How many creative people get a rap like the one below from a client? Playtime’s new signing, Stef Smith, has. It comes from Young Henry’s:
“We’re stoked at the reception of our Lady Beer ad. We’ve received a lot of virtual pats on the back and a lot of ‘well done lads’. Which is great, but really that support should be channelled directly to the team of “lady creatives” who really owned this project. Here we meet just one of the awesome women behind the ad – uber-talented director, Stef Smith.”
Here’s the work:
As well as this work, she has directed an observational documentary campaign series for National Disability Services, a mockumentary comedy series for Westpac, an inclusion and diversity campaign for Commonwealth Bank and Rio Tinto, and factual campaigns for Down Syndrome Australia and Family Planning Australia.
Stef Smith
Smith is an accomplished comedy and performance director, where accomplished is, as usual, measured in awards and prestige jobs. She won Best Australian Short Film at the Melbourne Queer Film Festival (MQFF) 2019 and her Smith’s Create NSW and SBS funded short film, Joy Boy, has gone on to win six more awards including Best Director, Best Screenplay and Audience Choice Award at Freshflix, Vivid Sydney 2019. The film has just screened at Palm Springs International Shortfest and is also available at SBS on Demand. Her experience as an actor and voiceover artist has given her a keen instinct for performance direction.
Smith directed the off-the-wall comedy series, The Lost Tapes, for the ABC and Screen Australia as part of its Fresh Blood initiative and and completed a Director’s Attachment for the ABC/Netflix series, The Letdown, for both Series One and Two. She received the 2018 Australian Director’s Guild Commercial and Content Mentorship program and was selected by Create NSW to attend the MIFF Accelerator Director’s Lab and her narrative miniseries, Fish, shortlisted for a Sundance Lab, is currently in development with funding from Create NSW as part of its #SheDirects initiative.
She has most recently finished directing an 11 x half hour episode original narrative series for Audible Originals Australia.
Photoplay executive producer, Oliver Lawrance, commented, “Stef is awesome. Her wit hits you like a brick wall and it comes as no surprise that she’s incredibly talented as a comedy and performance director. She’s already had a pitch in from Wieden+Kennedy Portland and I have no doubt her directing career is going to skyrocket.”
Smith added, “I’m friggin’ elated to be joining the Photoplay and Playtime team. They get me. And I don’t feel ‘got’ a lot. I’m a proud, sci-fi loving dork from the country with pink hair and the mouth of a sailor, and in my guts I love telling stories. Oh and I can sing every word to South Park’s Uncle Fucka.”
View Stef Smith’s directing reel here.