4th Annual New Directors Showcase
On May 25, SHOOT unveiled its fourth annual New Directors Showcase reel. The 25 helmers–including three two-person teams–selected for the Showcase come from diverse backgrounds. However, the bond they share is great style, vision and commitment–whether it be reflected in comedy, visuals or storytelling. Helping fashion the Showcase lineup were entries from SHOOT‘s ongoing “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery, assorted submissions, and feedback from agency creatives and producers. Here’s a look at this year’s field:
The Odiorne Brothers
Phasmastrope Studios
INHD’s “Pickle”
Sundance Channel’s “Hunter”
How did you get into directing?
Peter Odiorne: Painting and Editing. These two crafts, which I have a thorough understanding of, are essentially about; creating, looking, evaluating and deciding. For me, combining the two crafts was a natural progression toward directing.
Jeff Odiorne: For years my brother had been trying to convince me to quit advertising and direct. I had no interest. He had been directing spots for my agency, Odiorne Wilde Narraway and Partners, particularly on EA Sports. As the story goes, at 10:00 PM west coast time, the night before an NHL shoot, he got a call that his wife had gone into labor with twins back on the East Coast. We got him on the last flight out of SF back to NY. This left us with three NHL MVPs showing up the next morning for a 6 AM call and no director. So I stepped in. At lunch I called him and said, “Hey, man, this directing thing is $%*$#@ awesome, and, oh yeah, did you have the babies?” He had. So my nieces and my directing career share the same birthday.
Why do you want to direct commercials?
Pickle Races. Burping Nuns. Talking Groundhogs. Cheerleader carnage. Eric Gagne. Ray Lewis. Tory Holt. Gonads in a wall safe. Human Newspapers. Human Pill bottles. Juggling moms. Frisbee dogs. Need we say more?
What is your most recent spot project?
We’ll answer that question with a question. For the bank account, the reel, or both? Actually, scratch that, we’ve been so busy we don’t remember the last job. Actually, scratch that, a seven-spot campaign for the “In Demand” Network via our good friends at The Brooklyn Brothers and three Internet films for Yakima via our fellow Philly boys at Stick-N-Move (Yo!).
Do you have plans to work in other areas–e.g., shorts, films, features or TV? Have you ever done any of that in the past?
All of the above. Technology is beginning to blur the lines. Where does advertising end and entertainment begin? How much of a difference is there between a TV, a movie screen, a computer, and a video ipod? From a logistical standpoint there are differences but from a content perspective you can watch Apocalypse Now on any of them. There’s never been a more accessible time for us to bring our creative perspective to all forms of moving picture. We’ve already done a short film. We’ve already done some branded content). We’ve shot the first 10 minutes of our feature Cheesesteak: The Movie. And we did a TV show for Major League Lacrosse (now available on DVD).
What do you think is the best part about being a director?
The buzz of the set on shoot day. Lights, camera, action. The trucks. The cables. The commotion. Between the two of us, we’ve done everything from dodge bullets in Las Vegas, to climbing the Grand Teton, to a whole lot of other stupid %^$#&, and there is no greater rush than being a director on shoot day.
What’s the worst part?
Making decisions and having to stick with them. That, or the people who say “it’s not brain surgery.” Cuz it is.
Review: Writer-Director Andrea Arnold’s “Bird”
"Is it too real for ya?" blares in the background of Andrea Arnold's latest film, "Bird," a 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams) rides with her shirtless, tattoo-covered dad, Bug (Barry Keoghan), on his electric scooter past scenes of poverty in working-class Kent.
The song's question — courtesy of the Irish post-punk band Fontains D.C. — is an acute one for "Bird." Arnold's films ( "American Honey," "Fish Tank") are rigorous in their gritty naturalism. Her fiction films — this is her first in eight years — tend toward bleak, hand-held verité in rough-and-tumble real-world locations. Her last film, "Cow," documented a mother cow separated from her calf on a dairy farm.
Arnold specializes in capturing souls, human and otherwise, in soulless environments. A dream of something more is tantalizing just out of reach. In "American Honey," peace comes to Star (Sasha Lane) only when she submerges underwater.
In "Bird," though, this sense of otherworldly possibility is made flesh, or at least feathery. After a confusing night, Bailey awakens in a field where she encounters a strange figure in a skirt ( Franz Rogowski ) who arrives, like Mary Poppins, with a gust a wind. His name, he says, is Bird. He has a soft sweetness that doesn't otherwise exist in Bailey's hardscrabble and chaotic life.
She's skeptical of him at first, but he keeps lurking about, hovering gull-like on rooftops. He cranes his neck now and again like he's watching out for Bailey. And he does watch out for her, helping Bailey through a hard coming of age: the abusive boyfriend (James Nelson-Joyce) of her mother (Jasmine Jobson); her half brother (Jason Buda) slipping into vigilante violence; her father marrying a new girlfriend.
The introduction of surrealism has... Read More