SHOOT will publish a Special Directors>e.dition on Monday, October 30, that will contain the entire Directors Series section from SHOOT ’s October/November print issue (including extended versions of some stories). The mix of profiles includes several filmmakers whose work has entered this season’s Oscar conversation, including Sean Baker for The Florida Project , Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton for Battle of the Sexes , Stephen Frears for Victoria & Abdul , Craig Gillespie for I,... Read More, Comment
This quarter's Top Ten Tracks Chart is headed by an orchestra which in concert cannot stay still. The musicians move all about, to and fro, sometimes wildly, highlighting the sound system of a Porsche. Their movements correspond to the automobile as it's seen taking corners at high speed and making hairpin turns. Also in the mix are: a piece which shows us a lost stuffed panda--which is located through Tile technology; a Halloween Horror Night campaign spot for Universal Studios; and an Aussie... Read More, Comment
This quarter's VFX/Animation Chart is topped by a Monster.com spot in which a purple monster seemingly wreaks havoc on a city--but he's actually rescuing a woman from a thankless job to a far better place of employment. Also in the mix is a visually evolutionary spot for Absolut and BBH London with effects from Framestore, a Ubisoft game promo from MPC for DDB Paris, and Roof Studio's imaginary piece to make a treatment ordeal a little easier for pediatric cancer patients. Have a look at the... Read More, Comment
LOS ANGELES -- The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced the films that will play in the Special Screenings, Cinema’s Legacy and Shorts sections at AFI Fest 2017. This year’s Special Screenings section offers an array of engaging stories and intimate portraits of riveting individuals: Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool (DIR Paul McGuigan); I, Tonya (DIR Craig Gillespie); Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond--Featuring A Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton (DIR Chris Smith); The... Read More, Comment
LOS ANGELES -- The American Film Institute (AFI) announced the films that will be featured in the World Cinema, Midnight and Youth and Family sections at AFI Fest 2017. The World Cinema section showcases the most celebrated international films of the year and features 30 films from 39 countries. The section includes 13 official Best Foreign Language Film Oscar® entries: A Ciambra (DIR Jonas Carpignano), A Fantastic Woman (Una Mujer Fantastica) (DIR Sebastián Lelio), Foxtrot (DIR Samuel Maoz), Happy End (DIR... Read More, Comment
LOS ANGELES -- The American Film Institute (AFI) announced the three Centerpiece Galas and Tribute that will take place at AFI Fest 2017. The Centerpiece Galas are: Call Me By Your Name (director Luca Guadagnino) on Friday, November 10; The Disaster Artist (director James Franco) on Sunday, November 12; and Hostiles (director Scott Cooper) on Tuesday, November 14. On Saturday, November 11, Additionally Academy Award®-winning documentary filmmaker Errol Morris will be honored with a Tribute following a... Read More, Comment
NEW YORK (AP) -- To play a blind woman for her latest film role, Blake Lively took no short cuts into the darkness. The 30-year-old actress learned to use a walking cane, wore opaque contact lenses off-camera to better understand her character and learned how to navigate the main set without her vision. "I wanted to know the experience of filling in the blanks in my head, learning it and then opening my eyes and seeing that, no matter what I had in my head, it was so different than I imagined," she says. Lively... Read More, Comment
TORONTO (AP) -- Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos' movies aren't the sort that typically attract a stampede of Hollywood A-listers. His films, which he writes with Efthymis Filippou, are deadpan, midnight-black comedies that carry out grim allegorical absurdities to extreme ends. Characters speak stiltedly in cliches while an intensifying menace envelopes them. Things get weird and then they get brutal. And yet Lanthimos is not only a regular on the festival circuit (his latest, "The Killing of a Sacred Deer"... Read More, Comment
NEW YORK (AP) -- CoverGirl executive Ukonwa Ojo was struck when the team from an ad agency entered the room to pitch ideas for revamping the cosmetic company’s image. For the first time in Ojo’s more than 20-year career in business, she found herself working with an African-American creative director. That meeting would ultimately result in a marketing campaign that challenges conventional ideas about beauty. It features celebrity women from a spectrum of races, ages and professions, including Issa Rae of HBO’s... Read More, Comment
LOS ANGELES -- Filmmaker and hybrid creative talent Jason Zada has joined FANCY Content for commercial representation in the U.S. An award-winning filmmaker whose first feature, the thriller The Forest , debuted last year, Zada is known for his long associations with such prior production company homes as Prettybird and Tool of North America . Most recently he was at Los York. Zada has earned multiple awards over the course of his directing career, including Cannes Lions, a D&AD Pencil, an Emmy and... Read More, Comment
LOS ANGELES -- Stink Films has signed director Will Mayer for global representation. He joins a company directorial roster which includes Eliot Rausch, Nicolas Winding Refn, Nacho Gayan, and Lauren Caris Cohan. Mayer’s background in documentary filmmaking imbues his work with a sense of authenticity and human connection. He shared, “What I aim for above everything is emotion and honesty.” A recent collaboration with Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore., for Samsung tells the story of Russell Westbrook and the... Read More, Comment
SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Jerk Store, the directing team consisting of Ben Weinberg and Pat Andrews, has joined the roster of Santa Monica-headquartered Tool. The duo had not been handled previously in the U.S. but continues to be repped in Canada by Steam Films. Jerk Store’s first project for Tool is a spot for Mattress Firm with agency Havas that launched earlier this month. Weinberg and Andrews spent a combined 30 plus years as advertising creatives, honing their craft before making the switch to directing and... Read More, Comment
WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- Bullitt has added Sasie Sealy and Jonathan Zames to its directorial roster. Both are conversant in long and short form projects, and work at the intersection of advertising and entertainment. This marks Sealy’s first official U.S. representation. Zames had previously been with Big Block. Sealy first made her mark in the commercial world of fashion and beauty with clients such as Maybelline, Tory Burch, Suave, and Sally Hansen, and her work has been featured in Glamour, Refinery29, and Teen... Read More, Comment
VENICE, Calif. -- Production company Slim has secured sports and action director Manes Duerr for commercials and branded content in the U.S. This marks Duerr’s first production company roost in the U.S. He has already wrapped his first project under the Slim banner, a four-spot Fitbit campaign out of Townhouse New York. Duerr is a lover of American sports and is a committed Packers fan. He also played basketball as a small forward for many years. Originally from Vienna, Duerr started his career as an editor... Read More, Comment
LOS ANGELES -- Branded entertainment production company Gloria Content--which maintains bases of operation in Los Angeles and Mexico City--has signed Brazilian-American director Gandja Monteiro for commercials and branded content in the U.S. She joins a directorial roster which includes company co-founder Diego Luna, Jonas Cuaron, Rodrigo Valdez and Rogelio Sikander. Gloria was launched by Luna along with executive producers Pablo Cruz and Eric Bonniot in 2015. A world traveler with a wide breadth of cultural... Read More, Comment
BROOKLYN, NY -- Production company 1stAveMachine, which has won multiple Cannes Lions and Clio Awards, has launched a talent management division while expanding its content production business, The new 1stAveMachine Management is a platform-agnostic hub that services existing 1stAve directors and other emerging and established talent in film and television, branded, social, VR and digital entertainment. “With 1stAveMachine Management, we want to create a vibrant roster of clients, drawing on our existing... Read More, Comment
ALBANY, NY (AP) -- State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced a civil rights investigation on Monday into The Weinstein Co. following sexual harassment and assault allegations against its co-founder, Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. As part of the investigation, the prosecutor's office issued a subpoena seeking company records on harassment complaints and legal settlements to determine whether any civil rights and anti-discrimination laws were broken. "No New Yorker should be forced to walk into a... Read More, Comment
LONDON (AP) -- Bill O'Reilly's sexual harassment scandal is causing more headaches for 21st Century Fox's 11.3 billion pound ($14.8 billion) bid to take full control of U.K. cable network Sky Plc. Revelations that U.S.-based Fox News renewed O'Reilly's contract after he settled a sexual harassment lawsuit for $32 million came just a month after Britain's culture secretary asked competition regulators to review the takeover. Karen Bradley said one of the reasons for her decision was that Fox News' handling of... Read More, Comment
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Writer and director James Toback, who received an Oscar nomination for writing "Bugsy," has been accused of sexual harassment by 38 women in a report published Sunday in The Los Angeles Times. In the report, many of the women allege that Toback approached them on the streets of New York City and promised stardom. His meetings would often end with sexual questions and Toback masturbating in front of them or simulating sexual intercourse with them, according to the accounts. The 72-year-old... Read More, Comment
"Thank You For Your Service" may be an Iraq war film. But its most harrowing scene takes place far from the battlefield: in the sterile, dingy waiting room of the Department of Veterans Affairs. There, as countless veterans, many of them wounded, sit for hours waiting to talk to someone, Adam Schumann (Miles Teller) tries to arrange treatment for himself and his buddy, both suffering from PTSD. When Schumann finally gets to the window, he's told he'll get to see a doctor — in six to nine months... Read More, Comment
Swedish filmmaker Ruben Ostlund's last film, "Force Majeure," began with the rumble of an alpine avalanche and the wallop of a shattered self-image. When a swelling white tide appears headed straight for an outdoor cafe, a panicked father flees with his iPhone, but not his children or wife. Their respect for him is undone in a cloud of snow. In Ostlund's follow-up, the Palme d'Or-winning "The Square," an upper-class, highly placed man is again humbled by a latent cowardice, but one that reveals... Read More, Comment
NEW YORK (AP) -- "The Walking Dead" aired its 100th episode for its eighth season premiere the other night, although it wasn't necessarily cause for celebration at AMC. The show had 11.4 million viewers on Sunday night, down 33 percent from last fall's seventh season premiere, which had 17 million, the Nielsen company said. AMC said there are all kinds of mitigating factors, primarily that last year's premiere was a cliffhanger that drew an unusual number of fans. Live television viewership is down across the... Read More, Comment
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- It was a spooky weekend at the box office for nearly everyone but Tyler Perry. Perry's comedy sequel "Boo 2! A Madea Halloween" scared up a healthy $21.7 million in its first weekend in theaters, but the waters were rough for other new openers including the disaster epic "Geostorm," the firefighter drama "Only the Brave" and the crime thriller "The Snowman." Made for a reported $25 million, Perry's film drew a mostly older and female audience, who gave it an A- CinemaScore. "Boo 2!" did a... Read More, Comment
We’re taken to a business headquartered in a suburban home where a worker is rewarded for doing a stellar job with the proverbial perk of a “corner office.” The only problem is that the corner office in a residence isn’t quite the power space it is in a highrise. Titled “Corner Office,” this spot for FedEx Ground was directed by Randy Krallman of Smuggler for BBDO New York. It’s one of three spots in a package which features fictional micro-businesses and how FedEx Ground helps them. Read More, Comment
Brent Harris of South Africa’s Egg Films directed “For The Love Of Sport,” Sky Sports’ epic new football ad, produced by Jon Ronbeck with Mapi Brambilla and Paolo Zaninello from Akita Film in Italy for agency Grey United in Milan. When Roma’s Alessandro Florenzi goes down injured, the ad captures the way an entire country joins together to get him back in play. Look out for cameos from the likes of Juventus’ Daniele Rugani, AC Milan’s Alessio Romagnoli, Fiorentina’s Federico Chiesa and Italian... Read More, Comment
Last month, Foot Locker and Timberland(R) teamed up with hip-hop legend Nas to launch the 2017 Timberland Legends Collection limited-release series of boots. To promote the collection, agency Pereira & O’Dell NY turned to bicoastal production house Gentleman Scholar to turn out a campaign consisting of colorful animation ads which document pivotal moments in the rapper’s personal journey to artistic expression and success. Directed by Gentleman Scholar's Chace Hartman, William Campbell and... Read More, Comment
Publicis Conseil has created the first global campaign for AXA, showcasing the new brand propositioning: “Empower people to live a better life.” The campaign is inspired by the true story of an AXA client who was trapped and severely injured during the Nepal earthquake in 2015, while on a humanitarian mission. The AXA team on the ground found her, repatriated her and gave her all the medical and psychological help she needed to make a full recovery. Her story is told in the spot “Kathmandu--... Read More, Comment
To promote BMW’s certified pre-owned vehicles and the new unlimited mileage warranty, BMW and creative agency KBS have created a humorous campaign directed by Master of None ’s Eric Wareheim via production house PRETTYBIRD. The premise is that the warranty helps customers feel so good about their decision to buy a used BMW they will “never want to stop driving.” That even applies to this spot titled “Wedding” in which a father brings the bride down the aisle in a pre-owned BMW. The car itself... Read More, Comment
The odds look pretty slim for fending off an alien invasion with UFOs menacingly hovering about, causing individuals to disappear. Two scientists see the handwriting on the wall, figuring they have better odds if they exit the crisis at hand and instead play the New York Lottery’s Take 5 game which gives players a one in nine chance of winning. Tom Kuntz of MJZ directed this comedy spot conceived by McCann New York, for which a fleet of spaceships was created by Eight VFX. Read More, Comment
TOTO USA, the Americas division of the global plumbing manufacturer TOTO Global Group, has teamed up with advertising agency barrettSF to create a new video for its WASHLET, a high-tech bidet seat. Aimed to change America’s approach to bathroom hygiene, its message is simple: you should use water for personal cleansing. “99% of Americans don’t use bidet seats,” commented barrettSF creative director Aryan Aminzadeh, “But once you do, you realize you’ve been performing a daily activity the wrong... Read More, Comment