Having just wrapped their feature debut–Blades of Glory, starring Will Ferrell–directors Will Speck and Josh Gordon, a.k.a. Speck/Gordon, are eager to return to commercials, with in some respects a deeper appreciation for the advertising community.
“You grow to appreciate ad agency people when they’re no longer there to fight your battles for you,” observes Gordon of his theatrical moviemaking experience. “When in the case of a movie you have to go to the money people to get something done, you realize how much the agencies have to go through to make sure the work is as good as it can be.”
Speck affirms he and Gordon are looking forward to again directing spots via Santa Monica-based production house Furlined. “We don’t regard them [commercials] as a stepping stone to movies and once you’ve gotten there, you’re gone. Advertising is an industry we love. It has helped us to develop our creative voice within and we want to continue that development.”
Among the most eloquent work coming from that voice has been Speck/Gordon’s ongoing collaboration with The Martin Agency, Richmond, Va., on advertising for Geico, most notably the “Cavemen” campaign, which has struck a responsive chord with audiences most everywhere as reflected in consumer feedback, web buzz, blogs and a place in pop culture. The work has even inspired a pilot for a half-hour sitcom on ABC-TV. Titled Cavemen, the prospective primetime series will center on three prehistoric men who must battle prejudice as they attempt to lead normal lives in modern-day society.
Writer Joe Lawson of The Martin Agency, Speck and Gordon are among the executive producers of the Touchstone Television sitcom project, with the latter two also attached to direct.
The well known conceptual underpinning of the “Cavemen” commercials is that Geico Insurance’s website is so easy to use that even a caveman could do it. Born in the very first commercial, “Insult,” and with its tongue-in-cheek humor building to new dimensions in subsequent years–including “Apology” in which Geico’s TV spokesmen takes the sensitive, contemporary cavemen to a swank bistro for lunch to make amends, and the currently running “Airport,” “Therapy” and “Topic”–the campaign has taken on a life of its own.
In “Topic,” a caveman, who is part of a three-way conversation on a news interview program, defends his Neanderthal colleagues. When the “journalist” suggests that cavemen are clearly backwards in the their thinking, it elicits sarcasm from the caveman who “agrees,” noting that his predecessors merely invented the wheel and laid the foundation for society as we know it today. The other party to the debate, a woman pundit, counters that it “looks like somebody got up on the wrong side of the rock,” causing the caveman to shake his head in disgust and disbelief.
As to why the campaign resonates with the public at large, Speck conjectures, “At the center of the work is this kind of marginalized group of guys who have been excluded and offended. Without our being hyper aware of it, the campaign has evolved to giving us a taste of what it feels like to be a minority, trying to acclimate and find one’s way in a world in which stereotypes keep people from embracing you. Yes, there’s an obvious humor to the campaign but everyone wants to fit in and so this underlying element to the commercials seems to register with people.”
“The advantage,” adds, Gordon, “is that this isn’t a real group so you can say things without being politically incorrect.”
Feelings of alienation, too, aren’t uncommon when dealing with insurance companies. In that regard, the campaign positions Geico favorably in this product category, continues Gordon. “Advertising is at its best when it humanizes a company and makes it relatable to people.”
The articulate caveman even made this year’s Super Bowl pre-game show. In a couple of short pieces, he is seen playing a round of golf and wagering with former NFL quarterback and current CBS sports analyst Phil Simms.
Spot menu
However, Speck/Gordon’s commercialmaking reach extends well beyond the “Cavemen” campaign. For example, there’s been other work for Geico, as well as a Levi’s campaign for Bartle Bogle Hegarty, London, and Samsung for Berlin Cameron, New York. “The Samsung and Levi’s work play with tone and storytelling in different ways than the comedic context of Geico,” notes Speck. “We did Samsung just prior to taking on the movie and would like to continue to stretch ourselves in commercials.”
Casting is key, stress the directing team, adding that they’re gratified to see several of their chosen spot actors show their mettle and make names for themselves in long form, such as Michael Pena who was in the Levi’s package and has since moved on to gain rave notices in such films as Crash and World Trade Center.
Similarly for Blades of Glory, Speck/Gordon tapped into their commercialmaking collaborators over the years, citing DP Stefan Czapsky as an example. The directors first worked with the acclaimed DP on a Geico spot and gravitated toward him for their first theatrical movie.
“Plus a huge consequence of having worked with Company 3 on every single spot we’ve ever done is that they did the DI for us on the movie,” said Speck. “In fact when we were at the Company 3 bays, we saw a whole generation of commercial guys who transitioned to features working there on the DI for their films–directors like Michael Bay and Antoine Fuqua.” Company 3 telecine artists Stefan Sonnenfeld and Sean Coleman worked on Blades of Glory.
NYU
Speck and Gordon first met at NYU film school. “Four of us were assigned to this crew–and Will and I just hit it off. We had an immediate rapport and to this day are great checkpoints for each other and happy collaborators,” relates Gordon.
Having garnered a student Academy Award for their thesis film at NYU, Speck and Gordon decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue their dream of becoming feature filmmakers. Gordon got a gig as a writer’s assistant on the series Mad About You while Speck worked for producer Laura Ziskin on the movie To Die For. While serving in those capacities during the day, the aspiring directors worked on scripts and shorts at night. But after a year or so they felt the need to get back wholly into directing. They financed their own short film, Culture, in ’97 and it went on to be nominated for an Oscar in the best live-action short category.
With Culture and a spec spot culled from another short film, Angry Boy, they were signed by bicoastal/international @radical.media for commercials. They later joined Omaha Pictures, under the aegis of managing director Diane McArter. Omaha eventually closed, with McArter moving on to cofound Furlined. Speck/Gordon have been with Furlined since that company’s inception in ’05 and remain firmly committed to the spotmaking discipline and other emerging forms.
