shots AWARDs two New Directors for 2011

In true shots party style the winner of the inaugural shots New Director AWARD 2011 Asia/Pacific was announced at the Blue Hotel on the wharf at Woolloomoolo in Sydney on Tuesday night.

Over 250 key industry figures flew in from across Australia to attend the cocktail party which kicked off Circus the Festival of Creativity which continues in Sydney throughout the week. 

Stephen Carroll from The Otto Empire in Melbourne scooped up the top prize voted in by a panel of international cyber judges including Rattling Stick director Daniel Kleinman, president and executive creative director at BETC Euro RSCG Stephane Xiberras, executive creative director at London’s SapientNitro Malcolm Poynton, Wieden + Kennedy London’s Rob Steiner and Crispin Porter Bogusky’s chief creative officer Rob Reilly.

Danny Kleinman described Carroll’s winning music video for Cordrazine in his judge’s notes as a “great film, moody, nicely lit, a simple concept interestingly developed that fits the song. It has a metaphorical meaning and is surprising.”

shots asked Carroll how the winning music video came about.

“Hamish the lead singer of Cordrazine had told us that the majority of the lyrics for Always Coming Down were written in a chicken coup, early one morning, after a big night. That intrigued us. After chatting to the band we decided we really wanted to shoot something underwater. Visually we felt shooting high speed underwater would work in symbiosis with the weight of the track. We also wanted something that would show the physicality of Hamish, the lead singer. 

“We pitched the idea to the band and they got really excited. What was great is that we managed to pull in favours from crew that we worked with in commercials. This gave us the opportunity to shoot a high concept idea, underwater, without feeling like we were compromised, which is often the case with music clips. We ended up blacking out a state of the art dive pool in Melbourne. We shot on a combination of RED and Canon 5D. 

“One of the major challenges in shooting was communication and fatigue. In hindsight it seems obvious, but the simple act of giving direction to two DPs who are underwater for three hours at a time, is a little difficult. We ended up scribbling stuff down on a white board and submerging it, the DPs who would then 'nod' their cameras when they understood. It was challenging to say the least.

“The fatigue of the two performers was another big factor. It was a six hour shoot, which sounds small, but when you're submerging to five metres every few minutes, it takes its toll. Fortunately, Cassie, the woman that plays the siren character, was an experienced diver and underwater camera assistant. And with Hamish, well we were very lucky that he's a super fit guy, I think if he'd been your average muso he would have lasted ten minutes.” 

Unsigned Shannon Alexander won the shots Student New Director AWARD Asia/Pacific with his test spot for Panasonic which he wrote and directed himself.

Among the 15 finalists the following new directors received special commendations from the cyber judges:

Kiku Ohe, Paola Morabito, Helen Clemens, Lucinda Shreiber, Penny Vozniak and Mark Tintner.

shots would like to thank its partner Emma Daines at Fin Design and Effects for making the whole fabulous event possible. Also thanks to our very erudite MC Jono Coleman who made the night zip along.

Check out our snaps below of the night!