Going to town with a concept from the creative team of copywriter Erik Fahrenkopf and art director Anthony DeCarolis, director Joe Leih of Sparks Productions, Toronto, has wrapped “Wife,” a comedy spec spot for Amstel Light.
We open on a slice-of-life with a man seated on the sofa watching a football game on television. His wife asks, “How did you like that light beer I picked up?”
The hubby responds, “It’s good, honey.”
Then we hear the husband’s inner voice, which does a double take. “Wait a second. Did she say light? I can’t believe my wife just lied to my face.”
This leads him to question what else his spouse has lied about–like did she mean it when she said his moustache was sexy. That same inner voice continues to express doubt in what he had accepted as fact before–such as whether or not the kids are actually his.
He then again talks out loud to his wife, saying, “Great beer, Suzy.”
His inner voice quickly adds, “If that’s your real name,” at which point we see a parting product shot of a bottle of Amstel Light, accompanied by the Amstel logo.
Fahrenkopf feedback
“If not for Joe this spot would still be a piece of paper crammed in the bottom drawer of our filing cabinet,” said Fahrenkopf. The creatives originally conceived “Wife” as part of a three-spot campaign for Michelob Ultra when they were with davidandgoliath, Los Angeles. (They are now with Taxi, New York.) The client eventually opted for a lifestyle/beauty type campaign, so Fahrenkopf and DeCarolis retooled the script for Amstel Light and submitted their three commercials including “Wife” to the Group101spots program, a collective that helps team new directors with agency creatives and their unproduced scripts. “There are a thousand scripts in our filing cabinet. Some suck. Some suck less. Joe chose one of the latter,” said Fahrenkopf.
Leih was drawn to the concept on its own merit as well as for the manner in which it would complement the work for which he is best known. On the latter score, Leih won inclusion into SHOOT’s 2005 New Directors Showcase and a Bronze Cyber Lion on the strength of a tongue-in-cheek viral ad designed to help get agency employment for copywriter Marc Guttesman and art director Tom Millar. The spot, which was also shortlisted at The One Show in ’05, generated numerous hits on the marcandtom.com website.
“What was on my reel before, like the spot I directed for marcandtom.com, was a bit different. That spot was 90 seconds long. It was based on inside advertising industry humor. It was viral in nature. I still love that kind of spot and want to do more of them, but I also wanted to prove I could direct a successful mainstream 30 second commercial, and show that mainstream doesn’t necessarily have to mean humdrum,” said Leih, noting that “Wife” was “funny, clever and character-based…exactly what I was looking for.”
Going against the grain
Casting helped to advance the concept. “I think the normal instinct would be to cast the dim-witted, average shlub you see so often in beer spots,” said Leih. “And we definitely saw a lot of those types of actors.” The director observed that because of actor Mark DeLabarre who was eventually cast, the husband appears smart and well-adjusted at first, so when he starts to question his wife’s honesty, it’s more ironic and subtle. “When Mark, who generally plays more of an intelligent, shrewd type of character, read for the part, the creatives and I knew we had found the actor who would make the spot less obvious.”
Fahrenkopf related, “We liked the spot on paper. We liked it even more when Joe was finished…Joe was extremely collaborative, brought great ideas to the table and whipped up one hell of a craft service table. I can’t wait to send Joe more boards. Only, next time it will be a paying gig.”
Fahrenkopf and DeCarolis previously worked at Deutsch, Los Angeles, and at DeVito/Verdi in New York. Their work for the National Thoroughbred Racing Association won awards at the 2005 One Show, the Cannes International Advertising Festival and the London International Awards among other competitions.
Stateside, Leih is repped in the Southeast by Red Truck Films, Raleigh, N.C. “Wife” was produced by Sparks Productions and New York-based JL Productions. Andy Crosbie exec produced for Sparks while Leih produced via JL Productions. The DP was Brian O’Carroll.
Editor was Justin Quagliata of earth2mars, New York. Sound designer/audio mixer was Mike Levesque, Jr., of Nomad Post, New York.
