Multimedia
Blogs
Forum
Affordable HD
Whitepapers
Newsletters
Events
Advertisers
Blogcast
MillimeterA New Breed Hits the Spots
Mar 1, 2001 12:00 PM, Michael Goldman
The Agency Creative
John Adams is hardly new to advertising. At 44, he has been involved in the business for most of his professional career. For most of that time, however, he worked on the agency side: art designer, copywriter, and finally, creative producer on major campaigns. Among them: Nike and Subaru for Wieden & Kennedy, Portland; Saturn for Hal Riney & Partners, Chicago; and the Levi's 501 Blues campaign for Foote, Cone & Belding, Chicago.
It was while working for DDB Needham, Dallas, about two years ago that Adams eventually “stumbled” into directing.
“It wasn't like there was a master plan to direct,” he explains. “A couple of low-budget projects came into DDB that would not support enough money to hire an established director. One of our production assistants put a crew together for the first spot. I knew several of them, and they said they would work for free if I would direct. My boss gave me the go-ahead, and I did it. It was a two-spot campaign for Texas Christian University sports. Right after that, the Dallas Morning News saw them, and someone called and asked me to direct six spots for them. Those two campaigns allowed me to shoot eight commercials early on and quickly build a reel, which is very important.”
About six months after those early jobs, Adams left his position at DDB. After a short stint directing for a local production company in Dallas, he signed with Area 51 Films, Santa Monica, and has directed dozens of spots since.
Adams says his agency experience helped him develop many directing skills. Among them, he was well familiar with the “needs and constraints” of agencies, which Adams feels made him a better collaborator than many new directors. Likewise, he was well familiar with the basics of editing and the post process after spending years working with major directors on high-profile campaigns. In particular, he credits director Joe Pytka with influencing his understanding of how to maximize story over style through editing.
The big learning curve for Adams, however, involved many of the technical issues associated with live-action production. Needing guidance, he approached major DPs for help in understanding cinematography. “Three DPs, in particular, have been very helpful, the three guys I work with most often: Tom Olgeirrson, Bojan Bazelli, and Bill Schwarz,” he explains. “They have spent hours showing me how to better frame shots and answering technical questions.”
Adams advises agency creatives to pursue directing if they are passionate about it. “Definitely ask your contacts to help you learn the technical issues,” he advises. “There is a big learning curve there, and it will take some time.”
The Designer
Dan Appel, 34, has also been around advertising much of his life. His mother was a commercial producer, and, as a child, he spent a lot of time on commercial sets. His early immersion in the business inspired him to enter the world of production design.
“I worked in the fine art world for a while, but I felt that was too solitary, and I wanted to be more of a collaborator,” Appel says. “My ticket into production was through the art department. My mom was a producer, my dad a contractor, and I was an artist. You put that in a blender, and it spits out a production designer. So I did production design and art direction for a few years. Eventually, I got hired by VH1 as a creative art director, supervising show packaging, graphics, openers, bumpers, and things like that.”
Appel eventually left VH1 and worked freelance for a period in the mid-’90s. During that time, he had his first directing experience: Pittard Sullivan, New York, hired him to execute an Advil spot's graphic sequence. The success of that project won Appel a handful of graphics-oriented, freelance directing opportunities.
“I got hired to film a piece rebranding Canadian network, CTV, using lots of fabric and aerial photography, a couple of pieces promoting the Discovery Kids network that combined live-action and CG stuff, and a piece promoting Franklin Mutual Funds that we shot in Brazil,” he says. “Then, I got hired to direct an episode of Felicity, and all that helped me build a new reel. That reel recently convinced Green Dot Films [Santa Monica] to sign me, and I've been busy directing for them ever since.”
Appel feels his background helped him understand the artistic side of directing. “I have an art background and also studied architecture,” he says. “Working in design for so long has made me hyper-aware of framing issues. I'm always looking for architectural elements, even in nature — lines I can put into frames.”
Appel adds that his two years at VH1 taught him how to be creative and artistic in a corporate environment. “I had to deal with executives all the time and layers of approvals and things like that — it's similar in working with agencies and their clients,” he notes. “That experience influenced me to move away from being a lone artist to understanding this is a collaborative process, and there need not be a battle between a director and his client.”
Along the way, Appel also learned how to edit. He is now skilled with Avids and sometimes even edits his own work.
“I also learned to rely on the DP,” he adds. “A lot of this process should be done in-camera, and I understand that artistically, but it is the DP who can technically execute that vision. I advise new directors to find great DPs and really trust their judgment. But they'll learn that the hardest part of the job is probably the issue of time. With unlimited time, you can produce just about anything that is in your head. But in the commercial world, time is really at a premium, so new directors had better be incredibly prepared.”
The Interactive Producer
Michael Shaun Conaway, 34, trained as a writer, and like Appel, also studied fine arts. In the early ‘90s, he moved to Los Angeles and became involved in the brief CD-ROM revolution. That led him into doing production and design for interactive projects, such as MCA Music Entertainment's interactive CD-ROM, On the Road with B.B. King.
“I worked as a creative director on other projects like that for a while, and eventually, cofounded a company called StoryWorks [Sausalito, California], which was initially built around the CD-ROM market,” says Conaway. “That market quickly fell out, but eventually, interactive broadband projects came calling, and our company spent a couple of years working on jobs for people trying to create interactive broadband services. Broadband has come along slowly, but we eventually realized this work gave us all the skills necessary for broadcast design.” When a client-direct broadcast job came to StoryWorks from auto-racing Web site CART.com, Conaway convinced the company that he could direct the :30.
Conaway ended up directing three more client-direct spots promoting sports Web sites. Those experiences helped StoryWorks segue into a cross-media production company specializing in campaigns that combine broadcast and online platforms. Most recently, San Francisco-based agency Modo Futuro hired Conaway to direct a combined TV/Web, two-spot campaign for the Brobeck Law Firm, which is currently airing on CNN.
“The agency told us the client wanted to go to broadcast, and combine that with a Web branding campaign,” he explains. “We ended up with an abstract, highly stylized campaign that combines live-action, CG, graphics, moving cameras, and all sorts of symbolic imagery. Elements from the broadcast campaign are then being isolated and utilized, along with Flash animation, for the online campaign. This sort of campaign, in my view, represents the new era of advertising and branding, and it requires lots of foresight and organization. We had to think about things like negotiating online rights with talent, and getting our CG house [Digital Domain] to simultaneously produce high-resolution images for TV and Flash images for the Web. When directing for both broadcast and the Web, you need to have skills like a traditional motion-graphics designer, but a storytelling approach more like a typical broadcast director.”
Conaway feels strongly that modern advertising will be “divergent, with many different applications and platforms,” and that a new generation of directors will be needed to execute such campaigns.
“The modern director has to be savvy about new technology, the Internet, and how to brand products across multiple platforms,” he says. “Agencies need filmmakers who can help them with this. In particular, they need directors who are strong in post. People don't like to admit it, but there is a huge amount of creative work that goes on in post. In my case, I have never really worked professionally outside the digital environment, but I don't look at that as a drawback. The more traditional skills I have learned with help, advice, hard work, and relying on my artistic sensibilities.”
The Still Photographer
Peter Rodger, 35, is the son of British photo-journalist George Rodger, and he knew early on that photography would become his life's work, as well. He eventually became an advertising photographer, and worked on major European campaigns for several years.
His first commercial directing gig flowed out of his still-photo career. “A London agency, BBS Dorland, hired me to shoot the still campaign for Centerparcs, an English holiday resort,” he recalls. “While doing the still campaign, they mentioned that they wanted to shoot a commercial in the same location. I proposed a few ideas and ended up storyboarding it. The agency liked it and, after conferring with the client, they told me it was my commercial. That was my first directing job, and it was a terrific learning experience because they gave us a big budget, and I got to go up in helicopters and learn about Wescams, cranes, all that sort of stuff over the course of a five-day shoot. I admit I was kind of regimented in my approach, in the sense of being married to my storyboards, and I've since learned to be more flexible. But it was a great beginning.”
While he was familiar with still photography, Rodger still had much to learn about motion-picture cameras. “I became friendly with a lead grip, and I told him honestly that I was scared shitless of some of this equipment,” he explains. “He took me into a shed and showed me how to use it. He was a veteran of many major British films, so he knew all the tools, and in a few hours, he showed me the basics. Then, over time, I just became more comfortable.”
He became so comfortable, in fact, that he now operates the camera on his own commercials. “That's an important link to my still photography days — that direct attachment between my eye, through the viewing piece, to my subject,” Rodger explains. “As a photographer myself, I also hate to be in a position to tell a veteran DP or operator that the camera move isn't what I want. Since I have that talent, I'd just rather do it myself.”
After directing six commercials in the U.K., Rodger came to the U.S. and signed with Cucoloris Films, Venice, California. As he becomes more seasoned, he says he is learning to become “less regimented.”
“It's obvious that you often can't refine the concept until you arrive on location,” he says. “I did a PSA against child abuse, for instance, where we shot [St. Louis Cardinals' baseball star] Mark McGwire inside an empty Busch Stadium in St. Louis. I'm British, and I had never been to a baseball stadium in my life, but when I got there, I was struck by the shapes in the stadium. I framed everything to use those shapes to give the stadium itself a personality. In this case, the idea was to get across the idea that the stadium was empty, lonely, like an abuse victim. That shoot was an example of the concept coming out of the elements we had to work with, rather than from a pre-existing plan.”
The Editor
Doug Werby, 37, comes to directing from a distinguished career as an offline editor. He started as an assistant editor at On Tape Productions, San Francisco, in the late ‘80s, and eventually learned offline editing when On Tape became one of the first facilities in San Francisco to utilize Avid technology.
Werby and a couple of partners eventually decided to start their own editorial company, Red Sky Films, and there he served as senior editor on dozens of major commercials and some feature films. He left Red Sky and cofounded Pomegranit Editorial in the mid-’90s, focusing exclusively on commercials. That job eventually led to his first directing opportunity on a low-budget spot for Liquid Metal Golf Clubs, working with Young & Rubicam, San Francisco, in 1998.
“The client asked me if I knew a director who would do a low-budget job like this,” he says. “I had directed a small music video a couple of years earlier to promote an indie film that I coproduced, called Farmer and Chase, and had thoroughly enjoyed that experience. So I told the client that I wanted to direct the golf spot, and the agency, to their credit, hired me. I soon got another directing job, for a PSA promoting YMCA of San Francisco, and that ended up winning some awards, which gave me the validation I needed.”
Werby eventually sold his stake in Pomegranit and, in 1999, launched a full-time directing career, which he supplemented with a part-time, freelance editing career. (Werby still edits a handful of spots each year for other directors.) He recently signed with production company Kaboom, of San Francisco.
Werby says that when he joined Kaboom, he began looking for ways to bulk up his reel during the slow period surrounding the commercial actors' strike. “I advise new directors to definitely do spec work and tag things onto paying jobs that can help them improve their reel and promote their career,” he explains. “I recently ran a two-day shoot at Golden Gate Park for a State of California PSA, and after we wrapped, I stayed an additional day with a small crew, and an actress whom I paid out of my own pocket, and we shot a funny spec spot in a public restroom for Purell hand cleaner. Kaboom split any hard costs with me, and my fee from the two days of shooting the PSA went into paying the crew. I did it to promote my career, and I think new directors have to be willing to invest in themselves if they expect others to take chances on them.”
Werby adds that the 12 years he spent cutting film was “invaluable” in preparing him for his directing career. “Editing involves many disciplines,” he notes. “You have to know about effects, graphics, light, composition, sound, and many other things that directors need to know. Editing helped me learn how the advertising industry works, it let me make excellent contacts, and it taught me how to collaborate and execute someone else's creative vision.”
From a business point of view, there has also been an upside for Werby in keeping his hand in editing: He can offer multiple services for a reduced fee. “Helping clients do a job cheaper is always attractive,” he points out. “In my case, I can save money in editing because I will offer editing skills at a discounted rate if they will hire me to direct. I don't necessarily edit all my own commercials, but I do many of them.”
The Student
It's not new for student filmmakers to end up directing commercials, but an increasing number of students with limited reels are moving directly into major advertising campaigns fresh out of school. The director known as Yuki is a classic example.
Yuki, 29, took a handful of film classes at Occidental College before deciding to study film at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, where she graduated in 1999. She concedes that, upon entering the Art Center College, she knew precious little about the technical side of filmmaking, so she just started experimenting.
“The college provided cameras on loan from a camera company, so people were always running shoots, and I went to a lot of them just to observe and learn about cameras and cinematography,” she says. “I eventually started shooting my own stuff, and one day, I decided to make a spec commercial for Kirin Beer called Pig, which went on to win a Silver Clio award from the AICP (Association of Independent Commercial Producers). I shot Pig in two hours, and then I animated the eyes and mouth [of the tiny, pig-shaped bottle-opener that stars in the piece] myself using Adobe Illustrator, Adobe After Effects, and Photoshop on a little Macintosh G3 computer. I even recorded the sound in my kitchen. I went on to do three other commercials in school, which gave me enough material for a decent reel.”
That reel won her calls from several production companies, and Yuki eventually signed with DNA, Santa Monica. There, she recently completed her first professional campaign — three :15 spots for McDonald's promoting Happy Meals, done for Leo Burnett, Chicago. That project taught her about the limitations and rules that apply in the real world.
“It was strange, at first, working on something that was not my own concept, but that is what this industry is all about,” she says. “Everyone was nice, and very open to my ideas, but we were limited by certain rules that most people are probably not even aware of. For instance, these were 15-second spots, and the McDonald's logo needed to run for 3.5 seconds, the product shot was 2.5 seconds, and another product shot took up a couple more seconds. In the end, that left me maybe six seconds to be creative. Those limitations impacted my ability to be creative, but they gave me a nice challenge.”
Indeed, Yuki and her crew had to create some in-camera effects to get the “Crazy Bones” toys, which McDonald's was offering in Happy Meals, to roll a certain way. “The rules don't let you do things with the toy that the toy does not really do, but we had to roll them a bit more than they normally roll,” she explains. “That's why we couldn't do the effect digitally — it would be too enhanced. So we ended up drilling a hole in the toys and putting a flexible tube through them, inserting a turning drill that rolled the toys. Little things like that are important lessons. Next time, I'll understand some of these limitations better going in, and I'll be a little more prepared in ways that will help me get a few more of my ideas on screen.”
New Digital Directors
Production companies are increasingly pulling directing talent from the pool of visual-effects artists. Last summer, for instance, Los Angeles-based production company A Band Apart agreed to represent a pair of two-man directing teams with effects backgrounds after seeing the two duo's visually impressive short films.
One team — Mike Horowitz, 25, and Gareth Smith, 24 — were fresh out of UCLA when they created a short, effects-oriented film called This Guy is Falling. The film earned a spot at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. That success won them representation from the William Morris Agency, and within months, their agents signed them to a commercial-directing deal with A Band Apart.
Similarly, Jeremy Hunt, 26, and Bruce Branit, 33, produced a three-minute movie called 405 in their spare time last year, while working as visual-effects artists on TV shows such as Star Trek: Voyager at effects house Digital Muse, Santa Monica. The film quickly made the rounds on several Internet film sites, and within weeks, the duo had a deal with agents at CAA, who linked them to A Band Apart.
Both films consist of highly stylized, animated imagery composited with live action, and were created using low-cost tools. This Guy is Falling tells the story of what happens when a young couple accidentally turns off gravity, causing the entire world to go berserk. 405 illustrates a jetliner landing on the 405 freeway in Los Angeles.
Such work impressed critics, agents, and A Band Apart management enough to bring the four men into the world of commercials. At press time, the artists did not know when they would direct their first spots, but all seemed patient. None of the four had any strategic plans to direct commercials anyway.
“The two of us had good careers at Digital Muse, and we were mainly hoping [405] might lead to some freelance visual-effects work,” says Hunt. “We hoped, maybe, this would be the first step to something better down the road. Now, we're just trying to get ready for what will come next and get ourselves established.”
Horowitz and Smith are similarly waiting for their first commercial. Their hope is to lure clients who want to take advantage of the original, painterly, CG style they created for their film. “We hope they'll let us do the effects work ourselves,” says Smith. “We had a team of 10 people working on our film, and I think that team, on a small scale using low-cost tools, could produce high-end visuals quickly and save clients a few dollars. But we're just starting out, so I'm sure those decisions will be made by the client, the agency, and A Band Apart. But I do think our effects knowledge will make us attractive directors for certain clients.”
Hunt and Branit think that it is logical for young directors in the digital era to create their own visual effects. “405 was a movie done almost exclusively in post,” he says. “It was a movie put together in a computer. Thanks to the Internet and digital tools, there is now a whole generation of filmmakers who are taking a hands-on approach to every aspect of filmmaking, not just shooting live-action. That's an area we are learning more about, and it's obviously crucial, but I think it makes sense that as commercials evolve, directors will be more involved in all the various technical stages.”
Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.
