Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), London has launched Mint Source, a quarterly program aimed at introducing its creatives to directing talent new to commercials.

Mint Source was launched at the beginning of 2001 by BBH head of television Frances Royle. "We wanted to dig down and find some new directorial talent as the same old list of directors was being wheeled out on every production," says Royle.

What began as a producer's forum, with each agency producer finding one new director each month, quickly escalated to the existing program, which is intended to cross-fertilize the creative department with the newly unearthed directors. This has culminated into the creation of a slickly-produced Mint Source tape which will introduce BBH creatives to the directors the program hopes may be the next Tarsems or Glazers. As an exercise to illustrate the potential of new directors, Royle edited both Tarsem's and Glazer's reels down to include only the three or four pieces each had at the start of their careers.

"So, when we have our shortlist of directors to send scripts out to, instead of it being the usual four or five, one of them will be [from Mint Source]," says Royle of the results of the program. "The creatives don't have to use them, just meet them see how they pitch on ideas. It's about making people think of other directors out there. We do a lot of research at film festivals, as opposed to waiting for them to get signed by production companies."

The most recent Mint Sauce reel is linked together with animation bumpers created by Daniel Greaves.

Directors featuerd on the reel are Markus Walter, Jordan Scott, Gareth Love, Ric Cantor, Nikolai Fuglsig, Gervais & Merchant, Lizelle Mes, Omar Madha, Jayson Moyer, Sebastian Paterson, Jim Weedon, Julian Trousselier and Matt Hollis.

Webfiles:
BBH> http://www.bartleboglehegarty.com