Grady Hall
Grady Hall is an American director of commercials and music videos, as well as a screenwriter, producer, and director of one-hour television series.
Hall's high-profile commercial work has earned numerous industry awards, and landed him at #34 on Filestage's "50 Best Commercial Directors in World." [1]
His music video work with artists such as Beck, Katy Perry, and Capital Cities have drawn more than 4 billion hits collectively on YouTube, earned him a Grammy nomination, and won an MTV Video Music Award.
Career
Grady Hall began his career working at Warner Bros. in syndicated television. He later became a development executive for television producer Douglas S. Cramer and was also a staff writer[2] on The Outer Limits for SyFy, which filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Hall was a founding director of the production company Motion Theory, which he helped build from a pure animation and design company into an award-winning live-action and visual effects studio.[3] The company’s unique hybrid model and creative results later caught the eye of filmmakers Guillermo del Toro and Guillermo Navarro, who co-founded Mirada as Motion Theory’s feature-film visual effects arm, with Hall taking a creative leadership role in the new company and simultaneously continuing to write and direct projects.[4]
In 2010, Hall returned to TV, serving as a consulting producer and director for the debut season[5] of Sam Raimi's Spartacus: Blood and Sand starring Lucy Lawless and Andy Whitfield.
In 2013, Hall's video for Capital Cities' “Safe and Sound” was nominated for two MTV Video Music Awards, winning for Best Visual Effects.[6] That same year, he also co-directed Katy Perry’s “Roar,” the most-watched video of the year and People’s Choice Award winner.[7]
Hall left Motion Theory and Mirada in 2014 to join Partizan Entertainment,[8] home to directors such as Michel Gondry, Antoine Bardou-Jacquet, and Michael Gracey. There, he worked on high-profile campaigns for companies such as Amazon, Pepsi, and Microsoft – directing the global launch video for the HoloLens augmented-reality viewer.[9]
By 2016, Hall transitioned into the role of independent director, taking on a wider variety of creative projects through different production companies, agencies, and direct clients such as Intel, Honda, and Netflix.
Select music video credits
- “The Science of Selling Yourself Short” by Less Than Jake (2003)
- “Animal” by R.E.M. (2004)
- “Take It Away” by The Used (2004)
- “Getting Away with Murder” by Papa Roach (2004)
- “Girl” by Beck (2005)[10]
- “Scars” by Papa Roach (2005)
- “Dashboard” by Modest Mouse (2007)[11]
- “Safe and Sound” by Capital Cities (2013)[12]
- “Roar” by Katy Perry (2013)[13]
- "Phoenix" by Olivia Holt (2016)[14]
- "Wow" by Beck (2016)
Awards
Year | Award | Project | Result |
---|---|---|---|
2013 | Grammy Awards | Capital Cities “Safe and Sound” | Nominated for Best Music Video[15] |
2013 | People's Choice Awards | Katy Perry "Roar" | Won Favorite Music Video[16] |
2013 | MTV VMA | Capital Cities “Safe and Sound” | Won for Best Visual Effects[17] |
2013 | MTV VMA | Capital Cities “Safe and Sound” | Nominated for Best Art Direction |
2004 | PromaxBDA | Discovery “One Way Out” | Won Gold |
2008 | D&AD | Modest Mouse “Dashboard” | Won |
2007 | AIGA | Modest Mouse “Dashboard” | Certificate of Excellence |
2006 | MVPA | Beck “Girl” | Won for Best Special Effects |
2006 | CLIO | Reebok “Wrapshear” | Won |
2004 | AICP | Nike “Flow” | Won for Graphic Design |
2004 | The One Show | Fox Sports “Shockey” | Finalist |
2004 | Art Directors Club | Fox Sports “Shockey” | Won Silver |
2004 | ACM SIGGRAPH | ESPN “Evolution” | Won |
2003 | AICP | ESPN “Evolution” | Won for Graphic Design |
References
- "The 50 Best Commercial Directors in the World". The Advertising Bible. 2016-06-01. Retrieved 2018-08-28.
- "Grady Hall". IMDb. Retrieved 2018-08-28.
- "Loco Motion". Fast Company. 2008-02-01. Retrieved 2018-08-28.
- McClintock, Pamela (2010-12-09). "Guillermo del Toro partners on transmedia studio". Variety. Retrieved 2018-08-28.
- "'Spartacus' bucking cable ratings trend". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2018-08-28.
- "Video Music Awards". MTV. Retrieved 2018-08-28.
- "One Direction, Katy Perry, 'Glee' Nab People's Choice Awards Nominations". MTV News. Retrieved 2018-08-28.
- "Director Grady Hall Joins Partizan - Source Creative". SourceCreative - Extreme Reach. Retrieved 2018-08-28.
- "Production Company A-List 2015: Partizan". Retrieved 2018-08-28.
- "Beck Takes A Page Out Of Mad Magazine For 'Girl' Video". Retrieved 3 August 2017.
- "Motion Theory: Modest Mouse "Dashboard"". Motionographer. 15 March 2007. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
- "Capital Cities "Safe And Sound" (Grady Hall, dir.)". VideoStatic. 2013-04-25. Retrieved 2013-12-22.
- "Talking Katy Perry "Roar" with co-directors Grady Hall and Mark Kudsi". VideoStatic. 2013-09-23. Retrieved 2013-12-22.
- Elizabeth, De. "Olivia Holt's Music Video For "Phoenix" Is Here, and It's Just as Fierce as You Imagined". Teen Vogue. Retrieved 2018-08-28.
- -- 4:57 pm (2014-01-09). "First-Time GRAMMY Nominees: Capital Cities". GRAMMY.com. Retrieved 2014-03-11.
- Vena, Jocelyn (2013-11-05). "One Direction, Katy Perry, 'Glee' Nab People's Choice Awards Nominations". MTV.com. Retrieved 2014-03-11.
- "2013 MTV Video Music Awards (VMA) Winners". MTV.com. Retrieved 2013-12-15.