Top creatives Chuck Bennet & Clay Williams have resigned from LA Agency TBWA/Chiat/Day to direct their own productions.
The Los Angeles advertising and production community is this week reeling from the news that Chuck Bennett and Clay Williams, TBWA/Chiat/Day's top creative team, have resigned.
The duo, famous for their work for Taco Bell, Sony and a multitude of other high-profile clients, are leaving their posts to start up their own production company.
"We are going to be leaving within a couple of weeks. It's really exciting," says Bennett. "We haven't signed up with a production company because we'd like to have our own place, maybe as a satellite of a bigger company."
If their directorial work is anywhere near as successful as their advertising, the team are sure to have a golden future. In fact they have already had boards flooding in. Their first project, which was shot over the weekend, is a public service announcement for Earth Day and is being produced in association with Fuel, a Santa Monica-based production company.
They are also working on a secret Japanese project, which they are very excited (but tight-lipped) about, "It's going to be a huge shoot," says Bennett.
However, the pair haven't completely turned their back on working as creatives: "We want to keep the door open to be able to write as well as direct. First and foremost we want to work on commercials as directors.
Secondly, we'd like to be able to write stuff - commercials, short films, stuff for TV, the net, whatever.
The advantage we have is that we can write, create and direct - which is great. We are really looking forward to it and feeling very optimistic."
