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Biography
Growing up as the son of a photographer, director Michael Gracey began shooting and developing film from an early age. The visual prodigy left school to become the youngest animator at Animal Logic, the animation house behind the Oscar-winning film, HAPPY FEET. Michael was then fortunate enough to become part of the small creative circle that worked closely with director Baz Lurhman after ROMEO + JULIET. He helped Luhrmann and writer Craig Pearce to visualize the concepts from script to screen for MOULIN ROUGE! It was after this collaboration that Michael teamed up with fellow visual effects artist Pete Commins. Director Pete Commins is a visual genius and comes from a background in illustration. He originally planned to write and draw comic books before getting immersed in the world of visual effects and 3D. Together, Michael and Pete have built a diverse reel of animated and live-action commercials, music videos and branded content. SourceEcreative recently described their video work as: "All are song and dance extravaganzas, with the [Will Young] 'Your Game' video being an astonishing mix of theatrics, dancing, effects and animation so deftly pulled off, you'll scratch your head as to how it was done." Critics, producers and the artist alike were so impressed with their work for "Your Game" that Will Young even invited the pair to direct his live tour at Wembley in 2004. Their acclaimed commercial work has received numerous accolades including BTAA, Creative Circle and Midsummer Awards. Most recently, Michael's groundbreaking spot, T-Mobile "Dance," won 3 Lions at the 2009 Cannes competition and 2 Clios, including a Gold for Best Direction. His newest commercial, Evian "Roller Babies," debuted as the most popular clip on YouTube and in 1 month, has amassed over 24 million hits worldwide. In addition to having an impressive body of work spanning both live action and animation, Michael has also directed live performances for the stage. His latest project, FASTLOVE, re-teams him with writer Craig Pearce and music producer Josh Abrahams from MOULIN ROUGE! to develop the 2010 Broadway musical. The hilarious yet poignant project is similar in structure to A CHORUS LINE, but instead of focusing on a troupe of dancers auditioning for a show, it centers on a group of struggling singles trying to find love through speed dating. Michael has further flexed his creative muscles by recently teaming with the Roald Dahl estate to develop concept art to adapt some of the famous children's books for the big screen. His work with the Dahls has gained the attention of other creative powerhouses like The Jim Henson Company, who have also commissioned Michael and his Babyfoot team to create the concept artwork for their latest project. It is this general proficiency across multiple disciplines that distinguish Michael and Pete from other directing teams. Their creative depths are truly limitless as they have proven time and again that they are as comfortable in a theatre as they are behind a camera or managing complex post production projects. |
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