Richard Sampson, a former freelance and agency producer, has come aboard Pogo Pictures as its executive producer. Sampson joins company founder/director/cameraman Steve Colby, who opened the Atlanta-based shop last August.
Sampson and Colby have worked together many times over the last four years, while Colby was with Atlanta- and Venice, Calif.-based Means St. Productions. Means St. closed its West Coast office and relocated to Roswell, Ga., last summer. Colby then founded the new company, and was joined by Tara Burtchaell, who had been Means St.’s director of marketing and holds the same title at Pogo Pictures.
Colby’s credits at Means St.—all line-produced by Sampson—include "As Good as It Gets," an Irish-themed spot for Slazenger golf balls out of J. Walter Thompson, Atlanta; and a Bell Atlantic campaign via Tierney & Partners, Philadelphia.
Pogo Pictures’ recent credits include a TWA campaign via D’Arcy, St. Louis; a campaign for Macgregor golf clubs out of Fricks/Firestone, Atlanta; and "Awareness," a spot for Kraft/ General Foods International Coffee out of Young & Rubicam, New York.
Sampson, who studied film at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C., got his start in commercials by working as a production assistant at now defunct Kingfisher Productions. In ’91, he relocated to Atlanta, and worked his way up the production ladder. As a freelance line producer, Sampson collaborated with Colby, who was signed with Fireside Films, Atlanta, from ’89-’93, and then with Means St. from ’94-’99. "We kept crossing paths, and I felt Steve was one of the best directors around," said Sampson. "I enjoy working with Steve, and I wanted to work with him full-time."
Colby took a less direct path to commercial work. As an undergraduate at Berry College, Mt. Berry, Ga., he studied fine arts, sculpture and design, and hoped to open an art gallery. His first job was as an art department production assistant on Night Shadows, a low-budget horror film starring Wings Hauser. "Every afternoon before we started shooting, I re-dressed the business signs and windows to make it look like another, scarier town," said Colby. "It was all-night shoots and I didn’t like it much, but people kept calling me."
In ’89, Colby borrowed a camera and "filmed a bunch of friends dancing around and acting crazy." He edited the footage and sent it to several Atlanta ad agencies and production companies. Fireside quickly signed him, and his first assignment for the firm was an AIDS PSA for Leslie Advertising, Atlanta.
Over the years, Colby has become known as a director who is strong on visual style and emotional stories. In the aforementioned "As Good as it Gets," Colby’s camera takes a panoramic, lyrical view of windswept Irish settings. "We shot in February, when it was miserable, windy and cold," recalled Colby. "But I think the bad weather made the film prettier to look at. If it had been sunny and clear, I don’t think it would have felt as spiritual."
Sampson noted that a shot of two sheep—described in the spot’s voiceover as the golf course’s groundskeepers—was particularly difficult to capture. "What you don’t see are the sheepherder and sheepdogs just out of frame, going crazy," said Sampson. The animals were supposed to wander through the wild, long grass, not the carefully manicured green—"but the green was about the only place they wanted to go."
Colby, who helmed a new set of Slazenger spots last month in Oregon via Pogo Pictures, said he plans to sign other directors whose styles contrast with his own. "Whether that means comedy or tabletop or special effects, we’ll see," he said. "We’re also looking at moving into the Internet arena and creating interactive ads, as broadband becomes more available."
Pogo Pictures is represented in the Northeast by Peter Green, and in Canada by Toronto- and Vancouver-based Circle Productions. Burtchaell said the company is currently seeking representation on the West Coast and in the Midwest.
