The creative industries love new blood. The fountain of youthful talent seems to have a mystical allure. But let’s get real. What does the next generation of directors bring, what don’t they, what do they need in order to develop, and what is the future of directing and direction? The Stable asked five directors with first-hand experience.
Jonathan Kneebone, co-founder and creative partner, The Glue Society
Finding The Next Generation of Directors
It’s an extraordinary time to be involved in the filmic arts. Because we are surrounded by screens of every size and we literally can’t take our eyes off them. Competing for our attention are days-worth of drama, hours-worth of movies, minutes-worth of YouTube, seconds-worth of TikTok and fractions of a second-worth of advertising, which most of us choose to ignore as soon as we get wind of it.
All of them require some level of direction. And each format requires a different approach to storytelling. The fascinating thing about commercial filmmaking is that it requires a combination of being able to create or direct a narrative, making it impossible to ignore, while at the same time making it uniquely relevant and representative of a particular brand voice.
Most influencers on social platforms – many of whom write, star in, edit and direct their own material – tend to be only interested in ensuring you pay attention to they themselves. It’s not essential for it to lead you anywhere in particular, as long as you come back for more.But advertising requires an ability to take the audience somewhere new, change your perspective or build to something that hits a nerve.
Directing to engage someone and force them into action of some kind is something that takes a certain amount of intent. It doesn’t happen by accident. More often than not it happens by experiment. And it’s not something that frankly everyone is interested in being any good at. So while the new young content creators are incredibly productive, they may not be what the industry needs right now.
Funnily enough, the flipside is true. Many ads made by some very famous and experienced cinema directors – from Terry Gilliam to Woody Allen – are actually way less successful than those made by skilful commercial directors. (And vice versa. It is a rare ad director who makes a particularly great movie.)
Then again, there are those – like Kim Gehrig, Spike Jonze, Andreas Nilsson – who manage not only to make great advertising – original, engaging and purposeful – but also who do so in a way that only they could have done. Their voice and approach is that unique, well-honed and present. And these are the people we need to make our industry better.
Finding new directors who inherently have this ability is impossible. The trick is to find and encourage people who know this is what they want to do. People who are driven with this one vision and who won’t take no for an answer.
Can it be trained, learned or passed on? Possibly. But I would say that unless you have it in you to being with – and are happy to work harder, fail harder and dream harder, this is not something everyone can or should attempt.
Because one thing is for sure. No-one will give you a gig – trusting you with their idea – if you are simply pretending this is what you are interested in.
Oliver Lawrance, executive producer, Photoplay
Is the next generation of directors going to be any different from its predecessors? I feel what makes a great director hasn’t changed at its core. Directing is still about being a good cinematic storyteller with a particular point of view, and importantly directors need to be very good decision makers too. Beyond all else, it was and always will be, an unquenchable thirst to tell a compelling story and to connect with an audience.
It’s having a vision. But like an orchestra conductor, surrounding yourself with the best of teams and leading them to help you execute your vision. It takes a decisive quality to know what you want to tell your story. Directors are asked to chose between A and B constantly on set. It’s also a love of craft. Collaborating with technicians and crafts people to come together under the pressure of time and money to produce a film. When all goes well it is 1 + 1 = 3.
However, it’s the landscape that we are playing in that is ever-changing and brings its challenges for the next generation and their craft. They have to navigate a more complex ecosystem, saturated with comms, social media, gaming, AR and the Metaverse (yep, I also don’t know what that fully means). They will have to do what they do and do it even better, to cut through the noise to create fresh work that people want to see.
The next generation of directors is also bringing whole new skillsets we didn’t imagine before. Hybrid skills that add to their offering as a director. Directors who can move seamlessly between filmmaking and photography, like Sarah Adamson:
Directors who design every detail of their sets, like RBG6:
Or like to do their own edit and post, like Dropbear:
The next generation is also bringing more diversity but we still have a long way to go. The inclusion of more diverse voices, so that we can truly connect with all audiences, leaving no one behind. Photoplay has proudly always been an advocate for Free the Bid and gender equality in the industry for years, particularly in directing which is still so male dominated. We also work tirelessly to have diversity represented on our roster – across gender, race, sexuality & ability. But we need to do more. We need more indigenous voices and more directors from less privileged socio-economic backgrounds.
I think the future of directing is pretty damn exciting – we’re seeing new voices and styles rise up — sure it’s the same storytelling qualities at the heart of directing yet with their own unique style and often with hybrid skillsets not seen before. Directors now come from more diverse backgrounds, but we’re only seeing the first waves of this big and well overdue change.
Edward Pontifex, Managing Director, Sweetshop Australia
It’s always a thrill to watch a director discover and refine their voice. At Sweetshop, we look for talent whose perspective is unique to them. How they tell a story, see the world, find and cast their talent. We want to be able to look at the work of a director and see them in it. It’s so important for us to cultivate a range of different directing talent on our roster so we can offer agencies and brands diverse styles. We’ve recently signed three very special and very different “next generation” directors:
and Jared Daperis:
Each of them has such a unique point-of-view, a voice, approach, tone and style.
What they bring? A world view. If we don’t constantly infuse our industry with fresh new voices and new blood, we will stop being relevant and stop progressing. These new directors have the ability to build a landscape that more closely reflects the diversity of the real world. There are so many incredible conversations happening at the moment around amplifying the voices of women and minorities talent in our business, and many of these voices belong to young directors looking for their first opportunity. Clear-eyed, open-hearted storytelling is also a strength we need more of on screens.
What they need in order to develop? More than anything, mentorship. We cannot expect someone to be both a talented filmmaker and also understand the different shades of commercial advertising.
To truly develop the next generation of great voices, production companies are responsible for actually nurturing the talent. There has to be a strategy for every new director that a company signs, or the “signing” is actually a detriment. It’s very competitive out there, and advertising is a people business. Filmmaking is obviously hugely important, but the directing talent must also align themselves with the right company who helps them choose the right scripts, to be engaging on conference calls, to put a killer treatment together and to present it, to know how to get their vision across, while incorporating that of the agency and client. And then combine this with how to be unique. Young directors need to think about what they offer this saturated market and how it is something new and exciting.
It’s a delicate dance to master and emerging directors need our support with it.
The future of directing and direction. Our industry is about innovation, creativity and culture, and unless we invest in finding, nurturing and working with young directors, we will not evolve. Programmes that help directing talent break in the industry that give them the paths to get noticed in the first place are hugely important – The Young Director’s Awards (YDA), RARE by Google, mentoring programmes through festivals like the LIAs and D&AD. And then of course our own homegrown talent. One of our most successful directors at Sweetshop started as a DA. The rest is history.
Anna Fawcett, executive producer, Filmgraphics
What a new director needs:
“The book is better than the film”.
Directors used to get chosen on their reels and usually after a phone call with the agency to ensure that everyone was on the same page. Now directors are chosen on their treatments in a lot of cases. So, a director needs to be a good writer (or hire one). And at times is required to fix scripts that are not written to budget, over length or don’t make sense.
A problem solver.
“Everyone wants to be a director”
When I first started in this business, a director was selected for the magic they would bring to the idea and in the most part left alone to do it. Now it feels like everyone wants to direct, and notes are sent from various departments on many aspects of a production. Of course, there has to be input but I think the best results are always if the director is in charge and has understood the brief given by agency and client. And follows through the job until completion.
A patient human.
“He who has the most toys wins”
With the advancement of technology, the tools available to the director are immense. So a director needs to differentiate the smart ones from the gimmicks and learn how to apply them to certain productions in order to get shots they couldn’t have achieved in the past without spending a whole lot of money.
A Technophile (or ask someone)
“$50,000 is the new $500,000”
With so many new platforms, a director needs to not only be able to shoot the TVC, but cover the social/digital and content. So a lot more is expected from them in a day. For the jobs that we used to get two days to shoot, we now get one. The director needs to shoot faster, with less crew and equipment to ensure the money goes further. At times this doesn’t allow for the spontaneity or magic that a director with more time could bring to a project.
A miracle worker
“The Future – Diversify”
Directors need support and mentors in order to develop their craft. The smaller jobs that agencies are doing in house, they used to give to up and coming young directors in production companies. I think directors now need to diversify, and not just rely on the advertising business for their work. They need to find clients themselves. We have a new business model where directors are freelance and can work wherever they can find the work, not exclusive to one particular company.
A self-starter
Gijs Determeijer, co-founder and executive producer, Halal Amsterdam
It feels like the sky’s the limit these days. Or maybe even the stars. The latest generation of makers grew up in a totally digital world where everything you can imagine is found at your fingertips – and can be repurposed for your own creative vision. And that shows.
Young talent today don’t need schools or traditional education anymore. It’s all about being self-taught. They know how to make it, how to promote it and how to get connected with the right people.
I’d like to spotlight some self-made Dutch directors in this piece.
First of all, Camille Boumans, one of our youngest directors at Halal at a mere 22 (!), is a prime example of all the above. In her second year she quit art school because she was already swamped with directing jobs. She’s one of those rare talents that can do it all, editing, animation, collages and directing, all with impeccable taste. Her most recent project is a film for High Snobiety about the Virgil Abloh collaboration with Mercedes Benz.
A few months ago this super young Dutch guy came out of nowhere and directed an A$AP Ant/A$AP Rocky music video in New York. Geerten Harmens (editor/director/creative director) talked his way into a US production company called Blank Square and convinced them to do the creative direction on a Lil Wayne/Cordae video, and then took it to another level for A$AP making the best use of AI-generated visuals to create a druggy vibe, better than a DMT trip.
I am also a huge fan of Sheila Janet Pinas, or @Butterscotsh_isle on Instagram. She is creating these dreamy eighties-inspired worlds that bring back a young Grace Jones. Like Nadia Lee Cohen she uses herself as a model as well, taking power in her own hands. Her photos are so eye-catching that recently Kanye has started following her.
Last but not least, our latest addition to our roster at Halal is Yousef, who is 26, and from Manchester in the UK. Another director who can do a lot of different things, specialising in absurd comedy with great VFX. I spotted him first at the Young Directors Award with an insane music video called Braindead. After that he made a dream commercial for Old Spice with Wieden in London. We’re shooting our first campaign with him next week, which will hopefully bring his weirdness to life in Amsterdam.
Keep an eye on these talents.
[Cover image: Devin Avery]
