M-80, a bicoastal production house that is part of the Stoney Road family of companies owned by Michael Romersa, has signed directors Geoff McGann and Simon Levene. U.K. resident Levene continues to be associated with London-based commercial house Pink Film Company.
McGann said he was last affiliated with New York-based Manifesto, where he worked for a brief stint. Before that, he had been with Los Angeles-headquartered A Band Apart Commercials since Aug. ’97 (SHOOT, 8/22/ 97), preceded by two years at bicoastal HSI Productions.
M-80’s West Coast-based executive producer Gregg Stern said that he assessed McGann as having "one of the most diversified reels" he’d seen in a long time. "He has spots [ranging from] Lotus Notes, which was big production, to Little Caesars, which was quite funny, to City Bean, which is just a simple idea but conceptually quite nice. And his design sense is really good. He’s just a really good advertising guy."
McGann came to directing with considerable agency creative experience. He started out as a creative at Portland, Ore.-based Wieden & Kennedy (W&K) in ’87, working first as a writer and then as an art director. Over the next five years, McGann worked primarily on Nike, which provided the opportunity to collaborate with such directors as Joe Pytka of PYTKA in Venice and David Fincher of bicoastal/international Propaganda Films.
In ’92, McGann formed his own creative consultancy and freelanced as a creative director and art director on campaigns out of such agencies as W&K and DDB Chicago. At the same time, he began to pursue his interest in spot directing, relating that Pytka was among those who encouraged his ambitions, even lending him 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 HSI in ’95. It was several months into his tenure at A Band Apart, McGann related, that "things began to go wrong"—namely a substance abuse problem that ultimately led to his seeking help and undergoing a six-month rehab program.
"I came back [from rehab] last February," said McGann, "and I went to Manifesto. The thinking was I wanted to get my feet wet again slowly; I didn’t want to go to a bigger company until I could be sure that I was going to be OK." The director characterized Manifesto as being "a safe stop, so I could see if I wanted to be in the business again; to see if I could trust myself."
At Manifesto, McGann said he helmed around a half dozen spots, including a client-direct ad for the aforementioned California-based coffee chain City Bean. McGann’s recent credits also include two spots for Paramount Pictures via L.A.-based Air Creative Group; a spot for E.B. World via the New York office of Beaucoup Chapeaux; a spot for Cinnaburst via Bates USA, New York; and several Carl’s Jr. spots via Mendelsohn/Zien Advertising, Los Angeles.
As he didn’t think of Manifesto as a long-term home, McGann said, he began considering a possible move two months ago. He talked to M-80 at the suggestion of his longtime producer Paul Mannix, whose wife had worked on a couple of M-80 jobs as a script supervisor. "The moves I make are, in large part, dependent on how happy [Mannix] is, because I don’t see myself working with another producer for the rest of my life," said McGann.
Stoney Road’s solid reputation and financial standing were attractive, said McGann. "I knew they had a good financial backbone, which is also what I was looking for. I have a lot of clients who come to me directly [for] the creative, and I wanted an infrastructure that could handle billing and that kind of thing."
While the director talked to a couple of other companies, it was M-80 that "really made me a deal I couldn’t refuse," said McGann. "And I really liked the people; the working environment reminded me of the one we had at Wieden. It felt like family and I hadn’t had that in a while. Part of what got me into trouble, when I got into trouble, was feeling like I was just a vendor."
McGann affirmed that he’s made an effort to maintain the diversity of his reel—one of the lessons he learned from Pytka, who has never been pigeonholed into a certain technique category. "I don’t get hired for a [particular] style," said McGann. "You hire the mind and their ability to direct—in a very literal sense—the project. [You want a director with] an awareness of how advertising functions, and of all the elements of advertising that make a commercial work: music, sound design, editorial. It’s really [a matter of] understanding advertising: that’s what separates the people who’ve been around for a long time from the flash-in-the-pans."
Meanwhile, Levene is known for quirky, European-styled comedy, said Stern. M-80 has already produced a job for Levene: a European market Sony PlayStation spot via TBWA GGT Simons Palmer, London. Levene’s other credits include spots for MTV, the BBC, Volvo, Toyota, Cadbury’s, Pizza Hut, Umbro and the British National Lottery.
Prior to shifting into directing, Levene spent five years as an editor. Stern related that Levene, a nephew of bicoastal RSA USA director Thom Higgins, got his start at the London-based office of production company B.F.C.S. as a staff assistant editor in the early ’90s.
"He’d send me his stuff every now and then to take a look at," said Stern of Levene. "He did a Volvo spot which I thought was quite good. About a month and a half ago, we started talking about representing him here, which he thought was interesting."
McGann and Levene join an M-80 directorial roster also comprised of Tenney Fairchild, Doug Taub, Floria Sigismondi, Will Van Der Vlugt, Jim Tozzi, Keith Rose, Ricardo de Carvalho, Lizelle Mez and the mono-monikered Sergio. Bill Perna is M-80’s New York-based exec. producer.
