Allen Farst bio
Allen Farst is an acclaimed American director, filmmaker in the Directors Guild of America [DGA] and Contour photographer whose most notable work is in action sports, music, documentary films, high-end commercials and intimate celebrity photography.
His work was featured by Panasonic, Maxim Magazine, USA Today, Drone360, Nikon Cinema, Billboard, Bloomberg, Newsweek, Yahoo Finance, Variety and Fox Business News among others.
Allen currently released Triangle Park a documentary film about the first-ever NFL football game. The film is packed with beautiful cinematic reenactments along with several stars participating such as Troy Aikman, Eric Dickerson, Cris Collinsworth, Joe Buck, Larry Fitzgerald, Kirk Herbstreit, Suzy Kolber, Tony Dungy, Cooper Kupp, Joe Theismann and many more. Narrated by Michele Tafoya, the film had several several sell outs at theatres and even premiered at AMC Theatres in all 32 NFL cities the night before Thanksgiving 2023.
Allen, a Director and DGA Member, was added to The Directors Guild of America Selection Committee for the 76th Annual DGA Awards BEST Documentary Film for this year , 2024.
Allen has several projects in development. One is Osgood. A faith based film about Karen Homan who hears a mysterious voice in her kitchen telling her “to build a restaurant” In Osgood, Ohio. His second project in development is The Flying Machine. More details will be shared about this in 2024.
Allen recently released an award winning documentary film about The Rolling Stones keyboardist, called Chuck Leavell: The Tree Man. The film features several notable musicians and dignitaries, including President Jimmy Carter, John Mayer, David Gilmour, Billy Bob Thornton and Eric Clapton. The film has garnered a ton of press including Variety, Fox News, Bloomberg, Treehugger, Yahoo Finance and Goldmine Magazine said it’s “one of the best rockumentaries you’ll ever see”. The Tree Man is the longest running documentary on Delta Inflight reaching over 200 million travelers in 2023.
In the spring of 2022, Allen shot and worked as director of photograghy on a commercial for Snickers featuring WWE stars that aired in Wrestlemania 38 on Peacock.
In January of 2021, Baird launched two commercials shot and directed by Allen that are airing on NBC, Discovery Portfolio and a digital campaign with the Wall Street Journal and Barron’s.
A few years ago, Allen signed a deal with Contour by Getty Images to syndicate his work to national and international magazines, as well as today’s digital outlets. Contour is a high-end portraiture collection featuring the most famous faces in film, sports, art, music and fashion. They're captured exclusively by some of the most acclaimed celebrity photographers in the world.
Prior to his current projects, Allen has left his directorial mark with regular corporate clients including Textron, Cessna, Hawker Beechcraft, Baird, Steak ‘n Shake, AGCO, Google, TUG, E-Z-GO, TextronGSE, Eaton, Carrier, ABC, ESPN, ExtraTV, United Technologies Aerospace, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing IndyCar/BMW (RLL) and the Four Seasons Hotels.
In the fall of 2015, Allen shot the launch video for AGCO and Google Glass. It showcased Google Glass being used in the farming world and how it applies to everyday manufacturing uses. Allen was brought in to direct on the second version of Google Glass in 2017. The project was hugely successful worldwide garnering over 50 million views around the world.
In 2014, Allen collaborated with Nikon on a project called “Life In the Fast Lane” for the Nikon Cinema Series featuring his work on IndyCar driver Graham Rahal. The film was viewed by millions around the world.
Panasonic endorsed Allen for more than two decades, supporting him on his projects that include the film “100 Years of Flight- 17 Days of Glory”, AJ Foyt's video celebrating 50 years at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Kasey Kahne's Dirt & Drift DVD. Panasonic also used his footage on its own 25-foot screen during the 2010 NAB convention in Las Vegas, which is America’s largest film and television trade show with more than 100,000 people in attendance.
Over the past several years, Allen has produced films for the RLL Racing Team [Bobby Rahal & David Letterman]. He works with such sponsors as Midas, National Guard, DRIFIRE, Steak ‘n Shake, United Rentals, providing films, teasers, national commercials and still photography that are used as marketing pieces. His automotive filming has taken him to the ESPN X Games several times. His footage also has been used by the Ford and Swedish racing company OlsbergsMSE.
Through the years, aviation has served as a common theme of Allen’s films. He has completed projects that include producing high-end commercials for the Cessna Latitude, as well as films such as “100 Years of Flight – 17 Days of Glory.” The latter, shot with a Panasonic DVX100, was supported by corporate partner Panasonic, and features legendary pilots like Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, Scott Crossfield, John Travolta, Harrison Ford and Gene Cernan were featured. The project became Panasonic’s poster for the DVX100, promoted throughout the world and is still on the company’s website to this day. The camera chosen by Allen started a revolution in independent filmmaking, being able to shoot 24p at a modest price.
Allen additionally has proven to be a leader in drone aerial cinematography, as he began shooting projects from the air in the late 1990s. He was the first U.S. owner of a 12-blade, heavy-lift drone. He has filmed for IndyCar, the Super Bowl, Google, Nikon and Hyundai among others. This experience led him to speak at the inaugural NYC Drone Film Festival to talk about his aviation-based filmmaking experience and was featured in the first national drone magazine, Drone360.
Maxim Magazine and Team RLL asked Allen to shoot both stills and video of David Letterman during his adventuresome laps of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in a 1963 race-winning Watson roadster for a magazine feature that ran in the Dec/Jan holiday issue of Maxim in late 2015 and again in the February 2016 issue of Maxim Mexico.
Allen founded Niche Productions in the early 2000s to focus on high-end Hollywood-style productions along with PalMar Studios, which has taken him to film in 14 countries and allowed him to meet scores of wonderful people along the journey.
Today, Allen treasures his grandfather’s Super-8 movie camera, while working with vastly more sophisticated tools like his Nikon or the Red Weapon digital cinema camera.
