Workhorse Media, the commercial production house headed by executive producer Pola Brown, has launched a content division to pursue additional long-form content and social media work. The new division’s directorial roster consists of Maro Chermayeff, Peter Gilbert, Erica Hill, Michael LaBellarte, Michael Sugrue, Jonas + Kelly and the just-signed Lukas Korver.
“By officially launching our content division, Workhorse Media is stating its intentions to go full bore into long-form content work,” said Brown. “The division is new, but our directors are uniquely qualified for this work, having done numerous, notable branding and content projects.”
Just prior to announcing the content division, Brown signed director Korver. He recently earned a NATAS Sports Emmy for Outstanding New Approaches in Sports Programming for his co-directing of segments in the Sports Illustrated piece, A Boy Helps A Town Heal.
Korver recently directed a short film chronicling artist Brandon Stanton’s now famous “Humans of New York” photoblog, containing portraits and quotes from over 6,000 New York City residents. “Humans of New York” showed Korver the high impact that could be garnered via social media. Last year, the former Syracuse film student released his first feature length documentary. Titled The Medicine Game, the PBS special followed a native American family, as Korver explained, “trying to live with each foot planted in two different worlds.” Korver directed, edited and shot the documentary.
Director Hill’s credits include an exposé on New York’s Gramercy Park and a documentary on the crazy life of NYC’s street skater Harry Jumonji (a subject which Hill continues to explore). Although known for her fashion and beauty spots, Hill loves to find fascinating subjects to chronicle. “It’s a progression, I went to college to study cartography and art, got into fashion and beauty work by happenstance, but now I’m just fascinated by people and their stories,” she said.
Sugrue’s short film Heart of Africa chronicles how the people of Rwanda and Uganda live, work and play. “Doing long form social media content is still the wild west,” said Sugrue. “Pola and I see opportunities that are only going to develop further. It’s very rewarding to direct a suite of material for clients that is also entertaining.” Sugrue has completed branding films for Visa, Quantcast and others.
Director LaBellarte’s ongoing brand-building campaign for the Smart Car’s AVP beach volleyball league sponsorship is another strong example of content work. LaBellarte’s background spans advertising, cinematography and “big branding.” He finds satisfaction in seeing his work populate social media channels. “It’s all about understanding a brand and it’s core strategy,” he said. “I like taking real people and connecting them to a brand.” LaBellarte also consults for several clothing companies, conceptualizing, directing, shooting and editing all their materials.
Chermayeff directed the lauded documentary Half The Sky and such other docu fare as Circus, and the Emmy-winner Carrier, about life aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. Chermayeff is perhaps best known for directing and producing Frontier House, the six-part series which remains one of the highest-rated programs in the history of public television. She also directed and produced the two-hour feature documentary Julliard that aired as part of the Emmy Award-winning PBS series American Masters. The prolific, writer, director and producer is currently filming Half The Sky 2 while in development on various film projects, TV series and documentaries.
Jonas + Kelly is a new directorial team which is one part Jonas Mayabb, a Cannes and Emmy award-winning director, and one part Kelly Girth, former agency creative director turned director. The two currently are collaborating on content creation for 20th Century Fox, Sirius XM Radio and Poontang energy drink.
Rounding out the roster is Peter Gilbert (DP and producer of the iconic basketball documentary Hoop Dreams, ranked #1 on the International Documentary Association’s Top 25 Documentaries list) whose directorial credits include the Harley-Davidson brand-building film titled Harlistas.
All the content division directors are also represented by Workhorse Media for commercials.
