In this prequel to SHOOT’s The Road To Oscar series which starts next month, we tap into voices of experience—Academy Award winners and nominees who are now find themselves again in the awards season conversation. Here are reflections from an Academy Award-winning DP, an editor who earned an Oscar nomination for a documentary he co-directed and produced, a three-time Oscar-winning costume designer, and yet another costume designer who’s been twice nominated. They share insights, respectively,... Read More, Comment

Besides being the creator of notable shows including Catastrophe (Amazon and U.K.’s Channel 4, co-created with Rob Delaney), Divorce (HBO), and Pulling (BBC, co-created with Dennis Kelly), Sharon Horgan has also brought life to creative business environments that nurture the development and realization of such content as well as other entertainment fare. First, she and partner/producer Clelia Mountford formed what’s now the well established narrative film and TV company Merman. Then in 2017... Read More, Comment

SHOOTonline will publish a Special Directors>e.dition on Monday, October 29, that will contain the entire Directors Series section from SHOOT ’s October/November print issue (including extended versions of some stories). The mix of Directors Profiles includes several filmmakers whose work has entered this awards season’s Oscar conversation, including Paul Greengrass for 22 July , Yorgos Lanthimos for The Favourite , and Tamara Jenkins for Private Life . Lanthimos recently secured spot and... Read More, Comment

Pete Candeland of Friends Electric directed this animation spot for Great Western Railway featuring The Famous Five, a group of adventurous young children and their dog Timmy from the series of novels by English author Enid Blyton. Titled “Five and the Missing Jewels, this ad out of agency adam&eveDDB, London, has the Famous Five chasing a jewel thief. They’re able to stay in hot pursuit of him thanks to the Great Western Railway transit system. And the spot itself was able to ascend to the... Read More, Comment

Our quarterly Top Ten Visual Effects/Animation Chart features work that runs the gamut from an animated spot starring the children's novel protagonists the Famous Five for Great Western Railway to an anime-inspired online series for Footlocker, the creation of a magnetized chocolate world for Lacta candy bars out of Wieden+Kennedy Brazil, and a Climate Reality Project piece with an atypical political candidate front and center. So have a look at the past quarter's best work in the VFX/animation... Read More, Comment

An impromptu celebration breaks out in a diner but soon we realize that we’re witnessing the festivities—including the deployment of confetti-firing canons—in reverse. The good times are depicted in this spot titled “Change It Up” for Denizen from Levi’s, which earned number one entry distinction in SHOOT’s quarterly Top Ten Tracks Chart. Created by San Francisco ad agency Heat, the lifestyle commercial was directed by Tristan Holmes via production house Doomsday and lensed by DP Jackson Hunt... Read More, Comment

Check out the best music and sound work this past quarter has to offer, starting with a Top Ten Tracks Chart headliner in which a celebration at a diner plays out in reverse for Levi's Denizen brand. The varied Chart fare also includes a twist on the classic "Tortoise and the Hare" tale, a "knockout" film featuring Serena Williams, a spot in which we hear and feel the scoring hand of Lin-Manuel Miranda, and a piece which attempts to fill the "Dream Gap" for Barbie. So look, listen and enjoy to... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK (AP) -- The "Making a Murderer" filmmakers were in many ways in a race against the clock to make part two of their series, now available on Netflix. "We were in postproduction from day one," said Moira Demos. "We were shooting and editing and shooting and editing and finding the story as we went." The first "Making a Murderer" recounted the story of Steven Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey, who were convicted in the 2005 slaying of Wisconsin photographer Teresa Halbach. Avery and Dassey are serving... Read More, Comment

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Creative agency David&Goliath (D&G) has appointed three senior creative hires to round out the Kia Motors team: Marc Schwarzberg, executive creative director, head of art/design; Mark Koelfgen, ECD/copywriter; and Frauke Tiemann, group creative director. The new hires report to David Angelo, agency founder/chairman, and Bobby Pearce, chief creative officer. Schwarzberg leads art, design and product innovation for Kia. He will also assist with new business efforts and will work with the... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES -- Tool of North America has signed director Hal Kirkland for commercials branded content and specialized innovation projects in the U.S. Kirkland, who comes aboard Tool’s Innovation roster, is an internationally awarded director, creative director, writer and media artist who wields words, film and technology to create meaningful human stories and experiences. He has created content for brands including Coca-Cola, Vice, Google, Oculus/Samsung and MTV, and worked with agencies such as R/GA, Wieden... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES -- Director Daniel Benmayor--who first signed with Sweetshop in 2014 for representation across Asia, the Middle East and North Africa--has extended his relationship with the production company to now include the U.S. for commercials and branded content. He had previously been handled in the American ad market by B-Reel Films (BRF) and prior to that, Anonymous Content. Benmayor has worked for clients all over the world, including Adidas, Nike, Mini, PlayStation, Coca-Cola Group, Pirelli, Lexus,... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK -- Director Elena Petitti di Roreto has signed with bicoastal Epoch Films for commercials, marking her first career representation in the U.S. In November, she is slated to direct her first job through Epoch Films--a project for Hennessy through Droga5. The shoot is set on location in France. Petitti di Roreto studied media design and received her BA and MA at the New Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, and then film studies at the Pratt Institute in New York where she was nominated for the Pratt... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- CBS Corp. says that Richard Parsons, its interim chairman, has resigned from its board because of illness. The media company named Strauss Zelnick, another media industry leader, as his replacement. CBS named Parsons interim chairman in September as it tried to reshape itself following the ouster of its longtime chief Les Moonves. Parsons said in a statement Sunday that he was already dealing with multiple myeloma when he joined the board, but "unanticipated complications have created... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES -- Twenty-five features have been submitted for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the 91st Academy Awards®. The submitted features, listed in alphabetical order, are: Ana y Bruno Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Early Man Fireworks Have a Nice Day Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation Incredibles 2 Isle of Dogs The Laws of the Universe – Part I Liz and the Blue Bird Lu over the Wall MFKZ Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms Mirai The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl On Happiness Road... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK (AP) -- By the end of her impassioned speech last week in front of a crowded hotel ballroom, Alyssa Milano was choking back tears. The words "Me Too," the actress and activist told her audience, would continue to ring out as long as society needed them, "reverberating off every closed door, bouncing off every glass ceiling." "This movement is not going anywhere," she declared, "until our work is done." Offstage stood activist Tarana Burke, who had just presented Milano with her award from the New York... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK (AP) -- When Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012, it seemed like a big gamble for an unproven little app. Six years later, that little app — along with Messenger and WhatsApp — are serving as Facebook's safety net for a future that could find its flagship service on the sidelines. Sure, Facebook reigns in social media today, and this is not likely to change soon. Still, amid the company's seemingly endless troubles over elections meddling, misinformation, privacy lapses, hacking and hate... Read More, Comment

MADRID (AP) -- Voicing wake-up calls for new generations to save cinema, oceans and journalism, film director Martin Scorsese and marine biologist Sylvia Earle on Friday were awarded Spain's prestigious Princess of Asturias prizes along a selected group of scientists, mountaineers and intellectuals. In his acceptance speech in the northern Spanish city of Oviedo, Scorsese said he worried about the low consideration that cinema and arts receive globally, but more specifically in the United States. He also... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES -- Director Danny Leiner--whose work spanned features, TV and advertising, the latter via production house Independent Media--passed away last week (10/18) after a battle with cancer. Known and admired for his sharp wit and comedic vision, his tireless work ethic, valuable mentorship, consummate professionalism and collaborative nature, Leiner had a body of work ranging from the boisterous comedy features Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and Dude, Where’s My Car? , to indie ensemble comedy-... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES -- Stept, a creatively integrated production company with offices in Los Angeles and Jackson Hole (Wyoming), has added Toby Wosskow, Andy Maser, and Max Lowe to its roster for exclusive commercial representation in the U.S. Lowe and Wosskow previously directed independently while Maser had been earlier repped by production house Superlounge and prior to that was with National Geographic Creative. Maser is a three-time Northwest Emmy Award-winning director and cinematographer who began his career... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES -- The ADCAN Awards--a celebration of creativity as a force for good--recognized the stellar work of emerging filmmakers and animators who were tasked with creating a 30 or 60-second original film working from a brief for the competition’s charity partners. Winners were unveiled and honored last week (10/18) at a ceremony hosted by ADCAN partner, The Mill in L.A. Earning this year’s Grand Prix were Peter Jones and Ben Kaufman for their work for Young Health Movement. As Grand Prix winners, the two... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A record-high percentage of LGBTQ characters are part of the new TV season's prime-time network series, according to the media advocacy group GLAAD. The annual study by media advocacy group GLAAD out Thursday also found an increase in the characters' ethnic diversity, with slightly more LGBTQ people of color than white for the first time. While the percentage of regularly seen LGBTQ characters on scripted broadcast series rose from last year's 6.4 percent to hit an all-time high of 8.8 percent... Read More, Comment

BRUSSELS (AP) -- The head of Apple on Wednesday endorsed tough privacy laws for both Europe and the U.S. and renewed the technology giant's commitment to protecting personal data, which he warned was being "weaponized" against users. Speaking at an international conference on data privacy, Apple CEO Tim Cook applauded European Union authorities for bringing in a strict new data privacy law this year and said the iPhone maker supports a U.S. federal privacy law. Cook's remarks, along with comments due later from... Read More, Comment

LONDON (AP) -- The BBC has failed to live up to its duty to pay men and women the same for equal work, a committee of British lawmakers said Thursday, in a damning indictment of the publicly funded broadcaster after years of pay scandals. Parliament's media committee said in a report that BBC salaries were set by "an opaque system of discretionary decisions by individual managers." The BBC has been struggling to address the issue, which was highlighted when journalist Carrie Gracie quit her post as China... Read More, Comment

A year after Greta Gerwig's "Lady Bird" comes another actor-turned-director's memory-inspired California-set coming-of-age tale from the boutique film studio A24. This time, the time period has been dialed back a few years (from the early '00s to the mid-'90s), Dave Mathews Band has been traded for A Tribe Called Quest, and the filmmaking talent is far less revelatory. Though affectionately and sometimes precisely recalled, Jonah Hill's thinly sketched directorial debut "Mid90s" feels both... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Forty years after he first appeared in theaters, Michael Myers is still drawing huge audiences for a good scare. Universal Pictures said Sunday that "Halloween" took in an estimated $77.5 million in ticket sales from North American theaters. It captured first place at the box office with the second-highest horror opening of all time, behind last year's "It." It also marked the second highest October opening ever behind "Venom's" $80.3 million launch earlier this month. The studio also says it's... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK (AP) -- CBS was television’s most popular network last week, but that status is no longer the slam-dunk that it has been for the last decade and a half. It was CBS’ second weekly victory of the young television season, matching NBC’s two victories, the Nielsen company said Tuesday. NBC handily won among viewers aged 18 to 49, the demographic group that it cares the most about. Sunday night football gives NBC a big boost in the fall, but series like “This Is Us,” ‘’Manifest” and Dick Wolf’s “Chicago”... Read More, Comment

As mobile phones are seemingly getting a hard time, criticized for how overuse of them hurts the quality of life, Three UK is taking on the cynics and bringing some balance to the debate with its new brand campaign, “Phones Are Good.” To extol the virtues of smart phones, this Three spot directed by Ian Pons Jewell of Friend London for Wieden+Kennedy London humorously reimagines pivotal moments in history, demonstrating in each scene how much better things would have been if phones had been... Read More, Comment

More than 115 people in America die every day from opioids and, in 2016, 2.5 million young adults (ages 18-25) reported misusing an opioid in the past year, making this one of the most critical public health issues of our time. That’s why Truth Initiative®, the Ad Council and the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) collaborated to create The Truth About Opioids campaign, a multi-channel opioid public education truth® effort, which first launched in June. Produced in partnership... Read More, Comment

Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky has teamed with the Sierra Club Voter Education Fund and Generation Z activists from all over the country who are calling on their peers to vote in the midterm elections. Produced by Aronofsky’s film/TV production company Protozoa Pictures and his commercial/branded content house Chromista, the video features people active in movements for indigenous rights, gun control, rights for the disabled, immigrant rights, climate justice, and transgender equality, among others... Read More, Comment

Action movie star Dolph Lundgren conducts a boot camp for Volvo Construction Equipment’s full range of heavy duty excavator machines (weighing from 1.5 to 95 tons)--putting them through a rigorous set of calisthenics in this cinematic, tongue-in-cheek film from Forsman & Bodenfors Sweden. During a series of extraordinary stunts, the machines are seen pulling Lundgren atop a huge concrete block across an unknown desert location, flipping gigantic tires across a muddy track and taking part in... Read More, Comment

Paul McCartney’s "Come On To Me"--from his newly released album Egypt Station--celebrates that basic human need we all have for connection. Three music videos, directed and edited by TG Herrington, harness the track’s joyful exuberance and inspire audiences to get up and dance as part of the #COTMChallenge. “Little Freddie,” “Ali” and “Elsa” were filmed in director Herrington’s home town of New Orleans, a place that lives large with compelling characters in a city known for its warm and wild... Read More, Comment

George Clooney returns in his latest installment as a Nespresso brand ambassador, as he’s never been seen before. Directed by Grant Heslov of Santa Monica-based Untitled Inc., “The Quest” sees Clooney suited up in armor, majestically saving a medieval kingdom before hitting the streets of New York City on a quest to find his heart’s desire, the kingdom’s most exceptional coffee. Co-starring in the epic adventure is one of the silver screen’s most famous queens, Natalie Dormer. This is the... Read More, Comment

Lack of transportation is a barrier for millions of Americans, so Midas has launched Project Spark to give back to those who give all of themselves. Designed to help families, veterans and first responders get back on the road, the national initiative will provide repairs, including parts and labor, for vehicles donated through 1-800-Charity Cars. Over the next year or two, Midas will be helping 1,000 families get back on their feet by fixing their cars. To help introduce the program, The... Read More, Comment

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