Spoke Films, a production company with bases in Chicago and Los Angeles, has signed director Kyle Bergersen for national representation.
Bergersen, who comes over from Santa Monica-based November Films, will maintain his affiliation with Toronto-based Trailer Park Films for Canadian projects. Spoke has also recently added executive producer David Kleinman, who will head up the shop’s Los Angeles production facility.
Spoke executive producer Dick Gillespie related that the company has lately concentrated on expanding its talent roster, and had been seeking to sign another West Coast-based director. Spoke’s signings in the last six months include directors Ron Lazzeretti (SHOOT, 9/8/00, p. 8), Jamie O’Malley (SHOOT, 9/29/00, p. 8) and Christopher Yurkow (SHOOT, 11/24/00, p. 7). Spoke’s two founding directors, Steve Farr and Barry Poltermann, are no longer actively repped by the company.
In the meantime, said Gillespie, he had been talking for the last six months or so with Kleinman, who had worked at Santa Monica-based Crash Films as a production manager for a number of years. "David had talked to me about opportunities at Spoke on the West Coast, since we hadn’t had a resident executive producer out of that office. And I’d asked him if he knew of any directors who had a lot of potential and were looking to make a move. He’d been in contact with three or four guys that fit the bill [including Bergersen], and I asked to see their work."
Bergersen’s reel impressed Gillespie. "The work has a real off-center feel to it," assessed Gillespie, "which I think is a very popular comedy approach at a lot of cutting-edge agencies. My goal is to get that kind of work for him. I also like the look of his film. As a director, he has DPed quite a bit, although I see his future based just upon his directing. I feel that we at Spoke can showcase him a bit more than he had been."
Lazzeretti also specializes in comedy, but Gillespie opined that Bergersen’s approach differs sufficiently enough that the two helmers won’t be competing for the same jobs: "They’re both up-and-coming guys, but each has a little bit different feel to his reel. And Ron lives in Chicago and Kyle is in Los Angeles, which is also good."
Bergersen’s comedy style is evidenced in a spot he directed for Preparation H, titled "The Meeting," which aired in Canada—the agency is Young & Rubicam (Y&R), Toronto. The ad depicts a man in an office setting, inexplicably riding a mechanical bull while spectators wildly cheer him on; the event is revealed to be a meeting for hemorrhoid sufferers. The commercial was honored at the recent International Broadcasting Awards, tying for (with Hallmark’s "Fight," directed by Annabel Jankel of bicoastal Morton Jankel Zander for Leo Burnett Co., Chicago) best comedy spot produced outside the U.S. (SHOOT, 1/26, p. 1).
Among Bergersen’s notable credits is a PSA called "Surfing Monkey" for Partnership For a Drug-Free America via Team One Advertising, El Segundo. In 1999, it won a Belding Award, a One Show Gold Pencil and a GRANDY Award, all in the category of best public service announcement. The spot, set at a home shopping network, opens on a modified "piggy" bank: an ugly surfing monkey. A young guy who has just bought 15 of the banks for $19.95 each calls in, but is too stoned to speak coherently. The tag is: "Marijuana. A very expensive habit."
Most recently, Bergersen helmed another Y&R Toronto spot—titled "The Wait," for the Square One Shopping Mall. He has also directed spots for Budweiser, Colgate, Circle K, Lakes at El Segundo and Horseshoe Casinos.
Spoke Films is in the process of securing West Coast representation. Gillespie and Spoke executive producer Ed Amaya handle Midwest sales, and New York-based rep firm Single Bid covers the East Coast.
