FHV/BBDO, Amsterdam; BMW’s "It is Completed" via PPGH/JWT Colors, Amsterdam; and Nibbs Travel’s "Beach" and "Waterfall," both through bbcw, Amsterdam.
EURO EXPEDITION
Storm executive producer Steve Weinshel said that the company had been looking into European representation for some time: "Because of the [SAG/AFTRA] strike, more and more people were going offshore, and we thought that could be served by having some European relationships. We wanted to fill out our roster, and that was a fairly easy way to do it."
HLA managing director Mike Wells approached Weinshel about a formal affiliation just after the Cannes International Advertising Festival in June.
Weinshel was pleased with the symmetry of an alliance between two companies that share the aforementioned common Grand Prix ground. Furthermore, said Weinshel, "HLA has had a relationship with Charles [Stone] for music videos, which predated our relationship with HLA." HLA has been Stone’s clip roost in the U.K. since January ’98, when Jane Harrison joined HLA as head of music videos. Harrison had previously been a producer at the now defunct London shop Activate, where she had repped Los Angeles-based Original Film’s directors for clips in the U.K. market. At the time, Stone was with Original Film. When Harrison joined HLA, she brought Stone along with her.
With the high-profile success of "Whassup," Stone and Storm had their pick of representation offers, said Weinshel: "It snowballed. With Charles’ success coming off of the Super Bowl, I started fielding calls from production companies all over Europe. And that was compounded after Cannes. It was a matter of looking at companies that fit well with us and had directors that we could represent."
HLA has a small roster, and Wells pointed out that this "gives the principals in the company the ability to really focus on the directors that are represented. In my conversations with Steve, I found that [the small number of directors] was mirrored there, which makes me feel that we can understand each other."
Wells continued, "Developing a symbiotic relationship with another company in a different market is never an easy process. You have to be sure that you can offer something to the directors you’re taking on so that they’re not just names filling out a roster. And equally, you have to be sure that you’re not doing a disservice to your existing local directors." He pointed out, "It’s very easy to represent foreign directors and leave them on the shelf. … You have to feel that the aims [of the companies] are similar, that there’s a common ethos on a personal level."
None of the HLA directors has worked in the U.S. before. "It’s a new market for them, and for us," said Wells. "Rob and Tom are perfect examples of what HLA is known for, which is finding new directors at a very early stage of their careers. They both came to us with a couple of short films, and we picked them out as having potential within the commercials market."
Sanders and Vaughan "both have very different approaches," Wells notes. "Rob is very visual, while Tom’s approach is based in dramatic situations. Othmar is unusual for us in that he came to us with a reel he had developed in Europe. His approach is somewhere between the two, but has a more visual content. I think the important thing is that all the directors have their own specific forte; there’s not a great deal of overlap in terms of style, which means that they each feel we’re not trying to create conflict between directors within the company."
Weinshel added that Storm director Tom Matre may also be added to the HLA roster in the future. Storm continues to handle U.S. representation for directors Jan Wentz and Sebastian Strasser of Markenfilm in Wedel, Germany. Stone helms spots for the German market via Markenfilm.
Storm is also launching what Weinshel calls an "entertainment Web network." He explained, "It’s called State of the Underground, and Charles [Stone] is part of that. We’ll have short films, animation and ‘Webisodes’flall sorts of entertainment that appeals to a fairly youngflbut legalflsegment of the population. We’re hoping [to launch the site] in the second quarter of 2001."
HLA’s other directors are Londonbased Marc Charach, J.J. Keith, Stuart Rideout, Jon Hardwick and Paris-based Jan Kounen. New York-based Celsius Films’ Mark Tiedemann is also repped in the U.K. by HLA.
Storm is repped on the East Coast by New York-based Chris Messiter, Ann McKallagat and Barrie Isaacson, while Chicago-based Weinshel currently handles sales in the Midwest. At press time, Storm was seeking West Coast representation.
HLA’s executive producer, Helen Langridge, handles sales in the U.K.
