Brian BeleticComing out of the shed
By Christine Champagne
March 28, 2008 -- Brian Beletic recently wrapped a major Nike "Just Do It"-themed commercial for Wieden + Kennedy (W+K), Portland, Ore., featuring many of the company's all-star roster of athletes, and while he has done Nike jobs before, this one was particularly rewarding because it marked the director's return to spots after he spent nearly a year cloistered in a Hollywood studio working on—or, more accurately, eating, sleeping and breathing—HoneyShed.

Frank BudgenReflections on DGA nomination, Sundance
By Robert Goldrich
March 28, 2008 -- For a director who quips that he has spent some 80 percent of his time over the past five years working on feature film projects that haven't happened yet, Frank Budgen has managed to accomplish quite a bit, particularly in the commercialmaking sector. For eight of the past nine years, he has placed in the upper echelon of most awarded directors per the annual Gunn Report. And to kick off 2008, he added another honor to his resumé, his first career nomination for a Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award as best commercial director of the year ('07).

Mathew CullenMeshing disciplines
By Christine Champagne
March 28, 2008 -- From a young age, Mathew Cullen, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, aspired to be a director. But he didn't necessarily see himself falling into a rigid category like live-action director or animation director. Rather, he wanted to do, well, everything, so he covered all the bases when he attended Los Angeles' Loyola Marymount University, studying design, animation and filmmaking.

Nicolai FuglsigFinally, a sense of satisfaction
By Robert Goldrich
March 28, 2008 -- Nicolai Fuglsig of bicoastal/international MJZ sets the bar high for himself. When he was profiled in our Directors Series in 2006, a year during which the Sony Bravia "Balls" spot he directed for Fallon, London, had picked up the last of some three dozen industry awards, Fuglsig felt he didn't deserve to be written up in SHOOT in that he hadn't yet progressed as much as he had hoped to in the American ad market.

Lauren GreenfieldFinding meaning in advertising
By Millie Takaki
March 28, 2008 -- An acclaimed photographer and chronicler of youth culture, Lauren Greenfield has successfully diversified into short and long-form filmmaking. Her latest directorial inroads have been made in commercials via bicoastal/international production house Chelsea Pictures. But her story is far more involved than making the transition from still shooting to spotmaking...

Daniel KleinmanSpecial Delivery Stateside
By Robert Goldrich
March 28, 2008 -- Among director Daniel Kleinman's latest spots is HBO's "Stork" for BBDO New York in which we see a stork carrying a little bundle of joy, enduring inclement weather and even a confrontation with ravenous wolves during the course of a long, arduous journey. Indeed the stork offers more than just the gift of flight. He nurtures and protects the baby before finally delivering the infant safely at the doorstep of a home where loving parents await. Kleinman helmed "Stork" via Rattling Stick, the London production house that he and director Ringan Ledwidge formed nearly two years ago.

Martin KrejciLessons from the workship
By Millie Takaki
March 28, 2008 -- The centerpiece of an ambitious adidas campaign out of 180 Amsterdam is clearly the three-minute stop motion animation web film Adi Dassler, from which has been culled both cinema and broadcast commercials. Sans any experience in animation, Martin Krejci of Stink, London, became what on the surface seemed a curious directorial choice for Adi Dassler. But not for 180 executive producer Cedric Gairard who cited Krejci's collaborative nature--not only with the agency and The Animation Studio, Prague, but with other Stink directors--namely James Brown, Ben Dawkins and Henry-Alex Rubin--who worked on other shorts in the adidas campaign.

Francis LawrenceSlated for June return to spots
By Christine Champagne
March 28, 2008 -- While many commercial and music video directors spend their careers jumping ship, chasing new and better production company affiliations, Francis Lawrence has maintained a uniquely stable existence. In fact, he has been with Hollywood's DNA (David Naylor and Associates) for all of a more than 10-year career. Lawrence, who grew up in the San Fernando Valley and studied filmmaking at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, remembers sending his reel, which consisted of music videos he had shot with a friend, to DNA...

Noam MurroLearning from Smart People
By Robert Goldrich
March 28, 2008 -- It's already been an eventful year for director Noam Murro of Los Angeles-based Biscuit Filmworks. To kick off 2008, he was nominated for the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award as best commercial director of 2007 on the basis of Volkswagen Golf's "Night Drive" for DDB London, Orbit Gum's "Affair" from Energy BBDO, Chicago, and the National Basketball Association's "Remember" via Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco.

Baker SmithFrom Dust to Golden Slience
By Robert Goldrich
March 28, 2008 -- On its seventh year anniversary a couple of weeks ago, harvest, the Santa Monica shop formed by director Baker Smith and executive producer Bonnie Goldfarb, debuted a Smith-helmed short film, Dust, which opened the currently running art exhibit of Ethan Murrow at the Obsolete Gallery in Venice, Calif.