SHOOT‘s “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery and our annual New Directors Showcase are in some respects joined at the hip. Work that makes the gallery often carries the stamp of up-and-coming helmers–several of whom made this year’s SHOOT New Directors Showcase.
The charter goal of “The Best Work You May Never See” section is to provide attention for creatively worthwhile projects–and the artists behind them–that might not otherwise gain widespread exposure. So it’s particularly gratifying when “Best Work” entries and for that matter new helmers selected for our Directors Showcase go on to gain industry-wide recognition. That’s happily been in the case in recent months, capped by the Cannes International Advertising Festival.
One of those Cannes honorees garnered inclusion this year in both SHOOT‘s “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery and New Directors Showcase: Yael Staav of Reginald Pike, Toronto (who is repped stateside by Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles).
Staav is believed to be the first female Canadian director to be awarded a Lion at Cannes. She won a Bronze Lion in the public awareness message category for the ALS Society of Canada’s “Hugging” spot, which was produced by Reginald Pike for BBDO Toronto.
The :30 is both humorous and poignant. We open on a man in the driver’s seat of a parked car. A traffic officer approaches to give him a ticket. Rather than being upset, the man reaches out through the open automobile window and hugs the standing officer. Next we see the same man in a stable, hugging a horse. Then we’re taken to a counter at a diner. The man reaches across the counter to hug his waitress. Our next sojourn again takes us from urban to rural, as our male protagonist is seen hugging a tree. While in the politically conservative mindset, “tree hugger” is a pejorative term, this time the moniker plays as touchingly sweet. Finally we see the man and his wife asleep in bed. In mid-slumber, he rolls over and ends up hugging his wife.
A super then puts this hug fest into sobering context. The message reads, “Most people with ALS lose the use of their arms the first two years of the disease.” That’s followed by the question, “What would you do, if you still could?”
The next super relates, “ALS kills the body first.”
“Hugging” was first reported on in our “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery (4/8, p. 11). It was one of two ALS Society of Canada spots–the other being “Running”–that subsequently earned Staav a slot in SHOOT‘s New Directors Showcase (5/13, p. 1).
Meanwhile, other “Best Work” and SHOOT New Directors Showcase honorees surfaced at Cannes for awards and shortlist recognition. For example, earning “Best Work” recognition earlier this year (3/18, p. 11) for appeal.com’s “Kicking” out of London agency Nitro was director Eden Diebel of Great Guns, London, and Santa Monica-based greatguns: usa. “Kicking” just won a Gold Cyber Lion, as did the Diebel-directed “Bingo,” which was also part of the appealnow.com campaign.
Furthermore, director Joe Leih, who was named to the SHOOT New Directors Showcase on the strength of his Web-based mock PSA for marcandtom.com, saw that piece win a Bronze Cyber Lion at Cannes. The New York-based Leih recently secured representation in Canada via Sparks Productions, Toronto. He remains in the market for a U.S. spot roost.
