Marc Wilkins, a European talent who now calls New York his home, has joined the directorial roster at humble, the hybrid production and post company that’s based in Manhattan and L.A. He was previously repped in the U.S. by Rabbit and prior to that, Caviar.
Wilkins’ work includes ads for such U.S. agencies as McCann, Goodby Silverstein & Partners and JWT, and his reel includes spots and web shorts for such brands as Schick, Mercedes-Benz, Nivea and BMW. His spot for New York City’s iconic Bowlmor Lanes, created with a team of freelance creatives led by creative director Marty Weiss, earned inclusion in SHOOT’s “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery (3/3/11). More recently, his New York-based dramatic short, “Hotel Pennsylvania,” was an official selection of numerous festivals worldwide and awarded with both jury and audience prizes.
The director’s Danish ad for that country’s Midttrafik bus line, “The Bus,” was a viral sensation that mixed stylized storytelling, over the top performances and a general sense of faux awesomeness that comes off as hilarious. Similarly, his “Grumpy Grandfather” for the Eastern European brand Cherkashin Meats shows a grizzled old villager whose enjoyment of a simple meat sandwich gets interrupted by a sequence of annoyances, all of which he deals with in truly absurd fashion.
Wilkins was born in Switzerland and raised on the island of Crete and in Germany, where he got his start in the industry, working his way up the production ranks on feature films. He directed his first short while still in his teens, and became heavily involved in the short format scene, founding a group called Kinoherz to focus on the genre.
In his early 20s, Wilkins saw his work recognized by the Commercial Film Producers-Europe (CFP-E) Young Guns festival for emerging directorial talent, and in 2003 he was included in the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase in Cannes. It was a good year for Wilkins in the South of France, as his PSA for Doctors Without Borders, “Game Over,” also won a Gold Lion.
Wilkins said he felt an instant simpatico with humble’s executive producer Ned Brown, along with president/founder Eric Berkowitz and exec producer Persis Koch.
The ability to work at a studio that combines production, post and VFX capabilities, Wilkins added, aligns perfectly with his sensibilities and background as a filmmaker. “I came up with a European upbringing, where post production is an integral part of making a film,” he explained. “It’s important for me to be able to compose a project on every level, so having these capabilities in house gives me much more space in which to work.”
