Shooting Gallery Productions (SGP), the spot/ music video production division of New York-headquartered independent film studio The Shooting Gallery, has signed director/cameraman Allen Weiss.
For the past year, Weiss has directed through his own shop, Brackish Films, in Raleigh, N.C. During that time, he directed spots including "Green Balloons" for BBC Belgium Bank (produced by Brussels-based Milly Films) via G&Co., Brussels. Other credits include "Pink Laundry" and "Nightlight" for Boston Edison Power via Clarke Goward Advertising, Boston; "Driving Range" "18th" and "Long Ball" for MacGregor Golf Equipment via Howard, Merrell & Partners, Raleigh; and "Smoking Boy" and "Late Night Phone Call" for Dean’s Healthcare via The Hiebing Group, Madison, Wis.
Prior to this, Weiss was represented by bicoastal Shelter Films. He initially joined Shelter in July ’96 as a member of the co-directing team nomad, with director Jerry Stifelman. Weiss and Stifelman dissolved nomad to pursue solo directing careers in the summer of ’98. Weiss remained with Shelter until about a year ago. (Stifelman is at New York-based Maysles Films).
SGP president/executive producer Tim Clawson related it was Mary Knox, partner in New York- and Minneapolis-based rep firm Help! (which handles SGP), who brought Weiss to his attention. Clawson said that he was very impressed with the quality of filmmaking on Weiss’ reel. "It had great imagery," assessed Clawson. "His pieces are very lyrical and musical in terms of how they play. He uses time, space and photography to tell very nice stories within the thirty- and sixty-second format. I think he’s able to [convey] an incredible amount of emotion and character development, which are tools you need to tell great filmmaking stories."
Aside from the work, discussions with Weiss confirmed Clawson’s belief that the director would be a good fit at SGP. "We realized that we shared a lot of the same goals," commented Clawson, "and had a lot of the same tastes in filmmaking."
Weiss said, "I’ve remained independent for a while because it feels unnatural for my focus to be limited to commercials. I was keeping my eyes open for companies that were doing things a little differently and were providing those opportunities for filmmakers, writers, and so on, to use whatever tools they have in a number of creative environments. The Shooting Gallery has commercials, longform, interactive … it’s a compliment to say that it is, in a sense, unfocused. It’s ideally wide open to ideas and filmmaking in general. It’s a place where ideas drive [the project], which is what I had been looking for. That’s the way I operated my own company, so it seemed natural to fold into what they have going."
In the course of working independently while based in Raleigh, Weiss added, he has taken advantage of the resources-cast, crews, shooting stages-from the large film community in neighboring Wilmington, NC. Clawson observed that Weiss’ knowledge of the local community was a fringe benefit. "At the Shooting Gallery, we’re big believers that film should be shot at whatever place is right," said Clawson. "We’ve got offices in New York, Miami, Toronto and Vancouver, and we’re opening soon in L.A. It’s terrific to also add Raleigh as an area we can boast of having production expertise in, thanks to Allen."
Before directing, Weiss spent 15 years as a commercial and editorial still photographer, working in Raleigh and New York. He returned to Raleigh in the late ’80s and made his directorial debut in ’93 on a short film for United Way via now defunct Raleigh-based agency Overcash & Moore.
The job marked the start of Weiss’ transition from stills to motion, which he fully completed two years later. It also was on that project that Weiss first worked with Stifelman, then a writer/producer at Overcash & Moore.
"Nomad came together a bit later," said Weiss, who began building his reel with primarily regional directing projects, including a PSA he wrote and directed for an AIDS service organization, Funds For Families. "[Stifelman] and I continued to collaborate as a freelance creative team, and then as a directing team after a while. It was a good creative fit." In June A94, nomad was signed for commercial representation by bicoastal Bedford Falls, and subsequently moved over to Shelter Films.
While he typically no longer writes on commercial projects, Weiss has maintained relationships with several clients for whom he functions as creative and director, including global pharmaceutical company, Quintiles Laboratories. Also in that vein, Weiss recently directed a short pro bono documentary piece for the Methodist Home for Children, a Raleigh-based service organization. The piece was shown at an organization fundraising event. A :30 PSA was also cut from it, and has been airing in North Carolina.
"Again, I was invited to consult on a video they were trying to put together. I got a hold of it, and it turned into a film project," said Weiss, who directed the children who are wards of the state and worked without a script. "I became the de facto agency for the project, which was a labor of love."
Weiss joins a SGP directorial roster also comprised of Richard D’Alessio, Carlton Chase and co-directing team Spooner/ French (Nick and Andrew, respectively). The company’s national and East Coast sales are handled by Help!, whose partners are Knox and Alyson Daniels. Chicago-based Rich Newman Associates covers the Midwest, and Santa Monica-based S&W, comprised of Susan Bennett and Whitney Kiley, reps on the West Coast. SGP also has an affiliation for Canadian commercial projects with Toronto-based Imported Artists.
