The Best directors from *Propaganda Films*
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A graduate of Wesleyan University, Michael Bay spent his 20s working on advertisements and music videos. His first projects after film school were in the music video business. He created music videos for Tina Turner, Meat Loaf, Lionel Richie, Wilson Phillips, Donny Osmond and Divinyls. His work won him recognition and a number of MTV award nominations. He also filmed advertisements for Nike, Reebok, Coca-Cola, Budweiser and Miller Lite. He won the Grand Prix Clio for Commercial of the Year for his "Got Milk/Aaron Burr" commercial. At Cannes, he has won the Gold Lion for The Best Beer campaign for Miller Lite, as well as the Silver for "Got Milk". In 1995, Bay was honored by the Directors Guild of America as Commercial Director of the Year. That same year, he also directed his first feature film, Bad Boys (1995), starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, which grossed more than $160 million, worldwide. His follow-up film, The Rock (1996), starring Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage, was also hugely successful, making Bay the director du jour.- Producer
- Director
- Actor
Antoine Fuqua is an American film director, known for his work in the film Training Day as well as The Replacement Killers, Tears of the Sun, King Arthur, Shooter, Brooklyn's Finest, Olympus Has Fallen and The Equalizer.
He has directed music videos for such artists as Arrested Development, Prince, Stevie Wonder, Toni Braxton, Pras Michel and Usher. He was nominated for MTV's Best Rap Video for Heavy D & the Boyz. He also won two Music Video Production Awards: The Young Generators Award, for his work on Coolio's rap video "Gansta Paradise" and the Sinclair Tenebaum Olesiuk and Emanual Award for the trailer to the hit feature film Dangerous Minds (1995). Among his many commercial credits are Wings for Men, Big Star Jeans, Miller Genuine Draft, Reebok, Toyota, Armani and Stanley Tools.- Producer
- Director
- Writer
David Fincher was born in 1962 in Denver, Colorado, and was raised in Marin County, California. When he was 18 years old he went to work for John Korty at Korty Films in Mill Valley. He subsequently worked at ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) from 1981-1983. Fincher left ILM to direct TV commercials and music videos after signing with N. Lee Lacy in Hollywood. He went on to found Propaganda in 1987 with fellow directors Dominic Sena, Greg Gold and Nigel Dick. Fincher has directed TV commercials for clients that include Nike, Coca-Cola, Budweiser, Heineken, Pepsi, Levi's, Converse, AT&T and Chanel. He has directed music videos for Madonna, Sting, The Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, Aerosmith, George Michael, Iggy Pop, The Wallflowers, Billy Idol, Steve Winwood, The Motels and, most recently, A Perfect Circle.
As a film director, he has achieved huge success with Se7en (1995), Fight Club (1999) and, Panic Room (2002).- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Spike Jonze made up one-third (along with Andy Jenkins and Mark Lewman) of the triumvirate of genius minds behind Dirt Magazine, the brother publication of the much lamented ground-breaking Sassy Magazine. These three uncommon characters were all editors for Grand Royal Magazine as well, under the direction of Mike D and Adam Horovitz and Adam Yauch before the sad demise of Grand Royal Records. Jonze was also responsible for directing the famous Beastie Boys: Sabotage (1994) short film as well as numerous other music videos for various artists.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Alex Proyas has moved effortlessly between helming TV commercials and music videos to feature films. Born to Greek parents in Egypt, Proyas relocated to Australia with his family when he was three years old. He began making films at age ten and went on to attend the Australian Film Television and Radio School along with Jane Campion and Jocelyn Moorhouse. Proyas collaborated with Campion on two of her shorts, A Girl's Own Story (1984), for which he wrote and performed a song, and Passionless Moments (1983), which he photographed. Proyas' own short, Groping (1980), had earned him some attention at festival screenings in Sydney and London. Also while still a student, the enterprising novice formed Meaningful Eye Contact, a production company. Spirits of the Air: Gremlins of the Clouds (1987) marked Proyas' feature debut as director and screenwriter. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, the film, with its stylized production design and aural texture, was atypical of standard Australian fare, more closely resembling a longform music video. Critics admired the director's vision, but felt the overall result was lacking. Proyas continued to hone his craft helming TV advertisements for products like Nike, Nissan and Swatch (earning kudos from advertising associations in both Australia and England) and directing videos for such artists as Sting, INXS and Crowded House. In 1993 Proyas was tapped to helm the screen adaptation of James O'Barr's comic strip The Crow (1994). During production, star Brandon Lee died of an accidental gunshot wound (ironically, the film's story revolves around his character's resurrection). His death cast a pall over the remainder of the filming and its subsequent theatrical release, although reviews were generally favorably, most singling out the production values which created a colorless rain-soaked wasteland that invoked comparisons with Ridley Scott's seminal Blade Runner (1982) and Tim Burton's Batman (1989). Made for about $14 million, it grossed close to $50 million domestically. Proyas seemed set to move on to other projects and was announced as the director of Casper (1995), but left the project and was replaced by Brad Silberling. After a four-year absence he returned with another thriller, Dark City (1998), about an amnesiac who may or may not have been a serial killer. Garage Days (2002) marked Proyas' return to his homeland, Australia: the movie tells the story of a young Sydney garage band desperately trying to make it big in the competitive world of rock 'n' roll. In 2004 Proyas returned to Hollywood: he directed I, Robot (2004), a science-fiction film suggested by the 'Isaac Asimov' short story compilation of the same name that starred Will Smith. It was a box office success, but met with mixed reactions by readers and fans of the Asimov stories.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Mark Romanek was born on 18 September 1959 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is a director and producer, known for One Hour Photo (2002), Never Let Me Go (2010) and Michael Jackson feat. Janet Jackson: Scream (1995). He is married to Brigette Romanek.- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Born in precisely the kind of small-town American setting so familiar from his films, David Lynch spent his childhood being shunted from one state to another as his research scientist father kept getting relocated. He attended various art schools, married Peggy Lynch and then fathered future director Jennifer Lynch shortly after he turned 21. That experience, plus attending art school in a particularly violent and run-down area of Philadelphia, inspired Eraserhead (1977), a film that he began in the early 1970s (after a couple of shorts) and which he would work on obsessively for five years. The final film was initially judged to be almost unreleasable weird, but thanks to the efforts of distributor Ben Barenholtz, it secured a cult following and enabled Lynch to make his first mainstream film (in an unlikely alliance with Mel Brooks), though The Elephant Man (1980) was shot through with his unique sensibility. Its enormous critical and commercial success led to Dune (1984), a hugely expensive commercial disaster, but Lynch redeemed himself with the now classic Blue Velvet (1986), his most personal and original work since his debut. He subsequently won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival with the dark, violent road movie Wild at Heart (1990), and achieved a huge cult following with his surreal TV series Twin Peaks (1990), which he adapted for the big screen, though his comedy series On the Air (1992) was less successful. He also draws comic strips and has devised multimedia stage events with regular composer Angelo Badalamenti. He had a much-publicized affair with Isabella Rossellini in the late 1980s.- Director
- Art Department
- Writer
John Dahl was born on 15 June 1956 in Billings, Montana, USA. He is a director and writer, known for The Last Seduction (1994), Kill Me Again (1989) and Rounders (1998). He is married to Beth Jana Friedberg. They have four children.- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Over the years, increasingly drawn towards more personal projects, Stephane Sednaoui has redefined his artistic approach to focus on his fine-art and cinematographic projects. New, existing, and primarily unseen work have been exhibited recently at the MoMA, New York (2015)- the 9/11 Memorial Museum (2013-2015), New York - the Brooklyn Museum, New York (2013 - the Barbican Gallery, London (2014) - Le Grand Palais, Paris (2015)- the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2014) and Sam Art Projects Foundation, Paris (2013).
Stéphane Sednaoui career started 30 years ago exploring various film and photographic territories. He covered with success the genres of music videos, photojournalism, portrait and pop culture. In 2005, Palm Pictures added to its dvd series dedicated to the best music video directors, a retrospective of his work, _The Work of Director Stéphane Sednaoui_. In 2014, Kehrer published his photography book _Search & Rescue at Ground Zero_.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Michael Francis Moore was born in Flint, Michigan on April 23, 1954, and was raised in its Davison suburb. He is the son of Helen Veronica (Wall), a secretary, and Francis Richard Moore, who worked on an auto assembly line. He has Irish, as well as English and Scottish, ancestry.
Moore studied journalism at the University of Michigan-Flint, and also pursued other hobbies such as gun shooting, for which he even won a competition. Michael began his journalistic career writing for the school newspaper "The Michigan Times," and after dropping out of college briefly worked as editor for "Mother Jones."
He then turned to filmmaking, and to earn the money for the budget of his first film Roger & Me (1989) he ran neighborhood bingo games. The success of this film launched his career as one of America's best-known and most controversial documentarians. He has produced a string of documentary films and TV series predominantly about the same subject: attacks on corrupt politicians and greedy business corporations. He landed his first big hit with Bowling for Columbine (2002) about the bad points of the right to bear arms in America, which earned him an Oscar and a big reputation. He then shook the world with his even bigger hit Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), making fun of President George W. Bush. This is the highest-grossing documentary of all time. Michael is known for having the guts to give his opinion in public, which not many people are courageous enough to do, and for that is respected by many.- Director
- Writer
Vaughan Arnell is known for George Michael: Fastlove (1996), George Michael: Let Her Down Easy (2014) and One Direction: You & I Fragrance Commercial (2014).- Director
- Cinematographer
- Writer
Steve Hanft is a California native writer/director, known for creating original movies and videos.
He first gathered momentum at California Institute of the Arts, where he studied art and film making, cranking out films and receiving several grants, including the Princess Grace Film Grant, the Kodak Cinematography Award, the Studio Film and Tape Film Grant, the Los Angeles Arts Council Grant, the Seagrams Film Award, and the Chouinard Film and Video Award.
After graduating film school with a Master of Fine Arts, the prolific Hanft, has been shooting feature films, music videos, short films, and commercials, non stop.
He has an MTV award for directing the Beck- Where It's At music video, and a Cannes Film Festival Award, for producing and starring in the Ray Ban short film- Sunglass Catch.
Hanft's films have screened at the Rome Italy Film Festival, the South By Southwest Film Festival, the LA Film Festival, the New York Film Festival, the Brasil International Film Festival, the CMJ Film Festival, Anthology Film Archive New Filmmakers Event, and at the Don't Knock the Rock Film Festival in Hollywood.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Alek Keshishian was born on 30 July 1964 in Beirut, Lebanon. He is a director and writer, known for Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me (2022), Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) and Selena Gomez: Hands to Myself (2015).- Director
- Editor
- Producer
With the feature documentary American Hardcore Paul Rachman revisited his music and filmmaking roots having started his career making underground films and rock and punk music videos in the early 80's with bands such as the Bad Brains. He later became one of the of the industry's top music video directors at Propaganda Films in Los Angeles where he worked with such artists as Alice in Chains, The Replacements, Temple of the Dog, Sepultura, Roger Waters, Joan Jett and the Bad Brains. He garnered numerous nominations and awards for his music video work.
He made his feature film directorial debut in 2000 with Four Dogs Playing Poker starring Forrest Whittaker, Tim Curry and Olivia Williams. He also directed several award winning short films most notably Drive Baby Drive, Memories, Home, Bang Bang, and Zoe XO.
Paul is also a founder and east coast director of the Slamdance Film Festival. Since its inception in 1995, Slamdance has been described as one of the top 10 film festivals in the world today by Vanity Fair magazine.- Director
- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Dominic Sena was born on 26 April 1949 in Niles, Ohio, USA. He is a director and cinematographer, known for Kalifornia (1993), Whiteout (2009) and Swordfish (2001).- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Simon West is a British born and Hollywood based film director and producer. His films include CON AIR starring Nicholas Cage, "THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER" starring John Travolta and "LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER" starring Angelina Jolie. West is the only live action director ever whose first three 3 films all grossed over $100m at the US box office.
West also served as an executive producer on the Oscar nominated BLACK HAWK DOWN. He will be reteaming with BLACK HAWK DOWN writer Ken Nolan to direct THUNDER RUN based on the book "Thunder Run" written by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David Zucchino. His television company has produced acclaimed series such as Fox's "KEEN EDDIE", the CBS series "CLOSE TO HOME", Fox's "HUMAN TARGET" and the NBC series "THE CAPE".
West directed the action-packed remake of "THE MECHANIC" starring Jason Statham and Ben Foster and "THE EXPENDABLES 2" starring almost every action star in the movie world. This film grossed over $300m in worldwide box office.- Director
- Cinematographer
- Writer
Douglas Gayeton is known for Johnny Mnemonic: The Interactive Action Movie (1995), Growing in the City: NRCS Assistance for Urban Farmers (2017) and Everything Is Water (2016).- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Greg is an award-winning director of national and international commercials and music videos, and producer and writer for television and video.
Together with fellow directors David Fincher, Dominic Sena and Nigel Dick, and producers Joni Sighvattson and Steve Golin, Greg founded Propaganda Films, a company that redefined the style and image of a contemporary production company and through whose doors passed many other outstanding directors such as Michael Bay, Antoine Fuqua, Mark Romanek and many others. Greg directed commercials and music videos including clips for k.d. Lang, Quincy Jones, The Jacksons, Eddie Murphy, Kim Karnes, Stevie Wonder, Natalie Cole, Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson, Richard Marx, Gladys Knight and Chaka Khan. His classical music clip for Joshua Bell featuring Karen Black won the Gold Medal at the New York Film Festival. TV Commercial campaigns included KFC, GTE and Molson Dry Canadian among others.
Following his tenure at Propaganda, Greg co-founded and served as president of Milk and Honey Films (1995-2003), an innovative international production service company whose credits include the Emmy winning mini-series Anne Frank and Dune, as well as commercial and film projects such as Blade II. He was also a partner in Prague Studios, a complex of film studios and services in the Czech Republic until his departure in 2003.
Greg executive produced and created the two-hour television pilot, PainKiller Jane, with John Harrison and Don Opper for The SciFi Channel/NBC. Greg has written and directed for children's media and his projects have been awarded Parents Choice awards among others.
Greg currently lives in Los Angeles with his son Michael and his wife, Grammy Award winning songwriter and producer Sharon Robinson. Greg has received the Eastman Kodak/MVPA Lifetime Achievement Award.