Bully Pictures has signed director Gregory Maya for exclusive representation for commercials. Maya has earned recognition for his work for such brands as American Express, Target, JC Penney, Verizon, TJ Maxx and Bare Escentuals. His work is distinguished by insightful casting, refined art direction and his gift for drawing emotional human portraits and performances that reach through the lens.
Previously represented by The Artists Company, Maya says that he considered offers from several production companies and chose Bully Pictures because of “the company’s fresh positioning and vision.” He explains, “I want to be involved with people who are moving forward and taking advantage of every advertising platform available.”
Maya adds that he was impressed by the insight that Bully Pictures executive producers Jason Forest and Astrid Downs showed into his approach as a commercial director. “They understand my work and my potential and can help guide my career from that point of view,” he says.
A diverse talent, Maya has worked across a wide expanse of product categories and advertising styles. Recently, he has directed a number of campaigns for fashion brands and his work stands up from other work on that category in its strong sense of story and character. “My work is humanity based,” he observes. “It’s about honesty and truth that derives from the performance of the actors, or the personas of real people. My beauty work is not high gloss, or hyper-designed. Rather, it is naturalistic and has a sense of humanity at its core.”
Maya’s humanistic touch is evident in his recent Bare Escentuals “Be a Force of Beauty” campaign out of TBWAChiatDay. With the goal of highlighting women’s true overall beauty, a blind casting call was conducted to find six “Forces of Beauty.” Maya interviewed 78 models and actresses behind a wall, asking them questions about their values, beliefs and dreams — without ever seeing their faces. The result was a beautiful, relatable and honest campaign. In one of the spots, Lauren, describes growing up in a family of Italian-American firefighters—she herself volunteers as firefighter in her community. Maya’s warm, intimate technique presents these women as real and approachable.
A native New Yorker, Maya worked in the theater before embarking on a career as a commercial producer. Having worked alongside a number of successful directors, he elected to move behind the camera himself. His first effort as a director was an emotionally charged public service campaign for The Fresh Air Fund that won top honors at the annual AICP MOMA show. Since then, he has directed scores of memorable campaigns both in the U.S. and internationally for such clients as Pantene, Wal-Mart, Dove, AT&T, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, American Express, McDonalds, Clairol and Toyota.
About Bully Pictures
Bully Pictures is a full-service commercial broadcast, web viral, branded content production company located in Santa Monica, California. The company’s roster includes Javier Aguilera, Dustin Lance Black, Juergen Bollmeyer, Fredrik Callinggard, Jeffrey Dechausse, Anne Fletcher, FRAME, Gaute Hesthagen, Daniel Kaufman, Dave Klaiber, Franco Marinelli, Gregory Maya, Luke Savage, Michael Shapiro, Morten Tyldum and Eric Will. For more information, write info@bullypictures.com
