Sonic Union Directors

After graduating from the San Francisco Art Institute, Lance began his career assisting the photographer Bruce Weber. Lance quickly became one of the industry’s most sought after cinematographers. Lance’s feature DP credits include Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation (BAFTA nomination for Best Cinematography) and Marie Antoinette, Vincent Gallo’s Buffalo 66, Spike Jonze’s Being John Malkovich and Where the Wild Things Are, and, most recently, John Slattery’s God’s Pocket. He seamlessly transitioned into directing, working with clients such as Nike, Bank of America, and the NBA. Lance has won Gold Cannes Lions for his work with Nike, Adidas, and VW. He was nominated as Best Commercial Director by the DGA in 2003, 2011 and 2012. His 2011 Super Bowl spot for Volkswagen, “The Force”, became the undisputed highlight of the Super Bowl broadcast and went viral, with over 36 million views on YouTube to date. “The Force” was also named the best ad of 2011 by AdWeek, Creativity, and YouTube, and ranks on multiple lists of the greatest Super Bowl ads of all time. His Nike “Jogger” spot was nominated for a 2013 Emmy for Outstanding Commercial and named the best spot of 2012 by Creativity. Lance’s P&G “Pick Them Back Up”, which aired during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, won a Gold Lion for Direction at the 2014 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and his Apple “Misunderstood” won the 2014 Emmy for Outstanding Commercial. More recently, Lance directed Apple’s follow up holiday spot, “The Song” and GE “The Boy Who Beeps”, which won Bronze for Direction at the 2015 Cannes Lions.

I?m very interested in films and stories in which reality and absurdity cross. Luis Bunuel, David Lynch, Jean Luc Godard, Hal Ashby, Robert Altman among others have mastered this in a way that I?ve always found inspiring.
I?m interested in talented people with little ambition, loudmouths and boot-strappers. I like human beings with contradictions and families with deeply flawed infrastructure. Cornerstones of great stories for centuries, they?re inherently funny, and interesting ? I?m thankful for all of them.

Martin Campbell knows how to entertain an audience when he steps behind the camera. When he directed ‘The Mask of Zorro’ in 1998, the movie earned Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations and launched the international careers of Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta- Jones. Campbell is credited with rejuvenating the James Bond franchise when he directed Golden Eye in 1995, which was Pierce Brosnan’s first outing as the famed British spy. He then repeated the magic when he directed Daniel Craig’s debut Bond feature, ‘Casino Royale’. For his work on Edge of Darkness, a five hour BBC mini-series about nuclear contamination in England, he won six BAFTA awards.

Commercial work includes campaigns for Lenovo, Sharp, FedEx, Ford, and most recently Mont Blanc and Jaguar. 

Omri Cohen is among today’s most prolific young directors. He first burst onto the directing scene in 2007 with his Red Hot Chili Peppers’ video “Charlie,” made for a YouTube contest, which promptly landed him a meeting with Anthony Kiedes, who loved it.
Cohen kicked off his commercial career in 2011 with the heralded Nike “Yards” spot for the World Cup of Cricket via JWT Bangalore. Filmed on the streets of Bombay, “Yards” earned a Bronze Abby at Goafest India and Cohen recognition in SHOOT’s prestigious New Directors Showcase. Characterized by a similar anticipatory and anthemic spirit is Cohen’s “March to 48 Kickoff,” the first commercial in Pepsi’s “Are You Fan Enough” campaign via TBWA/Chiat/Day, which broke on NFL opening day.

Cohen is a versatile filmmaker whose style is not singular, but rather driven by what best reflects the idea while conveying the subtleties of human nature. He shot up the ranks quickly, directing spots for multi-national brands like Nike and Amazon. His Nike “Los Fearless” campaign documents the routines of star athletes, while his filmmaking suggests the broader influence of neighborhood cultures on their successes. For Amazon, Cohen captured a raw realism with portrait-like glimpses of people using their Kindles.

Recently, Cohen has directed commercial projects for top-tier brands including Reebok, Microsoft, Google, Verizon, Comcast, USPS, and a Puma campaign starring Olympian sprinter Usain Bolt shot in Jamaica.

Cohen is based in Los Angeles, but spends the majority of his time shooting in different cities around the world. 

Martin hails from Denmark where he graduated from the National Film School.

In 2007 he directed the 25min short ‘We Who Stayed Behind’ and the 45min ‘Young Man Falling’, the latter of which was selected for the Critics Week in Cannes. His commercial for IKEA won ‘Best Direction’ at the Creative Circle Awards in 2008 and he has since then won numerous awards including ‘Best Director’ at the 2009 MVA´s and several D&AD Pencils among other awards for his poetic and dynamic work. 

Michael Downing started directing as a small child, when he used to tell his friends what game they were going to play and how it would end. He later studied acting and started his own small theatre company. He graduated from the American Film Institute and won a student Academy Award for his graduating short film, entitled Fine. His first American commercial was a Bud Light Super Bowl spot entitled Skydiver, which is still one of the most popular Super Bowl spots ever. 

Awards:

Pencil

Bronze Lion

AICP award

Student Academy Award

Bessie - Canadian advertising award

Porsche racing - first place in Southern California event

My hot wife

A second place soccer trophy for some league in Los Angeles when I was a kid and no-one else really played soccer in North America

Junior basketball champs when in high school 

Tim Godsall is an internationally acclaimed commercial director known for his offbeat brand of dialogue- and performance-driven comedy.
Godsall has helmed high-profile work for international brands like Axe, Old Spice, Southern Comfort, ESPN, FedEx and XBOX, among many others. A profile in Shots described his work as among “the funniest, quirkiest, and downright oddest commercials of the past decade…[which] helped reshape American TV advertising.”
An expert of visual storytelling, Godsall is the recipient of over two-dozen Cannes Lions, various Clios, Andys, BTAAs, as well as a DGA nomination, leading him to be named one of the world’s most awarded commercial directors by the 2013 Gunn Report.
Godsall started his commercial career at Epoch Films, and then spent a decade at Biscuit Filmworks LA before signing with Anonymous Content in 2014 for commercial representation in the US, UK and Europe. The signing grew out of a relationship that developed while Anonymous produced Godsall’s upcoming feature film debut, Len and Company. The film centers on Len Black (Rhys Ifans), a successful but miserable music producer who flees to his house in Upstate New York to start a period of self-imposed exile, only to have his solitude shattered by his estranged son (Jack Kilmer) and the pop sensation (Juno Temple) he has created.

Godsall grew up in Canada, and has since lived in Toronto, New York and Los Angeles, shooting commercials over the last decade across five continents. He is the proud father of a 5 year-old son, who can build Lego sets that the box clearly states are best suited for kids 8 

Jared was born and raised in Kansas and Idaho, and traveled extensively around the world before University. There he met his wife, Jerusha who would become his screenwriting partner. Knowing that he loved film and wanted to make it his career, Jared worked through almost every position within the camera department before writing and directing the screenplay that would become Napoleon Dynamite.

The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and was acquired by Fox Searchlight Pictures and Paramount Pictures in association with MTV Films and has since developed a cult following spawning a slew of merchandise from refrigerator magnets to T-shirts to Halloween costumes, as well as the wildly popular “Vote for Pedro” t-shirts. Entertainment Weekly placed Napoleon as #88 on its 2010 list of The 100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years, saying “A high school misfit found a sweet spot, tapping into our inner dork.” The film also had a recent cartoon spinoff written by Jared and Jerusha which recently screened on E4 in the UK and is available on the iTunes store.

Jared’s second movie was Nacho Libre, starring Jack Black, followed by Gentlemen Broncos, starring Sam Rockwell and Jemaine Clement, both of which he co-wrote as well. Jared also directed the music video for his friend Ben Gibbard’s band. The Postal Service’s third single, We Will Become Silhouettes and The Killers’ fifth annual Christmas Charity single, Boots. 

Jim Jenkins has a reputation for being one of the industry’s premier comedy directors, as well as one of its best visual storytellers. He has a particular knack for creating work that gets remembered. When Jim shot Martin Scorsese for the second time (in what turned out to be a Cannes Gold Lion-winning commercial for BBDO and AT&T), Scorsese told him that more people repeat lines to him from their first collaboration for American Express than they do from Scorsese’s own movies. Jim found this to be profoundly sad, believing that Goodfellas should probably have more cultural impact than a 30-second commercial. And more recently, Jim’s “Week of Greatness-All is Right” commercial for Foot Locker went viral for its hilarious take on all being made right (at least for one week) in the world of sports—for instance, Mike Tyson humbly returns Evander Holyfield’s ear, and Dennis Rodman buys a one-way ticket to North Korea, never to return. In addition to AmEx, AT&T and Foot Locker, Jim has filmed for such clients as Snickers with three popular back-to-back Super Bowl spots: “Brady Bunch” (2015), “Marilyn” (2016) and the brand’s first live Super Bowl commercial in 2017 featuring Adam Driver. Jim directed Wieden + Kennedy New York’s “Famous Among Friends” campaign for Bud Light. The comedic campaign kicked off with “Between Friends” and includes “The Hero’s Return,” “Vendor,” “Banquet,” “Ye Olde Pep Talk” and others. The spots introduced the now trending “Dilly Dilly” toast into the conversation – Bud Light says there are 100,000 Google searches and 45,000 YouTube searches a week on the phrase. Other clients include Bud Light, Coke, BMW, FedEx, Virgin Atlantic, Land Rover, NFL, American Airlines, Sony and dozens more. Jim has been a Director’s Guild (DGA) nominee for Outstanding Commercial Director, and his work has won multiple D&AD awards, CLIOS and One Show Pencils, as well as AICP honors and Cannes Lions. Both Campaign and Creativity have named him one of the industry’s top directors.

Mike began his career at Kirshenbaum & Bond in NYC, where he simultaneously tried this hand in both the advertising and entertainment industries, writing taglines for several feature films including Boogie Nights, Happiness and The Avengers.

This 3-year period culminated just before leaving K&B when he (along with former creative partner Tom Kuntz) were featured in VARIETY Magazine's "Gotham 50" of 1998, which recognized the top fifty New Yorkers to watch in the entertainment industry in the coming year.

From there, Maguire went on to MTV to become writer/director where he produced hundreds of commercials for shows - most notably, the MTV Video Awards featuring Ben Stiller, The Wu-Tang Clan, Madonna, Marilyn Manson & Dave Grohl of The Foo Fighters, as well as the MTV Movie Awards featuring Samuel Jackson - which gained considerable national and international attention.

Based on the success of his work at MTV, Maguire decided to pursue directing full-time, joining Propaganda Films in 1999 and MJZ in 2001. To date, he has directed a number of well-known commercials for brands such as BUDWEISER, FOX SPORTS, NIKE and VOLKSWAGON, to name just a few.

He has also worked on music video projects, in particular; the acclaimed "Frontier Psychiatrist" video for The Avalanches, which was one of 3 finalists for BEST VIDEO OF THE YEAR at the CAD's (the U.K.'s premier video award show) and "DANGER! HIGH VOLTAGE!" video for Detroit's Electric Six, which features vocals from Jack White of the White Stripes. The song entered the UK charts at #2 and Tom Jones has been quoted as saying that it is his favorite video.

Maguire has received numerous awards for his work, including One Show, Cannes and British D&AD. He has also been featured in Archive Magazine, RES Magazine and Rolling Stone.

Noam Murro is a multi-award winning commercials director. He has been nominated for DGA Director of the Year five times, winning the honor in 2005. His unique style was established in 1994 with a memorable campaign that captured elderly customers in Katz's famous deli on New York City's Lower East Side. This led to documentary-style exposes of tobacco monsters for the California Department of Health as well as lighter work for Fox Sports. The poignant Flatline spot for Toshiba, in which a dying man's life flashes before him, was singled out and applauded by the New York Times.
In 2002, he directed Saturn's Sheet Metal, a conceptually driven spot that was highly critically acclaimed. In 2003, Adcritic.com labeled his Got Milk? commercial as the best spot of the year. It went on to become the winner of a Gold Lion at the 2003 Cannes Lions awards. Murro's campaign for Olympus garnered him a second Gold Lion at the 2005 awards along with a number of Silver and Bronze statues for other commercials. Recently, Creativity Magazine named him as one of the industry's 50 most influential people in the last 20 years. He was also recently named the UK's #1 director by Campaign magazine.
As well as directing, he is also the founder of Biscuit Filmworks. Smart People is his first feature film. 

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Matt began his career as an art director and then moved to copywriting – working at some of the best advertising agencies in the U.S., including a five-year stint at Goodby Silverstein and Partners. His work for Nike, HP, Saturn and Milk received numerous awards, including One Show and CA.

Segueing into directing commercials was a natural next step, so he left the agency world to direct full time in 2003. Matt’s love of storytelling and intuitiveness about performance serve him well in the director’s chair. He recently helmed a humorous campaign for McDonalds for Leo Burnett. Matt has also directed comedic spots for Budweiser, Reebok, MTV, 20th Century Fox, AT&T and Absolut, to note a few.

Matt’s keen sense of observational humour is often attributed to the fact that he was raised by a psychiatrist father and a psychologist mother, a combination he doesn’t recommend.

His new short Hiccup is an outrageously funny tale of the morning after a party gone terribly wrong, it is currently hitting film festivals worldwide. 

2007:
When searching for their dream job, people can spend years dabbling in completely unrelated fields before career epiphany strikes. Director Geordie Stephens' circuitous route to job nirvana began with an earnest stint in film school but the lure of Olympic gold proved too strong. A former division one gymnast, the Marin County, California native's five-hour-a-day training regime didn't bode well when it came to focusing on film theory at night. He eventually quit both, choosing instead to study sculpture and installation art. After realizing that a good living is hard to come by for a struggling artist, Stephens completed his Masters in graphic design at the Rhode Island School of Design, which ushered his transition into advertising. Working as an art director at Miami's Crispin, Porter & Bogusky for three years, he was fascinated with the art of storytelling, which led to instances of backseat directing. He finally took the plunge into the director's chair when Tool of North America co-founder Erich Joiner gave him the opportunity to sign with the company last year. The transition was made easier by Tool's reputation for building ex-creatives, such as Harry Cocciolo and Sean Ehringer, into strong directors, says Stephens, who is also repped by Imported Artists for Canada. His work finds tinges of humor in unexpected situations, such as the environmentally-conscious hitman who ensures that his parcels go to the right places - a dead body into the river and an empty water bottle into recycling - in Keep California Beautiful's "Mobsters." But the mark of Stephens' dedication to his aesthetic is his ability to get the laugh, regardless of whether the spot is a big-budget affair with grand sets and lavish visual aids, such as Sprint's Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous-esque "Billionaire", or a tightly-shot, lo-fi spot like the gory, urban legend buster "Kidney Thief" for Comcast Ziddio. "There's a lot of broad comedy in American ads, but it's so exciting to do sophisticated humor," he says. "You have to engage in the commercial in order to truly understand its humor, and to look for the nuances as opposed to being hit over the head with the joke."
2009:
Geordie Stephens? non-traditional approach to advertising started in 1994 after he completed a BA and MFA in sculpture, installation art and graphic design. During his 12-year tenure in the advertising world he worked as a graphic designer, art director and creative director, namely at Crispin Porter + Bogusky where he spent three years working on virtually every account. Geordie?s fresh and often unorthodox work for such clients as Burger King, Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Mini Cooper, IKEA, Budweiser, ?Truth,? Sprite and VW has been frequently praised by both the press and a variety of international award shows. His public service-esque approach on Maxim?s ?Endangered Man? was hailed as one of 2005?s most unique campaigns and his interactive work on VW was awarded the Interactive Grand Clio in 2006. Geordie joined Tool in 2006 with the hope of bringing his non-traditional creative philosophy to commercial directing.

During his studies at the Film Academy in Holland, Bart started working as a video assistant to Thed Lenssen.

From moving cables, working as a production assistant and doing video assist, Bart quickly started to direct commercials. Bart’s professional growth to leading commercial director went hand in hand with the development of the most talked-about creative teams of The Netherlands.

Bart’s strength in his storytelling is his extreme attention to detail, his timing and his humor. This, combined with a big talent for directing actors, makes him one of the best directors that The Netherlands have to offer. 

Director Raf Wathion (°1966) studied animation at the SHIVKV in Genk, Belgium. He started out making eye catching and original idents (both as an animator and director) for Belgian TV shows and channels. In 1988 he took his first steps directing commercials and quickly became a valued member of the Belgian commercial scene. From the very beginning he chose to focus on graphically strong, visual work, winning him a CCB silver award for his remarkable public service film ‘Sleeping Pills’. In 2000, Raf combined this passion for music and visuals, and went on directing pop promo’s. He, very soon, found himself working for major Belgian Bands and labels (Millionaire, Praga Khan, Hooverphonic, Ozark Henry, Zita Swoon, Buscemi Massis,,... ). In 2005, after taking a year out to make a trip around the world, he was launched on the US market and has since worked for several international clients, delivering high standard visual work. In 2008, he decided to join Czar. The stunning stop motion commercial he did for Electrabel won him the APPE award for best European spot and the Best Direction award at the 2009 CCB awards (Creative Club of Belgium). In 2011 Raf won another CCB award for Best Direction with the ‘Crash’ campaign for Samsonite. In 2013 he directed an animated short DAY_6001 which premiered at Leuven International Short Film Festival. Right after ‘Milk a force of Nature’, a CGI animated spot won on several awards in 2014. His no-nonsense and down-to-earth attitude, combined with his experience and always keeping an open mind to new ideas and techniques, makes Raf a more than valued Belgian director.