Avion signs U.S. feature director

It’s a one-way street from commercials to long-form film projects for many directors, but Randa Haines is flaunting the traditional rite of passage.

The u.s. director of Children of a Lesser God, The Doctor and Wrestling Ernest Hemingway fame, came up to shoot her first Canadian commercial a couple of weeks ago through McCann-Erickson and Avion Films.

At a small industry gathering hosted by Avion, Haines explained why an Oscar-nominated, Emmy Award-winning director would want to take time out from developing her latest film to do a 60-second project.

Unlike features, which require your soul for years at a time, commercials are an intense but blissfully short directing experience in which you can tell a great story, says Haines. Her first block of spots, for a New England telephone company, was a series about a father and daughter who aren’t speaking to each other, but begin making up over the phone. The commercial she filmed at the end of March had an equally compelling story line, she says.

Party talk moved to what it was like working with Hollywood’s elite, including Richard Harris and Shirley MacLaine, who starred in Wrestling Ernest Hemingway.

Harris was a gem, Haines says. One of their first meetings took place in a New York restaurant after she had sent Harris the script. Through the wall-to-wall crowd, Haines picked him out and was heading across the floor towards him, when he saw her. Leaping to his feet, Harris began waving the bound pages in the air and yelling ‘Great F*%^$#* script!,’ as she came towards the table. ‘I thought, that’s the guy I want,’ says Haines.

Although this is her first Canadian commercial, it’s not Haines’ first Canadian shoot. Children of a Lesser God was filmed in the Maritimes during the fall, the first time she had seen a Canadian autumn up close. She was amazed, although less so than her Australian cameraman who repeatedly asked in preprep if the scenes they were constructing were really how the landscape looked.

Haines isn’t sure if all Canadians live up to their reputation as the nicest people on the planet, but says everyone she’s worked with north of the border has been terrific.

Having left for a vacation in Italy right after the shoot wrapped up, she’ll be returning to the 20th Century Fox lot to continue casting her next movie, Dance-o-Rama. Brad Pitt is reading for the part and may wind up shaking a tail feather on the big screen.

Darling Buds of May

‘This one’s for you’ took on new meaning for Karen Silver and Susan Neill at The Artists Company a week ago when the call came in from Bozell Palmer Bonner telling them that director Steven Ramser had won the coveted Budweiser project.

Up against formidable competition from The Partners’ Film Company and Radke Films, among others, Ramser took the competition after a bidding process that lasted several weeks.

Produced by bpb’s Libby Barrett, the four-day shoot will be Ramser’s first spot for the Canadian market. He’s a hot young director based out of The Artists Company in l.a. with some edgy spots for Nike under his belt.

Shooting for Budweiser will begin April 24 in Arizona, with the spot set for national release in Canada mid-May.

Young blood

There are encouraging signs popping up in commercial production circles that suggest the industry is starting to do something about developing new talent.

The Richard Radke Memorial Apprenticeship program, announced recently in memory of the commercial director who died last year, will bring two new faces into the business each year. L.T.B. Productions has taken on apprentices and Avion Films has made a strong commitment to aspiring filmmakers through its house and the HooDoo division.

Some of these newcomers are already making the grade, and are adding some vitality to the marketplace. Two who show real promise are Eric Yealland of Partners’ and John Fawcett, who does commercials and music videos out of Avion.

They just went head-to-head for a project for Labatt Breweries, with Round One going to Fawcett.

Talent search launched

and speaking of young talent, Playback’s sibling newspaper Strategy has launched a national talent search in the advertising community in quest of a hot young creative team.

Creatives from across the country have been invited to create a magazine house ad for the Canadian advertising industry. The imaginary ad, or ad campaign, would be aimed at promoting the Canadian community to the international advertising elite at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes.

The team that comes up with the best ad will win a trip to the festival in June. There, the team will compete against other teams from around the world in a special ‘Young Creatives’ print competition. The trip is being sponsored by Canadian Airlines International, Partners’ and Cineplex Odeon.

The Team Canada will be announced in the May 29 issue of Strategy.

Festival organizers have announced a special package for any young creative people (which the festival defines as less than 30 years old) to encourage the next generation of agency stars to attend. In this package, young people are given discounts on hotel rates and delegate fees.

Baby talk

A quick glance at The Players Film Company in-production memo, and one might think Philip Mellows is taking this bringing-young-talent-into-the-business thing a little seriously. ‘Players signs on Cole Bradley Mellows, 8 lbs., 1.5 oz., on Thursday March 9, 1995.’

In other baby news, last fall Word reported that TOPIX Computer Graphics and Animation president Chris Wallace and his wife were expecting a baby in July. They’re not. They’re expecting two.

Script tease

ross McLean says he could spend his whole life reading scripts nowadays; not a bad fate except for the occasional snooze factor.

As the long-form projects the Stripes team production-serviced finish up – Sadness of Sex is almost complete and is crossing its fingers for Cannes entree, and the last Picture Windows segment is being cut and response to the segments shipped has been uniformly favorable – lots of new projects are waiting in the wings.

One movie that is probably a go is Cybertech P.D., starring Lorenzo Lamas. Producer David Lancaster and director Rick King approached Partners’ to provide production services on the project, which is slated for a Toronto location shoot with an immediate start date.

Others who have approached the commercial shop interested in their production package include director Bruce McDonald, and some folks (names undisclosed) from the u.s. with a pack of tv movies. The curious thing about this flood of interest that ranges from major u.s nets to independents, is that it isn’t being pursued by Partners’. ‘It just comes here,’ says a bemused, but pleased, McLean.

While commercials will remain at the core of Partners’ biz, the company is delighted to fill in the holes in the slate with mows, features and miniseries, but draws the line at series: ‘They’re too drainingÉ’