Having recently wrapped his first commercial in many years–Guinness’ “Mustang” for Abbott Mead Vickers, BBDO, London, produced by Independent Media, Santa Monica–feature filmmaker Anthony Minghella reflected on the experience and its creative benefits. He also shared his views on what he regards as a generally one-way crossover street.
Minghella is a firm believer in short-form fare, although he is best known for his directing and writing of feature-length films. In ’97, he won a best director Academy Award for The English Patient, which garnered a total of nine Oscars, including one for best picture. The English Patient also earned Minghella a nomination for best writing of a screenplay based on material from another medium. Three years later he was a best screenplay Oscar nominee for The Talented Mr. Ripley, a film that he also directed. And he wrote the screenplay for and directed Cold Mountain, which earned a best supporting actress Oscar for Renee Zellweger in ’04.
However, lesser-known shorter format endeavors for Minghella include a 16-minute piece based on the work of playwright Samuel Beckett. In his interview with SHOOT, the director offered both historical and contemporary perspectives for the importance of short films. The former stems from Minghella’s role as chairman of the British Film Institute, which helped to restore the Mitchell & Kenyon Collection consisting of some 500 one-minute films shot around the turn of the 20th century. The films had been stored in barrels and were discovered in the early 1990s in Blackburn. Mitchell & Kenyon was a late Victorian and Edwardian film company based in Blackburn. The company made a series of films commissioned by traveling fairground operators for showing at local fairgrounds across the U.K.
The films were used to entice people to come to the local fairs. Crews would lens people in everyday life and then tell them that they could see the films at an upcoming fair. Indeed people would turn out for the fair just to see themselves.
Now the films will be shown on the BBC in the form of a series co-produced by the BBC and the British Film Institute. Minghella noted that the Mitchell & Kenyon collection is fascinating not only in terms of documenting life in the early 1900s, but also for serving as “a breeding ground” for filmmakers, affording them the opportunity to learn and hone their skills.
Fast forward to today and that short film dynamic is just as vital and relevant, observed Minghella, citing the new forms emerging in the advertising arena. “You can have a ‘Diesel dreams’ DVD with 25 to 30 shorts about people in their [Diesel] jeans,” he related. “It’s a way for young filmmakers to have their say, to create glamorous calling cards that at the same time can be exploited commercially. I like that alchemy, where talent can go out and play while contributing to the marketplace.”
SPOT EXPERIENCE
Prior to establishing himself as a feature filmmaker, Minghella had occasion to direct some commercials via The Paul Weiland Film Company, a London shop with which he continues to maintain a relationship. However, once his theatrical motion picture career took hold, Minghella stopped helming spots.
Minghella believes that crossing over into commercials for the first time is generally not an easy transition for most feature filmmakers. “Directors are used to being the author of the film rather than the servant of the commercial,” he observed. “There’s a big change of power and shift of responsibilities when moving into commercials.”
Even though he has a fair measure of spot directing experience, Minghella viewed getting back into the ad discipline as a challenge in that the feature film norm has been for him to serve in the dual role of writer and director. In sharp contrast, he observed, the writing of commercials is “a specialist activity as an idea passes through the gauntlet of that special relationship between agency and client, testing and scrutiny all along the way. That’s far different from the individual voice of a feature film.”
Still, he was lured back into the ad fold by the aforementioned Guinness project, which entailed filming stateside and production via Independent Media. Minghella said that Susanne Preissler, Independent Media’s executive producer, played a key role in his decision to take on the assignment. He noted that several colleagues, including director Sydney Pollack (Out of Africa, Tootsie), told him of their favorable experiences working with Preissler on select spots. “I enjoy Susanne’s energy, exuberance and support,” said Minghella. “She is single-minded in her belief in promoting filmmakers for the right commercials.”
The nature of the Guinness assignment also appealed to Minghella. The spot tells the story of a man sent to a prison camp with no fences, but with a major requirement–the taming of a wild mustang. “It was a visual landscaped piece with no dialogue. It’s storytelling that required a slightly epic look to it which speaks to my feature work,” assessed Minghella, adding that Guinness has a track record of advertising with “an element of wit” and is “not obsessed with the banal relationship between the drink and the film.”
SEDUCTION
Spots also afford a feature filmmaker the chance to work with different people. “”In my movie life, I have my own crew, a great team that I always work with. That’s part of the seduction of the commercial for the film director–new crew people, working with new equipment, under new circumstances,” said Minghella.
Two such new elements provided by the Guinness job were of particular note, he continued, citing the opportunity to work with noted cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List) and being able to shoot for the first time in Los Angeles.
“It’s like a date,” said Minghella of the chance to work with artists outside his longstanding circle, in this case Kaminski. “You get to know someone and how they work. I would love to work with Janusz again.”
Minghella added, “It was thrilling and instructive to shoot in Los Angeles, to see how film friendly California is, with tremendous access to facilities and resources. I’ve been making period movies for a decade. To be able to shoot people [in the Guinness] ad wearing jeans was refreshing–to be able to shoot what’s available instead of having to create something to be shot.”
The commercial also served as a bridge to Minghella’s next feature, Breaking and Entering, which is a contemporary film set to begin production in the spring. He observed that the Guinness project helped in his transition from period films to the modern day Breaking and Entering. At press time, Minghella was in the midst of casting the movie, which he described as being about “theft, both criminal and emotional–It’s a story in which the person stolen from is more guilty than the one who is stealing.”
Minghella noted that since his recent foray into spots, he’s received other intriguing ad offers “that I would have considered if I were unencumbered.” But with his current feature, he related, “I’m quite encumbered.” Yet he’s gratified by the opportunity to again get involved in commercialmaking, and to have established a stateside link with Preissler.
