Paul Street (director)

Paul Street is a British television commercial and film director. He is known for resurrecting Steve McQueen in the 1998 Ford Puma TV Commercial and bringing Denis Hopper face to face with his "Easy Rider" character in the Ford Cougar [TV Commercial].

Paul Street
Paul Street
Alma mater
Occupation
Notable workFord Puma TV Commercial

Career

Paul started making films on his fathers super 8mm camera at the age of 12. He fell in love with cinema and the ability to tell stories with a movie camera. He evolved into 16mm film and found TV commercial's a creative outlet to explore the craft of filmmaking. At 19 he directed his first cinema commercial for Hana Watches. He then went on to shoot his first TV segment at age 21. He left South Bank University with an Art Diploma before embarking on a Film, TV, & Animation course at Croydon College of Art and Design. He delayed an offer of an MA at the Royal College of Art to pursue his directing career, working at Central Television as a Director/Cameraman for three years.

At age 21, Paul established Streetlight Films, a London-based commercials and film development company. The company quickly gained international recognition with Paul winning Best Director and The Gold Award for [[BMW]] “Scales” at the British Film & TV Craft Awards. This and the subsequent award winning Puma spot featuring Steve McQueen firmly established Paul as a groundbreaking commercial director, both in the UK and around the world. Paul spent the following years shooting for brands worldwide. His clients include Sky, Ford Motor Co., Siemens, Hugo Boss, Royal Navy, Nissan, GMC, United Technology, Toshiba, US Navy, Cox Business, Royal Mail, Renault, Mercedes, Becks, VW, Spice Island, Coors, MTV, Toyota, Honda, Sprint, Michelin, Goodyear, Green King, Chevy and Hyundai.

His filmmaking career has taken him around the world, experiencing the local talent of film crews from Namibia, Vancouver, Belgrade, Budapest, Milan, Los Angeles, Mexico city, Brisbane and beyond.

Paul Street currently resides between Los Angeles, London and Auckland, New Zealand. He directed the movie "Borderland" starring Bruce Dern and Peter Fonda and developed Cat and Mouse, a six-part TV series set in Mexico. Paul also has additional feature film projects in development; "Felon Fund", "Devils Canyon", "Savage River" and "Kayla Crow". His most recent project is the feature film "Safe House" which was released as a Tubi Original in 2023. "Safehouse" was written, directed and produced by by Paul.


He is currently working on his next feature film project "The Dead" and will be launching a new production hub in New Zealand in January 2024.

Paul is represented by Solar Films and Streetlight Film and Media for film, advertising and brand work.

In 2017 Paul established Streetlightfilm and Media, a content creation and distribution company for brands worldwide. In 2019 Paul Directed, Wrote and Produced Safe House, a thriller set in the Joshua Tree national park. Paul continues to work in advertising specializing in Automotive, with recent commercial work for American Airlines and VW USA.


Commercials directing

Paul has directed over 200 television commercials over a period of twenty years and is a leading figure in automotive and sfx advertising moving image. In 1996 Paul shot the BMW commercial, ‘’Scales’’ which won him a prestigious ‘Best Director’ award at the British Film & TV Craft Awards. This success was repeated two years later with the multi award winning commercial posthumously featuring Steve McQueen for the launch of the Ford Puma. The commercial has subsequently featured in several top 10 lists of great ads for both TV and cinema and is considered an industry classic.

Street has continued to work with clients such as Becks Beer, Coca-Cola, Mercedes, Royal Navy, Hugo Boss and VW: to name a few. The commercials he has worked on heavily feature a mixture of live action and groundbreaking special effects, and pioneered the use of VFX (Flame) and Video editing (Avid) on set.

Filmography

Shorts

  • Inside the Wolf's Lair (1992) TV pilot
  • Queen of Clubs (1995)
  • Room 9 (2006)
  • The Key (2007)

Web

  • "Streetfighter" web film (2012) Producer

Documentary

  • "Psychopath" documentary (2014) Executive producer

Feature Film

  • "Borderland" Feature Film (2014) Director
  • "Safehouse" Feature Film (2019) Director/Writer/Producer
  • "The Dead" Feature Film (2023) Director/Writer/Producer
  • "Kayla Crow" Series (2024) Director/Story/Producer

References

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