Larry Bridges

Larry Bridges was named "Best Advertising Auteur" by Connoisseur magazine in 1989, inspiring the magazine to write, "Whenever you see an ad that verges on art, chances are good that Bridges had a hand in it-as either director, editor or graphic designer".

Bridges, first as editor then as director, created nothing less than a revolution in advertising with hand-held, grainy, textured "anti"-commercials. He single-handedly turned editing into a killer application for advertising agencies seeking to maximize the impact of their ads on television audiences. He did this through the bold use of film elements themselves, flash frames, roll-outs, whip-pans. No rules were safe in his hands. All television advertising since bears the stamp of this breakthrough style. No advertising agency since could ignore the importance of editing.

In 1984, the grainy, hand-held "Walk on the Wild Side" Honda Motorcycle spot starring Lou Reed that he edited led to a flurry of commercial imitations by countless directors and editors. Two years later he began a long-term editorial collaboration with commercial director Joe Pytka for Nike. Bridges and his fellow editors at Red Car have since worked with Pytka on such prestigious brands as Pepsi, Lee Jeans and Michelob, among others. Pytka has praised Bridges as "the first original talent I've seen in this business in 10 to 15 years".

A native of Los Angeles, Bridges began Red Car Inc. - named for the electric trolley system that ran through L.A. in halcyon days. In 1982, around the same time he cut Michael Jackson's legendary "Beat It" video. In 1988, Bridges went from the cutting room to the director's chair, and two of the commercials he would direct - Veryfine Juices "Fill Up" and Gravy Train's "Woof Train" - were cited by Advertising Age as among the top 100 spots of the year. Business Week lauded "Fill Up" as the best commercial of the year and "Woof Train" won the coveted Gold Lion at the International Advertising Film Festival in Cannes, France that same year. More recently he has directed commercials for Coke through CAA as well as assignments from Fallon McElligott in Minneapolis and Ogilvy-Mather in New York. In 1999 Bridges completed his first feature film "12", which is now showing in the international independent film festival circuit.

After graduating from Stanford (English) and the Tuck School at Dartmouth (MBA), Bridges began his career as a production assistant on Francis Coppola's "The Conversation". From 1973-75 he worked as a film editor for CBS-TV News working out of the network's New York office. After Business School he returned to L.A. in 1979 and founded Red Car Inc. now a company with offices in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Dallas and San Francisco.as "the first original talent I've seen in this business in 10 to 15 years".