New production company Flint Sydney launches
Renowned photographers Andreas Smetana, Toby Dixon, Adrian Brown and David Maurice Smith have teamed up to form Flint Sydney, a production company with dedicated film and photography production, supporting photographers who direct.
Smetana comes with over 25 years of experience in photography, winning awards on both a local and global stage. For Smetana, forming Flint was a natural progression. After directing numerous TVC’s as part of combined stills and motion campaigns as well as working on a personal documentary series called ‘In the Open’, Smetana, along with good friend and experienced TVC producer Tim Berriman, saw the potential in combining this growing demand for film with the day-to-day photography work.
Says Berriman, executive producer, Flint: “There has been a rapid growth in the industry for combining stills and film elements together in one package. The work we are now briefed on can extend to stills, TVC, web content, digital billboards, pre-rolls, cinema graphs and memes, so to have the capacity to produce both photography and film under one roof, with the same talent, is a great advantage.”
Also joining Flint is Canadian documentary photographer and filmmaker, David Maurice Smith. Smith, named Australian Emerging Documentary Photographer of the Year, has had his work exhibited worldwide including The Museum of the City of New York, The State Library of New South Wales, The Reportage Festival, The Contact Photography Festival, The Delhi Photo Festival, and the Angkor Photo Festival. Smith’s film ‘Living in the Shadows’ was part of the official selection for the International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival.
Rounding out the Flint team are well-known Sydney photographers, Adrian Brown and Toby Dixon as well as Dixon’s directing partner, Alex Feggans, whom together make up Stampede. Stampede recently completed an impressive 90″ film for Price Waterhouse Coopers with The Special Group. Adrian Brown has also finished up work for Ward 6 and their new Cochlear campaign which required both stills and directing.
Berriman takes up the position of executive producer and managing director, alongside Rachel Henderson. Berriman brings over 20 years experience in the TVC industry, half of which was spent in London agencies, and most recently as a senior producer at Luscious International. Henderson, who has produced for Smetana for over 10 years will work alongside talented producer Rachel Rider who has recently joined Flint from Leo Burnett Sydney.
Flint is already working with an impressive portfolio of clients including Westpac and Qantas with Smetana, Berriman and the team set on additional significant growth for the business.
Visit Flint Sydney’s website: www.flintsydney.com.
9 Comments
Kudos to @tobydixon_photo and @themonkeys_sydney for this stellar shot of Patrick Dangerfield
Go Flint! Great work guys.
“Photographers who direct”
Like agency art directors who can use Photoshop? They all think they can but they can’t. Sure there are exceptions. But 99% can’t.
Being a good photographer and a good director are completely different things.
But hey, Australian agencies likes to throw money at new companies because it makes them seem trendy.
Photographers becoming DoPs would make more sense. You don’t see DoP’s suddenly saying “hey I’ll become a Director! I know how to use a camera, so that’s 95% of it right?”
But maybe that’s what we’ll get next. All the DoPs banding together in a production company with an ex-agency CD. Then, when all the DoPs and Photographers are gone directing, we can use some of those millenials with GoPros to shoot everything.
How is having photographers who direct a thing?
Gum and nuts, together at last.
Snack: Photographers who cook
Photographers who ‘do motion’, is exactly the phrase that shows they have no idea about storytelling.
They think films are moving photos.
But hey- thats most briefs these days anyway. They’ll do fine.
Photographers spend the entire time on set directing talent, directing the lighting AND directing the camera. So it’s actually more valid than a Writer becoming a Director.
It also makes a lot of sense for DoP’s to become Directors. Who else is better placed to observe what a Director does?
I believe this is a talented production combo and look forward to seeing more like that Danger shot.
Photographers who do catering.
It makes alot of sense because photographers have mouth, so who better placed to serve the nosh.
Director with a camera starts photography studio…??
No better combo than a great director and great DOP on your production to create the story and vision.
Even the smallest productions benefit from good cam – dir combo. Either one trying to do both jobs is half the quality / time and attention to detail on set.
So if your spending a clients money, are you hiring yourself out as a DOP and a Director?