Watch: Johan Kramer Talks Shop on Soccer

Like so many here at Chelsea, director Johan Kramer is a man of many talents - before launching his directing career, he was a pro soccer player for Ajax Amsterdam. For you hardcore soccer fans, he has a great new interview up over at Nalden on all things soccer-related (or football-related, depending on your preference). Follow the link to check it out, and below, here's the trailer for his award winning soccer documentary The Other Final:

Chelsea Welcomes Director Adriano Falconi

We here at Chelsea are proud to announce that we've signed an exciting new director to our roster with Adriano Falconi! To borrow from the press release:

Adriano Falconi is recognized internationally for his ability to tell a story through visuals, which earned him a spot as one of the 20 Next Directors by Boards Magazine. Since moving to the US in 2000, Adriano has directed a series of hugely successful advertising spots for clients including Mastercard, Jagermeister, Fiat Group, and Puma.

Falconi has also worked as a war photographer in the former Yugoslavia, recently launched work on his first two feature films, and this fall directed Jeremy Irons in a provocative new PSA for the 1 Billion Hungry project. Check it out below, and help us bid a warm welcome to the newest member of Chelsea!

The Reviews are in for Client 9

We here at Chelsea can stop holding our breath - Alex Gibney's latest documentary Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Elliot Spitzer hit US theaters today, and the reviews are starting to pour in! Below, a sampling of some of our favorites:

In The New York Times Manohla Dargis writes:

For Mr. Gibney, the juiciest parts of this story weren’t the explicit, sometimes banal details, like Mr. Spitzer’s famous black socks. No, the good stuff, as far as Mr. Gibney’s movie and Mr. Elkind’s book theorize, involves the power brokers who — enraged by Mr. Spitzer’s activism as attorney general, specifically in his hard-charging capacity as the Sheriff of Wall Street — might have had something to do with his downfall.

Variety has this to say:

Gibney is characteristically relentless in his research and interviewing...For all the information here, Gibney is unusual among investigative documentarians in that he never forgets he's making cinema. The shooting of interviews via multiple cameras by d.p. Maryse Alberti, particularly when Gibney is grilling the penitent Spitzer, is effective and striking."

The Washington Post raves that Client 9 is a "gripping portrait of a modern political hit..."

...and, naturally,The Village Voice was a bit more blunt:

The prolific documentarian -- Client 9 is Gibney's fourth film this year -- makes a persuasive case that the former governor may have been brought down not just by his penis, but by his deep-pocketed enemies.

We couldn't be more excited for Alex and Client 9, but don't just take our word for it -- get out there and see it for yourselves!

Behind The Scenes with Robb Bindler

Bindler's latest for Visa is just hitting the airwaves, and will be on this blog very soon, but in the meantime enjoy these behind-the-scenes stills from the shoot. Well, one shot behind-the-scenes and one set of stills that you wouldn't necessarily see in the spots. And we had to include this rather charming shot of some of the production folks and talent. From left to right, Shanah Blevins, Chelsea line producer, Lisa Johnson, Chiat Day executive producer, Don Crisman, Superbowl attendee, and Michele Cardinal from Visa! Gotta say, everyone is looking pretty good, could be some new profile photos in that shot.

DGG's Your Highness - First Stills

As previously mentioned in this space, David Gordon Green's next feature is Your Highness, which is being described as a "medieval romp". And given what we've heard and seen so far, sounds accurate. DGG's multiple projects have a tendency to shuffle around, so those readers waiting for his Susperia remake and/or Freaks of the Heartland film shouldn't lose heart, as they will most likely come back on the docket. Though his current project is The Sitter, starring Jonah Hill, so it may be a while. But back to Your Highness, as we've collected some stills from around the Internet and want to share them here! Take a look and stay tuned for more, and of course the trailer, which we expect to be coming soon.

Lauren Greenfield Getty Lecture - Sunday, September 26th

A quick heads up for the LA-based Lauren Greenfield fans, she is giving a talk this Sunday at the Getty after a screening of her acclaimed documentary kids+money. The Getty describes the film as:

A piercing short film by photographer Lauren Greenfield, Kids and Money is a conversation with young people about the influence of money in their lives. Born of the extremes of poverty and wealth that define the Los Angeles landscape, teens and tweens from Pacific Palisades to East Los Angeles address how they are shaped by a culture of consumerism.

And Lauren will be talking afterwards about the film and her larger body of work. It starts at 1:00 pm, admission is free and parking is $15. More details here!

We're Thrilled He's Here! Bruce Hunt Joins Chelsea

Chelsea is proud to announce the addition of Bruce Hunt to the Chelsea roster. From the press release:

A master of special effects, both Hunt’s commercial and film work showcase cutting edge visuals used in service of the larger story, effects designed for maximum emotional impact. His client list includes Visa, Toyota, Lexus, Nintendo, Volkswagen, Panasonic, and Hyundai among others, in addition to a highly regarded Tourism Australia project with Baz Luhrman. He has been named Director of the Year four times in Australia for his spot work.

There's also the matter of his film work, which is rather significant. He was a second unit director on The Matrix and Dark City, two films with groundbreaking special effects and visual signatures that have been copied ever since (bullet time anyone?). Hunt's own feature, The Cave, was no slouch either, with some serious special effects and Hunt's signature striking photography. To prove it, see the trailer below. We're glad to have him aboard!

KENNY POWERS IS BACK!

You just have to use all caps for Kenny Powers. No other font choice is sufficient. The David Gordon Green crew has put together another insane season of everyone's favorite washed up ball player, and it starts Sunday the 26th! Green directed 3 episodes of this season, similar to last year, and the saga really just gets crazier and crazier. Let's just the trailer speak for itself...

9:00 PM Premiere on HBO Tonight - Alex Gibney's "My Trip to Al-Qaeda"

As previously mentioned in this very blog, September is Chelsea month on HBO. And today is the first event! Alex's Gibney's My Trip to Al-Qaeda premieres tonight at nine, after debuting at this year's Tribeca Film Festival. Variety gives a pretty great review of the film, which can be read in full here, but here's a key excerpt:

A sobering lecture on the Middle East as well as an interesting exercise in multimedia, "My Trip to al-Qaeda" is director Alex Gibney's documentary version of Lawrence Wright's off-Broadway one-man show, developed while researching his book "The Looming Tower: al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11." With his understated style and soothing voice, Wright offers a savvy primer on the roots of Islamic terrorism and the U.S.' misguided response, while the filmed performance stylistically recalls a more restrained variant on Spalding Gray's "Swimming to Cambodia."

Check out the trailer below and tune your dial to HBO tonight!

Algebra: DGG + ESPN + W+K = Great New Spots

Actually, the math isn't that complicated. David Gordon Green teamed up with Wieden + Kennedy to make some awesome new spots for ESPN. Simple as that! These latest spots are for the Countdown, one of television's top football pregame shows, and feature the entire cast getting uncomfortably close to some of the NFL's biggest stars. The Countdown team includes Chris Berman, Tom Jackson, Mike Ditka, Keyshawn Johnson, Cris Carter, Chris Mortensen, and Adam Schefter. The two spots we're featuring here (turn on your TV to see the rest!) are "Game Picks", in which the egg scrambling skills of Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers are called into question, and "Patcakes", where Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker gets an unexpected breakfast.

Reminder: Life In A Day Shoots Tomorrow!

Everyone get your cameras ready and your interesting friends in one place, because tomorrow is the shoot day for Kevin Macdonald's "Life In A Day" Youtube project. Make your film tomorrow and you have a week to upload it on to Youtube at www.youtube.com/lifeinaday. The Youtube home page has been having a countdown for the last few days, and email reminders have been flying fast and thick, so it's shaping up to be a serious event! The above video is instructions from the main editor of the project, Joe Walker, with some helpful and inspirational words about making your film. So get ready, get filming, and hopefully we'll see you at Sundance!

The Beast Is Gone: Requiem for a Copier

So, it's not the most critical news in the production universe, but it's rocking our world in ChelseaNY. Our long suffering copier has finally been traded in for a better, (much) smaller model. This picture, taken by Lisa herself, shows the copier contemplating the stairs, for its final journey to the recycling center. RIP. All part of the natural process of Production 2.0

What A Pair! Directing Duo Borgato & Berte Join Chelsea

Another superior choice for the Chelsea roster, we are thrilled to announce the signing of Borgato & Berte. A pair of globetrotters, the duo are know for exquisite photography and offbeat moments, which combine to create emotional work of high style. From the release:

Paolo Borgato and Tommaso Bertè met in Milan in 2004, both at the beginning their directing careers, absorbing the lessons of the advertising industry while working on their own projects. They catapulted into the industry spotlight with their PSA for Save The Children. The spot won them the Shots Young Directors Award, and their 2007 spot “Human Machine” won a place in that year’s Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase.

Kevin Macdonald + Youtube = Big News!

Logging on to Youtube yesterday, you may have noticed a site takeover by a project called "Life in a Day". The idea is that on July 24th, 2010, everyone around the world is going to upload a video documenting their day and answering the questions, "What do you love?" and "What do you fear?" Then a number of videos will be selected and stitched together into a documentary/time capsule about life on Planet Earth on 7/24/2010, and the resulting film will premiere at Sundance 2011. And which Oscar-winning director is at the helm this unprecedented, crowd-sourced, new media extravaganza? Chelsea's own Kevin Macdonald! Which you probably guessed from both the headline of this post and the video of Kevin discussing the project, but it's always fun to have a dramatic reveal.

Shoot coverage is here and Creativity coverage is here. And there is also the CNN story here and the official Google Blog entry is here. And I'm sure there's more to come! You've already seen Kevin talking about the project, so here's the trailer video:

Another Super Cute Kid, Just Because

Following up on our picture of Orson, here's the photogenic Ruby, daughter of Chelsea director Charles Mehling. Despite looking in the lens in this shot, she is not actually directing, that job was left up to Charles. In this case, a massive 20 day shoot in southeast Asia for Proctor & Gamble in China, the results of which will get posted here in the not too distant future.