ContagiousLA (CLA) has signed director Brandon Bray for exclusive U.S. representation in the branded arena. Subsequent to joining the company, Bray last week earned inclusion into SHOOT’s 2017 New Directors Showcase on the strength of Love, Dad, a web short for the Bittersweet Foundation. ContagiousLA is his first spotmaking roost.
Bray’s film projects and work for Facebook, Verizon, The Pulitzer Center, Ford, DuPont, and The World Bank have garnered accolades that have included four Webby Awards, four ONE Club Pencils, and four Vimeo Staff Picks.
While studying journalism at Asbury University, Colorado native Bray initially envisioned a career in broadcasting but found that he actually hated being in front of the camera (“Once I went behind the camera, that was it,” he observed). Before launching his filmmaking career, Bray worked in western China, on the edge of Tibet, working in the burgeoning coffee industry there. Upon returning to the States, Bray shot an ad for George Washington University Hospital that won a One Club Pencil. More commercial work followed, including Verizon's “You Don’t Know Me.” He also experimented with short films, such as the aforementioned Love, Dad. His latest film, EROSION, was named “Best Documentary Short” at the 2016 Lower East Side Film Festival in New York City, and an Official Selection at the 2017 Seattle International Film Festival.
Based in Washington, D.C., Bray received the 2014 NAMIC Vision Award for work with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, and was named a D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities Fellow.
“Brandon celebrates–and demands that we acknowledge–the dignity and humanity of otherwise marginalized characters,” said Natalie Sakai, CLA co-founder/executive producer. “The beautiful imagery is a gateway to a larger socially conscious message that he’s communicating, not to teach the audience a lesson but to depict how things are. His approach to telling insightful brand stories is by no means traditional, yet it is widely accessible.”
Bray joins a ContagiousLA roster comprised of directors Andrew Laurich, Benjamin Arfmann, Ben Ketai, Daniele Anastasion, Andrew Renzi, Erik Anderson, and photographer Diana King.
“I immediately appreciated Natalie’s take on the nature of the spot business,” said Bray, who was collaborating on a project with fellow CLA director Anastasion when he received a call from CLA producer Jordan Flack. “Natalie and Jordan really get my style, what I do and where I want to go. Plus, I love Daniele’s work and respect her so much. Just feels like the right fit.”
