Welcome to the Special Spring 2018 Edition of SHOOT’s Directors Series. Our mix of profiles includes Luca Guadagnino whose Call Me by Your Name landed four Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture, and Bryan Fogel who won the Best Documentary Feature Oscar for Icarus. Both filmmakers also have production company affiliations for commercials and branded content—Little Minx for Guadagnino, and Supply&Demand for Fogel. On the spotmaking front, we profile Martin de Thurah of Epoch... Read More, Comment

DeMane Davis loves directing commercials and branded content via production house Sweet Rickey. But she won’t be able to do so for about a six-month stretch, a prospect which she welcomes because a new opportunity beckons, one which she feels will enable her to bring even more to the ad arena when she returns. Davis has been named producing director for season three of Queen Sugar, Ava DuVernay’s acclaimed primetime series on Oprah Winfrey’s network OWN. Davis is currently in New Orleans where... Read More, Comment

At an early age Martin de Thurah studied acting and painting as he tried to find his way in the arts. He wound up on a path which led to National Film School in his native Denmark, eventually finding his calling as a director. In 2005, de Thurah made his first directorial splash in music videos. Over just a year’s span the director’s clip-making exploits progressed from a local Danish band to varied international acts. Next came acclaimed short film fare, including most notably Young Man... Read More, Comment

While audiences on both sides of the Atlantic have for many years and counting been drawn to the work of the directorial duo of Dom&Nic—repped by Station Film in the U.S. and Outsider in Europe—perhaps what’s most remarkable is the varied nature of their storytelling, with content ranging from serious to sentimental, poignant to comic. Assorted bookends bear this out. For example, consider Dom&Nic’s lauded piece from yesteryear for housing and homelessness charity organization Shelter... Read More, Comment

Bryan Fogel’s auspicious debut as a documentary filmmaker is a testament to his adaptability as the story he intended was relegated to the backburner when a much bigger, all encompassing tale emerged. And his deft handling of that tale has yielded Icarus, which recently won the Best Documentary Feature Oscar along with earning a DGA Award nomination, and an Orwell Award from the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, among other honors. Fogel originally intended to delve into sports doping and how star... Read More, Comment

On one hand, Call Me by Your Name had myriad challenges to overcome—budget constraints, numerous stops and starts, and varied unfulfilled project iterations over nearly 10 years since actor Peter Spears first read the novel of the same title by Andre Aciman and set out to produce a film that would do justice to the book. On the flip side, though, the project had inherent advantages, most notably the strength of its coming-of-age love story. Patience was also a virtue as the wait of almost a... Read More, Comment

Director Alison Klayman—whose work spans lauded documentaries, shorts, commercials and branded content—is no stranger to the festival circuit, initially scoring with her feature documentary debut, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, which won a Special Jury Prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Fest, and was then shortlisted for an Academy Award, and nominated for two News & Documentary Emmys as well as a DGA Award. This month, Klayman forged some new festival ground, bringing a film— Take Your Pills —to... Read More, Comment

An accomplished narrative filmmaker—as evidenced by Maggie’s Plan, a Sony Pictures Classics release starring Greta Gerwig and Julianne Moore, Personal Velocity which won the Sundance Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and Independent Spirit’s coveted John Cassavetes Award, and her first feature Angela, recipient of Sundance’s Filmmakers Trophy—Rebecca Miller is now once again breaking new ground, making her documentary debut. It’s a personal, familial foray into non-fiction as the subject is none other... Read More, Comment

In his feature directorial debut— The Sentence, which recently won the U.S. Documentary Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival—Rudy Valdez appears in a brief scene during a contemplative moment, becoming as vulnerable as those he’s filming. Valdez confesses, “I don’t know what it is about standing behind the camera but it’s allowed me to be able to cope with a lot of the things that I’ve seen.” This coping mechanism—the ability to be a thoughtful, professional filmmaker even when telling... Read More, Comment

SHOOT’s spring ensemble of up-and-coming directors includes: an obsessed skate video filmmaker who made a breakthrough at Sundance; and a helmer who established herself in London, has turned out some initial notable U.S. campaign work and is just taking on her first representation in the American ad market. Also in the mix is a prolific music video director who has since diversified into commercials, branded content and shorts. Not quite a year ago, he garnered his first U.S. production company... Read More, Comment

From Peter Spears, a first-time producer turned Best Picture Oscar nominee for Call Me by Your Name, to a storied veteran, Mike Medavoy, chairman and CEO of Phoenix Pictures, whose filmography includes producing Zodiac, Shutter Island and Black Swan (which earned him a Best Picture Oscar nomination in 2011) as well as such TV series as Altered Carbon (Netflix) and the miniseries The Long Road Home (National Geographic)—that’s the range of experience on the mini-continuum reflected in this SHOOT... Read More, Comment

One DP just won his first career ASC Award—on the strength of his work on The Crown (Netflix). Another made key contributions to the heartfelt Strong Island (Netflix), which was nominated for this year’s Best Documentary Feature Oscar. And a third DP has spent a recent stretch focusing on spots after getting a career break from David Fincher on the TV series Mindhunter (Netflix). Here are insights from DPs Adriano Goldman, ASC, ABC, Alan Jacobsen and Erik Messerschmidt. Adriano Goldman, ASC,... Read More, Comment

MJZ director Nicolai Fuglsig and The Mill L.A. helped legendary rocker Steven Tyler to “Feel Something Again” in Kia’s Super Bowl spot from David&Goliath, Los Angeles. The effort also yielded the #1 entry on SHOOT’s quarterly Top Ten Visual Effects/Animation Chart. Tyler stars in this Big Game :60 set at an old abandoned car racetrack. With the familiar notes of “Dream On” playing backwards, Tyler looks as though he’s about to race the Kia Stinger against another legend, two-time Formula... Read More, Comment

Our first quarterly Top Ten Visual Effects and Animation Chart kicks off the new year, topped by a Kia Super Bowl commercial in which rocker Steven Tyler travels through time back to his youthful prime. The vehicle to yesteryear is a Kia Stinger which Tyler accelerates backwards on an old abandoned racetrack. Nicolai Fuglsig of MJZ directed "Feel Something Again" in which Tyler's rock hit "Dream On" can be heard playing during his backwards journey. Visual effects house was The Mill L.A. for... Read More, Comment

Berlin-based agency antoni created this campaign introducing the new Mercedes-Benz G-Class, hearkening back to the automotive brand’s DNA and legacy. Titled “Stronger Than Time,” the CG/live-action piece was directed by Ole Peters of Hamburg-based Sehsucht and unfolds to music and sound design from Yessian Music in Hamburg. Yessian’s efforts earned the number one slot in SHOOT’s quarterly Top Ten Tracks Chart. At the heart of the campaign is a massive amber-like block installation, with an... Read More, Comment

Our quarterly Top Ten Tracks Chart kicks off the new year, headed by Yessian Music's work which delved into the Mercedes-Benz legacy, providing an audio complement to stunning visuals depicting the brand's lineage and how it translates into the current vehicle lineup. The Chart also showcases the music and sound acumen of such shops as Beacon Street Studios, BANG Music, Human, JSM Music, Elias and SOUTH. So look and listen to the best in sound that Q1 has to offer. See the story behind our... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The president of the motion picture academy is denying he engaged in sexual misconduct. In a memo sent to staff of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, President John Bailey said an allegation that he attempted to touch a woman inappropriately a decade ago on a movie set is untrue. Media reports linking him to misconduct are false and "and have served only to tarnish my 50-year career," Bailey, a cinematographer whose credits include "Groundhog Day," ''The Big Chill" and "As Good as... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK -- New York Festivals® AME Awards®, for the World’s Best Advertising and Marketing Effectiveness™, announced the 2018 award winners. 2017’s award-winning entries successfully demonstrated ground breaking solutions to challenging marketing problems with measurable results. Agencies increased brand identity, public awareness and market share through innovative ideas that placed brands front and center. The 2018 AME Grand Jury of CEOs, chief strategy officers, planning directors, global brand... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK -- The Tribeca Film Festival will debut highly anticipated TV shows and introduce audiences to online storytellers without boundaries in its Tribeca TV and N.O.W. (New Online Work) sections. The Tribeca TV lineup includes 18 shows made up of eight series premieres, three season premieres, one mid-season premiere, two feature documentaries and five indie pilots. The 5th edition of N.O.W. includes 12 programs in the Episodic and Short Form Showcases, in addition to the Creators Market. N.O.W. will... Read More, Comment

SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Director Torben Kjelstrup has joined Furlined for U.S. and U.K. commercial representation. This is his first commercial representation in the U.S. and U.K. Kjelstrup is a director with a love for poetic storytelling, nuanced humor and visual trickery. Hailing form Denmark, he left his architectural background and turned his passion for film and photography into a career. Kjelstrup has directed films for brands such as PlayStation and Nespresso. His music video “Soy Yo” for Bomba Estero has... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES -- Splendid & Co. has added director Kevin Osgood to its roster for commercials and branded content. Osgood’s work spans branded content, documentary, broadcast and corporate. He has created content for brands such as General Motors, Gillette, HP, Intel, BMW and American Express. Osgood is in postproduction on a series of new HP films. He and Splendid are currently prepping two more HP films to shoot in April. Splendid co-founder/executive producer Erin Tauscher--who has run Splendid in tandem... Read More, Comment

VENICE, Calif. -- Production company Durable Goods has signed director Liz Hinlein for U.S. commercial representation. She has helmed spots for such brands as Dove, Lifetime, Revlon, Gillette, Maybelline, A&E and MAC Cosmetics. Hinlein fuses her background in beauty and sports to artfully showcase dynamic performances and personalities, which can be seen in a recent promo she did for the U.S. Women’s Soccer League that went on to be exhibited on a high-profile billboard on Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles. Her... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK (AP) -- It took six weeks but "Black Panther" has finally been unseated as the top film at the North American box office. The monsters vs. robots science-fiction sequel "Pacific Rim: Uprising" dethroned the superhero sensation with $28 million in ticket sales over the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. But the result for "Pacific Rim: Uprising," a Universal Pictures-Legendary Entertainment release that cost $150 million to make, was soft — at least domestically. Like the recently released "... Read More, Comment

Publicis New York and CoorDown, Italy’s national organization for people with Down syndrome, continue to change the conversation around Down syndrome with this short film, Lea Goes To School , addressing inclusive education. The film is presented as an animated children’s storybook and features voiceover by Grace, a 11-year old student with Down syndrome. The film debuts on World Down Syndrome Day, March 21, and can be viewed on the CoorDown Facebook and YouTube channels. Lea Goes to School is... Read More, Comment

Cure Alzheimer’s Fund has released its first-ever PSA, showing the effects Alzheimer’s can have on your loved ones. The goal is to help shed light on how an investment in a cure is an investment in all of our futures. Titled Daughter and Mother , the new short was created pro bono by BBDO New York and directed by David Shane of O Positive. In the piece, we see a young girl serving as caregiver for her youthful mom. The stress on the youngster is palpable. At one point, the girl frantically... Read More, Comment

Animation studio Aardman has teamed up with the global campaign, "Malaria Must Die So Millions Can Live," to raise awareness of the deadly history of malaria and call upon leaders to “unite and fight” the disease that takes the life of a child every two minutes. Voiced by actor Hugh Laurie, the animated piece takes viewers through the history of the disease from the first recorded case in Ancient China--4,718 years ago--to current day. This engaging short film by Aardman also highlights the... Read More, Comment

Jordan Brady of Superlounge directed Kathryn Hahn ( Transparent, Bad Moms ) in this comedy campaign out of agency Doner for Chrysler’s new Pacifica S, a minivan with "attitude." In this spot titled "Parking Ticket," Hahn deploys her attitude as she tries to “finesse” her way out of a parking fine, inventing increasingly outrageous excuses on the fly like she had just lost their beloved family dog, a rare “pomerdoodle," or that she had just escaped an attack by a herd of mad killer bees. Brady... Read More, Comment

In response to the senseless murders of 17 high school students in Parkland, Florida, and the 19 other school shootings since the beginning of 2018, Sandy Hook Promise (SHP) is launching the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System (SS-ARS) into schools across the country, including accelerated rollout in four of the most at-risk states for gun violence. The launch will be amplified by a national PSA titled “The Other Side”--directed by Henry-Alex Rubin of Smuggler for BBDO New York--that will... Read More, Comment

This PSA addresses gun reform from a unique vantage point--that of military veterans. Writer/director and veteran Kyle Hausmann-Stokes teamed with producer Ellen Utrecht and Cut+Run editor Ben McCambridge to craft a persuasive and moving PSA for Veterans for Gun Reform. The PSA stars military veterans of all genders, ages, ethnicities and military backgrounds. Their message is clear: “We carried the M4/M16, we know its power first hand, and there is no reason it should be for sale in this... Read More, Comment

We see a man on a front lawn of a house, chopping wood with his hands and feet. His wife is nearby, positioning each piece of wood on a block for her spouse. A passerby wonders what’s going on. They explain that karate relieves the stress of home buying. The passerby offers some solace in that at least they don’t have to worry about home insurance thanks to GEICO. Harold Einstein of production house Dummy directed “Karate” for The Martin Agency, Richmond, Va. Read More, Comment