From Viral To Mainstream--With A Common Bond
By Millie Takaki
When James Rouse made the transition from agency creative to director in 2004, he generated a major buzz in the then truly viral world, before the heyday of YouTube. Back then a spot had to capture people’s imagination at a grass-roots level and then build at a rapid rate for it to launch onto the scene like an explosive chain letter.
The first of assorted viral successes in Rouse’s career was his directorial debut, a web campaign for Trojan condoms in which carnal gymnastics take on Olympian proportions. Out of London agency Media Therapy and produced and created by The Viral Factory, also in London, the Trojan fare shows athletes going for the gold in tongue-in-cheek events such as pelvic power lifting. A champion in that dubious sport is shown who can clearly stake claim to being a strong man–with an even stronger appendage of manhood, which holds his stripped below the waist female companion in mid-air long enough to win the competition, to the cheers of an admiring, patriotic crowd.
Largely on the strength of this campaign, Rouse gained inclusion into the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase as well as the second annual SHOOT New Directors Showcase, both in ’04.
Yet it wasn’t until this past year that Rouse–who’s with Outsider in the U.S. and U.K.– diversified meaningfully into the mainstream TV advertising arena with such triumphs as the joyous Discovery Channel “Boom Dee Ya Da” anthem, the witty Nike U.K. football spot “Turning Spanish” and Kia Motors’ inspired Flashdance takeoff.
The latter came out of Los Angeles agency davidandgoliath while the Discovery Channel promo and the Nike U.K. ad both were created by 72andSunny, El Segundo, Calif. On the heels of these spots came Rouse-directed TV efforts that included a global Ikea campaign out of U.K. agency St. Lukes, BBC Radio 2 out of Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R, London, and McDonalds via Leo Burnett, London.
So why did the past 12 months prove to be the time for Rouse to extend his directorial reach into high-profile TV advertising?
Rouse himself isn’t sure but he does know that he’s held true to his viral sensibilities even in broadcast. “For a viral, the priority is to engage the consumer,” he related. “Once you’ve engaged them, then you can start selling. TV commercials often are about product first and audience entertainment is secondary. I believe in the prioritizing that goes into viral and I’ve applied that both to my viral and TV work.”
Perhaps Rouse’s increased involvement in broadcast advertising can in part be attributed to a shift in the landscape as TV spot creators too are coming to the realization that in today’s multiple media choice/fragmented marketplace, content has to be entertaining and engaging just to gain attention.
“In that respect, my viral orientation has helped me in television advertising–at least in the TV spots I’ve been able to attract. I love virals and continue to do them. I love that they put audience engagement first and that I think has become a necessity in television as well. Advertiser awareness of this has increased. With the plethora of choices that viewers have, commercials had better engage the consumer, talk to the consumer on a one-to-one level, give the consumer something back of value. Then it is more likely that the consumer will listen and give back to you.”
Rouse’s terms of engagement have been entertainment and humor. But while the viral sensibilities have been a constant, the humor in his work is quite different from the Trojan campaign that put him on the map.
“I don’t see myself as a comedy director in the traditional sense,” he related. “Most of the recent TV spots I’ve done are playful in nature.”
Playfulness certainly characterizes “Boom Dee Ya Da” as people and Discovery Channel celebs break out into song as they revel in different scenarios, each reflecting the wonders unfolding all over the world and across the universe.
Rouse noted that he strives to make his work ring true emotionally. “And sometimes humor comes out of that emotional truth, even if it’s absurd humor,” he observed.
Another strongsuit that influences Rouse’s work is his agency creative experience in the U.K. “Even though I think in terms of engaging and entertaining an audience first, I have an inherent understanding of what the client and agency are trying to achieve. The goal is to build brand and to hopefully sell something in the process. I have experienced what agency creatives go through and that has informed me as a director.”
Rouse served as a creative-often multi-tasking as a writer, art director and creative director at different London agencies, including BMP, TBWA and Euro RSCG. He then contributed to the creative on the Trojan campaign under the condition that he be considered to direct the spots. “There was no earthly reason for Ed Robinson [The Viral Factory’s executive producer/producer on the Trojan campaign] to give me the opportunity to direct but he took the leap of faith and did, for which I’ll always be grateful.”
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More