By Robert Goldrich
Below are profiles of a dozen leading helmers who have made a major impact on advertising and marketing. These profiles are followed by Creative Perspectives, a look at new directorial talent that bears watching. And check out Cinematography Chatter in our Columns section in which cinematogrphers offer insights into their working relationships with directors.
At the time we were putting the finishing touches on this issue, we had also earnestly embarked on our fifth annual New Directors Search, which will culminate in SHOOT’s fifth annual New Directors Showcase, a major event that will take place at the Directors Guild of America Theatre in New York on May 23. The ties between the spring Directors Series and our new talent competition are strikingly evident in the pages that follow.
For one, David Gray of Hungry Man was included in our 2005 New Directors Showcase. This January he was nominated for the DGA Award recognizing the best commercial director of ’06. In less than two years he went from being at the DGA’s Manhattan venue as part of our Showcase to appearing at the DGA Awards in Los Angeles as a nominee.
Gray is profiled in our Directors Series section as are former SHOOT Showcase helmers Yael Staav of Reginald Pike, Aaron Ruell who recently joined Biscuit Filmworks and John Immesoete of Backyard Productions and sister shop Seed. Via the latter, Immesoete created and developed three series for the recently launched online entertainment network bud.TV, underscoring the opportunities that are emerging for talented industry artisans.
Speaking of bud.TV, this issue’s coverage of up-and-coming directors in the feature titled “Creative Perspectives” includes the team of Don & John of HSI Productions who recently scored their first big ad industry helming break with episodes of The Arrogant Fake British Rich Guy and Guided Meditation With The Billy Lama, which are both series out of DDB Chicago for the ambitious Budweiser network. Don & John are former agency creatives, a background prevalent in our spring crop of new directors.
And our search for new talent isn’t confined to Directors Series editions or the New Directors Showcase. Virtually every issue of SHOOT provides exposure for emerging artisans. For example, in this week’s “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery, we feature a spec spot conceived and directed by Nir Bashan, a promising newcomer who recently signed with BeachHouse Films.
Indeed among our most enjoyable pursuits is having a hand in uncovering new talent. In that light, we hope you enjoy this special issue and we welcome your feedback at rgoldrich@shootonline.com
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