Our Directors

Our Directors

  • Joanna Bailey

    Joanna is a performance-based director with a stunning pictorial aesthetic and strong interest in technically challenging and visual scripts. Brilliant with kids, food, sport, animals, machinery and lots more.

    Joanna began as a documentary maker. Films including Naked Nashville (C4 1998) and the highly acclaimed Geisha (C4 2000, Best doc. Chicago Film Festival) display an extraordinary ability to observe and translate the most unusual stories through beautifully captured imagery. In Joanna's first music video, a George Michael cover of The Police's love letter to the ladies of the night - Roxanne she created a hugely revealing and honest picture of the Amsterdam sex industry working with real prostitutes, their paymasters and clients.

    Humanity and emotion are very much a feature of Joanna's work. Her most recent spot for Cancer Research with AMV was Campaign's Pick of the Week and featured genuine cancer sufferers. Her interest in real people and scenarios can also be seen in her body of work; MacMillan Cancer Support, COI Social Care, The Royal Navy, Public Schools in New York and the compelling Nike documercials - the Dear Mexico series.

    Joanna's distinctive approach has been applied to films for house hold brands such as Hovis, Waitrose, The Abbey, BBC 1 re-brand Kelloggs, Department Of Transport and 3 Mobile. Last year's re-branding of BBC 2 saw Joanna directing more abstract and post heavy pieces, expanding further her range and cross-genre appeal.

    Whilst Joanna loves the intimacy of a documentary -esque spot, she also excels at creating new worlds on a bigger canvas yet still remaining true to her ability of bringing well-observed performances to the project.

  • Daniel Borjesson

    Swedish director Daniel got his first real taste for directing while attending film school in Los Angeles.

    He remained in the US for four years, combining his film school studies with working in the film industry as an assistant director and assistant editor on a variety of projects.

    A return to his homeland invited work as producer on commercials and pop promos offering invaluable experience with many directors, brands and bands.

    However, the desire to direct became too much to suppress and Daniel began directing in 2002 starting in pop promos and moved into commercials a little after that.

    Daniel has quickly built a reputation of being a strong visual director with a great interest in combining storytelling with visual effects, especially with his many spots for T-Mobile. Other campaigns include well-known brands such as Coca Cola, Hugo Boss and Fanta. He has recently directed a stunt -driven spot featuring a hot air balloon for Postbank.

  • Joakim Eliasson

    Interesting, innovative, collaborative, hard working, talented and versatile.

    Joakim's work portrays a wide range of talents, including excellent story-telling, an eclectic visual style and compelling performances be it comedy or drama.

    Major campaigns include Stella Artois, Vodaphone, Electrolux, Volkswagen, Fiat, Miller Genuine Draft and Yellow Pages. His SMS spot tackling cyber-bullying for the Friends charity picked up the top award in Scandinavia whilst his films for Stella Artois were featured in a global campaign to drive people to the website. The latter allowed him to venture further into the realms of CGI and get his teeth into interactive content as beer lovers all round the world tried to "Pull the Perfect Pint".

    Joakim continues to develop a strong reputation for great casting and work featuring kids with campaigns for Persil, Baci, Knorr and The Guardian amongst many others. His gorgeous and logistically challenging spot for the World Wildlife Fund, encouraging people to get involved in the great big switch off, was shot on a Canon 5D stills camera with no additional lights. He is currently working on technically demanding spot for MacDonalds and about to shoot a series of period based films for a brand unable to be disclosed at this time... exciting, eh?!

  • Joseph Bullman

    Joseph's body of documentaries showcases his superb casting, strong performances from real people and brings a captivating hook to any project.

    Born in the East End, Joseph Bullman won a scholarship to study politics, philosophy and Economics at Oxford, did a Masters at the London School of Economics and has gone on to make compellingly explosive and thoughtful documentaries.

    He achieved early fame and acclaim with his absorbing portrait of The Man Who Bought Mustique, a hilarious insight into a Scottish Lord who bought a tiny Caribbean island called Mustique in 1956 and turned it into a sun-drenched playground for the rich and famous. In the late 70s, Lord Glenconner, the "Basil Fawlty" of the Aristocracy ran out of money, lost control of his island and was banished to nearby St. Lucia. This documentary sees him going back to the Island for the first time in ten years.

    Joseph spends a decade living in the States and returns to the UK in 2006. Intrigued by the antisocial behaviour he starts working on Seven Sins of England, which later receives a BAFTA nomination for Best Factual director. Described as a "simple and inspired idea that has been executed with consummate skill" by The Times, Seven Sins depicts some of the finest yobs and slappers of modern day Britain reciting descriptions of loutish behaviour written hundreds of years ago.

    The Enemy Within documentary, which premiered on Channel 4 earlier this month employs a similar technique of using historical material to highlight the dynamic and tensions in today's society. Islamic Fundamentalists play the part of Victorian Anarchists and the results are fascinating and controversial.

  • Betsan Morris Evans

    Betsan is known for her ability to elicit compelling performances and direct sentiment without sentimentality, as well as crafting a visual style unusual in television drama.

    As well as many commercials, her body of work includes award-winning dramas, short films and two features, Dad Savage, a thriller starring Patrick Stewart and the Victorian melodrama Lady Audley's Secret. Betsan's short films have won many awards including a BAFTA for Spoonface Steinberg. She received an Emmy nomination for her work on Waking the Dead starring Trevor Eve, the first and only time a woman has directed this series. She is currently in pre-production on a feature entitled Baker's Dozen about the controversial football game between the Russians and Germans in Kiev in 1943, to be shot in Michigan early next year.

    Whilst Betsan has won several awards for her drama work, recent advertising campaigns have seen her directing real people in testimonial spots with great aplomb. Brilliant at making people feel at ease and letting their true personality shine she has mastered working with non actors and real scenarios.

  • Fred Garson

    Fred began his career with a long and inspiring relationship with Luc Besson, working on Léon, Joan of Arc and The Fifth Element. He also worked as Assistant Director on Beyond the Clouds with Michaelangelo Antonioni and Wim Wenders.

    Luc Besson asked Fred to direct the music video for the title song of 'Taxi' and in the same year, Besson produced Fred's first feature, 'The Dancer'. Fred's innate sense of style and passion for the aesthetic has seen him slip effortlessly into directing beauty commercials. His ability to make everything or everyone look fantastic is an invaluable skill in advertising. Of course, it does help when you're shooting with Kate Moss, of which Fred had the pleasure on three Rimmel spots.

    His particular distinctive visual energy has also seen him direct commercials for a diverse range of well known brands including Nokia, Lenor, Pepsi, Evian and Samsung.

    In Braun's newest global campaign he develops his love for all things visual whilst building on a portfolio of work featuring special effects and underwater shoots. We are particularly excited about his most recent spot for the German fashion house New Yorker which is sexy, clever and visually sumptuous.

    Fred is currently working on two new feature films, one of which is a black comedy and has Julie Delphy attached.

  • Kevin Molony

    Kevin is a talented visual effects director with strong performance skills and whose strength lies in technically challenging scripts.

    Rising to fame as one of The Molotov Brothers, Kevin directed pop promos for the likes of Chaka Kahn, A-Ha and Swing Out Sister, as well as commercials and title sequences for BBC programmes Top of the Pops and The Lenny Henry Show.

    Kevin's first 90 minute improvised comedy drama - "There's no Business" featured an impressive list of British comedians such as Alexander Armstrong, Mark Benton, Steve Frost and Mark Arden, Roland Rivron and Jonathan Ross.

    His 20 min drama Sylvester won the Kodak award at the Los Angeles International Film Festival and also Best Cinematography at the 8th International Film Festival in Granada. Kevin continues to direct a variety of commercials focusing on a high end visual style incorporating seamless post production trickery.

    To date he has picked up numerous awards (Clios/One Show/ BTAA / D&AD/Epica/etc.) in the UK, US and Europe and has directed campaigns for amongst others The UK National Lottery launch, Nike, BMW, Heineken, Toyota, Lion Bar, Playstation, Michelin, Heineken, St.Paul's, O2, The ING group and Lloyds bank. In the last year, Kevin has been working on a variety of personal projects. He is currently working on a co-production with Scottish Screen and Warsaw Film Council.

  • Shona Auerbach

    Shona's multi-award winning film Seven first brought her to the attention of the advertising fraternity, featuring in the New Directors Showcase at Cannes. She was given her first break immediately afterwards by M&C Saatchi with a commercial for Whiskas.

    In 2005 she completed her first feature, Dear Frankie which was enthusiastically received then distributed by Harvey Weinstein at Miramax. It received a ten-minute standing ovation in Cannes, featured at the Edinburgh Festival and the Toronto Film Festival and won the L.A. Audience Award. Shona is currently developing several fillms.

  • Mary Sue Masson

    Mary-Sue is an advertising-creative-turned-director. She specialises in comedy performance and has good experience of working with actors as well as DOP's to create a strong look for her spots.

    She started out life as a graphic designer, found typefaces a little dull so entered the exciting world of advertising as a creative.

    Eight years was enough excitement, so quit to spend a year travelling in India and Asia. She headed back to Blighty to join the BBC. There she spent some time as a creative in Broadcasting before training at Elstree Studios in performance direction.

    After a few years as a promo director for BBC One & BBC Three she left the Beeb to set up Mabel, a writer/directing duo (with Claire Lambert who is a comedy writer and stand-up comedian) Mabel have picked up a number of awards including a D&AD silver, a Gold Lion and several broadcasting awards. They have recently been brought in as creative consultants at the Comedy Channel.

    Mary-Sue lives in the East End of London and only comes up west for special occasions or meetings. She has most recently written and shot virals for Nokia.

  • Pandemic Pictures

    In 2007, TV Producer/Director Charlie Inman and Production Extraordinaire Alex MacIlwaine formed Pandemic Pictures to create viral ads, music videos, documentaries, idents and online content.

    Projects include several films for Jade Jagger, EPK's for features, eg "I want Candy" promotional films for Vivienne Westwood, Diesel, Absolut Vodka, The Goddess Guide, SanDisk, Brahma Beer and The Joe Strummer Charity, Strummerville. They have also worked on advertising campaigns and went behind the scenes for Tango and Mentos with BBH.

    Their most recent collaboration with Jade Jagger made big ripples in the fashion world when she decided to eschew the traditional catwalk fashion show and get Pandemic to showcase her teenage clothing label in a risqué music video.

    Alex's latest music video "My Spy" has been picked by MTV Istanbul for their play list. So whatever you're doing, be it filming an ad, making a feature, putting together a fashion or stage show, Pandemic Pictures can make a great film about it. They write, shoot, direct and edit - from concept to completion.

  • Patrice de Villiers

    Patrice is an exciting food and drink director with a highly attuned visual sensibility.

    She is best known for her glorious photographic work and has won several accolades including the Young Guns Silver Award for Kellogg's (Leo Burnett), the Glenfiddich Award for work with Heston Blumenthal's column in The Sunday Times, the AOP Merit Award and the Design Effectiveness Award through Lewis Moberly. Her food and drink work is among her most recognizable, for a list of blue chip clients including M&S, Sainsbury's and Selfridges.

    Patrice's cosmetic and beauty clients include Max Factor, Proctor & Gamble and Boots. She shoots editorial for Vogue, Telegraph Magazine and Easy Living, portrait work for among others, The Sunday Times, still life work for JWT and editorial still life for Arena magazine and British Airways.

    She has made the move from still image to moving image with enthusiasm and ease, and has already directed inserts for Philadelphia, live action tests for Helmans and Selfridges and most recently, shot eight idents for Qatar Airways.

    She is currently working on a book for the Teenage Cancer Trust which depicts diverse musicians such as veteran Roger Daltrey and Muse alongside their favourite dish in a beautifully crafted, visually sumptous way - De Villers style!

  • Sam Leifer

    Sam is performance-based comedy director with a background in theatre. Having been awarded the Ian Ritchie Prize for Young Theatre Directors it is unsurprising to know he works well with actors and places a great importance in the script and casting.

    His first short film "Book Cover" won the National Student Television Award for Fiction and a Royal Television Society Award. Two more shorts followed, The Unsteady Chough with Terry Jones and The 10th Man, an Ealing-style comedy starring Warren Mitchell, Andrew Sachs and Steven Berkoff. It was produced by Steve Coogan and Henry Normal at Baby Cow. Stuck, a half-hour BBC comedy about two ad execs caught in traffic, went out in Spring '07 whilst the Ford sponsored road-trip sitcom, Where Are The Joneses?, was broadcast online in 5-minute episodes later that year. The Guardian said it was "better than any current TV sit-com" and it won several online awards - IVCA and OMMA.

    Since joining Bare, Sam has directed spots for VW, Maltesers, The Biography Channel, Nivea and Emirates. The latter was an online campaign from Lean Mean Fighting Machine and won Bronze.

    His BBC Three pilot Brave Young Men, which he wrote and directed, starring Marc Wootten and Tom Basden was successfully received earlier this year.

    Most recently, Sam has shot several sponsorship bumpers for McCains and worked again with DDB on their VW Tiguan campaign.

  • Jim Weedon

    Jim is an exciting visual effects director with strong performance and a great visual style.

    Trained as an editor, Jim began his career in music videos. He swiftly progressed into editing features and has a long list of credits, including the Elysian Fields sequences in Gladiator and the title sequence for Hannibal. He broke into commercials soon after and in 2001 was awarded a D&AD Pencil for Outstanding Editing on the Adidas campaign.

    After a suggestion from Sir Ridley Scott, Jim started directing.

    Jim is known for his attention to detail, distinctive visual style and the importance of sound within his work. He won the BBC New Directors Award with his film There Was a Man starring Jessica Stevenson and in 2005 shot The Deal, a short film based on two men thrown together by fate, which featured Lord Of the Rings star Bernard Hill.

    His hard-hitting charity spot for the Motor Neurone Disease Association, won a yellow pencil at the D&ADs, Best Crafted Commercial of 2009 and Best Sound Direction at the British Television Advertising Craft Awards as well as securing various nominations for Best Visual Effects, Best Editing, Best Direction at the BTA Craft, Clios, and Shark Awards. It combines intimate performance with powerful visuals, seamless effects and flawless editing. Other spots in the tele-communication and corporate category have seen him work on a much wider canvas, complete with sweeping landscapes, heavy CGI and a vibrant visual palette.

  • Dan Zeff

    Dan's strengths lie in dialogue driven, performance based and narrative focused scripts.

    He wrote and directed his first film That Sunday in 1994, starring Alan Cumming and Minnie Driver. He then went on to direct Dual Balls and both films were BAFTA nominated. Subsequently Dan went on to win a BAFTA for 'Best Children's Drama' for his next film Coping with Christmas. His first feature 'Jilting Joe' followed and having been recognised as a bright new talent in drama, he branched out into commercials.

    He was instantly nominated as a 'Face to Watch' in Campaign and has now directed several commercials as well as more films and TV Dramas including At Home With the Braithwaites, Fat Friends, Linda Green and the BAFTA nominated children's drama Out of the Ashes. Dan gathered strong critical acclaim for The Worst Week of My Life, brought out the actor in Johnny Vegas in Ideal and even told the Doctor what to do in the second series of the award-winning Doctor Who (starring David Tennant & Billie Piper).

    Dan has spent most of this year reminding us that romance isn't dead with "Lost in Austen", a four part ITV costume drama with a twist and "Consuming Passion: 100 Years of Mills & Boon", a more raunchy and racy 90 minute BBC four drama. While both were well received by critics, the latter was hailed as a "lovely drama" (Sam Wollaston, The Guardian) that's "perceptive [and] funny" (The Telegraph).