William Tannen (1942)

Tannen

Raised in New York City, Bill graduated from Boston University and returned to New York to pursue a career in advertising. He created the famous "Girl Watchers" theme/campaign for Diet Pepsi Cola written by Sid Ramin. The campaign won 4 Clio's and the musical theme became a hit record produced by Bob Crewe of The Four Seasons and covered by over 100 artists. Bill then founded Sunday Productions to produce and direct television commercials. He also directed his first film, the short subject "Eulogy for R.F.K." which played at the New York Film Festival with "Battle of Algiers". The film was released theatrically by Grove Press and played the college circuit for years. Still available on Youtube. In 1972 Bill moved to Los Angeles and continued to direct award-winning commercials working all over the world. (He has won 5 Clios (Pepsi, Diet Coke, Air France, McDonald's & Ford). In 1984 Bill directed his first feature, "Flashpoint" for Tri Star and HBO. It starred Kris Kristofferson, Treat Williams, Rip Torn, Tess Harper and Jean Smart. He has directed ten other feature films for Cannon, Village RoadShow, Disney, ShowTime, Millenium, LifeTime, etc. Bill has also directed several television series', music videos and a television special with Charlie Rose. Following the departure of Lionel Ritchie from The Commodores, Bill was hired to conceive and direct The Commodore's music video "Night Shift". It later won the Grammy for best R&B Video. He has also worked with The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Turtles, Martha & The Vandellas, Tangerine Dream, Lou Christie and many others. Besides working primarily in Los Angeles and New York, Bill has directed films and television shows in South Africa, The Czech Republic, Europe, New Zealand, Austrailia, Canada, Mexico and South America. Bill was invited to teach for the first time a series of advanced Directing Workshops at the Eicar International Film School in Paris. He has returned to Paris and Eicar for three more winters.