If Emmy nominations were given out for tag team joke-making, the directing duo of LeMoine.Miller—Rick and Steve, respectively—would win. Observing the duo in the New York offices of bicoastal/international @radical.media is like watching a ping pong game—one says something silly, the other plays off it and eventually the conversation veers off into the absurd.
For instance, when asked how they divide their directing duties, Miller answers very seriously that LeMoine does all the directing while he takes care of the baked goods. This comment comes shortly after LeMoine jokes about brushing his teeth with a tree branch and before discovering that they’d both worn their Scooby Doo underwear that day.
Their banter is deadpan, but not cynical, sometimes silly, but never slapstick. It’s precisely what agencies hire them for—their keen sense of humor coupled with the intangible comfort of their relationship.
Recently, "Amnesia," a spot LeMoine.Miller directed for Computer Associates out of Young & Rubicam, New York, was nominated for the Emmy award for best primetime commercial. (The other nominees were: Visa’s "Broadway Tribute," helmed by @radical’s Gregor Nicholas for BBDO New York; FOX Sports’ "Nail Gun," helmed by Baker Smith of Santa Monica-based Harvest through TBWA/Chiat/Day, San Francisco; Disney’s "First Words," directed by Joe Pytka of Venice, Calif.-based PYTKA for Leo Burnett USA, Chicago; Budweiser’s "Out of Towner," directed by Allen Coulter of bicoastal/international hungry man via DDB Chicago; and the winner, Nike’s "Move," directed by Jake Scott of bicoastal RSA USA for Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.) In "Amnesia" a boss and his two young associates barrel down an office hallway to a meeting. One of the young men assures the older man not to worry, that he has all the information right here, pointing to his head. He says this just before the trio turns the corner and the young man knocks himself out cold on an open filing cabinet drawer. The boss pauses, reflecting for just a moment on how screwed he is before proceeding to the boardroom where some chilly-looking clients await. The boss’ remaining wingman walks in and whispers to him not to worry because the other guy told him everything. But a slip of the hand leads him to knock himself unconscious on the edge of the conference room table. A voiceover then says: "Is your data backup as reliable as it should be? Ours is. BrightStor storage software from Computer Associates."
When you have a script that calls for two guys who knock themselves out, one walks a slippery slope between funny and stupid, and it’s that subtle difference that LeMoine. Miller specialize in. "[‘Amnesia’] is actually a decent example of what we do," notes Miller. "No matter how big the physical gag, if we keep all the performances around it human and small, we think that makes it a lot funnier.
"The thing that grounds [‘Amnesia’] in reality is everybody has had a moment where they’re stuck without the answer," continues Miller. "Where they’re exposed. What makes it so funny is the look on the main guy’s face. That two seconds of paralysis where he’s like, ‘Oh my God, I’m fucked’ "
To capture that string of truth, they encourage actors to just behave like human beings, and not like people who are trying to be funny. "Nine times out of ten we call the casting agent the day after casting and tell them to calm everybody down," says LeMoine. "We just want people to play it the way they would if it was really happening to them."
After "Amnesia" came out—the spot was part of a package that also includes "Stapler" and "Sector 12"—the two kept getting boards with people falling down. And while they’d love to carve out a niche for themselves as the fall-down directors, they fear having an entire reel that resembles America’s Funniest Home Videos, which, according to Miller wouldn’t be such a bad thing. "People falling at weddings in dresses into cakes and there’s tears … that’s good times," he says.
syracuse
connection
If LeMoine.Miller had to pick one crowning moment in their career, it would be directing two spots for Lipton Sizzle & Stir out of Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), New York, titled "The Woolery’s" and "The T’s." The spots center on the tradition of coming together as a family for dinner. The twist is that the nuclear families in these ads are comprised of ’80s icons such as Loni Anderson, Mr. T, Chuck Woolery and gymnast Mary Lou Retton. "There’s a time in your life when you look around and you just go, ‘How is it that it’s all comes down to this?’ " says Miller, incredulous at having directed this quirky group of people.
LeMoine.Miller recently completed a four-spot package for Bud Light comprising the ads ""Whack-a-Mole," "Reggae," "Cabana Boy," and "Zapper" via DDB Chicago. Prior to that they were working on four ads for Rolling Rock—"Bucket of Rocks," "Between A Rock and a Hard Place," "Keep On Rockin’" and "Rock Face"—out of McCann-Erickson, New York, and had also directed four spots, "Springer," "Like That," "Boyfriend," and "Hand," for BBH’s recent launch of Axe Deodorant Bodyspray. Of the aforementioned three jobs, they say the Bud Light work teeters towards being downright wacky, but Miller contends that buried beneath several layers of "wack," the element of truth is still there.
There’s no way either LeMoine or Miller could have predicted this fate back when they met at Syracuse University in the early ’80s. The two took some advertising classes together and were later hired at Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, New York. From there they both made the move to Cliff Freeman and Partners, New York, when that shop opened. LeMoine stayed until ’93, and Miller left to work at Saatchi & Saatchi, London, then Chiat/Day/Mojo (now TBWA/Chiat/Day), New York, and finally at Chiat/Day/Mojo (now Mojo), Auckland, New Zealand. The two lost touch during these years, but when Miller returned to New York in ’96 he looked up LeMoine, who had been freelancing as a creative director/copywriter. They began collaborating as a freelance creative team and landed some business with ESPN to create 10 promos for NASCAR. "We were both flirting with the directing idea individually so when we got this project from EPSN we said we’d create them if we can direct them and fortunately ESPN agreed," recalls LeMoine.
For first-time directors they were given a decent budget, so they approached @radical.media for production support. The collaboration was so successful that the team was signed on to direct in ’97, and they’ve basically never looked back. "We got lucky that this is where we started because there’s a lot of places we could have ended up and you have to admit that @radical is one of the top production companies around so there hasn’t been the real itch to move on," relates LeMoine. "Plus, they have a nice kitchen," Miller adds.
Another subject that’s not been completely addressed by the team is whether they’ve ever thought about going solo. So content are they to work together that they’re living very much in the moment. Although, "I have a side gig going," Miller confides, unable to look at LeMoine. "I’m thinking about becoming a wedding videographer. But, you know, we haven’t really talked about that yet."n
