Spring Has Sprung For Up-And-Coming Helmers - SHOOTonline (2024)

SHOOT’s batch of up-and-coming directors this time around includes an advertising agency copywriter who’s still a copywriter; an accomplished concept artist and visual effects supervisor who’s found a new Station in his professional life; a noted actor, short and feature filmmaker now seated in the spot director’s chair at HSI; a recent graduate from London’s Royal Academy of Art who caught the eye of Little Minx’s talent discovery guru Rhea Scott; and a duo known as Grapefruit consisting of childhood friends whose career paths intersected at a filmmaking crossroads.

Here’s our spring collection of promising directors to watch:

James Lima
On the surface, it would seem a reach to regard James Lima as a new director seeking to establish himself in that his DGA card was signed by luminaries Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and Joe Pytka. But indeed Lima is making his first formal foray into the spot directorial ranks, having recently come aboard the roster of Station, a house (with offices on both coasts and in London) recently launched by managing partner Stephen Orent, who cofounded the venerable Hungry Man.

Lima is an accomplished visual effects supervisor and conceptual artist. He got his first break in visual effects supervising on Spielberg’s NBC series Seaquest DSV, the first TV series to use computer graphics exclusively for its visual effects. Lima later served as production designer, visual effects supervisor and 2nd unit director on Spielberg’s NBC series The Other, and then as co-producer and effects supervisor on Spielberg’s Emmy-winning miniseries Taken.

For Cameron (who served as executive producer/writer), Lima designed and supervised the visual effects on the feature Strange Days. And Lima is a visual consultant and special designer on director Cameron’s much anticipated 3D feature Avatar.

As for Pytka, Lima has worked with the legendary director on numerous commercials starting in the early 1990s. This is when Lima made his first industry mark as a concept artist, collaborating with agency creatives to show their concepts through art, which served as a launching off point for exploring a project’s visual possibilities. Lima later served as effects supervisor on the Pytka-directed live-action/animation feature Space Jam.

Lima’s work as a conceptual artist has made its impact on such films as Days of Thunder, True Romance, Starship Troopers, The Mummy and Spider-Man (for which he designed the Green Goblin character).

Of Cameron, Spielberg and Pytka, Lima relates, “I’ve learned so much from all three of them. James showed me how so much begins and emanates from design. Spielberg taught me it’s always story first and don’t be afraid to be bold. And Pytka has an incredibly deep understanding of human behavior and human nature. He’s a big guy whom many people don’t realize is quite a sensitive observer of people. That’s how he gets incredible performances from people on film in microseconds.”

Among Lima’s more recent endeavors was serving as visual effects supervisor for the pilot of the hit series House, produced and directed by Bryan Singer. And Lima supervised effects for two new series debuting this season–Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles for Fox and True Blood for HBO. For the former, Lima designed the new Terminator character.

But now Lima’s prime focus is directing commercials. “Just doing visual effects doesn’t hold the complete capacity of my attention. I’m fascinated with storytelling and the chance to put my point of view on work–to be able to direct as part of a creative, collaborative team. What I love about commercials is you can experiment and collaborate, the speed in which creativity and work are done is exciting as compared to a feature on which you work anywhere from a year and a half to two years. With features, you’re uncovering the next cool set, the next cool action sequence. But with commercials, you’re uncovering new ways to tell stories.”

Last year while working on The Sarah Connor Chronicles at Zoic Studios, Santa Monica, Lima got the chance through Zoic to direct a Consol Energy spot out of agency Blattner Brunner (with offices in Pittsburgh, Atlanta and Washington, D.C.). For the commercial, Lima manipulated stock photography, added effects, sparks, rotoscoped imagery and cut outs, shot real coal miners on green screen and meshed them into stock photos.

He’s followed up that creatively ambitious spot–which visually takes us deep below the earth’s surface–with an original animated short, Trembled Blossoms, that he directed for Prada. The short, which brings the essence of Mrs. Miuccia Prada herself to life, showing creativity blossom before our eyes, debuted at Fashion Week in New York last month. It will play at Prada’s Epicenter facilities in New York, Beverly Hills and Tokyo.

Station envisions Lima’s directorial sensibilities making a positive creative imprint on mainstream spotmaking and new content forms, bringing a mix of artistry and technology to the party.

“His expertise will open up doors with agencies, giving them an opportunity to really push the limits in digital production,” says Station partner/executive producer Michael DiGirolamo. “James can reach into his toolbox for innovative technology like the Viper cam and photogrammetry, and lay out ideas in pre-vis to control the environment of the shoot, while at the same time keeping production costs down.”

Lima’s artistic stamp has also graced other forms beyond TV, movies and spots. He designed, for example, theme park rides for Disney’s Imagineering and the decadent King Xmhu nightclub in Sapporo, Japan.

Will Hartman
For an artisan whose full-time gig is serving as a copywriter at Ogilvy & Mather, Culver City, Calif., Will Hartman has been getting significant recognition as a director, a role he takes on during his spare time. Earlier this month Hartman’s short film, The Art of karaoke, made its world premiere at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in Austin, Texas.

The genesis for that seven-minute documentary came when Hartman and editor Grant MacDowell of Optimus, Santa Monica, decided to have a beer one night after work at a karaoke club in the Culver City/Westwood area. “It was a place full of young, drunk college kids and out of the blue a little old man walked up to the stage and blew the audience away with a perfect pitch, three-octave range performance of the Frank Sinatra song ‘My Way,'” recalled Hartman. “The crowd loved it. I looked at Grant and said, ‘Dude, that’s a movie right there.’ If I film this guy, would you edit it? Grant said, ‘Absolutely.'”

Hartman approached the senior citizen–the 82-year-old Art Himmel– and found him to be charming, a World War II vet, a cancer survivor and happily married for 59 years. They agreed to meet him the following weekend, except Hartman was going to bring along a crew this time. The crew members included MacDowell, DP Warren Hansen and producer Jonathan Carpio (who was then a production assistant at 72andSunny and is now a production coordinator at davidandgoliath).

The team lensed Himmel and his wife at their home and followed him to the karaoke bar where they filmed most of the night with two cameras, capturing the senior’s performance and interviewing members of the audience. Editing was later done at Optimus.

Hartman paid out of pocket for the production, calling in some favors along the way to keep the budget lean. “It was something I felt compelled to do,” he said. “There’s something beautiful about somebody that age singing his heart out. The tagline for the film is simply, ‘You’re never too old to be as young as you feel.’ And this guy was living, singing proof of that. He shows there’s a way to get older with grace and humor.”

Hartman has enjoyed a fun filmmaking ride as of late. In addition to The Art of karaoke, he recently won MySpace’s Storyteller Challenge, becoming one of six finalists who got the chance to pitch a TV series pilot to the Fox network. His was the winning pitch and he sold the show to Fox, winning a $40,000 prize. He described the show, titled Tough Love, as a supernatural comedy that’s a cross somewhere between Pushing Daisies and Quantum Leap.

The six finalists were chosen by judges from MySpace, Fox and the Producers Guild of America.

Hartman said that Tough Love and The Art of karaoke bode well for what he can now bring to Ogilvy, which is actively involved in developing longer-form storytelling content on behalf of its clients, complementing the more traditional broadcast spot fare the agency continues to create.

“I’m fortunate to be at Ogilvy, working for a creative director, Dan Burrier, who believes in his staff people diversifying, being versatile and exercising their creative muscles in other pursuits like directing,” says Hartman. “As long as I take care of my responsibilities as a writer, he is supportive of me and others exploring other creative areas, in my case directing. It’s part of the new hybrid that’s happening at different shops, having creatives who can do other things, like direct, to perhaps take on new media opportunities down the road that have challenged budgets.”

Hartman’s directorial endeavors also extend to commercials. For example, he directed “Coyotes Checking” for Desert Schools Federal Credit Union out of Phoenix agency MMA Advertising. That humorous spot recently gained inclusion into SHOOT’s “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery (12/14/07).

Kevin Connolly
A noted actor in television (as Eric Murphy in the HBO series Entourage) and features (i.e., The Notebook, Antwone Fisher, The Check Up), Kevin Connolly has exhibited strong directorial chops as evidenced by his critically acclaimed movie Gardener of Eden, which debuted at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival. Now he has entered the commercialmaking fray by signing with bicoastal/international HSI Productions for worldwide representation as a spot helmer.

At press time, Connolly was in the midst of his first directing gig under the HSI banner: a series of web films for American Eagle Outfitters.

Connolly gravitated to HSI based in part on his experience years ago as a child actor who performed in some 75 spots. “HSI was a leading production house then and continues to be today,” related Connolly. “I’ve known Stavros [HSI founder Merjos] socially and thought of him and his company when it came to my starting to direct commercials. We started a dialogue and just came together naturally.”

Particularly exciting to Connolly about the ad industry is how it’s expanding into new forms like the web content in which he’s currently involved. “It’s part of the new wave of how people are advertising.There are no real models yet; people are just starting to get a sense of how things are shaping up in this area.”

As a director, Connolly is no stranger to shorter length fare. He directed the 2003 short Whatever We Do, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Amanda Peet, which went on to be screened at the Sundance Film Festival. Earlier Connolly helmed six episodes of the sitcom Unhappily Ever After, on which he performed as a regular cast member from 1995 to ’99.

Connolly observed that his career has in a sense come full circle as he looks to direct spots via HSI. “I started out and grew up in commercials as an actor [earning a Clio nomination along the way], and was able to work my way up over the years. Now I’m coming back to commercials and am looking to work hard and grow creatively as a director. Great commercials are an art form, new forms of content are also emerging and I want to be a part of all that.”

David Mullett
Director David Mullett recently signed with Little Minx, the Los Angeles house (and sister shop to RSA) under the aegis of executive producer Rhea Scott who’s known for seeking out and discovering new talent. Recently earning an MA at London’s Royal College of Art (where Ridley Scott studied), Mullett shortly after his graduation independently directed several music videos, including Babyshambles’ “French Dog Blues,” co-written by Pete Doherty and Kate Moss. Mullett deployed a multimedia mix of disciplines, most notably stop frame animation, for the clip. The character animation cut-out of performer Doherty helps propel “French Dog Blues” which was originally intended to be a web-only viral but has since been A-listed worldwide on MTV with heavy play in the U.S. and U.K.

The other alluded to Mullett-helmed clips are in the live-action realm for up-and-coming groups Envy & Other Sins and Lucky Souls, as well as a video for established band The Concretes. Landing the latter gig was particularly gratifying for Mullett in light of The Concretes’ video legacy which has seen past clips directed by the likes of Johan Renck and Daniel Levi.

Mullett took a self-described circuitous path to directing. A Chicago native, he studied art history at Northwestern where he focused on modern art and surrealism. This led to an interest in film and the decision to pursue a directorial career but Mullett planned to embark on that pursuit sans film school and/or moving to Los Angeles.

“I felt I needed to learn the technical side of things, visual effects, editing, the cutting edge tools and how to use them,” he relates. So he immersed himself in effects and editing software, landing a gig as an assistant graphics (Smoke) editor at Charlex in New York. There he also got the chance to work in Flame, Maya and in collaboration with other artists and graphic designers.

“It was a wonderful education,” recalls Mullett, who then went on to build upon his formal education by moving to London to study at the Royal College of Art.

Living in the U.K. for the past three years, Mullett aspired to start working more in the U.S. He made a trip stateside to shop his developing reel around to commercial production houses, catching the eye of executive producer Rhea Scott. “She’s a real champion of talent,” says Mullett of Scott. “She’s so supportive and genuinely excited about my visual style. And Little Minx overall simply felt like a perfect fit for me. In fact one of my great teachers at the Royal College of Art was Johnnie Hardstaff who is one of Little Minx’s directors.”

As a director, Mullett hopes to not only diversify into the U.S. market but also commercials via Little Minx. He has concurrently found a music video roost in RSA shop Black Dog Films in both the U.S. and U.K. At press time, he had already begun writing various video treatments for prospective directorial projects at Black Dog.

Grapefruit
Joe Kanellitsas, formerly senior director of network branding for VH1, and Chris Kendregan, who served in a consultant capacity to Sun Microsystems in the media and entertainment sector, have been on the same wavelength and complemented one another since they were childhood friends. In recent years, their career paths crossed on the filmmaking front as on the side–while maintaining their day jobs–they collaborated on select projects, creating and directing varied fare.

Finally in late 2006, they decided to focus on their directorial aspirations and came together as the helming duo Grapefruit (which stands for Great, Relevant, Artists, People, Effects, Fun, Restless, Undaunted, Inventive, Together). Their current reel includes several VH1 promos, as well as spec spots for Nivea and Snickers. And since formally assuming the Grapefruit moniker, they teamed on a promo package for cable network Fuse’s Fangoria Awards which earned a coveted BDA Gold Medal last year.

Now Grapefruit has taken the next step, committing to its first commercial production company home, joining Santa Monica-headquartered Reactor Films.

Industry veteran Michael Romersa, owner/exec producer at Reactor, was impressed with “the freshness of Grapefruit’s work, their different point of view, irreverent comedy, the ability to elicit good acting performances, their enthusiasm and high energy level.”

Kendregan’s work on Wall Street helping to build and brand businesses followed by his duties for Sun Microsystems spanning new content distribution channels enables him to bring a business and producing expertise to Grapefruit. Factor in his writing on different projects for Kanellitsas during the latter’s MTV and VH1 tenure and that business acumen is coupled with creative wherewithal.

Meanwhile Kanellitsas worked his way up the ladder from MTV creative department entry level production assistant to eventually promotion/graphics producer for both MTV and VH1 where he spent much of his time in editing suites learning shot composition and movement. “I could not help but to learn the principles of filmmaking,” says Kanellitsas. I knew that I would have to direct. It was just completely unavoidable.”

He went on to become senior director of network branding for VH1 where he conceived and directed image campaigns, network IDs and such notable events as the VH1 Fashion Awards and Rock Across America.

“Two of our prime strengths are our passion for the work and the fact that we are stronger as a team than as individual directors,” assesses Kanellitsas, describing a Gestalt dynamic in which the whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts.

“We’re sounding boards for each other,” relates Kendregan, “and we’re honest with each other, sometimes brutally honest, dating back to being friends so early on in our lives. When we work on creative together, it’s truly collaborative, there’s no ego problem and we’re geared to come up with solutions quickly.”