Executive Producer Luke Lashley Formally Launches Departure

Departure goes public with its entire offering: a curated pool of 200+ directors and photographers, making it the largest direct source of directors and photographers in the US. They built Departure with agency producers and creatives in mind, allowing them to find perfect-fit directors quickly, and put more dollars on screen at the sub-$500k level.

Departure, fully detailed on its newly launched website, is built around agency needs rather than traditional director rosters. In today's production landscape, agency producers need efficient access to a wide variety of directors and photographers, creatives require precise director-to-project alignment, and executives face increasing pressure to maximise production spends. Departure's expansive talent offering directly addresses these industry pain points.

The company's model delivers three key advantages: agency producers can now source and review reels with unprecedented speed and reliability; creative teams can prioritise director-fit over industry prestige; and executives can cultivate a go-to relationship spanning multiple accounts and genres. These efficiencies significantly reduce waste and stretch production budgets further, positioning Departure as the definitive resource for sub-$500K productions.

Answering agency briefs based on director fit

Founder Luke Lashley believes the advertising industry’s director-search process comes with wasted time, effort, and ultimately, too many director reels for agency producers to review. Agency producers spend countless hours watching unsuitable director reels, while production companies push the same roster of directors regardless of whether they fit the agency’s brief—a relic of the traditional director roster model.

Departure reimagined this process from the ground up. For every project, the company immerses itself in the agency’s brief and every detail, nuance, and requirement. Then, they evaluate over 145 potential directors from their pool, filtering for genuine creative alignment. The result: agency producers receive a meticulously curated shortlist featuring only genuinely compatible directors, delivered within just 25 hours and with complete confidentiality.

Departure's extensive and continuously expanding director pool capitalises on the accelerating industry trend of accomplished directors leaving prestigious rosters to pursue independent careers. For agencies and brands, this translates to access to a substantially broader talent pool than any conventional roster could provide, while maintaining the security and infrastructure of an established production partner. Traditionally, agency producers and creative teams would need to navigate approximately 20+ rosters and engage with 20+ potential production partners to access comparable creative options. While sales reps historically addressed similar challenges, Departure notes that many contemporary reps fail to effectively filter talent—often adding complexity rather than streamlining processes, particularly for productions under $500K.

Additionally, Departure unveils 'Enterprise Solutions' designed for agencies and brands with frequent six-figure production requirements. For these organisations, the fragmented production landscape creates unnecessary complexity and inconsistency. Departure's Enterprise Solutions transform this experience through their large pool of directors—projected to reach 200 by year-end—enabling support for virtually any creative direction across all genres, from documentary to highly stylised content, from performance-driven to VFX-intensive productions, all through a single, consistent relationship. This eliminates the perpetual cycle of vetting new production partners for different project categories.

"Each component of Departure's model—our precise director matching methodology, our flexibility beyond exclusive rosters, and our enterprise-level efficiency—contributes to one fundamental outcome," noted Luke. "More of your budget on screen”.

When asking an Atlanta-based agency EP about working with Departure, they noted, “Departure does reel submissions unlike any production company I’ve worked with. You can tell that Departure takes time to understand the brief and creative ask. In a sea of sometimes monotonous reels, Departure reels always stand out."