Rattling Stick Directors

A quiet man from the north of Finland with a subtle yet dark sense of humor and a passion for film that stems from his childhood. 

As a teenager, Pete made horror movies and promos for Finnish rock bands. In 2007, he directed a feature film starring one such band, Lordi and a year later the film premiered and was instantly sold to over 50 countries, including the US. 

 Pete’s work soon made him one of the most wanted names in the Finnish music video industry and he had his first retrospective at a music video festival at the age of 25.
Exquisite cinematography and skillfully placed music define Pete’s style and he relishes the opportunity to bring a simple story to life in a visually arresting way. Pete doesn’t like to be typecast and is as comfortable with visual comedy as he is with more photographic pieces.
Pete has been in the business for over a decade and has worked with some of the top agencies. Since joining Rattling Stick in 2010 he has directed charming spots for McCains, Renault, McDonald’s, Viasat and TKMaxx (a world away from the horror movies of his youth). Pete has recently moved to the UK to focus on the markets here and in the States.
A decade in the business and plenty of awards later, he is still the same, quiet man from the north as he was when he started out. 

Jack Whiteley is the latest director to join the Rattling Stick roster. An exciting new talent, Jack has developed an impressive body of work in the short amount of time since graduating.
Born and raised in the wilds of Shropshire, Jack left the Shire to forge his way in the world of filmmaking and hasn’t looked back since. A Jack-of-all-filmic-trades, he is a deft hand at directing, cinematography and editing.
After passing on a career in fine art Jack honed his skills in practical filmmaking at the Manchester School of Art, graduating with a First-Class Honours degree in 2008. The course enabled Jack the freedom to explore and understand the filmmaking process and instilled in him an understanding of narrative, and more specifically short-form narrative, a learning that underpins his work today.
Since graduating, Jack has set up home in the great port city of Liverpool where he has established himself as one of the city’s leading freelance filmmakers. Working primarily within the field of music videography, Jack has developed a unique style for capturing action and performance. His work is defined by its energy and rhythm as well as by its rich and captivating imagery.
Jack made his promo debut 18 months ago for Stealing Sheep’s ‘I am the Rain’. This was followed shortly by a trip to Bulgaria to shoot a promo for Norwegian artist Mikhael Paskalev for his summer 2012 single ‘Jive Babe’. The resultant piece has led to much critical acclaim for Jack, culminating in his being shortlisted for the Cannes 2013 YDA.
Jack is very excited about the next stage of his career and the opportunities that will arise. He is looking forward to further developing his music video portfolio and taking his first brave steps into the world of commercials and content-driven filmmaking. 

After graduating in Film from the University of Westminster, Sara was soon named one of the Top 25 Directors to Watch by Creativity Magazine. Whilst demonstrating particular affinity with graphic cinematic and filmic creative, Sara is also not afraid to show emotion or humour in her work.
Sara has chalked up an impressive array of brands and productions on her reel. From HTC, MoreThan, and McDonald’s to HSBC, The Royal Navy and Sky, Sara brings an effortless quality to her films and shows a real flair for big ideas.
Sara’s first short ‘Big’ for the Big Issue was met with critical acclaim both within the commercial and film worlds, received a number of awards and was featured in the D&AD annual. ‘Billboards’ for Sky also received British Arrows and Creative Circle nominations and another feature in D&AD.
More recently, Sara has also turned her talents towards a number of content driven productions. Sara co-wrote and directed the dark and thought provoking film ‘High’ for shoe designer Jonathan Kelsey which received extensive press and internet coverage following its release and achieved £1.7m of media coverage for the brand.
Sara then went on to create, develop and shoot the incredibly powerful digital film ‘Where is your line?’ in support of The Havens, the Crisis Centre that helps rape and sexual assault victims. ‘Where is your line?’ has so far amassed a Cannes Lion and four Golds, including Best Direction at the 2011 British Craft Awards. Most recently Sara wrote and directed a documentary to accompany her Plan International film. 

Daniel “Danny” Kleinman is recognised as one of advertising’s most established directors. He has won the top awards for his advertising work at Cannes, D&AD, the New York One Show, British Arrows, Clio, Creative Circle, Midsummer Awards and many others. The Gunn Report acknowledged him as the Most Awarded Director in the world and he has received the President’s Award from Creative Circle and the Chairman’s Award at the British Arrows. He’s also topped the Campaign, Shots and Televisual’s lists of hottest directors and in Ad week, was voted US Commercial Director of the decade.
After Hornsey Art School, Daniel went on to work as an illustrator, also collaborating on storyboards with directors working in the emerging music video industry leading to his first music video in 1983.
Daniel pioneered the use of special effects in post-production over the course of directing more than 100 videos in the 80s winning numerous awards for work with artists such as ZZ Top, Fleetwood Mac, Prince, and Madonna.
From the 90s Daniel has concentrated on advertising. He has not only created ads needing complex special effects for clients such as Guinness, X-Box, Chrysler, Johnnie Walker, Sony and Audi but his ability to also direct comedy and dialogue has led to work for Boddingtons, John Smiths, Super Noodles, Durex and John West. His recent work includes Specsavers, Audi, Travellers, Hyundai, Monster.com and VW.
Daniel has also directed TV drama and comedies notably Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse’s “Smashie and Nicey-The End Of An Era”, which was BAFTA nominated and won the rose at Montreux. He has also taken over the mantle from Maurice Binder creating the title sequences for the James Bond films.
In 2006 Daniel and fellow director Ringan Ledwidge founded Rattling Stick. In 2012, the company was awarded UK’s No1 Production Company at the British Arrows for the fourth time in five years and has also claimed the No1 spot over two years in Campaign Magazine and Televisual’s Production Company of the Year. 

Ed’s move into directing followed an impressive career in advertising where he was described as one of the most awarded creatives of his generation. He has been announced as Creative Director of the year by Campaign, received the President’s Award at the Creative Circle and had work entered in to the Clio Hall of Fame.
Ed had a prolific debut year at Rattling Stick. His first film #PubLooShocker for the Department For Transport was hit by over 8 million YouTube viewers in its first week. He has also shot ads for Stowford Press Cider, Adidas, Greenpeace and the Cybersmile Foundation and has been named as one of the future stars of TV production by Jason Stone in The Drum.
Ed ended the year with a well-received premier of his first documentary about maverick filmmaker Tony Kaye.
Ed was also shortlisted in the Best New Director categories at the Shots and British Arrows Craft Awards and received Gold for Best New Director at the Creative Circle. He also received two silvers at the British Arrows for his anti online bullying film for Cybersmile.
The beginning of 2014 has seen Ed make fast headway in the world of music video. His film for We Are Shining and Eliza Doolittle’s Killing was described online as “the best promo of the year”. As a result of the We Are Shining promo Ed was commissioned by Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja for a release on his Battlebox label. The film features more than 300 shots describing a life journey through the products we consume and use and has just launched. 

David owns an accomplished and diverse body of work and brings a wealth of industry experience and talent to the roster.
A man of many visual talents, David is as comfortable with filmic narratives and performances as he is with more technique driven pieces. His work is defined by its beautiful composition and a cinematic quality that captures real emotion.
The son of a Welsh preacher man, David’s introduction to the power of film began when his Dad sat him down at the tender age of 10 to watch The Godfather, telling him it would be the best film he’d ever see. Horse heads aside, David’s subsequent passion for film promptly led to an obsession with movies including Star Wars, which he used to watch with his neighbour, the actual Darth Vadar. From a young age, David knew he wanted to have a career with a creative edge.
A few years later with a First Class degree in Graphic Art and Film in his pocket and a knack for making a mean Grey Goose Gimlet, David began his career as a producer at Flextech (Virgin Media), where he won a number of awards and developed an appetite for directing. Fortuitously, he was rather good at it and spent the next 3 years making promos before a spec spot for Adidas led to his being featured in Shots as a new director to watch. Commercial work followed and David went on to pick up 5 Kinsale Awards including Best Direction, with one of his earliest films, “Anti Litter”.
David has built up an extensive portfolio of films and has worked on a number of highly profiled national and international campaigns including films for brands such as Budweiser, NSPCC, Sky, MTV & Ford. Whilst David is keen to develop his commercial showreel, he also has a number of longer form projects in development, which we are very excited about. 

In 2005 Joel completed a Bachelor of Design with honours. Two years later he set up the highly successful creative studio Special Problems. Together with his directing partner, Joel took a leading role in projects ranging from album artwork to fashion film, from brand design to highly distinctive music videos. Within a few short years Joel’s work began winning awards and accolades from big names in music such as Kanye West.
The momentum continued as Special Problems expanded their reel – and their global reach – directing commercials for technology giant HP (featuring Alicia Keys), and short film Echoes, commissioned by The Weinstein Company for their annual short film series screened at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.
Stepping away from the Special Problems partnership in 2013 to pursue an independent Directing career, Joel has achieved his greatest successes to date. He was entrusted with the direction of Lorde’s breakthrough video for the US #1 hit ‘Royals’, which went on to win Best Rock Video at the 2014 MTV VMA’s, and Best International Music Video at the 2014 MMVA’s. This year has also seen Joel personally selected by pop icon Katy Perry to direct the captivating music video for her hit song ‘This Is How We Do’.
Building on his Commercial work for Clients AMI, Hallensteins, Spotify, Lexus and the like, Joel’s philosophy is simple – “Building brands and crafting a unique and compelling way for them to communicate to the world…They’ve got something to say and my job is to help them say it in the most interesting and engaging way possible.”
Joel’s recent work for Target Style featuring the updated version of “Groove is in the Heart” is airing now in the US. 

Before joining Rattling Stick as a director, Andy was Executive Creative Director and founding partner of Fallon, one of London’s most highly respected advertising agencies.
Andy has received numerous creative awards including the coveted D&AD Black Pencil, Golds at British Arrows, Cannes, One Show and the Creative Circle President’s Award. Andy hates Marmite, and is credited (along with his creative partner who loved it) with starting the Love it/Hate it campaign while they were at DDB in the late 90s.
In his first year of directing, Andy shot award winning commercials for Skoda, Volkswagen and Barnardo’s amongst others and was subsequently nominated for Best New Director at the 2007 British Arrows Craft awards.
Since then Andy has continued to develop as an award winning commercials director with an emphasis on high levels of creativity, shooting ads for brands such as Wall’s, Kronenbourg, Thinkbox, Sony, Heinz, VW, Kwik Fit, COI, Robinsons and The Sun.
By the close of 2011, Andy was featured in Campaign’s Top 10 Directors list for the second year running before picking up 6 Golds at the British Arrows and 2 Silver Cannes Lions in 2012. 

Ivan started work as a stills photographer before moving into film as a DOP. He soon made a name for himself as one of the UK’s most sought after cinematographers, as the DOP of choice for a who’s who of top commercials directors – among them Jonathan Glazer, Daniel Kleinman, Frank Budgen, Chris Palmer, Dante Ariola and Daniel Barber.
Ivan moved into directing with a spot for Sony and within a year he’d picked up a D&AD and has never looked back. He has since directed more than 60 films for brands such as Sky, Canon, Nike, Mercedes, BMW, HSBC, American Airlines, BA, Shell, Smirnoff and Hovis amongst others, bringing him awards and acclaim along the way. And if not enough, Ivan found time to light the Oscar and Bafta nominated feature film ‘Sexy Beast’, raise some kids and hold down a Chelsea season ticket.
More recently, Ivan has produced an award winning body of work for Sky in support of their Sports, newly launched F1 and Movies channels. Ivan still lights all his films and through his body of work has built a reputation for post production expertise, natural performances and beautiful cinematography. By the end of 2011, Ivan was ranked No5 in Campaign’s Top 10 Directors list. 

After graduating from art college, Austen moved into a job in post production at The Mill. Here he became a producer and spent the next eight years watching and learning how post worked and what directors did.
With a passion to understand the business from the other side, Austen then decided that the time was right to move to a production company.
After 3 years working with his sister (Sally) and his mate (Ringan), and with them both pushing him to try and direct something himself, he finally took the plunge on a Swatch viral which very quickly led to more work for Swatch, TFL, Sky, The Sun, Carling, The Green Party and more.
Austen is as comfortable with commercials as he is with viral and content driven productions, and he is relishing the prospect of taking on as much work as he can to add to his fast developing reel 

Ringan Ledwidge has become widely acknowledged as one of the industry’s top commercials directors. He’s recently received the coveted Chairman’s Award at the British Arrows as well as being rated as the UK’s No1 Director by Campaign Magazine for the third time and as the second Most Awarded Director in the world by the Gunn Report.
After graduating from London’s Ravensbourne School of Design with a first in graphic design, Ringan began working as a photojournalist in the Middle East. In 1999 he moved into directing and the same year, was selected part of The Dream Team by Creative Review, picked as a Face to Watch by Campaign and won Best Young Director at Cannes.
Ringan then went on to direct hugely popular commercials for Lynx, Adidas, Nike, the COI and Coke, picking up awards at D&AD, British Arrows and Cannes. In 2005, production began on his first feature Gone, through Working Title and Universal.
On returning to the world of commercials, Ringan joined forces with director Daniel Kleinman and Rattling Stick was born in May 2006. Here Ringan has directed campaigns for Orange, Britvic, Hovis, Nike, John Lewis, Puma, Axe Barnardo’s and The Guardian to name a few, and has received further awards at British Arrows, D&AD and Cannes including the coveted Grand Prix.
In 2012 Rattling Stick was named Best Production Company of the Year at the British Arrows for the fourth time in five years and Ringan picked up (amongst others) 7 British Arrows, 11 Cannes Lions and a Yellow Pencil at D&AD. So far this year he has won 9 British Arrows and 5 Creative Circle awards.