Two men sit down at a bar. The bartender nods to them. "How ya doin’?" he says, by way of greeting. "How ya doin’?" they say in reply. A third man, in a cowboy hat, takes a stool. "How ya doin’?" asks the bartender in greeting. "Thanks for asking," says the newcomer, in a friendly Texas drawl. "My brother-in-law picked me up at the airport. Mighty big airport y’all got here. And the people are so nice." The bartender looks startled at getting a substantive reply. "Do you want something to drink?" he asks. "Sure. A Bud," says the friendly stranger.
Another man enters, sits down, the "How ya doin’?" ritual is repeated until it comes to the out-of-towner, who says to the new visitor, "Thanks for asking. My brother-in-law picked me up at the airport. Mighty big airport y’all got here. And the people are so nice." By the time a fourth man sits down, the bartender is trying to signal him not to ask, "How ya doin’?" But it is too late. "Thanks for asking. My brother-in-law picked me up at the airport. Mighty big airport…"
The sequence is from "Out of Towner," the Emmy-nominated Budweiser spot via DDB Chicago that was directed by Allen Coulter of bicoastal/international hungry man, and debuted during this year’s Super Bowl. (The other nominees are: Visa’s "Broadway Tribute," re-cut as a post-9/11 tribute by Sabrina Huffman of bicoastal Crew Cuts, and helmed by bicoastal/international @radical.media’s Gregor Nicholas for BBDO New York; Nike’s "Move," directed by Jake Scott of bicoastal RSA USA, and edited by Adam Pertofsky of Rock Paper Scissors, Los Angeles, for Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.; FOX Sports’ "Nail Gun," helmed by Baker Smith of Santa Monica-based Harvest through TBWA/Chiat/Day, San Francisco, and cut by Hank Corwin of bicoastal Lost Planet; Disney’s "First Words," directed by Joe Pytka of Venice, Calif.-based PYTKA for Leo Burnett USA, Chicago, and edited by Terry Kaney of Avenue, Chicago; and Computer Associates’ "Amnesia," directed by LeMoine/Miller of bicoastal/international @radical. media, via Young & Rubicam, New York, and cut by David Cornman of The Blue Rock Editing Company, New York.)
Good guys
"Out of Towner," which features the "Jersey Guys," who could double as cast members of The Sopranos, is a funny premise, and it works primarily because of the wonderful performances and the smooth, seamless editing of shots and reaction shots. They say that, in comedy, timing is everything. If that’s the case, the man behind the timing of a piece such as "Out of Towner" has a lot of pressure on him. And Michael Coletta wouldn’t have it any other way.
Coletta, who edits spots out of Bug Editorial, New York, was the cutter on "Out of Towner." He is a man who seems to thrive on the challenges of editing, and is known for his ability to get laughs through his cutting skills. "He has great instincts," observes Vinny Warren, associate creative director at DDB, who worked with Coletta on "Out of Towner," among other Budweiser spots. "The performances were so good in that piece," observes Warren. "Allen Coulter is such a nuance guy and the editing had to reflect that. Mike just walked in, did a rough cut and we did not change a thing."
"Out of Towner" was part of a three-spot campaign directed by Coulter (the other two were "Gina" and "Wedding"), and it had a tight turnaround schedule. "We turn to Mike when there’s usually a lot of pressure," Warren explains. "We want someone who gets it right away. Mike seems to get our thing really well—beer and all that goes with it."
Coletta became interested in photography in the army when he was assigned to the photographic unit ("We took a lot of pictures of hinges and locks," he says dryly) and then majored in film and television at Columbia College, Chicago. And in 1988, while still at school, he landed a job at Szabo-Totz, a Chicago-based boutique editing facility (which expanded to the full-service Skyview in ’89). He served as an assistant editor until ’91, when he began editing full-time. He spent a total of 10 years at Skyview before shifting to The Lookinglass Company, Chicago (now The Whitehouse, which has offices in London, New York, Chicago and Santa Monica). He signed with Bug last September.
Coletta thinks the editor’s role is key. "The editor comes in at the last minute and offers an objective eye," he explains. "You come in and look at all the film, and you don’t have any of the baggage from the shoot [influencing your opinion]. I think with comedy, it’s easy to tell if it’s working. If it makes you laugh, it’s good."
Nonetheless, Coletta is meticulous at mining for laughs. He usually works in the still of the night, reviewing everything that is shot and making notes of details like blinking eyes and subtle frowns. He will review the storyboards but usually likes to create a "mental storyboard." After that, he will edit everything he likes into the spot, which usually clocks in at 50-plus seconds. Then comes the hard part: "You have to tell the same story in 30 seconds."
"One of the things I like about him is that he has an attitude about things," obsserves DDB’s Warren of Coletta. "He has a point of view. I respect that. But he’s also quite flexible, which is important in our business."
For the future, Coletta says he’d like to branch out from comedy. He recently completed a non-comedic car commercial for Ford, but has also recently done three humorous spots for Canon. "I don’t want to be pigeon-holed," he says. "The bottom line in editing is that you’re not just a comedy editor. When editing comedy, it’s not just about the joke. It’s about being a good storyteller."
