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    RSA Signs Director Zach Merck For Commercial Representation In U.S.

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments6057 Views
    Zach Merck
    LOS ANGELES --

    Director Zach Merck has joined RSA Films for commercial representation in the U.S. He is often sought for his expertise in real people/hidden camera fare such as Chevrolet’s “Real People. Not Actors” campaign.  

    A versatile filmmaker, Merck also directed Volkswagen’s Racing Under Green doc-style TV series about the VW SCAA Racing Team via Crispin Porter+Bogusky, The Art of Walking, a branded documentary for Nat Geo created in partnership with the Tourism Board in Victoria, Australia, and ads for Cadillac, GMC, Travelocity, Dodge and Jack Daniels, among others. 

    Merck also earned a DGA Award nomination in 2010 in the Reality Programs category for 6 Beers of Separation, a project for Toohey’s Extra Dry and agency BMF Australia which later that year won an AICP Next Award in the Product Integration category.

    Joining RSA marks a return of sorts for Merck, who began his career in Hollywood with RSA co-founder Tony Scott. “I started as an intern in my senior year at Emerson College before jumping aboard full time on Enemy of the State,” Merck recalled.  “I learned more working for Tony than I ever did in four years of film school. Tony and I had a talk once and he said, ‘If you wanna’ be a director, you need to go work with a producer to learn structure and cost.  It will greatly help your storytelling.’ So I went for it.”

    Merck went on to work as a producer at Propaganda Films and Hypnotic before segueing to directing full-time, first music videos, then commercials. His reel quickly grew strong, something he credits in part to taking Scott’s advice and knowing how to produce and direct in order to put every cent on the screen.

    Merck noted, “I’ve always wanted to ‘come home’ to where it all started for me.” He added, “As a director, I believe in a team effort to bring a vision to life, whether it’s my own vision or the clients.  There are faces at RSA and Scott Free that I implicitly trust.  I love to challenge myself—to try new perspectives—because I simply love film and RSA is a place that I can do that.”  

    Jules Daly, president of RSA Films described Merck as “an accomplished filmmaker” and “one of those remarkable talents who is well-versed in storytelling and the process of filmmaking, able to deliver great creative for a diverse range of projects. We’re excited to bring him a variety of new opportunities from across the company.”

    Prior to joining RSA, Merck was represented for more than a decade by RadicalMedia.




    Does “Hundreds of Beavers” Reflect A New Path Forward In Cinema?

    Monday, November 25, 2024

    Hard as it may be to believe, changing the future of cinema was not on Mike Cheslik's mind when he was making "Hundreds of Beavers." Cheslik was in the Northwoods of Wisconsin with a crew of four, sometimes six, standing in snow and making his friend, Ryland Tews, fall down funny.

    "When we were shooting, I kept thinking: It would be so stupid if this got mythologized," says Cheslik.

    And yet, "Hundreds of Beavers" has accrued the stuff of, if not quite myth, then certainly lo-fi legend. Cheslik's film, made for just $150,000 and self-distributed in theaters, has managed to gnaw its way into a movie culture largely dominated by big-budget sequels.

    "Hundreds of Beavers" is a wordless black-and-white bonanza of slapstick antics about a stranded 19th century applejack salesman (Tews) at war with a bevy of beavers, all of whom are played by actors in mascot costumes.

    No one would call "Hundreds of Beavers" expensive looking, but it's far more inventive than much of what Hollywood produces. With some 1,500 effects shots Cheslik slaved over on his home computer, he crafted something like the human version of Donald Duck's snowball fight, and a low-budget heir to the waning tradition of Buster Keaton and "Naked Gun."

    At a time when independent filmmaking is more challenged than ever, "Hundreds of Beavers" has, maybe, suggested a new path forward, albeit a particularly beaver-festooned path.

    After no major distributor stepped forward, the filmmakers opted to launch the movie themselves, beginning with carnivalesque roadshow screenings. Since opening in January, "Hundreds of Beavers" has played in at least one theater every week of the year, though never more than 33 at once. (Blockbusters typically play in around 4,000 locations.)... Read More

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