Coudal Partners

after Project Greenlight, Now what?

Pulling Focus

by scott smith

Friend of the agency Scott Smith was one of three directing finalists in Project Greenlight 3. He started this blog about that but now that he's back here on earth, he's writing about other stuff too.

Scott Smith

"Advertising art director aspires to be Hollywood film director" isn't a new story. If it were a movie, we might not bother to see it. But when the art directo's talent get him tantalizingly close to the goal, when we can watch the process unfold day by day, and when it all happens in real life, we're compelled to pay very close attention.

Scott Smith spends his days (and some nights) as a Creative Director at Element 79, where he works on such accounts as, Quaker Oatmeal, Cap'n Crunch, Del Monte, and Tropicana among others.

Before joining E79, Scott wrote and directed a few spec commercial spots and one short film. Scott submitted Ten to Project Greenlight, and when submissions closed, he was one of 1,733 directors with a chance to direct a feature film with Greenlight's backing.

Then he was one of 10.

Scott and the other nine directors shot a few pages of a scene selected by Project Greenlight. Folks voted for their favorite of the ten shorts, eliminating seven directors.

Then Scott was one of three.

On July 9th, 2004, Scott Smith flew to Los Angeles to meet with Ben, Matt and the Project Greenlight folks for a final round of interviews, and began blogging about his experience right here at coudal.com. In the end, Scott didn't win Project Greenlight. But, as they say in Hollywood, one door closes, another opens. Scott will continue writing in this space, and we'll continue reading to see just how far that second door opens for him.

Our thanks to Scott for agreeing to do the blog, and our best wishes for the coming days. He's come this far. Who's to say that the light at the end of the tunnel isn't green?