Samsung is promoting its new sh100 wi-fi enabled camera by taking it on a road trip across the country, handing it from person to person from the West Coast until it reaches New York City. Hybrid agency/production house Mekanism has a crew following along in an airstream trailer filming mini-documentaries about the journey and so far they have visited San Francisco, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Tempe (AZ), Austin, Houston, New Orleans and Miami. The Mekanism folks are currently heading up the Mississippi River to Chicago, Ann Arbor, Cleveland and then onto New Jersey and New York.
Along the way, Mekanism will be creating three documentary films outlining the journey and the pictures captured as four friends hand the camera to people they run across. The first mini-documentary–Don’t Be Afraid to Get Lost–has just been wrapped, chronicling the first leg of the sojourn.
Tommy Means is creative director for Mekanism on the project. Mekanism’s Tony Benna serves as director, part of the creative team and shares editing duties with Ethan Indorf who is also the DP. Benna additionally handled 2nd camera duties. Katie Matson and Beth Shulman served as exec producer and line producer, respectively, for Mekanism. Design director was Mekanism’s Dieter Wiechmann.
The overall campaign–dubbed “The Samsung Coast-to-Coast Photo Post”–is already yielding a significant amount of content, including photo galleries on Picasa and Flickr, Twitter feeds, a YouTube channel and a tumblr blog–all Samsung branded. Prior to Mekanism starting this campaign, Samsung Camera USA had no digital presence. At press time the client has more than 50,000 Facebook fans and counting. The Facebook page and the road trip experience thus far can be seen here.
Here’s the first mini-documentary, Don’t Be Afraid to Get Lost:
DGA Feature Nominees: Audiard, Baker, Berger, Corbet and Mangold
The field of feature nominees for the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Awards spanning two categories is set. Nominated for the DGA honor for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film for 2024 are: Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez, Sean Baker for Anora, Edward Berger for Conclave, Brady Corbet for The Brutalist, and James Mangold for A Complete Unknown.
The DGA also revealed the nominees for the Michael Apted Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Theatrical Feature Film. The first-time narrative feature directors are: Payal Kapadia for All We Imagine as Light, Megan Park for My Old Ass, RaMell Ross for Nickel Boys, Halfdan Ullman Tondel for Armand, and Sean Wang for Diddy.
“2024 has been a truly extraordinary year for storytelling--and today’s nominees have created audacious and unique films that expand the possibilities of cinematic excellence,” said DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter. “I am thrilled to congratulate all our nominated directors for their brilliant work, which is visionary, inspirational and speaks to the depth of the human experience. To be chosen by one’s peers is the true marker of outstanding directorial achievement and what makes these nominations so very special.”
The winners will be announced at the 77th Annual DGA Awards on Saturday, February 8.
Here’s a fuller rundown of the nominees in both DGA Award categories:
THEATRICAL FEATURE FILM
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film for 2024 (in alphabetical order):
JACQUES AUDIARD
Emilia Pérez
(Netflix)
SEAN... Read More