Director Duo Taylor Reid Joins Splendors

"I've followed Paul and Nick's work for quite some time and feel like we have a truly unusual amount of mutuals to not have crossed paths sooner. When that time finally came, it seemed kismet that they were starting their search for a new home in the US, and we had recently begun searching for a director very much in their world to bring onto the roster. From our first chat I felt that they were incredibly easy, personable, professional, and were really able to instil a confidence in the work and their process. We're very excited to see where this next chapter takes us," commented Jason P. Lewis executive producer at Splendors​

Q> How did you both get your start as directors?

Paul> I got my start shooting skateboarding, working with bigger skateboard brands. From a young age, shooting action sports taught me a lot about getting together to work towards a project. That work opened doors to start traveling the world filming professional backcountry snowboarding.

Nick> I came from the documentary world, I was working on feature documentaries where the goal is to do the most you can with the smallest crew possible so that non-acting talent feels comfortable opening up.

We both came into the industry through the back door rather than the traditional route, but that background has been a huge advantage. It taught us how to be resourceful, adapt quickly, and get things done fast when a project needs it.

Q> How long have you been co-directing together, and how do you think that your working style has evolved since?

Paul> We first worked together on a project back in 2017 and really hit it off. At the time, I was DP’ing and Nick was directing, and we found that our skills complemented each other really well.

These days, we still keep those same roles and handle a lot of pre-pro together, and there’s a lot of overlap — Nick will have plenty of input on lenses and camera setups, and I’ll weigh in on the creative direction. Agencies and clients are often surprised by how much fun we have on set — we like to keep things light while still getting the job done.

Nick> Yeah we have worked on every job together since we started working together then, so it gives us a very easy shorthand when we’re working together. I think it helps so much to have someone to talk through ideas with and deal with things as they come up. We find it just makes the whole process a lot more fun for everyone involved.

Q> What kind of scripts are you hoping to see more of this year? Any projects outside of advertising in the works?

Paul> Naturally, we fell into the automotive and action sports space because of our background, and we still love any projects in that world — but we’re always open to trying new things.

We have a high profile car commercial coming out in fall that we did with Wieden + Kennedy that we're excited to see out in the world. Our recent FOX Racing project was another highlight, we have a great direct-to-client relationship with them, and it’s always so much fun creatively when we work together.

Nick> We love traveling and shooting in remote locations so we’d love to see some ambitious scripts where we can tell a story that feels big by using some breath taking locations. We love automotive work and are pushing to do more of that work.

We get really excited about scripts in the sports or automotive world that feel like they are bringing something new and unique to the medium.

We have a documentary that will be coming out this year that is a passion project. It’s about a pro surfer and his battles with Oxycodone. We’re excited to finally see that out in the world.

Q> Tell us which of your spots you’re most proud of, and why?

Paul> Some of our early projects, like the EA SPORTS spot with Auston Matthews, Air Canada, and Porsche, are still some of the ones we’re most proud of. We had limited resources going into them, and they were some of our first jobs. We knew we had to make them amazing if we wanted to put ourselves on the map, so we stretched the budgets as far as we could. We landed them through coincidental connections rather than the traditional pitch process, which was a bit of luck combined with being ready for the opportunity.

The Air Canada spot, for example, had a budget smaller than the craft services budget on some of our bigger jobs today, yet it’s still one agency's complimented us on all the time. We’re incredibly grateful to the people who trusted us early on, and we still keep those spots on our reel because they represent where we started and what we were able to pull off.

Nick> I’m really proud of the work we’ve done with Bauer Hockey around women’s sports. We had the opportunity to create a series of 3 brand anthems over the course of 3 years that coincided with the development and launch of the PWHL. We made an advocacy piece before the PWHL was announced, then an anthem celebrating the achievements of the female athletes, and finally a celebratory spot about the success of the league and the fans. It was amazing to see the tens of thousands of positive comments that came in as the spots launched.