James Gooding

How did you get into directing?
By lots of false starts and hard work.

What is your most recent project?
A great doc/ad/science project with Droga5, New York, and the upcoming Omega campaign.

What is the best part of being a director?
Thinking a lot about the work.

What is the worst part of being a director?
Thinking a lot about the work.

What is your current career focus: commercials & branded content, TV, movies? Do you plan to specialize in a particular genre–comedy, drama, visual effects, etc.?
My focus is about telling a story and being cinematically honest to the idea, your characters ideas and the world they inhabit. I don’t think that should be platform or genre specific in any way. Film in advertising is such a changing business and medium–digital platforms now are creatively what music videos were 10 years ago. Distribution in the film business is changing–its an exciting time to be involved in the medium. For me at the end of it all though, it’s about the idea, the story and how that unfolds, whether in an ad or in a feature.

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 most with you?
My grandfather–he’d make me read the poem, “If” by Rudyard Kipling, as a young boy; amongst other great lines there’s this–“To be able to walk with kings nor lose the common touch”
I think that says it all. To be able to work with ‘real people’ such as Dianne in the Brother spot, and then to be able to walk into another room and make work with Dennis Hopper or Coldplay, that’s a skillset I love that I have. He put that in me.

What is your favorite movie? Your favorite commercial or branded content?
Movies, there’s so many that are my friends, I can’t quote only one, but here’s a few–Nil By Mouth, Days of Heaven, La Jetee, Scratch, Talladega Nights, Rear Window, Angel Heart, Adam’s Rib, Inception, La Haine.

Tell use about your background (i.e. Where did you grow up? Past jobs?)
I went to eight schools in different parts of England and Scotland. My first job was in a greengrocers, then a pie and mash shop, then a fish and chip shop. Then I found cameras and the journey started.

Contact

http://www.hungryman.com/