Steve Callen - director

Yes, that's Steve.

 

The little kid on that bloke's shoulders.

 

Even at an early age, Steve knew he was destined for advertising.

 

He never attended film school.

 

Instead, he spent over twenty years writing, creating and directing multi award winning, TV commercials and cross platform campaigns. His campaigns were recognised in award festivals in Cannes, One Show in the US and D&Ad in the UK.

Advertising and marketing were his film school. 

Steve led large departments of writers, art directors and designers in multinational agencies like Y&R and BBDO and helped smaller start ups receive international success. 

His passion for brands saw him start each project with a blank page where he would create the idea and see it through to its final production and broadcast; taking a hands on approach from scriptwriting, through casting, set design, post production and music composition. 

His love of storytelling saw him writing feature film screenplays for several producers and he had an original screenplay finish in the top 20 screenplays in the world out of the over 6,000 scripts judged by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science's Nicholl Fellowship. He then went on to write, direct and produce his own short film, "You Better Watch Out" which was officially selected for over 30 Film Festivals around the world, including the Oscar® recognised Palm Springs and Foyle International Film Festivals. The film went on to win Best Film, Best Comedy, and Best Screenplay in some festivals and was voted one of the three best short films in Australia at the Inside Film Awards. 

In the last few years, Steve has turned his attention to Branded Entertainment, writing and directing 26 films featuring Tennis Legend, Andre Agassi which have been broadcast globally. This unique film series was awarded a Cannes Lion and One Show Entertainment award. 

 

Currently, Steve writes and directs film projects for clients, ad agencies and production companies all over the world. When he's not creating ads, he continues to develop his own projects for both film and television.