Director/DP Noble Jones has joined New York-based Curious Pictures, which has a television development office in Los Angeles, for spot and music video representation in the U.S. He continues to be repped in Canada by Toronto-based The Partners’ Film Company for spots, and by its affiliate Revolver Film Company, Toronto and Los Angeles, for clips. Jones joined Curious in mid-January.
Jones was briefly signed with bicoastal Boomerang Pictures in early 2000. But from ’97 to ’99, his U.S. home was New York-based Celsius Films, where he directed Coca Cola’s "True Friends," through McCann-Erickson, (now Fitzgerald+CO), Atlanta; and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s "University of Pittsburgh" via Poppe Tyson, Pittsburgh. That spot won honors for graphic design (which Jones worked on with Kieran Walsh of New York’s Manhattan Transfer) at the AICP Show (SHOOT, 6/5/ 98, p. 1).
Recently, as a freelancer with New York-based production house SoloVision Inc.Jones directed promos for a never-aired DreamWorks SKG news program called Povich/Chung, featuring newscasters Maury Povich and Connie Chung, as well as the CNN Moneyline promo "Kites." Through Partners’, Jones last ad credit was Toyota’s "Identity Crisis" via Saatchi & Saatchi, Toronto.
This signing with Curious ends Jones’ self-imposed hiatus from the American commercial market. Over the past few years, the director had become increasingly dissatisfied with the U.S. commercial production work he was attracting. "The ads weren’t conceptually based," he explained. "They were hard-sells, and I just didn’t like the work I was being offered." So Jones decided to take a break from spot helming, and to focus on music videos—an area he had not done much work in previously: "I saw music videos as an opportunity to revamp my reel, my style and figure out what I wanted to do."
As Jones put it, "Music videos allowed me to experiment a lot more. The expectations are different: Clients expect you to do something they haven’t seen before." Jones started shooting his own work—a new experience for him. And, he recalls, "I went nuts for music videosflI did about 15 in a year and a half." His new direction paid off: In ’99, Jones was nominated for three MuchMusic (Canada’s MTV) Video Awards. Jones squared off against himself in the best cinematography category, with dual nominations for Big Sugar’s "Turn the Lights On" and his winning effort, "Why," for the band Wide Mouth Mason. "And that was the first spot I ever DP’ed," Jones reported. He has since been the director/cameraman on Mary J. Blige’s "All That I Can Say," and has helmed clips for artists including Econoline Crush and Snow. "I’m probably the only person who moved from commercials to music videos," Jones laughed. "But the purpose was to move back to commercialsfland it worked: Curious signed me. They looked at a lot of the videos and saw the creativity there."
Jones’ move to Curious came about in part because of the director’s ongoing friendship with Curious’ head of sales, Rachel Klein. The pair first met in 1995, when Klein was a freelance producer and Jones was briefly at Starving Artists (a now defunct satellite of bicoastal Giraldi Suarez Productions). When Klein became a rep, she then handled Jones, who at the time was with since closed Campanella Levy Films (another Giraldi Suarez offshoot). The two had kept in touch over the years, though Jones said he had always refused Klein’s offer to rep him through Curious. But last November, "I decided that I wanted to jump back into American commercials in a big way," Jones told SHOOT. "On a whim, I called Rachel and asked her if she would be interested in repping me." Klein was interested, and Jones "had a contract in a week."
He added that the timing was fortuitous: "Curious, which does a lot of animation and special effects, was looking to move into live action. I had done lots of special effects-oriented live-action stuff over the last few years. I’d also done the music videos, which had a very hip, more production value-oriented slant. …"
Currently Jones is preparing to shoot the music video "Green Light Girl" for Texas bluesman Doyle Bramhall II. In the future Jones hopes to direct a feature, and, he adds, "That’s another thing I like about Curious—they’re interested in moving in that direction." Jones states, "I don’t want to be just an exterior, milk-pour director, for example. … I like the idea of being able to do a variety of things."
New York native Jones always aspired to direct, and he attended the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University, Brookville, N.Y., as a film student. But he left college just before graduation to start shooting sporting events, and eventually commercials, through the now defunct shop Executive Video. It wasn’t until about ’85, several years after leaving college, that Jones received his B.A., majoring in film and minoring in music. In ’89, Jones began a two-year run directing training films for the New York City Department of Corrections, a job that got him inside New York prison complex Rikers Island. In ’91, he started freelancing through the now closed Black & White TV, where he remained until ’95, when he went to Starving Artists. But within a few months Jones had moved to Campanella Levy Films. When that shop closed in ’97, Jones signed with Celsius (SHOOT, 5/9/97, p. 7). Celsius has an informal reciprocal arrangement with The Partners’ Film Company, which took on Jones when he joined Celsius. When Partners’ president/executive producer Don McLean saw Jones’ reel, McLean sent it right over to Revolver, and Jones was promptly signed there, too.
Jones now comes aboard a Curious roster that also handles U.S. representation for live-action/animation directors Chel White and Steve Oakes; animators/directors Little Fluffy Clouds (Jerry van de Beek and Betsy deFries), David Kelley, Mike Bade, Mo Willems and Stockholm-based animation studio Filmtecknarna (Jonas Odell and Jonas Dahlbeck); and live-action directors Mike Bennion of The Clinic, London, and Pelle Seth of Cucumber, Stockholm.
Last October, Curious closed its San Francisco office because the shop’s directors in that region—White from the Pacific Northwest, and the Bay Area-based Little Fluffy Clouds—were working out of their own quarters.
Curious’ head of sales Klein, based in New York, reps the company on the East Coast and in the Midwest. Handling the West Coast is Los Angeles-based Dawn Clarke at Curious’ parent company, iNTELEFILM, of Minneapolis and Los Angeles.
