Director Jon Nowak, a former Fallon Minneapolis staffer who left the agency nearly a year ago to focus full-time on his helming career, has come aboard Green Dot Films, Santa Monica. This marks the first national spot representation for Nowak, who’s already directed a Green Dot-produced job: an M&M’s commercial for BBDO New York, which was shot in Buenos Aires.
Nowak’s directorial credits include a short film, commercials and branded entertainment fare. The latter was Buddy Lee: Guidance Counselor, a three-part miniseries, starring the Lee Jeans “spokesdoll,” which ran for six weeks (each episode had a two-week run) during the MTV2 show Control Freak. For each installment of the Buddy Lee show, viewers were able to vote on their favorite of three proposed endings for that week’s tale. The winning vignette would then appear during Control Freak, while the other two alternates could be accessed on the MTV2 Web site.
The voting dynamic paralleled that of Control Freak, in which viewers choose their favorite video after music clips square off against each other during the show. Each episode of Buddy Lee: Guidance Counselor begins with the high school glee club singing a tune about Buddy Lee and his prowess in career guidance. We then cut to a high school student pondering his professional future and seeking advice from Mr. Lee, who sits in a large leather chair in an office with walls that are covered with pictures of Buddy’s exploits–his days as an astronaut, explorer and a pilot. The student presents three possible career options, then flashback sequences provide a look at Buddy’s experiences in those occupations–none of which went well. For example, in the first episode, Buddy’s time as a plumber resulted in his being stuck in the drain of a kitchen sink; his stint as a dog walker has the canines walking him; and his efforts to walk over hot coals caused his head to catch fire.
The student then realizes he’s not cut out for any of these jobs, at which point the chorus returns. Snippets of three other careers are then presented–from which viewers can choose. In the first episode, the choices were trapeze artist, soap opera actor and ventriloquist. As a trapeze artist, Buddy loses his shirtsleeves during a routine because his arms won’t bend. As an actor, Buddy’s face sports a moustache and a single tear. And as a ventriloquist, his “partner” is a real person instead of a dummy. The viewers voted for the profession of soap opera star.
Nowak directed the Buddy Lee miniseries via his own shop Uncle Forehead Films, Minneapolis. Uncle Forehead was his first roost since exiting Fallon, where he served as an editor for the agency’s in-house editorial arm, Assembly Line. Fallon devised Buddy Lee: Guidance Counselor and its run on Control Freak to reach the elusive 17 to 22-year-old male demographic.
Via Uncle Forehead Films, Nowak also helmed a TV/cinema campaign for the Central Standard Film Festival, out of Fallon. One of the spots, “Well,” gained inclusion in SHOOT‘s “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery (11/12/04, p. 11) and helps to establish filmmakers whose work is at the fest as being incredibly independent.
In “Well,” we don’t even have to see the filmmaker–hearing him suffices–to realize he is fiercely independent. Our unseen protagonist is trapped at the bottom of a well. However, a Lassie-esque brand of rescue seems imminent when a collie appears on the scene. The twist is that the man turns away the dog, much to the canine’s bewilderment. The collie barks for help–but the guy doesn’t want to be helped. “Isn’t the barn on fire?” he asks the dog wryly, indicating that the canine is wasting its time.
The spot identifies the well-trapped victim as being “a fiercely independent filmmaker,” the creative backbone of the Central Standard Film Festival, which screens “fiercely independent films.”
During his tenure at Fallon, Nowak directed various projects for the agency, including a spec TV show. Additionally, his piece titled Suspension won TriggerStreet’s best short film competition held at Sundance 2004.
Nowak said he felt simpatico with the Green Dot ensemble, headed by executive producer Rick Fishbein. The director shuttered Uncle Forehead in order to come aboard Green Dot.
Fishbein related that he was drawn to Nowak’s talent as well as his demonstrated expertise in branded entertainment. “Jon took a cultural icon [Buddy Lee] and turned it into a TV show,” related Fishbein. “Companies wanting to move into the branded content space are looking to find a guy who has done what Jon did for Lee Jeans. He helps to position us in branded entertainment while also strengthening our roster for commercials.”
That directorial roster includes Marc Chiat, the team of Mark Coppos/Virginia Lee, Thom Higgins, Michael Patterson, Luis Ruiz, Garry Sato and company principal Brent Thomas.
Alex Anderson is Green Dot’s head of sales/East Coast and international sales. Darren Foldes handles the Midwest and the West Coast.