Having held our SHOOT New Directors Showcase screening and panel discussion last week at the DGA Theater in New York, I’d like to briefly reflect on the event and its meaning for us.
Though SHOOT has been identifying, new, up-and-coming directorial talent for many years–on a weekly basis in terms of our news coverage, in the context of our Directors Series/Special Reports which perennially contain a feature on new directors, and in the scope of our weekly The Best Work You May Never See gallery–this is just the sixth year that SHOOT has held a formal event to showcase deserving, emerging directors.
And strange as it sounds, there’s a sense of mini-tradition that’s developed over those short six years in that we’ve seen a fair percentage of Showcase directors go on to great success. There have been many inspiring examples, perhaps most notably a year ago when David Gray, who at the time was with Hungry Man and is now at the recently formed Station, was nominated for the DGA Award as best commercial director of the year.
Just two years earlier, David Gray was included in SHOOT‘s 2005 New Directors Showcase.
Fast forward to today and, like Gray, we have a number of directors in this year’s Showcase who came from the ad agency creative side of the business, including: Ryan Ebner, now with HSI Productions, Harold Einstein of Station, and Brian Billow who recently joined Hungry Man from DDB Chicago.
But talented directors come from everywhere and anywhere. I was talking recently to Michael Sagol, executive producer of CaviarLA who told me how he “discovered” Keith Schofield who is in this year’s New Directors Showcase. (See this week’s Production Companies Series feature for the thoughts of Sagol and other production house executives on finding and developing directorial talent.)
Sagol first met Schofield due to pure serendipitous circumstance. It was back when Sagol was in the production services business sharing office space in Venice, Calif., with another company. The vault guy of that other shop was making some offbeat experimental music videos, some for his own amusement and bemusement.
Sagol saw something special in the work but had to wait ’til he got situated in a production company a year later to take a chance–and make a commitment–to this “vault guy,” Keith Schofield, whose work on this year’s Showcase reel is Jennie-O’s “Wrestling” out of BBDO Minneapolis. Originally a web viral piece, “Wrestling” generated such a buzz that BBDO took it to television.
It’s these kinds of “discoveries” and the career progression that has taken hold for many of our Showcase directors over the past six years that make our involvement in this event so gratifying–and at the same time they speak volumes about not only each Showcase director’s filmmaking talent but also his or her perseverance, which is evident in so many ways.
This year was the toughest yet for us to pare down the field of directors up for consideration into our final annual Showcase. Rest assured that we will keep tabs not only on our Showcase directors but the many deserving others who just missed the cut.
Gene Hackman Died Of Heart Disease; Hantavirus Claimed His Wife’s Life About One Week Prior
Actor Gene Hackman died of heart disease a full week after his wife died from hantavirus in their New Mexico hillside home, likely unaware that she was dead because he was in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease, authorities revealed Friday. Both deaths were ruled to be from natural causes, chief medical examiner Dr. Heather Jarrell said alongside state fire and health officials at a news conference. "Mr. Hackman showed evidence of advanced Alzheimer's disease," Jarrell said. "He was in a very poor state of health. He had significant heart disease, and I think ultimately that's what resulted in his death." Authorities didn't suspect foul play after the bodies of Hackman, 95, and Betsy Arakawa, 65, were discovered Feb 26. Immediate tests for carbon monoxide poisoning were negative. Investigators found that the last known communication and activity from Arakawa was Feb. 11 when she visited a pharmacy, pet store and grocery before returning to their gated neighborhood that afternoon, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said Friday. Hackman's pacemaker last showed signs of activity a week later and that he had an abnormal heart rhythm Feb. 18, the day he likely died, Jarrell said. Although there was no reliable way to determine the date and time when both died, all signs point to their deaths coming a week apart, Jarrell said. "It's quite possible he was not aware she was deceased," Jarrell said. Dr. Michael Baden, a former New York City medical examiner, said he believes Hackman was severely impaired due to Alzheimer's disease and unable to deal with his wife's death in the last week of his life. "You are talking about very severe Alzheimer's disease that normal people would be in a nursing home or have a nurse, but she was taking care... Read More