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 regularly contain a feature on new helmers, and in the scope of our weekly “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery–this is just the fourth year that SHOOT has held a formal event, its annual New Directors Showcase, to put the spotlight on deserving, emerging directors.
And strange as it sounds, there’s a sense of mini-tradition that’s developed over that relatively short span. I remember in year two we had Nelson Cabrera as a Showcase director. That was just a year after Cabrera, a veteran first a.d. on commercials, was in the audience, starting to do spec work which was just on the cusp of garnering recognition in industry circles–with the possibility that one of the ads was going to gain airtime. It did–and a year later he was in our New Directors Showcase. He’s now with HKM.
We’ve seen a fair percentage of directors in these four years go on to great success, including director Michael Downing of harvest having his Budweiser “Skydiver” spot appear on the Super Bowl last year and finish first in the USA Today poll.
And the career progression that has taken hold is evident in this year’s crop. A number of the directors chosen for this year couldn’t be with us at the New Directors Showcase event at the DGA Theater in New York last month because, happily, they had gotten spot assignments. An example being Shyam Madiraju of V3 at Anonymous Content who was working on a Fox Soccer Channel job.
Plus there have also been signings. On the strength of his spec work at Group101Spots, Brent Jones, who came to the SHOOT event, recently signed with Aero Film, Santa Monica. The team of Zack & J.C. was also on hand at the DGA Theater and I had the pleasure of announcing that they had just agreed to join @radical.media.
Furthermore, just a couple of weeks after our New Directors Showcase screening, panel discussion and reception, work directed by two of the Showcase helmers garnered three honors at the prestigious AICP Show.
Earning distinction in two AICP competition categories was the work of New Directors Showcase helmer Adam Goldstein of bicoastal/international RSA. The Goldstein-directed Freelance Union’s “Hospital” was honored in the spec spot category. Goldstein, who recently moved over from his creative director’s post at BBDO New York to pursue a full-time directorial career via RSA, also served as creative director on “Hospital.”
Additionally, Goldstein scored in the copywriting category for the New York Homeless Coalition’s “Scaffold” from BBDO New York. Goldstein directed and teamed with Lauren Cohen to write the commercial, which was screened as part of SHOOT’s New Directors Showcase reel.
Meanwhile honored in the AICP Show’s student commercial category was Mountain Dew’s “Foley” directed by the duo of Zack & J.C. (a.k.a. Zack Resnicoff and J.C. Khoury). “Foley” also was screened for the DGA Theater audience during the SHOOT proceedings.
For the SHOOT staff, the bottom line is simple. Indeed the most gratifying part of the Showcase for us is seeing careers born and then progress.
By Robert Goldrich
Martin Scorsese On “The Saints,” Faith In Filmmaking and His Next Movie
When Martin Scorsese was a child growing up in New York's Little Italy, he would gaze up at the figures he saw around St. Patrick's Old Cathedral. "Who are these people? What is a saint?" Scorsese recalls. "The minute I walk out the door of the cathedral and I don't see any saints. I saw people trying to behave well within a world that was very primal and oppressed by organized crime. As a child, you wonder about the saints: Are they human?" For decades, Scorsese has pondered a project dedicated to the saints. Now, he's finally realized it in "Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints," an eight-part docudrama series debuting Sunday on Fox Nation, the streaming service from Fox News Media. The one-hour episodes, written by Kent Jones and directed by Elizabeth Chomko, each chronicle a saint: Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, John the Baptist, Thomas Becket, Mary Magdalene, Moses the Black, Sebastian and Maximillian Kolbe. Joan of Arc kicks off the series on Sunday, with three weekly installments to follow; the last four will stream closer to Easter next year. In naturalistic reenactments followed by brief Scorsese-led discussions with experts, "The Saints" emphasizes that, yes, the saints were very human. They were flawed, imperfect people, which, to Scorsese, only heightens their great sacrifices and gestures of compassion. The Polish priest Kolbe, for example, helped spread antisemitism before, during WWII, sheltering Jews and, ultimately, volunteering to die in the place of a man who had been condemned at Auschwitz. Scorsese, who turns 82 on Sunday, recently met for an interview not long after returning from a trip to his grandfather's hometown in Sicily. He was made an honorary citizen and the experience was still lingering in his mind. Remarks have... Read More