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 branded content representation, joining the roster of Superprime.
Also attaining a high profile for their feature exploits are directors Sam Taylor-Johnson and Jake Scott whose work debuted at last month’s Toronto International Film Festival. Taylor-Johnson brought A Million Little Pieces to Toronto while Scott had his American Woman make the cut—with the performance of Sienna Miller generating some Academy Awards consideration buzz along the way. Scott too has a commercialmaking connection as part of the directorial lineup at RSA Films. Taylor-Johnson is with Hey Wonderful.
Meanwhile a noted ad biz artisan—Lance Acord of Park Pictures who is a four-time DGA Award nominee for best spot director of the year—is looking to make his feature directorial debut with the big-screen adaptation of Sally Jenkins’ book “The Real All Americans,” being produced by Park Picture Features.
Another profiled director, John Hillcoat, first established himself as a feature filmmaker (The Road, The Proposition) before successfully diversifying into commercials back in 2010 with Levi’s “Go Forth.” Last year, he meshed the filmmaking and ad disciplines, helming Corazón, a 48-minute film for Montefiore hospital via NY agency JohnXHannes. Corazón won the Cannes Lions Health & Wellness Grand Prix as well as an Entertainment Gold Lion. Produced by Hillcoat’s spot/branded content roost Serial Pictures, Corazón depicts the real-life story of Elena Ramirez , a young Dominican woman who has a bad heart and has been given months to live. She meets a U.S.-based cardiologist, Dr. Mario Garcia, who is volunteering in his native hometown of Santo Domingo. Dr. Garcia gives her a fighting chance to live via mechanical heart surgery that he and his colleagues can only perform at Montefiore in the Bronx. Ramirez sets out on a journey from Santo Domingo to NYC. This is a story of chance, hope, courage, friendship, love and generosity.
And rounding out our profile lineup is Malik Vitthal of The Corner Shop who directed Procter & Gamble’s “The Talk” for BBDO NY. “The Talk” earned a Cannes Lions Film Grand Prix, an AICP Show honor for direction, and last month the coveted primetime commercial Emmy Award. BBDO gravitated to Vitthal for “The Talk” based largely on the emotionally moving and authentic storytelling in his dramatic feature, Imperial Dreams.
Our ensemble of up-and-coming directors consists of: a feature filmmaker who recently wrapped her first commercial, an empowering piece for Nike; an artisan who’s meshing art and science to great effect, reflected in her work garnering a recent Grand Prix in VR at the Venice Film Festival; a talent who first established himself as a visual effects supervisor before showcasing his directing wherewithal with a whimsical music and dance short that’s scored on the fest circuit; and a still photographer who diversified into directing music videos and recently turned out her first spot, which poignantly tells the plight of a woman coping with mental illness.
And then in our Cinematographers & Cameras Series, we meet four DPs–one who got the opportunity to collaborate with a director he long admired, yielding a film which earned a six-minute standing ovation at this year’s Cannes Film Festival; a two-time Oscar nominee who lensed an ad campaign for a director which translated into their again teaming on a feature that debuted at the recently concluded Toronto International Film Festival; a DP who shot two features which also made the cut at the Toronto Film Festival; and a cinematographer who lent his talents to one of Facebook’s first original content series, which gained exposure in the TV portion of the Toronto Fest.
Carrie Coon Relishes Being Part Of An Ensemble–From “The Gilded Age” To “His Three Daughters”
It can be hard to catch Carrie Coon on her own.
She is far more likely to be found in the thick of an ensemble. That could be on TV, in "The Gilded Age," for which she was just Emmy nominated, or in the upcoming season of "The White Lotus," which she recently shot in Thailand. Or it could be in films, most relevantly, Azazel Jacobs' new drama, "His Three Daughters," in which Coon stars alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen as sisters caring for their dying father.
But on a recent, bright late-summer morning, Coon is sitting on a bench in the bucolic northeast Westchester town of Pound Ridge. A few years back, she and her husband, the playwright Tracy Letts, moved near here with their two young children, drawn by the long rows of stone walls and a particularly good BLT from a nearby cafe that Letts, after biting into, declared must be within 15 miles of where they lived.
In a few days, they would both fly to Los Angeles for the Emmys (Letts was nominated for his performance in "Winning Time" ). But Coon, 43, was then largely enmeshed in the day-to-day life of raising a family, along with their nightly movie viewings, which Letts pulls from his extensive DVD collection. The previous night's choice: "Once Around," with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfus.
Coon met Letts during her breakthrough performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" on Broadway in 2012. She played the heavy-drinking housewife Honey. It was the first role that Coon read and knew, viscerally, she had to play. Immediately after saying this, Coon sighs.
"It sounds like something some diva would say in a movie from the '50s," Coon says. "I just walked around in my apartment in my slip and I had pearls and a little brandy. I made a grocery list and I just did... Read More