Cole Webley

Just the facts: Age – 27; Hometown – Quincy, WA; Education – Brigham Young University, BA Media Arts Studies; Employ – signed with Über Content in September 2009.

Previous experience: A man with a plan, Webley graduated university plotting to be signed as a director within two years. To get there he undertook a variety of spec, music video and corporate video jobs, acting as everything from wardrobe stylist to producer and set designer before settling into a role as DP. “I always knew I was going to direct – and so that’s how I approached every creative capacity I had on a shoot,” he says. “When I wasn’t in the position to make those decisions, I would consciously watch on set and think about what creative decisions were working, what wasn’t and why.”

Best work: SkyTV “West Bank” thrusts you viscerally into the heart of a war zone with gritty, shaky handheld camera and bullets fizzing by. “We finally settled on shooting the project on HD because we wanted it to feel like it could have been footage straight from the field,” he says. “I wanted to be extremely mobile. We shot it on a Panasonic HVX-200 with the stock Leica Dicomar zoom lens. This was a stretch for me because most of my work had been shot on 35mm film. The idea of shooting on a much lower resolution camera without cine lenses was counterintuitive but it definitely served the story.”

Pigeonholing is a good thing: Single-mindedly focused on visual storytelling, Webley collaborated with friends who were creatives on shaping a specific reel. “The last thing a director wants to hear is that you have to pigeonhole yourself. Unfortunately, this seems to be the nature of the beast – at least to get started. Your reel has to be easily identifiable. Like a musician, if they can’t put a nice label on you, they are going to have trouble selling you. The good news is you’re always in control of what work you want to be doing.” 

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