VENICE, Calif.-Executive producers T.K. Knowles and Chuck Ryant-who both exited bicoastal Reactor Films last August-have teamed with exec. producer John O’Grady to launch Bob. The new bicoastal venture opens with five directors: Jason Smith, Lisa Rubisch, Mark Kohr and the team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris.
Dayton, Faris, Smith and Rubisch were formerly at Reactor. Kohr comes over from bicoastal/international Satellite. The directors are all partners in Bob, with Knowles, Ryant and O’Grady serving as managing partners. O’Grady continues to maintain his N ur Eye Films, New York, but is available in an exec. producer/head of production capacity for Bob, according to Knowles and Ryant, who also handle sales on the West and East Coasts, respectively. Knowles is based in Bob’s Venice office, Ryant in Manhattan.
Bob’s New York office is on the N ur Eye premises, but Ryant and Knowles noted that the two companies are separate entities. "We’re not a division of N ur Eye; it’s nothing like that. We just wanted to be able to tap into John’s expertise," explained Ryant, who has known O’Grady for 10 years, dating back to the former’s tour of duty on the agency side (at that time as a junior producer at Saatchi & Saatchi, New York), when he collaborated on a project with O’Grady, then at a Florida production house.
At press time, Bob had turned out its first couple of jobs: a Dayton & Faris-helmed campaign for ESPN’s Winter X Games out of Wieden & Kennedy, New York, an intentionally non sequitur, humorous approach in which a Japanese-speaking anchor and reporter cover extreme sports athletes and events; and a Smith-directed music video for Warner Bros. Records’ artists Grant Lee Buffalo. Bob is also scheduled to embark later this month on a short film, "Man In The Moon Jr.," directed by Rubisch for Nickelodeon’s experimental filmmaking program.
Knowles said Bob plans to produce a mix of projects, ranging from spots to videos and longer-form fare for its directors. While Dayton & Faris continue to direct music videos through their Venice-based Dayton/Faris shop-the latest being Korn’s "Freak on a Leash"-some of the directors’ clip work might be produced by Bob. On the spot front, other recent Dayton & Faris credits include "Snow" for Gap Kids out of its in-house San Francisco agency, The Gap.
Kohr also has a Gap Kids spot to his credit, the Satellite-produced "Gravity," which broke last summer. While Kohr has directed a smattering of commercials over the years, he remains best known for his music video work, including Green Day’s "Time of Your Life," which won an MTV Award in 1998 as best alternative video, Alanis Morrisette’s "Hand In My Pocket," No Doubt’s "Just A Girl" and Everclear’s "Everything to Everyone."
According to Knowles-who earlier in his career repped Satellite and came to know Kohr-the director would like to develop his spotmaking career and hopes that Bob will facilitate that diversification.
Similarly, Smith is looking to broaden his reach-geographically. A London resident, he is moving to Southern California and plans to divide his time between the U.S. and U.K. as part of a concerted effort to direct more American work. Smith-who continues to be repped overseas by London-based Spector-has been consistently busy with European ad fare and didn’t helm any spots for U.S. agencies during his brief tenure at Reactor and prior stint at Link Entertainment, New York; his last American credit was a Major League Baseball campaign out of Lowe & Partners/SMS, New York, when he was at Crossroads Films, bicoastal, Chicago and Atlanta.
Since then, however, Smith has directed a Braun electric shaver spot for Lowe Howard Spink, London, which went on to air globally, including heavily in the U.S. And during previous U.S. affiliations-with bicoastal/ international radical.media (Nike for Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, Ore.) and bicoastal/ international Propaganda Films (BASF via Houston Effler Hampel & Stefanides, New York)-Smith took on American assignments. Akin to Knowles’ relationship with Kohr, Ryant has a track record with Smith. The two were together when the director joined Propaganda in 1993; Ryant was the company’s East Coast-based head of sales. (Ryant came over to Propaganda from McCann-Erickson, New York, where he and Knowles were both producers.)
Rubisch first established herself as a producer/director/writer at MTV’s in-house promo department; one of her last directorial credits there-prior to joining Reactor in July 1998-was an MTV Movie Awards promo campaign starring Samuel L. Jackson. During her short stay at Reactor, Rubisch helmed spots for adidas/Foot Locker out of Deutsch Inc., New York, and Eidos interactive video games for Winkler, San Francisco, as well as a music video for Rasputina, a band on the Columbia Records label.
Asked to explain the origin of a moniker that puts their company on a first-name basis, Knowles and Ryant said that they wanted to depart from the norm of self-important banners and monolithic company philosophy. "The Bob name represents an opportunity for us to not take ourselves too seriously," related Ryant. Knowles added, "It gives the company a sense of personality."
Bob is repped in the Midwest by Chicago-based independent firm Monaghan Halpine.
