The marquee names roll off the tongue and onto the Rolodex with ease, reflecting the fact that major international directors continue to make significant inroads into American advertising. Just check out the filmmakers behind honored work at this year’s AICP Show, such as directors Frank Budgen and Chris Palmer of Gorgeous, London (repped stateside by bicoastal Anonymous Content).
Furthermore, leading international, much lauded helmer Suthon Petchsuwan of Matching Studio, Bangkok, recently made his U.S. ad debut via Santa Monica-based TWC on a national Snapple campaign for Cliff Freeman and Partners, New York. Indeed the U.S. community keeps a watchful eye on international directors. Their movements are closely monitored in terms of projects and production house affiliations. Consider the interest generated with the recent coming together of directors Daniel Kleinman and Ringan Ledwidge at an as yet unnamed shop in London.
But for the purposes of this SHOOT series installment, we’re looking to identify several of the foreign directors who loom on the horizon. Though not yet stateside industry household names, they still carry great promise for gaining American ad relevance. Here’s a sampling of talent who could have much in store for the U.S. marketplace:
SAMUELCHRISTOPHER, HUNGRY MAN A “departure from the norm” is a description that fits the London-based directing duo of Chris Turner and Sam Tootal, a.k.a. SamuelChristopher, on two prime fronts. For one, their visually driven storytelling has a different feel, perhaps due to its having evolved from their early days in graphic design and then transitioning into moving film. Secondly, they are a distinct departure from the norm for Hungry Man, a shop best known for its comedy directors, particularly in the U.S.
“That’s part of what attracted to us to Hungry Man,” relates Turner. “The U.K. roster actually doesn’t skew as much to comedy as the U.S. roster–there’s more dramatic storytelling among the U.K. directors. But even at that, our work stands out as quite different from what generally comes out from Hungry Man. We met [Hungry Man director] Bryan Buckley and he embraced that difference. We benefit from being unique at Hungry Man and Hungry Man benefits from our hopefully being able to diversify them into new kinds of work.”
SamuelChristopher has been at Hungry Man for several months, wrapping a series of idents for the U.K.’s Channel 5, which reflected the duo’s graphic and visually compelling storytelling approach. Now inquiries are starting to percolate not only in Europe but via Hungry Man stateside. SamuelChristopher is no stranger to the American market. Last year the team helmed short interstitial content for the Sundance Channel via J. Walter Thompson, New York. At the time, SamuelChristopher was directing independently and completed the Sundance fare–a film interpretation of Billy Collins’ poetry–through Fad, New York.
Tootal and Turner met and began working together at London design firm Spin some four-and-a-half years ago. Prior to Spin, Turner was an art director for Time Out London, where he produced assorted magazine covers, directing shoots with artists including Marilyn Manson, Natalie Imbruglia and Bjork. Before coming aboard Spin, Tootal worked at Communicator, London, where he designed and edited multi-screen films for corporate entities, including Cadillac, Buick and Saab.
At Spin, Tootal and Turner teamed on a diverse body of film and graphic projects for such clients as Nike, MTV and U.K.’s Channel 4. The latter idents package garnered kudos from the British Design & Art Direction Global Awards competition. Tootal and Turner exited Spin and branched out on their own to take on numerous projects, including not only the aforementioned Sundance job, but also a short film, Angel, which premiered at onedotzero9 and went on to screen at festivals throughout Europe.
Tootal notes that Hungry Man’s stellar reputation, supportive staff and its history with he and Turner figured prominently in their decision to come aboard the company. Tootal relates that he and Turner began working on projects some years back at Spin for London agency Mother when Matt Buels was producing there. Buels then went to Hungry Man, and the Spin duo would occasionally collaborate with Hungry Man on certain jobs that called for more film-based resources. When Tootal and Turner exited Spin, they thought for a fleeting moment about immediately hooking on with Hungry Man, if possible. But they instead opted to go independent, building their reel and filmic sensibilities to the point now where they feel that Hungry Man is clearly the right fit for them.
JESPER ERICSTAM, BACKYARD Director Jesper Ericstam from Social Club, Sweden, is making noise, literally, in the U.S. via Backyard Productions, Venice. His recently debuted “Sounds” for Honda and Rubin Postaer and Associates, Santa Monica, opens on a guy seated at a booth in a diner. Suddenly we hear a car engine revving up, the vibrations from the noise causing the man’s cup of coffee and slice of pie to literally shake, moving them across the table. Similarly an elderly couple seated on a bench hears the high performance race car power–but the incongruous sight is that it’s only a sedan that drives past them. The noise is deafening when heard through a drive-through restaurant’s speaker as an attendant tries to no avail to hear the customer’s fast food order. The drive-through vehicle is an SUV.
A voiceover offers an explanation. “Every vehicle we build comes from our racing spirit. Honda is proud to be part of the 2006 Indy Car series.”
Blair Stribley and Eriks Krumins executive produced “Sounds” for Backyard. According to Krumins, Ericstam has a discriminating eye when evaluating boards. “He’s smart and into finding fun and making fun, yet he’s still very serious as an artisan in terms of filmmaking and commercialmaking,” says Krumins. “He’s very selective along those lines. He really only wants to do good work–there are a lot of people who say that, but there aren’t many who [actually] do it.”
That sense of fun is reflected in a Social Club-produced safe sex campaign for Lafa condoms directed by Ericstam and Robert Nylund via Stockholm agency Ester. Two of the spots center on a rendezvous between a guy and a gal at a nightclub. The first spot is the man’s version of what happened. We open on him opening his front door and being punched in the eye. Next, he’s seated with some buddies, telling them what led up to this assault. Turns out he was at a club the night before where he put some moves on and successfully picked up this hot-looking chick. They went back to her place for some hot sex which lasted all night. The next morning he gets punched out, presumably by her jealous lover. Oh, and by the way, the sexual encounter resulted in his contracting Chlamydia. The parting super reads, “Use a condom,” accompanied by a Web site address, www.kondom.nu.
In the spot in which the young girl’s version of what transpired is told to us, she talks about the difficult relationship she’s having with her boyfriend Mike. She relates that she was at this club and saw this “nerd” trying to come onto her. But she was in such a sorry state that she appreciated the attention and went to bed with the guy. The wicked, all night long sex described by him in the first spot was instead an unsatisfying quickie according to her, as we see one minute elapse on a digital clock. Mike finds out and throws her out of their apartment. Again an end tag urges condom usage.
A third spot features Mike who tells us how he was forced to have sex with this female boss at an office party. From the encounter, she got Chlamydia, resulting in her firing him. He figures that his girlfriend must have given him the disease–and when he finds out who she got it from, he’s going to kill him. At this juncture, the well advised message about www.kondom.nu hits the screen.
Ericstam continues to be active in European advertising but Backyard sees his stock rising stateside. The positive experience on Honda reinforces that assessment.
After graduating from RMI Berghs, Stockholm, where he studied scriptwriting, Ericstam first worked at Mekano Film & TV, Stockholm. There he learned to edit and eventually became an assistant director on commercials. He remained at Mekano, where he also directed music videos, until joining Social Club in ’03.
ADAM SMITH, RSA Adam Smith recently gained inclusion into this year’s SHOOT New Directors Showcase. Based in the U.K. and repped by RSA on both sides of the Atlantic, Smith has seen his sweet-natured, feel-good Coca Cola “Ringtone” ad strike a responsive chord with audiences and in the industry. In it, a young man is seated on a bench next to a girl. He begins making cell phone ringing noises, reaches into his bag and pulls out a bottle of Coke. He twists open the bottlecap as if answering a phone, and then hands the girl the Coke, saying, “It’s for you.”
In stark contrast to the Coca-Cola fare, Smith also scored with his stark Children’s Society spot “Walking,” in which the camera’s POV is that of a young runaway girl and what she sees as she goes through London’s streets. The range embodied in this PSA and the Coke spot has helped to generate a commercialmaking community buzz for Smith.
Smith relates how he got into filmmaking. “Whilst doing a photography course, I made a short film shot on super 8 which got me onto a film and video degree course at London College of Printing. During this time some friends and I were doing visuals for various clubs and bands under the name of Vegetable Vision. After two years of the course I ran away on tour with a band and Vegetable Vision became a full-time occupation. Five years of providing visuals for artists including Chemical Brothers, U2 and Beth Orton and various events followed but I grew frustrated with just matching images to music and wanted to properly direct so I made a documentary about a group of men who reenact the Vietnam War in Kent, which Channel 4 screened–” From that a film career was born, with Smith diversifying into spots.
ANDREAS GRASSL, SNUG An accomplished European director whose most recent work has been for Dubai–including Jeep’s “Share the Adventure” out of Pentamark BBDO Dubai, and Pepsi’s “Anthem” featuring the Saudi Arabia soccer team as the centerpiece of a World Cup campaign via Impact BBDO, Jeddah–Andreas Grassl is making his first foray into the U.S. ad market. He has come aboard Snug, the Santa Monica shop launched a year ago by director Michael Grasso and executive producer Fran Wall.
To free himself to focus fully on directing and to move into new markets like the U.S., Grassl sold his interest in Vivafilm, a Munich-based production house he co-founded 17 years ago. Grassl, 39, divested himself of the shop with his former partner taking over ownership. Grassl continues to be repped in Germany by Vivafilm, having collaborated with assorted agencies there over the years, including BBDO, Fahrnholz Junghanns Raetzel, Glanzer + Partners, Publicis, Young & Rubicam, Grey, Ogilvy & Mather, Jung Von Matt and TBWA Germany.
Grassl’s spotmaking has been recognized at assorted ad competitions, ranging from Clio to the New York Festivals to ADC Germany, the London International Advertising Awards, Epica, Eurobest and the Cresta Awards.
His directorial signature spans varied forms of storytelling, including visually driven fare and droll humor. On the latter score, consider Sixtus’ “Champagne” for agency ServicePlan, Munich, and Game Channel’s “Shell Game” out of Ogilvy & Mather, Frankfurt. In “Shell Game,” a camera takes us through an old graveyard, panning from one tombstone to the next–three in particular are of interest. The first reads, “Here lies Paolo Moretti, the famous shell game artist.” The camera moves to the two adjacent headstones which each read, “Or here.” As we’re left to contemplate under which stone Moretti is buried, we see a Game Channel Web site address.
And in “Champagne,” young people flirtatiously enjoy one another at a party. A guy is clearly getting along well with a woman; they dance as the chant of “champagne” is heard. He drinks from her shoe, only to hear another man announce, “Here’s the champagne.” He then realizes what he’s been drinking. A super asks rhetorically, Don’t like sweaty feet?–at which point we see a product shot of Sixtus Fresh Feet Créme.
RODRIGO GARCIA SAIZ, ALTA VISTA FILMS At press time, director Rodrigo Garcia Saiz of Central Films, Mexico City, was wrapping a Greenpeace spot for Saatchi & Saatchi, Mexico City. The PSA’s premise reflects the offbeat sensibilities he exhibits in much of his work. In the ad, a burly man is seen indiscriminately chopping down trees, wreaking havoc in a wooded area, and then ultimately loading just a few logs onto his truck. He drives home to discover his wife in bed with a bear–sort of nature’s way of getting back at him.
For Saiz, who’s directed more than 500 commercials and is regarded as one of Mexico’s A-list comedy directors, a natural evolution has seen his commercialmaking prowess in Latin America translate into opportunities in the U.S. Hispanic market via Alta Vista Films, Hollywood, with work for such clients as Axe, Microsoft, KFC, Wendy’s, and Jack in the Box featuring the big-headed Jack character.
Like in Greenpeace, Saiz was able to make risqué relevant to message in a Spanish language spot for Frenzy condoms in which a mother goes upstairs to find her teenaged daughter in bed with a boy. The mother is furious as her daughter, dressed in a bedsheet, and lover, who’s stark naked with his cupped hands strategically placed, now stand before her. The adult’s rant, though, stops as she looks down at the boy’s nether region, which is out of the camera’s view. Clearly, she’s fascinated with what she sees and calls in another gal to get an eyeful. Turns out the object of their fascination is the ribbed Frenzy condom he’s wearing.
Saiz’s penchant for comedy is also evident in his English-language ad for Wienerschnitzel in which a couple discusses their foolproof method for losing weight after trying all kinds of regimens–the Chili Dog Diet.
ALAN IRVIN, PICTURE TREE Directing for less than a year via Picture Tree, Johannesburg, Alan Irvin comes from the agency side of the business, most notably serving as executive creative director at Grey Worldwide South Africa. He views his storytelling as a bit off center, with a filmic process that is more art directed than “tricksy.”
Indicative of his slightly offbeat take is a spot from agency King James, Cape Town, in which a Houdini-like magician is trapped in a glass tank, which is steadily being filled up by water. His hands and legs bound in thick, tightly knotted rope–and with a nervous audience looking on–this scenario has all the markings of a magic act about to go terribly wrong.
A simple message then appears on screen: “Learn Over 100 Knots,” followed by a logo identifying the sponsor: Scouts of Namibia.
Irvin also exhibits a skilled touch in polished yet intentionally sophomoric humor as evidenced in Leica binoculars’ “Around the World” in which a biker looks through a pair of binocs and seems puzzled by what he sees–a rear view of himself, his biker buddy and their two motorcycles. He then waves his hand to see if the guy he sees through the viewfinder is indeed him–and it is. He is then crassly inspired to pull down his pants and look through the binoculars, in effect mooning himself. A tagline touts Leica as being the world’s best binoculars. Agency is Berry Bush BBDO, South Africa.
