Learning from Smart People
By Robert Goldrich
It’s already been an eventful year for director Noam Murro of Los Angeles-based Biscuit Filmworks. To kick off 2008, he was nominated for the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award as best commercial director of 2007 on the basis of Volkswagen Golf’s “Night Drive” for DDB London, Orbit Gum’s “Affair” from Energy BBDO, Chicago, and the National Basketball Association’s “Remember” via Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco.
This marked Murro’s fifth DGA Award nomination in the past six years. (He won the coveted DGA honor for his work in ’04.)
On the heels of his latest DGA nom, Murro saw his feature directorial debut Smart People make its world premiere in late January at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The romantic comedy was well received, garnering favorable reviews. In fact, several critics observed that describing Smart People as merely a romantic comedy doesn’t do it justice. Some regard the film as not only a comedy but a poignant character study as people deal with personal loss, romance and fear of emotional growth. The cast includes Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker and Ellen Page (who was cast before her triumph in Juno). The film is being distributed by Miramax and is slated for an April 11 release.
Well informed
So while the film is indeed smart, did Murro himself learn any life’s lesson from Smart People? How does he feel the feature experience will inform his commercialmaking? (At press time Murro was in Europe directing a U.K. market spot project for an undisclosed client). How did his experience over the years in commercials inform his work on Smart People?
The answer to all the above is quite “simple,” according to Murro. “You learn no matter what you do. I’m not trying to dodge being specific. But it’s as basic as that. And it goes both ways–you bring to it and you bring from it, both for commercials and features. One informs the other.
“I do know,” he continues, “that if I’m invited again to do a feature and hopefully I will be at some point, I will try to bring more people from my commercial experience into that project. The people who work with me on a daily basis on commercials are the best in the world.”
For Smart People, Murro managed to bring in some of his spot community collaborators, including DP Toby Irwin and in pre-pro the director tapped into Biscuit executive producers Shawn Lacy and Gary Naccarato.
And while there are distinct differences in spot and feature filmmaking, ultimately the bottom line is the same, observes Murro, underscoring why his talented spot collaborators can successfully and rather seamlessly transition into the feature flow.
“Yes, commercials and features are different political animals,” relates Murro. “And they are slightly different creative animals in that with a feature you have a much more evolving story and character development. But the true essence at the end of the day is that you are still dealing with the same ultimate issue–how do you get what you want in your head across to an audience on film?
“For me, when you shoot eighty to ninety days a year for a decade, you can’t help but learn something about that,” he smiles. And operating within budgetary constraints is also nothing new to Murro who had to apply some of that acumen to Smart People.
“It was a relatively low budget movie. We shot it in twenty-eight days. That can be challenging but at the same time working fast and smart is sometimes the best way.”
As for the Sundance Fest, Murro says he had “a great time. I always wanted to go to Sundance but told myself I’m not going until I can go with a movie.”
Murro is grateful to get the opportunity to direct Smart People and to finally go to Sundance. And he is most gratified to continue his commercialmaking.
“I feel even more recharged creatively getting back into commercials now,” he relates. “I feel fortunate to have had such a great ride in filmmaking and I want very much to continue collaborating with creative people.”
Part of that ride has been the DGA Award recognition over the years. When SHOOT connected with Murro right after he received his latest DGA nomination, he shared, “The fifth time [being nominated] still feels like the first. I’m as excited and honored as I was the very first time. It never gets old to get this kind of recognition from your peers. A big part of the DGA honor is being included with the other nominees whose work I love.”
Murro was also conscious of what it takes to even get the chance to be nominated, acknowledging the agency artisans who not only provide rich creative but also trust him to help them realize their ideas. Without that trust, you cannot get the quality and range that merits DGA consideration, he observes.
And this fifth nomination was no exception in that the spots he entered into the competition showcase that range. “The idea is to put forth work that represents a variety of styles and tones–in this case [for his fifth DGA nomination] humor [Orbit’s ‘Affair’], heart [the NBA’s ‘Remember’] and visual [VW’s ‘Night Drive’],” he says. “I feel very fortunate.”
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