Curious Film signs director Brian Phares
Curious Film has signed director, Brian Phares. Phares describes himself as, “Sydney based. LA raised. Outer space bound.”
According to Curious Film president, Peter Grasse, who has just signed him, that’s an apt epigram: “We’re lucky to have Brian living and working here in Sydney. After working with some of the world’s best talent at MTV in New York, Brian kicked an absolute goal soon after landing here in Australia. He’ll be our local Einstein.”
The goal was 303Lowe’s social media Christmas campaign for Harley-Davidson. Over Christmas with Curious Film, Phares directed the two films in the campaign, #NiceToBeNaughty, that was listed in L’ADN’s top 15 Christmas campaigns of 2015 with those for John Lewis, Sainsbury’s and Walmart – the only campaign from Australia & New Zealand to make the list.
#NiceToBeNaughty also achieved 1 million views on Facebook and 1,200 entries into its competition. It was Harley-Davidson’s most successful campaign ever. Not just in Australia but worldwide.
Phares is self-taught. The US comedy director, who has decided to call Australia home, began directing at MTV, where he directed marketing campaigns for high profile brands like Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Gatorade, Red Bull and Twitter. He also directed the MTV comedy series, After Hours, whose A-list cast included Bill Hader, Jeff Goldblum, Daniel Radcliffe, Jessica Chastain, Sam Rockwell and James McAvoy.
Says Phares: “After a series of brutal winters and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, I decided to set my sights on Sydney.”
Curious Film signed him immediately.
Now that his name appears on the same page as what he calls “some of the best in the biz”, Phares intends, “to earn my place among their ranks by doing top notch work – and more importantly – making people laugh their asses off.”
Phares’ distinctive comedy style threads through all of his work. He is a master of the absurd. That flair for bringing a humorous high point to the fore has put his work on the high tier. His most applauded examples include Bill Hader & The Ghost for MTV in which Hader’s ghost haunts [read: taunts] After Hours host, Josh Horowitz; Take a Trip to Goldblums, in which Jeff Goldblum is so committed to his new restaurant venture that he fills every staff role; and The Spoiling Tree in which two mates come across a tree that can spoil the endings of trending TV shows and movies like The Dark Knight Rises and Game of Thrones.