Richard Farmer is a film, commercial and music video director. His directorial work has been shown in film festivals around the world, including the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors' Showcase at

Cannes Lions The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (formerly the International Advertising Festival) is a global event for those working in creative communications, advertising, and related fields. It is considered the largest gathering of the ...

, and has garnered multiple

MTV Video Music Awards The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honour the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category) ...

and Best Short Film awards at both the Malibu International Film Festival and the

BFI London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...

Commercials & Music Videos

Richard Farmer is best known for his commercials and music videos. In 2002, Farmer started directing as half of the directing team, HAPPY. During his time with HAPPY, Farmer directed spots for such clients as BMW's Mini Cooper,

IKEA IKEA (; ) is a Dutch multinational conglomerate based in the Netherlands that designs and sells , kitchen appliances, decoration, home accessories, and various other goods and home services. Started in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA has been t ...

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...

, Sprite, Virgin Mobile,

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

Bacardi Bacardi Limited (; ) is one of the largest privately held, family-owned spirits companies in the world. Originally known for its Bacardi brand of white rum, it now has a portfolio of more than 200 brands and labels. Founded in Cuba in 1862 an ...

Skittles Skittles may refer to: * Skittles (confectionery), a brand of fruit-flavor chewy candy, distributed by Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company *'' Skittles Commercial: The Broadway Musical'' * Skittles (sport), the game from which bowling originated * Skittles (ch ...

Egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

Wrigley Wrigley may refer to: * Wrigley Company, a chewing gum manufacturer owned by Mars, Incorporated * EG Wrigley and Company, a British manufacturer of cars, car components and mechanical parts * Wrigley (surname), a list of people with the name * W ...

's, Brawny,

Bud Light Anheuser-Busch, a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, is the largest brewing company in the United States, with a market share of 45 percent in 2016. The company operates 12 breweries in the United States and nearly 20 in othe ...

, and Nike/

Foot Locker Foot Locker Retail, Inc. is an Americans, American sportswear and footwear retailer, with its headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, and operating in 28 countries. Although established in 1974, and founded as a separate company in ...

, as well as music videos for Adam Freeland, David Gray and Gnarls Barkley. In 2009, Farmer signed with Los Angeles-based production company, Green Dot Films, and has created commercials with

Tiger Woods Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks second in men's major championships, and holds numerous golf records. * * * Woods is widely regarded as ...

Derek Jeter Derek Sanderson Jeter ( ; born June 26, 1974) is an American former professional baseball shortstop, businessman, and baseball executive. As a player, Jeter spent his entire 20-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the New York Yankees ...

and Michael Strahan for

Gillette Gillette is an American brand of safety razors and other personal care products including shaving supplies, owned by the multi-national corporation Procter & Gamble (P&G). Based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, it was owned by The Gil ...

and

Subway Subway, Subways, The Subway, or The Subways may refer to: Transportation * Subway, a term for underground rapid transit rail systems * Subway (underpass), a type of walkway that passes underneath an obstacle * Subway (George Bush Interconti ...

, respectively. Other clients include

Trivial Pursuit ''Trivial Pursuit'' is a board game in which winning is determined by a player's ability to answer trivia and popular culture questions. Players move their pieces around a board, the squares they land on determining the subject of a question t ...

, Sprite, and the Fuse Network. Farmer has recently added still photography to his repertoire. He completed a short photo-documentary and two music videos for Adam Freeland. Farmer is currently represented by Green Dot Films and Imported Artists in Canada.

Awards & Controversy

From 2002 to 2006, HAPPY was ranked in

Creativity Magazine ''Creativity'' is a website focused on covering the creative aspects of advertising and design. ''Creativity'' started as a printed magazine in 1986 but moved online in 2009. The website aims to showcase ideas across all areas of consumer cultur ...

's Top 25 Directors. Farmer’s work with HAPPY won two categories in the

2008 MTV Video Music Awards The 2008 MTV Video Music Awards took place on September 7, 2008, live from Paramount Pictures Studios (which, like MTV, is owned by Viacom), honoring the best music videos from the previous year. Nominations for a majority of the categories were a ...

for

Best Choreography The MTV Video Music Award for Best Choreography is a craft award given to the artist, the artist's manager, and choreographer of the music video. From 1984 to 2007, the full name of the award was Best Choreography in a Video. The biggest winner ...

and

Best Art Direction The Academy Award for Best Production Design recognizes achievement for art direction in film. The category's original name was Best Art Direction, but was changed to its current name in 2012 for the 85th Academy Awards. This change resulted fro ...

for Gnarls Barkley’s "

Run Run(s) or RUN may refer to: Places * Run (island), one of the Banda Islands in Indonesia * Run (stream), a stream in the Dutch province of North Brabant People * Run (rapper), Joseph Simmons, now known as "Reverend Run", from the hip-hop group ...

", even though the video was originally banned due to the use of a controversial visual effect. The video was based upon a fictitious dance show called City Vibin' and featured

Justin Timberlake Justin Randall Timberlake (born January 31, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He is one of the world's best-selling music artists, with sales of over 88 million records. Timberlake is the recipient of numerous awards and ac ...

performing dance moves from Farmer's favorite 90s music videos. In 2003, their commercial for Wrigley's X-cite brand gum received more than 700 complaints, according to Britain's Independent Television Commission (ITC), the most the ITC had seen in its 13-year history. The commercial ended up being the most talked about commercial for the first half of 2003. Later that same year, Happy's commercial for Gillette showing a man running from an office that is about to be demolished by a wrecking ball has been banned after 159 viewers complained that it was reminiscent of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Britain's ITC claimed the ad appeared close to the second anniversary of the 9/11. In 2007, the British retailer, MFI, removed Happy's commercial which featured a woman noticing that the toilet seat had been left up. She shouts for her husband to come into the bathroom and when comes in she slaps him on the cheek.

Film

In 2005, HAPPY's short film “Jane Lloyd” won Best Short Film at the

and Malibu International Film Festival. HAPPY's second short film, “Green,” was commissioned by

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufactur ...

for the shoe manufacturers viral web series,

AdiColor Adicolor is a brand of German sports manufacturer Adidas, which consists of several collections of the Adidas Originals clothing line, using mostly primary colors.Charlie White,

Roman Coppola Roman François Coppola (born April 22, 1965) is an American director, screenwriter, producer and the son of Francis Ford Coppola and Eleanor Coppola. For the 2012 film ''Moonrise Kingdom'', he and co-writer Wes Anderson were nominated for the A ...

, Neill Blomkamp and more. Green is available as a part of the podcast series, AdiColor, from

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

. Farmer is currently represented by William Morris Entertainment for feature films and television.

Under God

Farmer wrote and directed his latest short film titled, “Under God," which is inspired by

Joseph Campbell Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American writer. He was a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the ...

’s

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

series, '' The Power of Myth''. Sparring questions of faith, technology and politics against Cold War-era social conventions, Under God is a fictional parable based upon the day that President Eisenhower met UNIVAC, the world's first super-computer. Under God has won the following Awards: *Silver Lei Award for Excellence in Filmmaking, 2010 Honolulu International Film Festival *Best Sci-Fi/Horror, 2010 Dam Short Film Festival *1st Prize, SHORTS, 14th Annual Fade-In Awards

Personal life

Farmer’s love of film and storytelling can be traced back to his childhood spent on a ranch in Oklahoma where he dreamed of becoming a filmmaker. He then honed his craft in the numerous cities he's called home, including Prague, London and Seattle. In 1998, Farmer moved to Los Angeles. He began work in the advertising business, serving as Agency producer for the agencies, Ground Zero Advertising and Mindfield. Farmer is part of the experimental electronic music group, Cassanova USA. His popular DJ sets and original music can be found on

SoundCloud SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming se ...

. Farmer is married to Kirsten Lee, an executive at

Brookfield Properties Brookfield Properties is a North American subsidiary of commercial real estate company Brookfield Property Partners, which itself is a subsidiary of alternative asset management company Brookfield Asset Management. It is responsible for the pro ...

and creator of Kirsten's Bazaar.

References

*http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1594119/kanye-west-gnarls-barkley-white-stripes-clips-win-professional-vmas.jhtml *http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/mar/06/dangermouse.gnarlsbarkley *https://web.archive.org/web/20110527232449/http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/924 *http://www.imdb.com/event/ev0000417/2005

External links

richardfarmer.tvImported Artists
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Farmer, Richard Living people American music video directors Artists from Oklahoma Year of birth missing (living people)