By Robert Goldrich
Welcome to SHOOT’s fall edition Directors Series, featuring profiles of notable helmers and a look at promising new talent. Our accompanying Cinematographers Series offers DP insights into artistic trends and technological developments.
The directorial profiles encompass a wide range of work. In addition to commercials, this mix includes for several directors such fare as Webisodes, Internet shorts, targeted cable series and viral spots. The latter discipline, for instance, is reflected in director Steve Ayson’s first American ad assignment, Folgers’ “Happy Mornings,” which has taken on a word-of-mouth life of its own, putting him on the U.S. commercialmaking map and infusing the coffee client with a hip viral vibe.
Then there’s Jesse Dylan, an accomplished spot and music video director whose first major branded content endeavor, Snickers’ Instant Def series of Webisodes for BBDO and Atmosphere BBDO, New York, has scored impressively, attracting one million-plus customers to a special Web site.
Similarly Web traffic has been heavy for Sea-Doo’s series of short films, the first being Rusty Dogs directed by Jeffrey Karoff.
Then factor in The Glue Society for its MTV show The Gamekillers for BBH, New York and client Axe deodorant. Furthermore, all the directors in this edition who have diversified into varied forms of content also continue to turn out breakthrough broadcast and/or cinema commercials. The Glue Society for example helmed the lauded “March of the Emperors” for Canal+ out of BETC Euro RSCG, Paris.
In addition, this issue provides a sampling of up-and-coming directors in “From One To Several,” continuing the longstanding SHOOT commitment to identifying and giving exposure to the next generation of directing talent.
And keep in mind that the scope of the Directors and Cinematographers Series goes beyond the pages in this section. Director Terry Gilliam shares his take on filmmaking in our POV column, and this week’s Chat Room features DP Daryn Okada, ASC, who is the new president of the American Society of Cinematographers.
Enjoy the issue and, as always, we welcome your feedback.
Review: Writer-Director Andrea Arnold’s “Bird”
"Is it too real for ya?" blares in the background of Andrea Arnold's latest film, "Bird," a 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams) rides with her shirtless, tattoo-covered dad, Bug (Barry Keoghan), on his electric scooter past scenes of poverty in working-class Kent.
The song's question — courtesy of the Irish post-punk band Fontains D.C. — is an acute one for "Bird." Arnold's films ( "American Honey," "Fish Tank") are rigorous in their gritty naturalism. Her fiction films — this is her first in eight years — tend toward bleak, hand-held verité in rough-and-tumble real-world locations. Her last film, "Cow," documented a mother cow separated from her calf on a dairy farm.
Arnold specializes in capturing souls, human and otherwise, in soulless environments. A dream of something more is tantalizing just out of reach. In "American Honey," peace comes to Star (Sasha Lane) only when she submerges underwater.
In "Bird," though, this sense of otherworldly possibility is made flesh, or at least feathery. After a confusing night, Bailey awakens in a field where she encounters a strange figure in a skirt ( Franz Rogowski ) who arrives, like Mary Poppins, with a gust a wind. His name, he says, is Bird. He has a soft sweetness that doesn't otherwise exist in Bailey's hardscrabble and chaotic life.
She's skeptical of him at first, but he keeps lurking about, hovering gull-like on rooftops. He cranes his neck now and again like he's watching out for Bailey. And he does watch out for her, helping Bailey through a hard coming of age: the abusive boyfriend (James Nelson-Joyce) of her mother (Jasmine Jobson); her half brother (Jason Buda) slipping into vigilante violence; her father marrying a new girlfriend.
The introduction of surrealism has... Read More