To commemorate its 50th anniversary, which comes upon us in December, SHOOT continues its special series of features that will run through 2010 in which noted creatives, executives and artists reflect on the changes they’ve seen over the decades, as well as the essential dynamics that have endured.
In our first five installments, we tapped into the insights of Lee Clow of Media Arts, TBWA Worldwide, and TBWAMedia Arts Lab; Robert Greenberg of R/GA; Rich Silverstein of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners; Dan Wieden of Wieden+Kennedy; Susan Credle of Leo Burnett; Tony Granger of Young & Rubicam; Kevin Roddy of Bartle Bogle Hegarty, New York; editor/director Larry Bridges of Red Car; and directors Bob Giraldi of Giraldi Media, Joe Pytka of PYTKA, and Noam Murro of Biscuit Filmworks, among other notables.
This time around, we garner observations from David Lubars, chairman/chief creative officer, BBDO North America; Jon Kamen, chairman and CEO of @radical.media; and Stefan Sonnenfeld, who oversees the features and commercials business for Ascent Media’s Creative Services, while maintaining his role as president/managing director of Company 3.
Since beginning his career in 1981, Lubars has seen his work win every major creative award several times over, including Titanium, multiple Grand Prix and 50-plus Lions at Cannes, Grand Clio, Grand Andy, Best of Show One Show, Gold Effie, D&AD, AICP Show honors, and the Emmy four times. During his tenure at Fallon prior to joining BBDO, Lubars had a hand in the breakthrough BMW series of films, which earned the first-ever Titanium Lion. And at BBDO he continues to deliver lauded work across traditional and not so conventional platforms, such as the multimedia “HBO Voyeur” initiative.
Meanwhile Kamen has served as executive producer or producer of Oscar, Grammy, Emmy and Spirit Award-winning fare. Under his and partner Frank Scherma’s aegis, @radical.media has twice been honored with the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Kamen was a founding father of the AICP Show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and is set to blaze another awards trail this month as he will chair the new Film Craft Lions jury at Cannes.
And Sonnenfeld is an accomplished artist/colorist under whose guidance Company 3, which he co-founded in 1997, has risen to a preeminent position in feature and commercial postproduction, particularly in the telecine arena. Sonnenfeld oversees all aspects of Company 3, including hiring of leading colorists, the design and technical innovation entailed in the creation and maintenance of state-of-the-art color grading suites, and business development.
David Lubars “It all starts with a great idea–that’s been a constant over the years,” affirmed BBDO’s David Lubars. But the biggest change relative to that idea, he observed, is that it “has to have a big and strong enough frame, be a big enough upstream idea, so that it can go on 17 different channels–not in a matching luggage way but in a way that naturally fits into and is relevant for each outlet.”
Lubars related, “We’ve entered the screen era. Everything’s a screen. Outdoor is a screen, offline, online, TV, the back of a taxi cab. I was in a restaurant the other day and in the restroom they had screens over the urinals. For the creative community, it can no longer be about sticking the same thing on every screen. Your content has to be relevant to each screen–whether it be a passive traditional television experience, or a clicking and exploring experience on Facebook. The big upstream idea that can go everywhere but take different forms so that it works on each of these screens is gold in today’s marketplace.”
BBDO has been true to this integrated mix, spanning traditional broadcast as well as assorted platforms, the latter reflected in such work as HBO’s “Voyeur” and “Imagine” initiatives, and the Starbucks Love Project. “It’s a theme we’ve pursued, plugging into the different screens with content that people will want to engage in and be engaged by,” said Lubars. “Back in the day–during the ancient history of 10 or so years ago–even the most innovative work was only on one screen. The BMW films were pretty much on one screen. What made them different at that time was that they were long form, and it clearly helped pioneer a pathway for emerging platforms and new ways of communicating and branding. But can you imagine what the BMW project would be today? There would be so many different platforms with viewers being able to get inside the films, to experience the cars and be able to drive them in a very visceral way, for example.
“For HBO’s ‘Imagine,’ we had to produce 41 separate pieces of content,” continued Lubars. “That shows you how things have changed in recent years, and it’s resulted in our having to evolve our working relationships with production houses, artists and internally. We have to create so much more content for less. It’s not just a film anymore. It’s a batch of different elements. Budgets have to be re-thought as does how you shoot, the whole grid of a project. It’s not linear anymore. Again, it’s the big upstream idea that drops down to all these different, varied yet important pieces and executions.”
But at the same time, the more things change, the more they stay the same. “Storytelling is still timeless. You need a great story to tell that people will relate to,” said Lubars. “A big single-minded idea that you can express in a sentence often tells you if you have something worthwhile or not. If I tell you there’s a kid who sees dead people and no one else can, you immediately know the movie I’ve described. A timeless idea makes for a great story whether it be a classic movie or all the different elements that make up a campaign. You have to be timeless, though it also helps to be timely.”
Regarding his vision for the future, Lubars laughs. At first blush, asking him to look into his proverbial crystal ball would seem a plausible query given his track record of often being ahead of the creative curve. However, Lubars responded, “I have never been good at predicting and knowing what direction things are headed. We follow a path and try to sniff out what to do as things happen. A fool believes he or she can accurately predict the future. Years ago who would have easily envisioned Google or Facebook? All you can do is have your antenna up and be ready for what’s coming. So when an outlet emerges, you need to be ready to figure out how to best use it to communicate. This means your creative culture needs to be like cement that never hardens, that constantly stays liquid. Otherwise you’ll only be an arch traditionalist and you’ll get left behind. Cement that stays liquid can be messy, stressful and uneasy, but you have to be in a fluid state to adjust, adapt and create.”
Jon Kamen
Jon Kamen has seen his mainstream commercialmaking production house evolve into what he describes as a “transmedia” company, transmedia being the approach of telling a story by using multiple media types. “Today we create and produce content for all forms of media,” related Kamen. “There’s no question the proliferation of media and channels ranks among the most profound changes during my watch in the business. The advertising industry has adapted, morphed and evolved to embrace this change to multiple platforms–in some cases people and companies have adapted more rapidly than others.”
Indeed @radical.media was quick to adapt, well before it became fashionable. Back in ’94, well entrenched as a successful production company under the banner Sandbank, Kamen & Partners, with a 20-year pedigree, the shop did not rest on its laurels, changing its moniker to @radical.media to reflect a broadening of its base into the brave new media world.
Kamen looked to history as his guide, noting that the advent of new outlets and technology over the years often translated into opportunity both for new and conventional forms. TV was supposed to be the death knell of radio. Ad free cable television was supposed to be a threat to the advertising community. But cable turned out to be quite the opposite, stimulating advertising and branding opportunities.
“You couldn’t help but think that things weren’t going to stay the same,” recollected Kamen. “We were inspired to embrace change, not to fear it. In some cases, technology strengthened established forms of business. In other cases, it caused traditional opportunities to decrease but we were prepared to capitalize on the new opportunities that emerged.”
Embracing change, though, entailed far more than a new company shingle. “We maintained and grew a culture which encouraged people to explore and to share their experiences, to have a sense of excitement and adventure over the new frontier. From that we created a community which is @radical today. Those who said we’ll adapt when the business changed were being somewhat naive as to what it would take to truly transform a company and the people who work in it. That’s why we committed early to truly be prepared.”
And that commitment is ongoing, observed Kamen. “You have to keep evolving. Platforms won’t stop. With two million iPads in less than 60 days, you suddenly see possibilities for that device and how it could affect people’s viewing habits. It would be crazy not to be thinking in terms of what those possibilities might be and how we can better prepare ourselves for that future, to continue to live that destiny. I consider myself a lifetime student which means you have to be constantly learning. That mindset has certainly helped to shape our company.”
In a constantly changing landscape, the importance of learning remains a constant as does, said Kamen, “collective contributions from so many people. You have the directors who grew up here, some of whom became stars, as well as the next generation of talent we’ve been developing. Both I and Frank [Scherma] would point to among our proudest achievements being the careers we have created from what had been an unlikely group of suspects at the time–Bryan Buckley and Frank Todaro were not household names when they broke in with us. Even Errol Morris was relatively obscure as a commercial filmmaker when he joined us. They all did well with us and moved on. Others have stayed with us over the years–director Jeff Zwart continues to flourish, the relationship we have with Tarsem has been creatively fulfilling.”
“And while directors are often focused on, the @radical community goes beyond them–it extends to staff and freelancers who have been with us for years and who helped to break new ground with various projects. And it’s an extended family we’ve created on a global basis.”
Stefan Sonnenfeld The current market is pulling in two decidedly different directions. On one hand, there are the high-end breakthroughs in 3D and HD, while conversely we live in the time of the YouTube, small screen (lap tops, cell phones, PDAs) generation. The latter has clients asking at times for less sophisticated, more inexpensive forms of filmmaking like Flip video camcorder shoots. So while there’s a technological revolution on the very high end, there’s a concurrent “good enough” school of thought with clients at times looking for solutions that don’t call for state-of-the-art, pristine quality images and sound.
For Stefan Sonnenfeld, the answer for Ascent and Company 3 is to stay relevant in both camps. “Being ‘good enough’ is easily attainable. But ‘good enough’ is not going to be the best,” he observed. “So we have robust resources, the latest technology for when ‘good enough’ isn’t good enough,” he said. “If you are only looking to satisfy what’s ‘good enough,’ then you cannot move into ambitious projects that require more. But if you have the best people and resources in place, you can work on anything–‘good enough’ and a whole lot better. Ultimately I don’t think ‘good enough’ is okay. I’m of the mindset that brands want the best for less and we have to work hard to achieve that. And the only way to do that is to have the best people.”
Indeed for Sonnenfeld the constant in the face of an ever changing technological and media landscape is simply “getting the best, most creative, most artistic people. Whether its Ascent Creative Services or Company 3, we have sought out and brought together a fantastic group of artists, operators, technicians, strategists, workflow theorists and so on. That’s the key to the success of a creative services business. You need the talent to serve client needs, especially as those needs are evolving to encompass multiple platforms and varied forms of content.”
Sonnenfeld noted that movies like Alice in Wonderland are “amazingly complicated to finish–we were able to do that. You need a robust infrastructure like what’s in place at Company 3. We’re doing Pirates of the Caribbean 4 and Transformers 3. Pirates 4 is a 3D stereoscopic shoot on the new RED. What they’re capturing is equivalent to a couple million feet of film. We’re outside the box in structuring a post workflow and work environment to make this happen–nothing this complex has ever been done with a digital camera capture device like RED. This kind of challenging work entails offering new and different sophisticated services to our clients. We have a lot of location-based services now. We’ve had significant file-based workflows and a digital capture department in place for years, and that experience is necessary to accomplish what you need in this new space. Plus you still have a lot of people who like to shoot on film–and projects that are combining different types of media spanning film and digital. The needs are dramatic in terms of requirements, deliverables and workflows. Again, you need a great group of people to realize all this, so you can give studios, brands, whoever your client is, complete creative flexibility.”
Part of that flexibility is facilitated by networking and remote collaboration between and among artists at different studios. Connectivity among the Ascent facilities, for example, opens up access and opportunities. “If you are at a company where all the facilities are networked together, you can share files that are high resolution, color calibrated and color accurate. It’s all virtually and remotely available, opening up the world to you without having to start a new business and plop down capital to launch a facility in a certain locale. I think we have something like 13 virtual outposts now where we are constantly and consistently doing work in local markets that we thought we couldn’t tap into before. A market might not be able to support a post facility but there’s worthwhile work there we can access by giving that market remote access to what our existing studios and talent have to offer.”
Sonnenfeld affirmed that the global financial crisis hasn’t dampened his optimism for the future. “I feel in my heart that this is probably the most opportunistic time. Our group is positioned in a unique way to serve this environment of extreme change. There’s nothing to fear. We need to embrace, dive into and push ourselves into new and different areas.”
Click here to read Part I of this series. Hear from…
Lee Clow, chief creative officer/global director, Media Arts, TBWA Worldwide, and chairman, TBWA/Media Arts Lab
Bob Giraldi, award-winning director, Giraldi Media
Larry Bridges, director/editor & founder, Red Car
Robert Greenberg, chairman/CEO/global chief creative officer, R/GA
Click here to read Part II of this series. Hear from…
Rich Silverstein, co-chairman/creative director, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco
Stephen Dickstein, global president/managing partner, The Sweet Shop
Phil Geier, former Interpublic Group CEO and current chairman, The Geier Group, New York
Click here to read Part III of this series. Hear from directors…
Joe Pytka, award-winning director, PYTKA
Bryan Buckley, award-winning director, Hungry Man
Joe Sedelmaier, ground-breaking director
Click here to read Part IV of this series. Hear from:
Dan Wieden, founder and CEO, Wieden+Kennedy
Susan Credle. chief creative officer, Leo Burnett North America
Noan Murro, award-winning director Noam Murro, Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles
Click here to read Part V of this series. Hear from:
Tony Granger, global chief creative officer, Young & Rubicam
Kevin Roddy, chief creative officer, Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), NY
Kristi VandenBosch, CEO, Publicis & Hal Riney
