HEY WONDERFUL WELCOMES ACTION-COMEDY DIRECTING SENSATION CASSANDRA BROOKSBANK
By thelaegotist / /
Hey Wonderful has signed action-comedy director Cassandra “Cassie” Brooksbank for commercials and branded entertainment.
Her philosophy: “My No. 1 rule is DON’T BE BORING.” To that end, Brooksbank has directed high-octane spots such as Pepsi’s “Selfie,” which features Lionel Messi combing through a crowd of adoring fans before one captures his attention; Rexona’s “Cab Hell,” depicting a nightmarish morning commute with whiffs of a scene from a Hangoverfilm; and General Tire’s “Vegas 2 Reno,” capturing the grit, quirk and adventure of the longest off-road race in the US with a spot that plays like a scene from a Tarantino film.
Brooksbank is a graduate of UCS film school who was initially a history major before doing an unofficial boot camp at the school’s Trojan Vision TV station which saw her accepted to USC’s film program … on her 6th try. Her work at Trojan Vision involved things like interviewing Steven Spielberg and George Lucas who are among USC’s famous alumni. She also began researching her favorite films, pointing to Bad Boys, Top Gun, Snatch, Kill Bill, Fight Club and Pirates of the Caribbean as early inspirations. “I started analyzing who exactly was making these movies and their techniques and quickly realized, ‘Oh wow! These guys came up in commercials. I’d love to do the same thing!’”
Right out of film school Brooksbank started her own production company, The X-Collective, where she directed projects direct to client and built her reel. She caught the attention of Great Guns Founder and CEO Laura Gregory who signed her and brokered her first large scale action-comedy work. (Great Guns continues to rep Brooksbank in the UK.) So how does she pull off those big productions? Her technique is rooted in storytelling – with early experience as an editor – and she prefers doing action scenes in camera and then augmenting with VFX. Proficiency in production tech isn’t just cameras, lenses and rigs, she explained. “One of my closest mentors – Hugh O’Brien – is a stunt coordinator and talking through what’s possible with him really helps me bring the creative to life.”
She is repped by CAA for film and television and is set to direct the action-comedy My Masterpiece with Sylvester Stallone’s Balboa Productions in 2024. Academy Award nominee Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Movie Film) will star.
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