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:
Ruairi Robinson
Furlined
BC Dairy Foundation’s “Raptor”
Thornton’s International’s “Save My Bacon”
How did you get into directing? I did graphic design in college, but to be honest was never pushed about being a graphic designer, I was more interested in making films, and my degree show was a 3d animated short film – the only way I could make a film was to do it myself since I didn’t know any actors. That was enough to get me a job doing 3D on TV ads, and I made another 3D short film myself, just so I could continue telling stories–My second short film, called Fifty Percent Grey, was nominated for an Oscar in 2002, which sort of got the ball rolling for me to direct stuff.
Why do you want to direct commercials?
It’s a great opportunity to tell short stories and communicate information visually in an extremely streamlined, succinct manner. You have so little time to tell the story, so you have to cut the crap out.
What is your most recent spot project?
Doing a Kelloggs Special K ad at the moment – my last ad was for Thorntons Chocolates, which was a character animation job I did with The Mill in London.
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?
Yeah, very much so. I sort of have a reputation as being the “animation guy”, but really I want to be doing live action films, you know, when I’m big. I like doing ads a lot though, so even if I did get to make films, I’d still want to keep on doing ads too.
What do you think is the best part about being a director?
Being paid to do something you actually enjoy doing, and seeing an audience react positively to something you’ve done!
What’s the worst part?
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