No matter what one’s station is in the industry–well established or trying to make that initial career mark–adapting to changing times, cultivating and realizing opportunities are all part of a constant process. That was reflected at SHOOT’s afternoon Directors/Producers Forum and evening New Directors Showcase event, both held at the DGA Theatre in NYC on Thursday, May 22.
A wide continuum of talent was represented at the Forum and New Directors Showcase. While the latter cast the spotlight on up-and-coming helmers, earlier in the day our Forum put accomplished, lauded filmmakers front and center. The Forum also featured a mix of producers–on the ad agency and production house sides of the business–who shared insights into how they have diversified and grown their shops in response to an evolving marketplace spanning both short and long-form content.
Kicking off the Forum was a “Producers Perspectives” panel moderated by SHOOT editor Robert Goldrich. Panelists were Matt Bonin, chief production officer at Ogilvy & Mather, New York; Steve Humble, executive VP/managing director of production and development at The Martin Agency, Richmond, Va.; Oritte Bendory, executive producer/VP of development at GARTNER; Jackie Kelman Bisbee, founding partner/co-owner of Park Pictures; Scott Franklin, the NY-based exec producer of Chromista, the bicoastal commercial production house in which director Darren Aronofsky is partnered; and Justin Moore-Lewy, co-founder of production company HeLo.
Bonin observed that clients “are kind of calling us to task to a certain extent.” saying ‘You’re my brand steward. You’re the ones who know my business and my brand better than anyone.’” Clients thus want their agency to oversee all forms of their brand communications. “They’re not happy that as an agency we get out of bed for the $1 million TV commercial but we won’t help them with the $5,000 video that needs to live online.”
In terms of adapting to social media and the need to craft real-time messages in a timely responsive manner, Bonin referenced a couple of quick and nimble teams he’s assembled at Ogilvy–a NewsRoom team consisting of people who monitor and analyze social media and other conversations happening around the agency’s brands, helping to craft responses in the short, near and long term; and Agile Video, built around a journalist/writer, staff director, agency producer/line producer hybrid and editor. Complementing them are designers/infographics experts. The teams can deploy quickly and out of necessity skirt some of the protocol for campaign-based marketing such as pages of briefs, layers of oversight and rounds of internal and external check-ins. This requires a disruptive leap of faith for the agency teams in creative and production and a high level of client trust.
Humble too is building in-house capabilities at The Martin Agency, which maintains editorial house Running With Scissors and animation studio HUE&CRY. Humble affirmed that the lion’s share of The Martin Agency’s work is done with outside production and post vendors since there’s no substitute for working with the best people and being pushed and inspired by them. Still, having responsive, immediate in-house resources in Richmond has proven invaluable. He explained that all agencies are “under pressure to do stuff with less money” and that you “can’t have a production company go out and shoot Vine videos.” Digital has created an economic model which has necessitated that agencies find “new ways to do things.”
This has also spurred on the need to bring in top-drawer talent. “When I started to do editorial and finish at the agency,” said Humble, it was understood that creatives would not be forced to work internally. Thus The Martin Agency had to recruit “amazing people to come to Richmond.” The agency was able to land producers, animators and the like who had major market credentials. For example, executive producer Scott Friske, who worked at such well regarded houses as Lost Planet, was brought in to head up Running With Scissors.
Humble added that Bonin’s reference to new nimble teams being created underscores the changing model of creativity. Humble observed that the old world way of working had an art director and copywriter going into a room and eventually coming out with the answer in the form of a script. It was a very “insular” process consisting of that core team with a producer involved at times. Nowadays, said Humble, there’s a lot more collaboration and for some of the more traditional art directors and writers, it’s been hard to let others in. But others have become integral to the process, such as creative technologists, among others “who have opinions and good ones.”
Park’s Bisbee reflected on her company, which became well established in high caliber commercialmaking before branching out with a short, The New Tenants, designed to help a director with Park at the time, Joachim Back, attain a higher profile in the U.S. market. The New Tenants wound up winning the Best Live Action Short Film Oscar in 2010. This in turn opened other doors and led to Park Pictures launching a feature division which debuted with Robot & Frank directed by Jake Schreier which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize. Park Pictures released its second and third films, the Maya Forbes-directed Infinitely Polar Bear and the John Slattery-directed God’s Pocket–which both debuted at this year’s Sundance Festival. All the films gained distribution. Most recently, God’s Pocket, Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s last film, opened in theaters while Infinitely Polar Bear is slated for release next year.
In some respects, said Bisbee, extending Park’s creative and filmmaking reach into features came naturally. She said that the company’s commercialmaking acumen “helped us to make movies.” Park already had a production machine and infrastructure in place and relationships with great freelance talent who were able to bring a lot to longer form filmmaking. Bisbee’s husband, Sam Bisbee, heads the feature division while Jackie Kelman Bisbee is at the helm of the commercials operation.
On the flip side, there are aspects to the feature film business that were outside Park’s “wheelhouse,” said Jackie Kelman Bisbee. She cited in particular the process of getting financing, noting that she and her Park colleagues had to get accustomed to meeting with hedge fund managers and the like to pitch projects. Bisbee observed that the art of that pitch, to get financiers to believe in your film, is “the closest I’ll get to being on the agency side pitching a client.”
She added that her years of experience managing clients helped her with financiers on the feature side. Bisbee related that Park’s commercial work was instrumental in gaining the trust of investors who saw a track record of working with mainstay agencies and blue-chip clients who entrusted their communications to the production company. Bisbee related that this helped Park on the feature front to tell those stories “we want to tell, that we think are worth telling.”
Park’s successful diversification into long-form filmmaking in turn carries positive implications for its longstanding core ad business. As brands become increasingly involved in longer form content, Park is now better positioned to meet that demand. Bisbee cited William Morris Endeavor’s purchase last year of a large minority stake in ad agency Droga5. A major talent agency’s investment in an ad agency underscores how the two worlds are coming together. Bisbee said it will be exciting to see what will come out of the William Morris/Droga5 relationship, how brands may be able to benefit from a major talent agency connection. Bisbee said she’s looking forward to when these kind of storytelling opportunities for brands come to fruition, being able to create movies and other content that makes a lasting impression on viewers and the marketplace.
Chromista’s Franklin enjoys a close-knit collaborative relationship with filmmaker Aronofsky, their last feature being the recently released Noah. Franklin’s feature producing credits include Aronofsky’s Black Swan (nominated for the Best Picture Oscar). Franklin is a two-time recipient of the Independent Spirit Award for Best Picture–first for Aronofsky’s The Wrestler in 2008 and then Black Swan in 2010. Franklin related that Aronofsky’s positive creative experience directing a pair of Montana Meth PSA projects led to the filmmaker ultimately deciding to form a commercial production/branded content production house in partnership with executive producers Ted Robbins and Sandy Haddad.
Franklin–who freelance produced assorted commercials earlier in his career–said that the Montana Meth PSAs “really spoke” to Aronofsky, showing him the joy of short-form storytelling and affording him the opportunity to experiment and work with new technology that he might not otherwise have gotten the chance to try out.
In between Black Swan and Noah, Aronofsky continued to direct some select commercials, with he and Franklin operating as free agents sans a formal spot production company affiliation. In some cases, Franklin shared, there would be more and more people on set who didn’t need to be there while less and less money was going on screen. Being indie filmmakers, said Franklin, “We always prided ourselves on putting extra money on the screen, always at the sacrifices of some of our own luxuries [fancy offices, production trailers].” So Franklin and Aronofsky saw the need to launch a lean, low overhead commercial production house. As a freelancer, Franklin had favorable experiences working with EP Robbins while the Montana Meth work was marked by a positive collaborative relationship with EP Haddad. Thus Aronofsky and Franklin decided to partner with Haddad and Robbins to form Chromista, which is assembling a roster of directors which the ad community can tap into.
Beyond doing high-level commercials and branded content, Chromista will also serve as what Franklin describes as “a farm system” for up-and-coming directorial talent in the feature world.
Moore-Lewy’s HeLo–a company he launched last year with executive producer Brendan Kiernan–also has an expansive mindset as evidenced by such recent projects as the Bud Light “Epic Night” spot on this year’s Super Bowl (and the companion “Ian Up For Whatever” online campaign), as well as Beyond the Brick: A LEGO Brickumentary which premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. The latter teamed directors Daniel Junge of HeLo and Kief Davidson whose spotmaking roost is B-Reel. Junge won the Short Subject Documentary Oscar in 2012 for Saving Face (co-directed with Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy) and Davidson earned a Short Subject Documentary Oscar nomination in 2013 for Open Heart. As for the Bud Light Super Bowl fare and accompanying online campaign, HeLo’s Jeff Tremaine (of Jackass fame) was brought in to direct for BBDO New York.
Moore-Lewy and Kiernan created HeLo with the vision of creating a production house focused on innovative storytelling for the evolving and increasingly integrated entertainment and advertising markets. Besides directors, Moore-Lewy explained that HeLo has relationships with leading production designers who can bring a lot to the table for brands, citing as an example director Chris Nolan’s production designer Nathan Crowley. Moore-Lewy referred to “rockstars of the design world” as often being “unsung heroes” who have great relationships with their directors and often serve as an influential “sounding board” for filmmakers.
Moore-Lewy recalled for example that BBDO NY director of integrated production David Rolfe referenced director David Fincher’s The Game when discussing a possible live event for Bud Light (which became the “Ian/Epic Night” campaign). Moore-Lewy brought in Jeffrey Beecroft, who served as production designer on The Game, and “kicked around ideas.” Moore-Lewy also was working on an Evel Kneival documentary with director Tremaine who too came into the Bud Light fold.
Moore-Lewy took a circuitous route to being a founder of a commercial production house. He made his first industry mark as a talent agent at ICM in L.A., returning to his native Dublin to open an Ireland office for ICM. He later went to Dublin-based Treasure Entertainment where he oversaw feature film production. Moore-Lewy came back to L.A. to form Perfect Weekend, an indie feature production company. He then worked as an EP on commercials, experiential and branded entertainment projects for such clients as Reebok, Colgate and Microsoft.
Meanwhile GARTNER’s Bendory has her industry roots on the agency side as a producer (JWT, Ogilvy, DDB). She brought that experience to the production company side of the business. Bendory discussed how her agency acumen has come into play at GARTNER, as well as the production house’s development of hybrid filmmaking talent, including directors with writing and editing chops. Among those hybrids at GARTNER are director/editor/writer Gavin James and documentary director/DP/editor David Serota.
In The Director’s Chair
Next up during the afternoon Forum was SHOOT’s “In The Director’s Chair session” which featured Michael Cuesta who was interviewed by SHOOT editor Goldrich. Cuesta is a two-time DGA Award nominee, the first coming in 2012 for the Homeland pilot. He earned his second nom the following year for “The Choice” episode of Showtime’s Homeland.
Cuesta made his first industry mark as a commercialmaker and then diversified into features with L.I.E., nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2001. His next feature, 12 and Holding, debuted at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival and went on to earn a nomination for the Independent Spirit’s coveted John Casavetes Award. In between his first two features, Cuesta broke into series television, directing multiple episodes of HBO’s Six Feet Under.
Cuesta shared with the Forum audience some backstory as to how he got the chance to direct Six Feet Under, explaining that series creator Alan Ball and his co-executive producer Alan Poul were at Sundance looking for new filmmaking talent. This was at a time when such scouting wasn’t nearly as commonplace on the festival circuit as it is today. L.I.E. caught Ball’s eye and Cuesta became involved in the second season of Six Feet Under. “I binge watched it,” said Cuesta referring to the first season of that show’s episodes. He very much liked what he saw, recalling that he was “amazed how television could be like [a high quality] feature film…That very much started with premium cable,” added Cuesta, citing HBO and Showtime.”
Among Cuesta’s subsequent TV gigs was his first pilot as a director–for Showtime’s Dexter. He went on to direct multiple episodes of the show for which he also became a co-executive producer. Bob Greenblatt, who was president of entertainment for Showtime back then and was involved in Six Feet Under, sent Cuesta the book that Dexter was based on. Cuesta also read a draft of the pilot script but he hadn’t received a formal offer to do the show. He would have to earn that opportunity and did so with a presentation which he said paralleled his experience in commercialmaking. Cuesta observed it was “very much like doing a conference call with an agency…You’re presented a board and you present your vision for how you see directing the commercial.”
His pitch for Dexter, though, was a bit different than trying to nail down an ad assignment. “You don’t have to put a treatment together,” though now he added, “people do.” Cuesta recollected putting together extensive notes and observations on Dexter, referencing Taxi Driver and its protagonist character Travis Bickle, among other “misanthropic outsiders.” Cuesta presented his ideas as to how to realize Dexter, and Showtime and the producers “took to it.”
Still, even with his indie film accomplishments and the success of Dexter and Six Feet Under, Cuesta said that a measure of good luck figured in his landing the Homeland opportunity. Cuesta noted that Ben Affleck was originally slated to direct the pilot. But when that fell through, Cuesta got the call, had a meeting and was in pre-pro a week later as director and exec producer. In the latter capacity he earned a primetime Emmy when Homeland took the Best Drama honor in 2012.
As alluded to, Cuesta’s roots are in commercialmaking. He grew up in the ad business as his father, Mike Cuesta, Sr., was an accomplished spot director and company entrepreneur with the iconic house Griner/Cuesta and then Griner/Cuesta & Schrom. The younger Cuesta followed in his dad’s footsteps, becoming a photographer and then moving into commercials, initially as a director/DP. He directed for such brands as Ford, Dove and State Farm, turning out emotionally moving public service work on teen alcoholism, and a PSA entitled “Baseball” for Autism Speaks.com via BBDO New York. For much of his career, Cuesta was repped by The Artists Company under the aegis of Roberto Cecchini. Cuesta is now again with The Artists Company which has begun a new chapter headed by executive producer Sally Antonacchio. The director currently has a window of availability for commercials after wrapping the feature Kill The Messenger starring Jeremy Renner for Focus Features. Based on the true story of journalist Gary Webb (portrayed by Renner), Kill The Messenger is set in the mid-1990s when Webb reported on the CIA’s involvement in importing cocaine into inner city/ghetto neighborhoods in the U.S. in order to raise money for the Nicaraguan Contras rebel army. As a result of his reporting, Webb found himself the target of a smear campaign that drives him to the point of suicide. Kill The Messenger is slated for an October release.
Cuesta said he likes to think his first two movies–L.I.E. and 12 and Holding–helped him land Kill The Messenger. Clearly, his collaborative relationship with Renner was a factor. Renner had a supporting role in 12 and Holding and the two always wanted to work together again. In fact, Cuesta did a series pilot with Renner around the time of the actor’s Oscar-nominated performance in The Hurt Locker. “I convinced him to do this TV pilot which did not get picked up,” said Cuesta, adding that Renner was probably a bit “relieved” when it wasn’t.
Cuesta has a development deal with 20th Century Fox for TV that runs through the end of next year so that will keep him busy. Still, he’d like to fit some commercialmaking into his schedule. He credited his ad industry experience with laying the foundation for his feature and TV pursuits. “Commercials gave me a lot of years to hone my directing craft.” His advice to young filmmakers is “to shoot a lot and learn how to visualize something.” Commercials provided that education and experience for Cuesta, who added that advertising also provided a better grasp of editing and sound. Thus the first time he was on set to direct a TV show, Cuesta said, “I knew how to run that set.”
Forum wrap
Wrapping the afternoon Directors/Producers Forum was a panel roundtable titled “Multi-Disciplinary Action: Directors.” Panelists were: director Amir Bar-Lev who is handled by Chelsea Pictures for spots and branded content; director Laura Belsey who maintains Shadow Pictures; director Tim Piper, a co-founder of branded entertainment studio Piro; and attorney Brian Murphy of Frankfurt, Kurnit, Klein & Selz.
This Forum session delved into how directors are not only getting involved in varied disciplines but also in some cases the breakthrough nature of the kind of work that is emerging.
The latter is exemplified in Farmed and Dangerous, the first foray into comedy series for Chipotle. The first season of the series played on Hulu and Hulu Plus and recently earned Chipotle Brand of the Year distinction at MIPTV in Cannes. “Multi-Disciplinary Action” panelist Tim Piper is a director who formed content company Piro with producer Daniel Rosenberg. Piro produced Farmed and Dangerous, a dark comedy about industrial agriculture, in partnership with Chipotle. Piper–who has an extensive background as an agency creative and director–served as director, writer and executive producer on the series while Rosenberg, who has an entertainment industry pedigree, was a writer/exec producer. Brought in for the show were writers Mike Dieffenbach (Less Than Perfect, Retired at 35) and Jeremy Pisker (an Oscar nominee for Bulworth).
Piper first gained industry recognition in the ad agency sector, most notably as a creative at Ogilvy Toronto where he turned out–and co-directed–the seminal “Evolution” viral piece which put Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign on the map, winning the Film and Cyber Grand Prix honors at Cannes, among other assorted awards. Piper later directed Dove’s “Onslaught” while still at Ogilvy Toronto. He moved over to Ogilvy NY to get a better look at the entertainment landscape. While there he met Rosenberg who was pitching shows to him and OgilvyEntertainment that needed brand support.
“When I met Daniel he was looking for brands to fill in the gap for shows that were already pretty much green lit if he could find the extra money from brands,” recalled Piper. “So it seemed a little bit ass backwards to be creating all these shows and then going to brands–‘we just need a little bit of money and we can make it relevant to you’–when the amount of money they wanted could very easily pay for the development of an idea that could easily be as good as that, if not better. All these scripted shows are based on a subject matter that relates to a brand. That’s why they have the upfronts and ask all these brands ‘you see our shows and what do you want to get behind because it relates to you.’ There’s absolutely no reason why with the purse that brands have, why they can’t actually go to creators and say, ‘Here’s our subject matter, go nuts.”
Coupling Piper’s advertising sensibilities and Rosenberg’s entertainment chops (his experience spans TV and the development of such features as Inside Man), Piro was born. Chipotle gravitated to Piper based in part on his direction of a tongue-in-cheek Post Shredded Wheat web series out of Ogilvy centering on a fictitious character who put the “no” in “innovation,” a reference to Shredded Wheat staying true and a bit mundane to itself with one ingredient since 1892–and with “no” artificial colors or preservatives. This purity of food product and Piper’s track record in generating viral success prompted Chipotle to come to him and ultimately Piro for Farmed and Dangerous.
Farmed and Dangerous reflects the fact, said Piper, that “there’s a real opportunity right now for brands, agencies and production companies to hire writers from the TV land and the film land and get them working directly with agency producers, producers with the creative guys, art directors. And I think there’s a real opportunity right now that’s being missed where these brands who really want stories can get there way easier than they think. The process [on Farmed and Dangerous] was incredibly simple from beginning to end.”
Piper said that Piro successfully pitched to Chipotle retaining half-ownership of the first season of Farmed and Dangerous. This stake in season one was “the reason we went to Cannes [for MIPTV] to help sell it internationally,” explained Piper. If international sales go as anticipated, enough revenue will be generated to fund about half of the second season for Farmed and Dangerous. Piro is trying to get a second season off the ground sans funding from Chipotle which is letting Piper and Rosenberg take over the show. Piper said that Chipotle “loved the idea that this thing can live on and sustain itself.” Piper said there will come a time when more brands will do the same.
Attorney Murphy, who counsels ad agencies, advertisers and entertainment companies as they develop and produce advertising and entertainment properties across all media, discussed ownership and creative control issues that can arise in branded entertainment. He related, “I’ve seen so many projects not work between a brand and creative team because the brand couldn’t let go–and they just needed to have a certain ROI as they say, return on their investment. They needed to see certain kinds of messaging get across in a very strong way and it results in frustration and ultimately in content that goes nowhere fast.”
Meanwhile panelist Belsey’s work spans commercials, shorts, documentaries (Katrina’s Children) and series TV (most recently multiple episodes of Law & Order: SVU). One discipline informs another, she confirmed. “Directing commercials was amazing training and that’s how I got my start.” Yet while control for a director is such a big part of commercialmaking, documentaries are a 180 degree departure from that. “Especially with kids [as in Katrina’s Children], you can’t control anything…You learn to be a lot more flexible.”
In another sharp contrast, episodic TV, continued Belsey, is “all about speed and preparation….In a funny way, commercials prepared me super well [for episodic].” She cited the many crews she worked with on commercials. Also her documentary experience helped her to be “flexible” and “loose” and not locked into a shot. These varied experiences are why she likes “going back and forth. That’s why I call myself ‘a cross director.’”
Belsey also has the perspective of teaching the commercial directing class at the Graduate Film School of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts for eight years and counting. Several of her students over the years have gained inclusion into SHOOT’s New Directors Showcase (including this year with her former student David Kestin making the grade.) During her tenure as a teacher and mentor at NYU, Belsey has seen the 30-second format become less prevalent. Still, though, she insists that her students work in the :30 framework. “As a filmmaker, it’s the best training in the world…It trains you to boil things down to the most essential.”
Bar-Lev too is active in varied disciplines which have tapped into this documentary acumen. His Happy Valley–which shed light on the Penn State child abuse scandal–debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Bar-Lev’s 12.12.12 for executive producer Paul McCartney, documenting the Hurricane Sandy relief concert featuring performances by The Rolling Stones, The Who, Roger Waters and Bruce Springsteen, among others, premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival and was released by The Weinstein Company. The director made a major mark in the branded entertainment sector with the Hyundai-sponsored Re:Generation Music Project which made its festival debut at SXSW in 2012 and went on to win a Bronze Lion at Cannes. Bar-Lev recently directed the stirring call to action–a Skype shoot–for the Call of Duty Endowment out of agency 72andSunny.
Bar-Lev said that working in nonfiction, it behooves him to present “an authentic experience” for his audience no matter what the content platform. For Happy Valley, Bar-Lev had a camera right behind a statue of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno—as it turned out just 24 hours before the statue was removed from its public on-campus roost. A man stands by the statue carrying a sign denouncing Paterno where the coach’s supporters also gather. “It was a lightning rod of a place,” said Bar-Lev who had a boom microphone capturing these arguments which were close to becoming physical fights. Bar-Lev said simply that you can’t be afraid to be in a place with a camera.
Meanwhile for his Call of Duty Endowment Foundation piece, Bar-Lev embraced the Skype aesthetic which captured young military veterans relating their job interview experiences–and frustrations–as they attempt to successfully return to civilian life. Bar-Lev directed the Call of Duty assignment for ad agency 72andSunny.
New Directors Showcase
After its Directors/Producers Forum wrapped, SHOOT that evening debuted its 12th Annual New Directors Showcase reel followed by a panel discussion moderated by SHOOT publisher and editorial director Roberta Griefer featuring six of the up-and-coming filmmakers as well as feedback and counsel from Don Block, executive producer of GARTNER, and Ruben Mercadal, sr. film content producer at Ogilvy & Mather, New York.
The 2014 New Directors Showcase consisted of 38 directors–27 individual helmers, four directorial duos and one trio.
Kicking off the evening Showcase event was Belsey representing the DGA. A director active in TV, features, spots and documentaries, Belsey introduced Griefer to the audience and talked about the importance of the New Directors Showcase as well as the ad industry. She noted that about one-third of new DGA members come from the spotmaking arena and that 14-plus percent of Guild member revenue is generated by commercials. Belsey affirmed that new directors should become members of the Guild which actively protects filmmakers’ creative and economic rights. She added that the DGA has varied resources and flexibility when it comes to projects with challenged budgets that should prove valuable to directors breaking into the business.
Griefer then introed the debut screening of the 2014 SHOOT New Directors Showcase reel, which contained a sampling of the work from each Showcase helmer. After the reel presentation, SHOOT held a panel discussion in which six of the directors were participants: Logan Hall of ONE at Optimus; Richard Speight Jr. of QuietMan; and four directors who are as yet unaffiliated with a production company for commercials and branded content–Bess Kargman; Aaron Kodz; Bryan Reisberg; and Tamara Rosenfeld.
Rosenfeld earned inclusion in part for her short film Lea–City of God, Brazil, for Coca-Cola/5by20. The piece introduces us to an amazing female entrepreneur who has literally “fashioned” a business out of recycled plastic bottles. Rosenfeld shot the piece in the slums of Brazil. She shared with the audience that she has on tap another film for Coca-Cola in Europe which too has a sustainability theme.
Reisberg was selected for the Showcase on the strength largely of his feature directorial debut, Big Significant Things, which premiered at this year’s SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas. He described his SXSW experience as gratifying, providing an invaluable launch for Big Significant Things which tells the tale of a guy who lies to his girlfriend to go off on a trip by himself through the South to see roadside tourist attractions and oddities.
Kargman gained SHOOT Showcase recognition for her documentary short Coach for ESPN Films, which told the inspiring story of women’s basketball coach Vivian Stringer. Kargman was approached by Whoppi Goldberg and ESPN Films to collaborate with them on Coach, which won a Jury Prize at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival. Kargman embarked on Coach after the release of her independent feature film First Position which too made its mark on the festival circuit. Kargman noted that she next wants to venture into commercials and branded content.
Kodz made the Showcase grade for “Reach,” a spec spot for the Van Cliburn Foundation. Kodz shared that he was drawn to the project as a “great opportunity to tell a story without words” while packing emotional impact. He added that he is next slated to embark on a PSA for My Sister’s Place, an organization dedicated to combatting domestic violence and human trafficking. Kodz also has a PSA in the offing dealing with handicapped athletes.
ONE at Optimus’ Hall broke into the business as an assistant editor at Optimus, eventually moving into the director’s chair. The sense of humor in his ad fare was nurtured and developed in part by his involvement in improv comedy in Chicago. His Showcase piece was “Coffee,” a TV spot for Get Covered Illinois which deployed humor to make a case for getting affordable health care. As for his next endeavors, Hall said that he is working on a six-episode web series which taps into his Chicago improv colleagues, that he is currently in post on a music video he directed, and that he’s pursuing “a passion project” about remote control car racers in the Midwest.
QuietMan’s Speight was chosen for the Showcase in part on the strength of his short film America 101, a tongue-in-cheek look at what’s off kilter in society today. Speight made his first mark in filmmaking as an actor, where he got to interact and observe varied directors,including Joe Pytka of PYTKA. Speight performed in some Pytka-directed Pepsi fare which in turn introduced him to VFX auteur Johnnie Semerad of QuietMan. Speight credited both Pytka and Semerad as being supportive of his directorial career with Pytka providing counsel just prior to the production of America 101 and Semerad offering to contribute VFX to the short. Speight then had the happy circumstance of Semerad being the guy who did “this giant favor for me” and then believed in him enough to hire him for the company’s roster. Speight’s first official job at QuietMan was a Mountain Dew spot.
Most of the Showcase directors were in attendance at the DGA Theatre. The other directors in the 2014 Showcase were: Rob Adamo of ShootersINC; Ruben Barrientos of Adolescent Content; Alberto Belli of Accomplice Media; Jason Berger of Kids At Play; Jonathan Bregel of Variable; Conor Byrne of Hungry Man; Patrick Clair of elastic; Diego Contreras of Bullitt; Em Cooper of th1ng and film club; Stephen Frandsen of Hero Content; Scott & Jake Friedman of Wildlife; J+J (Jess Zou and Jing Shao) of Untitled, Inc.; David Kestin who’s unaffiliated; The Kloons (Mitch Lewis, Greg Washburn, Nik Kazoura) of Click 3X; Lukas Korver of Workhorse Media; Brandon LaGanke of Eyepatch (in-house unit of Ogilvy & Mather); Montana Mann of Seed Media Arts; Ari Merkin of Supply & Demand; Charles Nordeen from Light of Day; Kyle Padilla of Cedar Films; Armen Perian who’s unaffiliated; Plummer/Strauss (Justin Plummer III, Martin Strauss), an unaffiliated duo; Romina Schwedler who’s unaffiliated; Tank+Bunker (Judah-Lev Dickstein, Justin Liberman) of Greenpoint Pictures; Ben Tedesco of Superlounge; and Arnaud Uyttenhove of Caviar.
Panelist Mercadal of Ogilvy noted that he is with an agency that has a track record of giving new directors their first big breaks. He cited Ogilvy’s work with such emerging directors at the time as Michel Gondry, Jonathan Glazer, Tarsem and Nicolai Fuglsig who have all gone on to star status. What these now luminaries have in common, observed Mercadal, is “a strong identity” and vision which was evident early on in their careers. “A sense of identity and a voice as a director” are crucial to the success of new talent, Mercadal affirmed, adding that he enjoys working with new directors because of the “energy,” “passion” and “fresh and new perspective they provide.”
As sr. film content producer at Ogilvy NY, Mercadal noted that he often suggests to creatives, “Why don’t we put a wild card in the mix?” He observed that creatives taking an hour or so to talk to a young director and giving him or her a chance to do a treatment could yield some pleasant surprises and ideas that can blow you away.
Panelist Block of GARTNER has a long track record of developing new directors, including the marquee one for which his production company is named after–two-time DGA Award winner James Gartner. Block recalled first seeing Gartner’s work back when he was a creative, directing select projects for a Salt Lake City-based agency (Bonneville). Block flew from L.A. to Park City, Utah, to meet Gartner for lunch and found that the talented young filmmaker didn’t want to leave either the agency or Salt Lake City. Undeterred, Block suggested that perhaps Gartner could take a leave of absence whenever he landed the young director a worthwhile project. These initial collaborations led to Gartner later breaking out on his own as a lauded director with a company bearing his name.
Block was able to get Gartner viable work pretty much out of the gate. However, Block recalled that it took him two years to get Gartner a dialogue spot, hard to believe given what is now Gartner’s stellar reputation as a dialogue/people director.
The moral to the story, said Block, to the new directors on stage and in the audience is that it’s imperative that they find someone who is truly “committed” to them and their work. Finding a home, a place which believes in you and is invested in you for “a long-distance run” is essential, he affirmed.
An afterparty, downstairs at the DGA Theatre, followed the New Directors Showcase screening and panel discussion.
To see the SHOOT New Directors Showcase reel and new director profiles, log onto https://www.shootonline.com/nds/home. A photo gallery of the Forum and NDS event proceedings is at https://www.shootonline.com/nds/2014/after-party.
Lead sponsors of the 2014 SHOOT Directors/Producers Forum and New Directors Showcase were harvest, ONE at Optimus and the DGA. Silver sponsors were Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, Company 3 and Method Studios. Bronze sponsors were GARTNER, Palace Production Center, and U.S. Virgin Island (filmUSVI.com). SHOOT publisher & editorial director Roberta Griefer thanked the event sponsors in both her afternoon Directors/Producers Forum and evening New Directors Showcase welcome remarks, noting that it is their support that makes the event possible. She expressed appreciation to each company with an additional thank you to Company 3 for hosting a breakfast and color correction workshop for the directors in the 2014 SHOOT New Directors Showcase that took place earlier that day prior to the Forum and Showcase. The directors were treated to a session in one of Company 3’s ultra-high-end theaters with an internationally renowned colorist where they saw firsthand some of the benefits every filmmaker can take advantage of during a grading session.
