Chris Cole

Unaffiliated

What was your first professionally directed work and when was it?
Terminally Ill, the short film I directed last year, was my first professionally directed work. Prior to that, I had directed student films, music videos, spec commercials, and even an interactive film. I’ve spent the past couple years producing in the commercial space, which has lent itself to how I approach directing. Since Terminally Ill, I’ve had the pleasure of directing a number of political ads, and I’m glad to have used my filmmaking and storytelling skills to support causes that I care about.

How did you get into directing?
When I was a kid, I saw a TV commercial for this camera called the Digital Blue, which was a kids toy that came with editing software. I begged for it for Christmas and Santa got it for me. I’m 1 of 4 siblings, including my twin brother, and I would corral them into making films with me around the house. It was so much fun. YouTube came out right around the time I started middle school, and me and my brother would make these parody rap videos that were kind of stupid, but also encapsulate a lot of what I’m still interested in: hip hop, comedy, and filmmaking. By the time college came around, I knew I wanted to either do music journalism or film school. I ended up at NYU Tisch for Film, and interned at a Hip Hop news website HipHopDX the summer after my freshman year. I continued to freelance write for a couple years after that.

The first thing I directed that a lot of people saw was my student film “If You’re Reading This Its Too Late”. It was a scrappy black and white short about a guy who is obsessed with Drake. It was absurd, funny, dark, and it ended up kinda blowing up on the internet. I made this weird thing that was very much in my voice, and seeing people respond to it made me understand how powerful directing can be.

What is your most recent project?
Terminally Ill is my most recent project. It’s about a guy who visits his grandmother’s deathbed and discovers that if he raps his last words to her, she’ll stay alive. It unfurls into this absurdist musical comedy, and takes some unexpected turns all the way through. I’ve been doing the festival circuit with it this year, and it’s picked up a couple awards including the Oscar®-qualifying Jury Award for Comedy at Aspen Shortsfest as well as a Silver Young Director Award for Creative Use of Sound. Being able to watch the film with audiences across the country has been super gratifying, particularly because the multiple tonal shifts make it play differently in every room. We’re currently working through distribution, and I’d love to get the film online and share it with a wider audience as part of that plan.

What is the best part of being a director?
The best part of being a director is definitely collaboration. Directors get a lot of credit, but I know I’m only as good as the people I surround myself with. On Terminally Ill, the most creatively iterative part of the process was working with my music supervisor, composers, sound designer, and actors, since we were making a music-driven film that was made up primarily from the diegetic sounds that we captured on set. I was mounting a challenge that I had never faced before, and through trial and error, we all put our heads together to solve it. Having that balance of knowing what I want, but also being malleable and knowing that a good idea can come from anywhere created the best environment on set and in post, and culminated in a final product that my whole team is really proud of.

What is the worst part of being a director?
I love the popular American snack food Cheez-Its. I am not yet at the point in my directing career where I can request specific snacks at crafty, but I’ve found that I am a significantly better director when there are Cheez-Its around. The original ones, not extra toasty, or spicy, or the myriad of other flavors they have. There are several other snacks that try to occupy the same spot that Cheez-Its occupy. Cheddar Goldfish, for example. While they make a decent substitute, and I am likely to make the day and have a good time with Goldfish around, nothing can replace the cheesy crunchy goodness that is Cheez-Its. So, in short, the worst part of being a director is when they don’t have Cheez-Its at crafty.

What is your current career focus: commercials and branded content, television, movies? Do you plan to specialize in a particular genre–comedy, drama, visual effects, etc.?
I’m interested in making character driven absurdist comedy films that also have musical elements. At the moment, I have two feature films I’m developing within this genre, however, I do think there’s a ton of space for my voice and POV in the commercial world. A lot of my favorite directors broke into the industry via commercials and music videos, and I would love to develop my reel and directing experience on the commercial side as I continue to develop my feature films.

Have you a mentor and if so, who is that person (or persons) and what has been the lesson learned from that mentoring which resonates with you?
One mentor I had back in film school was Dr. Sheril Antonio. She encouraged me to apply for and attend the one year Arts Politics program at Tisch. The program and Dean Antonio taught me how to take a step back and understand my work in a fuller context by grounding it in theory. The program also introduced me to alumni Leah Natasha Thomas, a producer who has become a mentor and advocate for me, and who has reinforced this approach to making art as I’ve advanced in my career.

Who is your favorite director and why?
It’s so hard to choose one. I have my laundry list of folks whose influences I think are apparent in my work: Spike Lee, Hiro Murai, Charles Burnett. One that may be a little unexpected is Cameron Crowe. He hit an insane run from Jeremy Maguire to Almost Famous and Vanilla Sky. His movies have this balance of lighthearted comedy/drama that also end up being these very wholesome, human stories, and that’s what I aspire to in my work.

What is your favorite movie? Your favorite television/online program? Your favorite commercial or branded content?
A little bit of a dodge, but I always ask people the question: What do you think are three movies that define your personality? Mine are Do the Right Thing, Almost Famous, and Superbad. Sometimes I swap out Superbad for Killer of Sheep. I remember seeing that freshman year of film school and being like “Oh…you can do this?”. I think those movies give you the full spectrum of who I am and the things I like.

On the commercial side of things, Spike Jonze’s Ikea lamp ad is one of my favorites. I love when directors have their own fingerprints on everything they do, and you can see that in the work he does across commercials, music videos, and movies.

Tell us about your background (i.e., where did you grow up? Past jobs?)
I grew up in Rancho Cucamonga, CA, which is about an hour east of LA. My uncle and my cousin are both 1st AD’s (my cousin AD’d my short!), and I didn’t realize it back then, but seeing them do their thing was super inspiring growing up. I moved to the Bay Area a couple years back to work as a video producer at Apple. Going through that soup to nuts process at a company that works on such a high level ended up strengthening me so much as a director, and I don’t think Terminally Ill has the attention to detail and level of craft without me having gone through the experience of working at Apple.

While I lived in the Bay, I also became involved with SFFILM. I received the Rainin Grant for my feature screenplay Rolling Stone and was a Filmhouse Resident for 2 years. It was awesome getting institutional support, and even more awesome being a part of the Bay Area filmmaking community. My peers provided endless inspiration, and I’m glad I have the experience of working within the independent film world in tandem with working in advertising on the client side. It’s given me a holistic view of both filmmaking and commercial production, and I’m looking to merge both in the next phase of my career.

Have you had occasion to bring your storytelling/directorial talent to bear in the Metaverse, tapping into the potential of AR, VR, AI, NFTs and/or experiential fare? If so, tell us about that work and what lessons you have taken away from the experience?
I took a class called “Storytelling with Non-Linear Video” as part of NYU’s ITP program while I was in grad school. We were tasked with using “Eko” to essentially create a “choose your own adventure” film. Naturally, I chose to write, direct, and star in “Ball is Life”, an interactive film about a basketball player stuck in the purgatory of the basketball court because he can’t win a game of 1-on-1. I learned that films don’t necessarily have to exist in a linear fashion, and with the advent of the Metaverse, it’s been further proven that films don’t even have to exist on one plane. There’s a lot of implications for what this can do for storytelling, education, empathy-building, and beyond, and I’m excited to enter the industry at a time where I can explore these different formats.

Contact

Website: YungChris.com/Films
Contact Chris via email here