Production houses RadicalMedia and brother have entered into a collaborative relationship, which has already yielded notable work including a short film in Apple’s “Shot on iPhone” series directed by Theodore Melfi, a two-time Academy Award nominee for Hidden Figures (Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay), and shot by Lawrence Sher, ASC, who’s nominated this year for a Best Cinematography Oscar on the strength of his work on Joker.
Melfi and executive producer Rich Carter are the founders of brother. Carter and RadicalMedia president Frank Scherma have been long-time friends and colleagues, a relationship which helped lay the groundwork for their companies coming together. Carter said that the arrangement enables he and Melfi to continue operating brother independently as a boutique company that can now tap into Radical’s global operation and deep resources. This best-of-both-worlds scenario played out in the aforementioned Apple iPhone short titled Daughter. Carter shared that having access to Radical’s Shanghai office made the job possible for brother to more easily take on the job and deliver top-drawer content.
For Daughter, which stars one of China’s leading actresses, Zhou Xun, Lawrence lensed sweeping panoramas, engaging closeups and single take ultra wide flashbacks, demonstrating the image-capturing prowess of the iPhone 11 Pro. Created by TBWAMedia Arts Lab Shanghai, Daughter is an emotional story of a taxi driver’s (Xun) complicated relationship with the two most important women in her life, her young daughter and her estranged mother. The film examines the changing social norms in China and reflects on the generational differences between traditional families and modern youth. The intergenerational film is a touching drama of family reconnecting for the Chinese New Year.
Additionally an intimate, artful making-of Daughter video was produced, directed by brother’s Giovanni Messner.
Carter noted that at press time brother and RadicalMedia had successfully teamed on four other projects. “What’s great about the relationship,” said Carter, “is that brother, while maintaining its autonomy and culture, is now supported by this amazing international production umbrella and working hand in hand with the best people in the business.” He added that brother and Radical can also serve as valuable sounding boards to one another as they problem solve and look to craft socially meaningful long and short-form content.
Scherma assessed, “Coming together and working with the enormous talent of director Ted Melfi and the extraordinary executive producer Rich Carter, along with Giovanni Messner and the rest of the roster was a no brainer.”
Scherma and Carter also know each other from their work together at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Scherma is TV Academy chairman and CEO while Carter has served as a governor of the Academy’s Commercials Branch.
The brother directorial roster consists of Melfi, Messner, Dax Shepard and Tim Story.
RadicalMedia’s collaboration with brother isn’t its first with another commercial production company. As reported in SHOOT last September, Radical formed an official collaboration with Spark & Riot, a female-powered production and management company. Led by Ana de Diego, Spark & Riot represents an international roster of directors and connects them with American advertising agencies to develop and produce content globally while supporting socially conscious initiatives.
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More