from shooting to finish writing a screenplay with his wife, Sarah Bird, and Adam Wierzbianski. The finished script, called The Deep End, is about a 33-year-old Cleveland woman who’s on a quest to have an orgasm. "It’s all about telling the stories of people’s lives through sex," he says. "Not 9fi Weeks sex—real-life sex."
Kent says he and his writing partners are now exploring their options on how to get the screenplay produced. "It’s not always fun to be on the hunt and pestering people for money," he says. "But I’m excited about it this time, because I’m really excited about this project."
This is not Kent’s first experience with a feature film. He wrote the screenplay for Love is for Lovers, which was optioned by Open City Films, New York. After graduating from Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Kent continued his education in the directing program at the American Film Institute, Hollywood. Kent has also directed short films, including one called Egg Salad, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival.
"I like to rejuvenate my advertising career by doing films," says Kent. "I love working in advertising, but there’s got to be some sort of balance or you get in the mindset of ‘this is all I do.’ I’ve never thought of myself solely as a commercial director. When someone comes up to me and asks what I do, I say I’m a filmmaker."
"No matter what the project is you’re the imagineer," he says. "Sometimes I do more than just direct the commercial. I’ve been in situations where I’ve written creative. I’m more than happy to jump in there and write copy and dialogue. Still, I completely respect the copywriter and his or her project. I don’t know any director that can say his spots were all his ideas.
"Part of being a director is your ability to hone in and harness what is the best [for the] ad and bring it forth," Kent says. "It’s my job to take the best pieces of what everybody brings to the party.
"Everything is an evolving process," he continues. "Even if I work on movies for the next twenty years, I’ll still do commercials because I love them."c
