Sara Marandi's Designs on Beauty

Believe Media's Sara Marandi Has Designs on Beauty

The Art Center-trained director goes solo and talks about the importance of
her design background to working in the fashion and beauty category.

Believe Director Sara Marandi, now working
solo, talks about her design background.

Sara Marandi, the fashion and beauty director who's represented in the US and UK by Believe Media, has gone full cycle. From working as a solo talent in the hotly competitive fashion and beauty category – one with an unorthodox background in design and visual effects – she later partnered with co-director Brendan Heath to form the team Marandi Heath. 

Now she's gone back to working on her own, in a move designed to allow her to pursue her vision for scripts and storyboards in a more streamlined way. (Heath has just signed with Company Films in L.A.)
 
Marandi's reel includes work for a wide range of fashion and beauty brands, including Roc, L'Oreal, Pantene, Vera Wang, Dove, Nexxus, Heckel and many others. She's worked outside the fashion and beauty category, too, having directed an iconic campaign that redefined tabletop for Smirnoff earlier in her career, as well as shooting a campaign for Toyota that brought her design influences into play for an automotive brand. She also worked in broadcast and feature promotion, but she's best known for her work in the areas of style, glamour and panache. She's directed  for agencies across the US and in Europe as well.
 
SourceEcreative sat down with the director recently to talk about her career, the importance of her design background and where she sees things going.
 
Your work has won numerous awards, including the Art Directors Club, the Golden Trailer Award and AICP, and you've worked with Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Cindy Crawford and Claudia Schiffer.  How'd you get your start?

I was studying graphic design and photography at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles when I got interested in 3D animation and how things move in front of the camera. 

At the time I was among the first wave of students using Macs and software like Alias and After Effects to bring together design, photography and various disciplines.  My timing was lucky!  I had always seen things in motion, not as static logos or typefaces, so it was easy for me to visualize with light and perspective.  My school had huge 3D facilities, but only for industrial design purposes.  Students like me were experimenting with 3D, using lighting and animation to fertilize ideas we could bring to life.
 
What was your first job after college?
 
I joined Imaginary Forces in L.A. as a designer with animation skills, but I soon became an art director overseeing movie trailers and title sequences.  I learned how to tell a compressed story and make it impactful.  It was all about the choreography of live action, sound and graphics to create trailers that looked as rich and filmic as the films themselves.
 
How did you transition into commercials?
 
When IF opened an office in New York I moved there.  But the company's East Coast clientele was different: It wasn't the major film studios, it was ad agencies.  As a creative director I was still combining graphics, live action and animation, but now my projects were for the commercial world. 

How did motion graphics dovetail with commercial directing?

In the animation world, I strived to make my work look filmic, more compelling and dimensional.  I applied the tenets of filmmaking as much as possible for a richer end-product. But graphics still felt a bit removed to me, so I moved into the more immersive format of live-action, which allowed me to bring the sensibilities of composition and graphic design and combine them with performances and a cinematic style.
 
You've said that you can envision how your spots will be edited before you even begin to shoot. How does that work?
 
I have a really good sense going into a project of the pacing and the shots and what kinds of transitions are needed. On a post-heavy job, I generally try to come up with the kind of look that everybody – the agency, the VFX team, etc. – knows.  Although execution is important for me, it's less about technical wizardry and more about what's best for the story.
 
Post involves total collaboration, so I'm very democratic and open to things that might change throughout the collaboration process, although my technical background helps to guide the process.
 
What led to your interest in beauty and fashion brands?
 
At Imaginary Forces we all had stylistic niches as creative directors.  I've always been very comfortable with the fashion and beauty world – I get the vernacular. I've also been influenced by fashion photography and people like Fabien Baron, creative director at Harper's Bazaar in the '90s.  Those kinds of influences led me to build a rapport with beauty clients.  Small live-action projects evolved to directing commercials.  Given my sensibilities, the beauty market became a natural fit.
 
I directed for three years before forming a co-directing partnership with Brendan Heath that lasted another three years.  I've been very lucky to work on an amazing variety of top-fashion and beauty brands, and look forward to continue working with all of them and to start making new relationships.

What was behind your decision to go solo again?   

I've had a great time with Brendan and we remain close friends, but the decision was a personal one for both of us, so I can only speak for myself. Directing is an amazing journey, and I'm at a place where the best way forward is for my vision to come through clearly and with singular focus.
 
I feel that my work originally had a real sense of design and precision; it was a look that was new and different and made an impression.  Now, instead of abstracting the moment, I capture one that actually exists, something polished but not obviously enhanced. It's about finding truth in that moment so it appears that the audience is there when it happens.  I'm focused more on the tone of the spot, the scope and scale, catching the essence of the characters and bringing out their energy.  It's all about humanity, so an informal picture is actually more alluring to me.
 
What is it about Believe that makes it a good match for your talents?
 
It's like belonging to a family of great people; there's a lot of support and camaraderie. Plus at Believe, the team is incredibly experienced, they really understand post and the fashion/beauty vernacular.  And that's incredibly valuable, not just to me as a director but to our clients as well.

Published 15 August, 2012