The husband-and-wife directing team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, a.k.a. Dayton/Faris, is well known in the music video industry. Directing clips for top acts such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins and Oasis has brought the directori al duo critical claim. In fact, just this past year, Dayton/Faris was voted Best Director at the MTV Video Music Awards, for the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ "Californication" clip.
The high-profile honor was gratifying. But t hese days, Dayton/Faris, who are represented by bicoastal Bob Industries, are equally thrilled to be gaining more widespread attention for their spot work. "Coming from videos, you get a lot of feedback because your name is on the screen. With commercials, sometimes you feel like you’re doing really hard work, and no one knows what you’re doing," Dayton observes. "So it’s kind of nice to feel like, ‘Oh, people are seeing these commercials.’ "
Without a doubt, more and mo re people are seeing and appreciating Dayton/Faris’ work nowadays. Among the duo’s recent directing highlights are memorable spots for IKEA, out of Deutsch, New York—"Gilligan’s Island" and "Brady Bunch"—both of which had IKEA specialists re decorating the shows’ sets, and a series of high-profile holiday Gap ads.
Created by Modernista!, Boston, and by the in-house creative team at Gap, San Francisco, the latter campaign, which comprises "Light Bulb," "Slow Down," "Kiss" and "Snowflake," found actors clad in Gap clothes and interacting in a variety of defined environments. The concepts were simple, yet visually stimulating. For example, "Light Bulb" depicted a group of people having a party inside of a li ght bulb. It’s a wild affair with people dancing on the walls and ceiling.
Achieving that illusion was certainly a complicated task, and Dayton and Faris are well versed in effects. But they’re not tech-heads by any mea ns. As the duo notes, the Gap spots not only dazzle the eye, they also evoke a particular mood—in this case, the warmth of the holiday season. And bringing out that feeling was important not only to the directing team, but to Modernista! creative d irector/copywriter Lance Jensen. "He’s interested in emotion, which is something that is key to our work—evoking an emotional response in someone," Faris says.
Of all of their work, it may very well be the Volksw agen spot "Milky Way," via Arnold Worldwide, Boston, that generates a most intense emotional response—without a word being spoken. (Prior to launching Modernista!, Jensen was an executive VP/group creative director on the VW account at Arnold.)
"Milky Way" finds a group of young people driving along dark and winding roads in a VW Cabrio. The top is down, and everyone is silently enjoying the moonlit evening as the Nick Drake song "Pink Moon" plays in the backgrou nd. Eventually, they pull up to a noisy party that appears to be in full swing. The kids all look at each other, and although they don’t say a word, it is clear that none of them is interested in breaking the mood by attending the bash. Cut to a shot of the Cabrio once again zooming down the road into the darkness.
HANDS ON
How involved were Dayton/Faris in shaping the VW spot’s concept? Well, the cre atives at Arnold had the basic premise mapped out when they brought the directors into the project. But whether the kids should vocalize their desire not to go to the party remained a question. Dayton/Faris nixed that idea. They believed the spot would be more powerful if the kids communicated simply with looks. As for the music used in the spot, the creatives had selected a few potential songs, including "Pink Moon," which Dayton/Faris was all for. "We’ve been Nick Drake fans for a long time," Faris says, "and we thought that would be such a great song to hear in a commercial."
Generally, Dayton and Faris will take a spot through the editing and post process. But, in this case, the agency creatives handled that job in Boston. Still, they did allow Dayton and Faris to take part in the process. "They sent us cuts every day, and we were involved in giving feedback, which was great," reports Dayton.
Faris adds, "They really listened, too, which was great. We had a fair amount of comments; they really heard them, and they made changes."
Collaboration throughout the commercialmaking process is key, the duo stresses. "Since we’re collaborators, Valerie and I, we’re very comfortable bringing in a group of people, whether it is an art director or a writer, and collaborating," explains Dayton. "And if we’re working with good, smart people, there’s nothing better than a bunch of good ideas floating around."
That is, "as long as everyone is willing to explore ideas and not get their egos wrapped up in it too much," Faris notes.
As for how Dayton and Faris work together, the seemingly egoless directors truly function as a team. They don’t split up duties. Rather, they put their heads together to work out every aspect of a project. And, no, it isn’t always easy. "If we’re arguing that day, it’s harder," Faris says, laughing.
The two met back in college at UCLA, where Faris was a dance major, and Dayton was a film major. In 1983, they were part of a team that directed, wrote and produced the MTV series The Cutting Edge. After four years at MTV, they left to work on a variety projects, including the documentary The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years, which they produced. In the early ’90s, they began directing music videos, which ultimately led them into commercials in ’96. Prior to signing with B ob Industries, they were represented by bicoastal Reactor Films.
Ask them what they like working on more?x2014;music videos or commercials?x2014;and you’ll get no argument. Both Dayton and Faris agree it is impossible to say one is better than the other. Actually, they maintain that working on music videos isn’t all that different from commercialmaking.
To find success in either discipline, states Dayton, "You need to be really clear with everyone you’re working with about what you’re going to do."
And Faris adds that it is important to work with solid creatives. "If you pick people whose work you like, you’re probably going to like them, and you’re going to get along," she says. "Mutual respect is really important."o
