Beginners' Mike Mills Keep Fast Company

Ari Karpel's recent article in Fast Company called "How DuPont, Old Spice, And The Gap Play Supporting Roles In Mike Mills' Indie Films," provides a fascinating profile on Beginners' writer/director Mike Mills career creating distinctive TV ads. Having begun as a graphic artist with a very distinctive style, Mills rose up to being hired to create TV ads....

Ari Karpel's recent article in Fast Company called "How DuPont, Old Spice, And The Gap Play Supporting Roles In Mike Mills' Indie Films," provides a fascinating profile on Beginners' writer/director Mike Mills career creating distinctive TV ads. Having begun as a graphic artist with a very distinctive style, Mills rose up to being hired to create TV ads. While Mills has been ambivalent about some of his commercial work, he readily credits it with helping provide his filmmaking education. He also highlights how, as a independent filmmaker, making ads helped him get Beginners made: "I paid for my assistant, I paid for [costar] Christopher Plummer's skinny jeans, I paid for a lot of shit just to, like, lubricate the system so things wouldn't be a problem,"