Ground Control London Signs Directing Duo Shooting Monkeys
Shooting Monkeys, the inquisitive directing duo consisting of Jan Vogel and Sebastian Funke have joined Ground Control London. Ground Control will be cavorting around with Jan and Sebastian in the UK and Japan.
Immensely skilled in the art of storytelling, these monkeys have worked with global stars including Robbie Williams, Vinnie Jones, Boris Becker. Frontier busting work is what they do, and their origin story to this point is predictably unique.
Never underestimate a Monkey.
Sebastian read Law at University of Berlin, before studying directing at the NY Film academy, fulfilling his childhood dream to become a director. Jan, didn’t think about filmmaking as a child in the slightest but is now a DGA member. Born in Ecuador, studying cinematography at LA’s AFI, he came into directing through the camera department. Alongside directing multi award winning commercials with Sebastian, he continues to work as a cinematographer on their collaborations and multiple feature films.
All of their work is finely developed with the critical techniques of filmmaking. With Sebastian an accomplished editor, they build the foundations for their work in their minds before a pixel is recorded. How they manage to see in each others’ brains we are all guessing, our theory is it’s one of those monkey things that baffles scientists to this day.
With a prolific portfolio of work straddling comedy, drama, documentary in short and long form, the objective is to always move their audience. “Filmmaking should follow the philosophy of form follows function,” they say, “if you have nothing to say, you can use elegant words but they will be empty. The same counts for visuals.” Every element of the film must have a function to express the ultimate story. We don’t really like work that the style is more important than the substance.
With a toolbox full of rational analysis of the story and infinite imagination, their mastery of authentically connecting a brand’s message with the audience has brought them countless awards including Cannes Lions, New York Festival, LYNX awards, ADC-Deutschland as well a a United Nations Award for Outstanding Communication.
Sebastian is no relation to Tobias Funke.
