Welcome to the Special Spring 2018 Edition of SHOOT’s Directors Series. Our mix of profiles includes Luca Guadagnino whose Call Me by Your Name landed four Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture, and Bryan Fogel who won the Best Documentary Feature Oscar for Icarus. Both filmmakers also have production company affiliations for commercials and branded content—Little Minx for Guadagnino, and Supply&Demand for Fogel.

On the spotmaking front, we profile Martin de Thurah of Epoch Films who recently won the DGA Award as Best Commercial Director of the Year. And then there’s the prolific spot and music video duo, Dom&Nic, who are handled in the U.S. by Station Film and in the U.K. by Outsider.

Another ad artisan, director DeMane Davis—who is repped by Sweet Rickey—now finds herself committed to another discipline for the next six months or so as producing director for season three of Queen Sugar, Ava DuVernay’s acclaimed primetime series on Oprah Winfrey’s network OWN. 

We also connect with accomplished narrative filmmaker Rebecca Miller who’s made her first foray into the documentary discipline with a personal, eye-opening look into the life of her father, the late, legendary playwright Arthur Miller. 

Rounding out our profiles lineup are two filmmakers who have scored on this year’s festival circuit. Alison Klayman with Take Your Pills, a documentary which premiered at SXSW; and Rudy Valdez whose feature directorial debut The Sentence won the U.S. Documentary Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Klayman’s roost for commercials and branded fare is Washington Square Films while Valdez has come aboard the spotmaking roster of Park Pictures.

Meanwhile our ensemble of up-and-coming talent consists of a skate video filmmaker who just made a major breakthrough at Sundance; a director who established herself in London, has turned out some initial notable U.S. campaign work and is just taking on her first representation in the American ad market; a prolific music video director who has since diversified into commercials, branded content and shorts; and a helmer whose work in fashion, music and dance has struck a responsive chord with brands and audiences.

SHOOT also delves into Leading Producers, gleaning insights from Peter Spears, a first-time producer who became a Best Picture Oscar nominee for Call Me by Your Name; Alison Benson, EP of HBO’s Divorce; Ken Biller, EP of Genius, covering season 1 on Albert Einstein and the much anticipated season 2 on Pablo Picasso; Mike Medavoy, EP of the limited series The Long Road Home; and Jane Root, who’s teaming with Darren Aronofsky to produce the docuseries One Strange Rock.

And then in our Cinematographers & Cameras Series, we meet three DPs—one who recently won his first ASC Award on the strength of The Crown; another who lensed Strong Island, nominated for this year’s Best Documentary Feature Oscar; and a lenser whose career was launched by David Fincher with the Netflix series Mindhunter, which in turn has opened up new spot opportunities.

Director Profiles:
DeMane Davis
Martin de Thurah    
Dom& Nic    
Bryan Fogel    
Luca Guadagnino    
Alison Klayman    
Rebecca Miller    
Rudy Valdez   

Features:
Up-and-Coming Directors: Springing Forward With New Talent
Leading Producers Fresh Produce: Perspectives on Film, TV
Cinematographers & Cameras: Insights into The Crown, Strong Island, Mindhunter, Spots