DeMane Davis on Finding New Perspectives and Directing Edie Falco for the Super Bowl

DeMane Davis is a director and producing director working in the TV and advertising worlds, represented by women-owned Bostonian production company Sweet Rickey for commercials.

Having previously worked agency-side, as a voiceover artist, and as a producer, she first stepped behind the camera for an independent feature she wrote called ‘BLACK & WHITE & RED ALL OVER’, inspired by her niece and the friends she had lost to violence. The film was selected to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, kicking off her directorial career - soon landing her commercials and another indie feature, ‘LIFT’, which gave Kerry Washington her first leading role. 

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ava DuVernay then provided DeMane and 40 other female directors their big break in TV by hiring them on the Oprah Winfrey Network show, ‘Queen Sugar’. Before its run ended last year, DeMane directed episodes in seasons two, three (where she was also the producing director) and seven. She describes the “full circle” experience to LBB’s Ben Conway as a kind of homecoming, and landscape-altering, thanks to Ava solely hiring female directors without prior episodic experience.

“‘Queen Sugar’ was the longest running drama about a Black family on television,” she says. “I’m absolutely honoured to have been a part of it and I hope to create more television that does what it did.”

Her other TV credits include work for Netflix shows like ‘You’ and ‘How To Get Away With Murder’, as well as producing and directing for shows on CBS, The CW and NBC, the latter of which aired her pilot for the Warner Brothers’ show ‘Found’ in October.

Meanwhile, her commercial career has seen DeMane work with brands like American Eagle, Bank of America and the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau. However, she says her most memorable project to-date was released just last week - a Super Bowl spot for animal rights charity PETA, featuring Carmela Soprano herself, Edie Falco.

‘Don’t Take My Cheese Away’ was named the ‘Best Celebrity Spot of the Super Bowl’ by Entertainment Weekly -  a testament, says DeMane, to creative director/copywriter Christian Carl’s script, PETA’s commitment to the idea, and the support of Sweet Rickey and Editbar.

“But even more importantly,” she says, “a friend texted me after seeing the spot. She said: ‘I woke up this morning thinking about the mother cow with full udders chasing her caged calf. It was so layered with meaning all the way through… I really felt it as a mother too. And brought up feelings I have about hostages and slavery. The torture of losing a child in any circumstances is beyond horrific, but having them taken and not knowing if they are alive, dead, injured or hungry is just too much for a mother’s soul. How so many women have survived it I will never know. I hope the ad created empathy/urgency in people who have never made these many connections’.”

“She watched it, felt it, it seeped in and made her see things differently. That’s the ultimate.”  

DeMane had previously worked with Christian - or “Captain Carl” as she calls him - when she was a copywriter, and jumped at the chance to collaborate once again on a project with PETA and Edie Falco, who she describes as “perfection”.

“She’s just real, kind and, of course, ridiculously talented. She read the script for the first time ten minutes before we started filming. Yeah. PRO. Also, have you ever looked into her eyes? Do it! They’re stunning.” 

She adds, “She’s no-nonsense; absolutely there to do the work. You can tell that it feeds her and hooo did she ever give this her all?! I had an idea of what I wanted, asked and checked in, but I’m always flexible. I gently shaped it - that was it. I mean, it’s Edie Falco.”

[Above: DeMane Davis and Edie Falco]

Whether it’s for the big game or not, DeMane always looks for commercial briefs with a clear strategy, and likes to work with the client and creatives to ensure one key focus rises to the top.

Naturally drawn to subject matter that provides a distinct point of view and something to walk away with for use in everyday life, she chases ideas that offer a new perspective - especially with stories about women. These needs were met, and even surpassed, when she read showrunner/creator Nkechi Okoro Carroll’s pleasantly unpredictable pilot for ‘Found’. 

“I knew that people of colour don’t get media attention when they go missing but I had no idea they make up more than half of the 600,000 people abducted each year,” she says. “To learn how this character was abducted and what she did to help others (and simultaneously put herself in danger) was incredible.” 

“I was so honoured to get to direct the pilot that became Peacock’s highest watched,” she adds. “If I’m still thinking about a film, commercial or television show - its characters, a scene - or if I use the language of that piece of art to help convey an emotion, it’s seeped in. To me, that’s the ultimate.”

To ensure a production goes smoothly, DeMane treats pre-production discussions and plans as a “binding agreement”. This keeps all parties on the same page before setting foot on set where, while never straying too far, the director leaves room for last-minute discoveries to strengthen the concept.

Of course, a project is rarely without its challenges, explains DeMane. “There are always hundreds of things - some are weather related, or maybe the AC breaks in the studio or an event occurs that threatens sound (or lives). I get to set with a plan to get the entrée first - I never start with speciality shots or dessert. I want to get the bulk of the scene unless it’s more efficient from that particular angle. That  way if anything goes awry - and it usually does - we have something in the can.”

She continues, “At the end of the day, a lightning strike, torrential heat or rain, or a hostage situation happening nearby (all real things that happened) may happen. My solve is knowing  the bare minimum I need to tell the story, figuring out what I might add tomorrow or in post and, most of all, keeping everyone safe, inspired and engaged.”

One of the biggest challenges facing the production industry as a whole is opening up opportunities for a more diverse pool of talent - something DeMane is open to helping solve through on-set mentoring and more. Looking around at her peers, she highlights the work of producers like Ava DuVernay and Greg Berlanti who have focused on creating more inclusive TV programming in the US - being recognised by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative.

“Ava literally increased the number of working female directors in the DGA and in the industry. She created Array Crew so that film and television crews can look like the world does,” she says. “Including more people who look like the world does means more opportunity for new voices, new art, more perspectives and more  stories. And those stories can inform us, move us and ultimately bring us together. In my opinion, that’s what art is supposed to and can do.”  

DeMane will executive produce and direct the upcoming NBC series ‘Dr. Wolf’, inspired by  Dr. Oliver Sacks, from Berlanti Productions and Warner Brothers Television.