By: SHOOTonline
Aisle C Productions’ Escape Fire Screened in Competition; A Rundown Of Directors With Spotmaking Affiliations Who Scored At Festival
PARK CITY, Utah, February 02, 2012, Robert Goldrich — Directors with commercialmaking affiliations and a prominent ad agency’s entertainment arm were among those making their mark at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival which concluded earlier this week.
Aisle C Productions, an OgilvyEntertainment unit established two years ago to develop and produce original, non-branded entertainment, made an auspicious debut at Sundance with Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare, which was selected for the festival’s U.S. documentary competition. Aisle C teamed with directors/producers Susan Froemke and Matthew Heineman to produce Escape Fire, which examines the country’s healthcare crisis, underscoring a needed shift from disease management to prevention, and from placing focus on patients rather than profits. Inspired in part by Donna Karan and her Urban Zen Foundation, the documentary follows dramatic stories of patients as well as of healthcare leaders who are striving to transform the system at the highest levels of medicine, industry, government and even the U.S. military.
Escape Fire was executive produced by Doug Scott, president of OgilvyEntertainment, who told SHOOT that the feature documentary is akin to the spirit of pro bono work in commercials while also carrying new business implications.
“Over the past six years as we’ve been building our entertainment capability at Ogilvy, we’ve seen a few things not driven by brands per se but by culture,” observed Scott. “We’ve identified cultural truths, something happening in society, happening around us where we believe there’s a story to tell. With the creativity we have in the building as demonstrated in our storytelling for clients, we should also be able to tell certain culturally relevant stories without any dependency on a client. Agencies have so much invested in their people and resources that we felt the need to identify ways to extend all that into new business opportunities and into projects that are for the greater good of society.”
Scott believes that Escape Fire fits that profile of new business potential coupled with a worthwhile pro bono-like cause, with Aisle C trying to educate and generate consideration of and discussion about possible solutions to the healthcare crisis. “Aisle C is looking to develop factual and documentary projects informed by a cultural truth or that address a specific topic in society which needs to be elevated in terms of people’s awareness,” said Scott.
As for new business prospects, Scott noted that the Sundance exposure has sparked discussions with distributors. He would ideally like to see special screenings in D.C. to bring the Beltway up to speed on new approaches to providing healthcare and what the nature of that healthcare should be in order to best help people. Scott also envisions screening series of the documentary being presented by hospitals and other healthcare institutions/foundations. And he’s hopeful of a theatrical run as well as a TV window.
Creative Artists Agency (CAA) is handling the feature/TV distribution discussions, representing Escape Fire from a sales standpoint. With Sundance as a launchpad, Escape Fire could benefit from timing in that this is a presidential election year, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case on the validity of the Obama Administration’s healthcare reform policy in April, with a ruling expected in June. “The state of healthcare discussions both politically and in the general public will be high profile,” said Scott, which might bode well for a documentary offering fresh perspectives on the crisis and how to address it.
From an agency business perspective, Scott related, “Agencies more and more are trying to figure out how to diversify and expand into new areas with their creative talent, extending that talent into new business like content creation that can result in new revenue streams.”
Forming Aisle C as a production unit within OgilvyEntertainment a couple of years ago represents a step in that direction. Scott said that Escape Fire has been two years in the making, spanning development and production. And to have Aisle C’s first project premiere at a major industry event like Sundance was most gratifying.
For Escape Fire, Aisle C assembled an ensemble that included: Froemke, a four-time Emmy Award winner with more than 30 documentary films to her credit (including serving as associate producer on the famed Grey Gardens, and as one of three directors on the Oscar-nominated Lalee’s Kin: The Legacy of Cotton); Heineman, who worked with Froemke on the Emmy-nominated HBO series, The Alzheimer’s Project, and was director/producer of Our Time, a feature documentary about what it’s like to be young in today’s America; Emmy-nominated DP Wolfgang Held whose work spans narrative and documentary features (with such credits as Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s Metallica: Some Kind of Monster and Nanette Burstein’s American Teen); and editor Bradley J. Ross who’s cut multiple episodes of the Emmy-winning MTV series True Life.
Directors rundown
As for the directors with spotmaking affiliations who scored at Sundance, here’s a rundown:
o Lauren Greenfield, who’s repped by Chelsea for commercials, won the Sundance U.S. Directing Award: Documentary for The Queen of Versailles, which centers on a couple who were triumphantly constructing the biggest house in America–a sprawling 90,000 square-foot palace inspired by Versailles–only to have their timeshare empire falter due to the economic crisis. Their story reveals the innate virtues and flaws of the American Dream.
o Jake Schreier, a commercialmaker on the Park Pictures roster, saw his feature directorial debut, Robot and Frank–the first motion picture out of Park Pictures Features (which was formed by Park Pictures last year)–become one of two films at Sundance this year to win The Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prizes, presented to outstanding features focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer or mathematician as a major character. Robot and Frank shared the honor with Valley of Saints, a film directed and written by Musa Syedd. The two films will split the $20,000 cash award from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
As earlier reported (SHOOTonline, 1/26), Robot and Frank secured a distribution deal at Sundance. Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA) and Samuel Goldwyn Films are partnering on the U.S. theatrical release in addition to jointly acquiring North American rights to Robot and Frank. Additionally, SPWA has acquired all media rights for Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe including Russia.
o Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady–who under the Loki moniker direct spots via Rabbit–saw their Detropia win the Sundance U.S. Documentary Editing Award for cutter Enat Sidi. Detropia focuses on Detroit and its people who persevere in the face of a declining manufacturing base and economic woes.
o Lucy Walker directed The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom which won the Sundance Jury Prize in Short Film, Non-Fiction while Grant Orchard directed A Morning Stroll, recipient of the Sundance Jury Prize in Animated Short Film (SHOOTonline, 1/25). Walker’s spotmaking roost is Supply&Demand Integrated which produced The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom. Orchard directs commercials via Studio AKA, London, which produced A Morning Stroll.
To see the article on its website, click here.
