Commercialmaker best known for Paralympic Games’ “Meet the Superhumans”
British director Tom Tagholm, best known for the lauded 2012 commercial “Meet the Superhumans” promoting Paralympic Games coverage on U.K.’s Channel 4, has signed with Park Pictures, bicoastal and London, for joint U.S. and U.K. representation. Tagholm has helmed an eclectic body of work, first at 4 Creative in London where he started, and later working directly with ad agencies.
Tagholm has won most major creative awards such as Creative Circle, British Arrows and Cannes Lions, as well as several D&AD pencils, including the coveted black pencil for “Meet the Superhumans.” Among his other notable credits are Axe’s “Stairs” and Marie Curie’s “Symmetry.”
Park Pictures co-founder Jackie Kelman Bisbee said, “I can recall only a few times in my career where a director’s reel has moved me from laughter to tears (and back again) in just a few beats. Tom is a powerful and poetic storyteller.”
Director Lance Acord, Park Pictures’ co-founder, concurred. “I love watching Tom’s work. There’s purity in each film, which leaves a lasting impression. Nothing feels forced or contrived. Tom has an innate ability and great talent for storytelling.”
Tagholm said he was drawn to Park Pictures by the work of its directors as well as the personal affinity he developed for Acord, Bisbee and Stephen Brierley, exec producer at Park Pictures, London.
Review: Director Morgan Neville’s “Piece by Piece”
A movie documentary that uses only Lego pieces might seem an unconventional choice. When that documentary is about renowned musician-producer Pharrell Williams, it's actually sort of on-brand.
"Piece by Piece" is a bright, clever song-filled biopic that pretends it's a behind-the-scenes documentary using small plastic bricks, angles and curves to celebrate an artist known for his quirky soul. It is deep and surreal and often adorable. Is it high concept or low? Like Williams, it's a bit of both.
Director Morgan Neville — who has gotten more and more experimental exploring other celebrity lives like Fred Rogers in "Won't You Be My Neighbor?,""Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain" and "Steve! (Martin): A Documentary in Two Pieces" — this time uses real interviews but masks them under little Lego figurines with animated faces. Call this one a documentary in a million pieces.
The filmmakers try to explain their device — "What if nothing is real? What if life is like a Lego set?" Williams says at the beginning — but it's very tenuous. Just submit and enjoy the ride of a poor kid from Virginia Beach, Virginia, who rose to dominate music and become a creative director at Louis Vuitton.
Williams, by his own admission, is a little detached, a little odd. Music triggers colors in his brain — he has synesthesia, beautifully portrayed here — and it's his forward-looking musical brain that will make him a star, first as part of the producing team The Neptunes and then as an in-demand solo producer and songwriter.
There are highs and lows and then highs again. A verse Williams wrote for "Rump Shaker" by Wreckx-N-Effect when he was making a living selling beats would lead to superstars demanding to work with him and partner... Read More