Finding a filmmaking Oasis
By Robert Goldrich
“We went with a nontraditional way of doing things in a traditional business,” observed Pelle Sjönell, creative director at BBH New York. “The lesson learned from both the advertising and marketing perspectives is that sometimes you have to change the rules–perhaps even more so today with a changing, constantly evolving media landscape.”
Sjönell’s remarks came in reference to the BBH’s acclaimed integrated campaign “Dig Out Your Soul In The Streets” which last year introduced Oasis’ new album on Warner Records while also promoting the virtues and vibrancy of New York for agency client NYC & Co.
The campaign represented a fresh, guerilla marketing approach. Oasis members turned over songs from the album to New York City street bands and artists, who then publicly performed the music weeks prior to the CD’s release.
The one-day event–with street performers scattered throughout New York City venues, from streets to subways–was done in conjunction with an extensive viral/PR-driven campaign including buzz-generating news on Oasis fan sites, the NYC website, and in consumer media outlets. Additionally there was an 18-minute documentary that was globally distributed through MySpace, attracting a large viewership.
For the documentary, BBH creative directors Pelle and Calle Sjönell sought out the directorial duo The Malloys–brothers Brendan and Emmett–of HSI Productions. Pelle Sjonell explained that he didn’t gravitate to The Malloys just because they were accomplished music video directors or for any possible previous link with Oasis (this was the directing team’s first collaboration with the band).
Sjonell said he and Calle thought of The Malloys based on their experience in many disciplines–their documentary chops, their penchant for human-based storytelling and humor, their understanding of music and music artists, and their commercialmaking expertise–all of which were relevant to the integrated grass-roots campaign for Oasis and NYC & Co.
The BBH campaign has gone on to win assorted accolades, from a GRANDY at the International ANDY Awards to the AICP Next’s Integrated Campaign and Audience Award honors.
“It’s been a very gratifying project which kind of let us bring together all our sensibilities honed from doing documentaries, features, commercials and music videos,” related Emmett Malloy. “The key was showing the emotional connections between the musicians–between Oasis and the street talent–which in turn allowed the documentary to connect with its viewers.”
Brendan Malloy recalled, “We met the street performers before the band [Oasis] did and we had the strong feeling that the two would connect. We’ve worked with many artists and sometimes they might connect with us as filmmakers or based on the video work we’ve done for other performers. But that connection is nothing like the way musicians connect with other musicians, and we wanted to set the project up so that we could capture that. The connection and mutual respect between the members of Oasis and the New York artists is real and it has to be if they are going to trust these street performers to interpret the album’s music and debut it to the world.”
Also important to The Malloys was to do justice to the street performers themselves, to give viewers a taste of their aspirations and talent.
And the other “star” was New York, capturing the energy and fun of the city which made it the ideal backdrop for this kind of artistic happening.
“We looked at this project beyond it being an opportunity for us, and more as an opportunity to reinvigorate the music business, which is struggling with change,” related Emmett Malloy. “Hopefully this helped show that there are new creative ways of dealing with change in the marketplace, and connecting artists and their music with people.
“It’s been great to see the Oasis campaign competing against and being recognized alongside other new inventive, worthwhile forms of advertising and marketing.”
Varied forms Meanwhile The Malloys continue to work across varied forms themselves. Their full-length documentary on the White Stripes titled Under Great White Northern Lights recently debuted at the Toronto Film Festival.
And at press time, about to premiere was a 90-minute rock documentary from The Malloys chronicling last year’s European concert tour by musician Jack Johnson. The documentary is being bundled with Johnson’s new CD and is also being shown as part of small theatrical run primarily on the West Coast.
(Editor’s note: Emmett Malloy manages Johnson with whom he co-founded Brushfire Records.)
Among the recent music video fare from The Malloys are clips featuring N.E.R.D., The Raconteurs, Wolfmother, The Cold War Kids, Metallica, Jurassic 5, Matt Costa, Jimmy Eat World, Sheryl Crow, and The Kooks.
The Malloys’ honors in the music video arena over the years include the MVPA’s best directorial debut award for the Foo Fighters’ “Breakout”; MTV Europe Awards distinction as best rock video for Blink-182’s “Rock Show”; the video “Complicated” earning Avril Lavigne the MTV best new artist kudo; and director of the year nominations at both the 2004 and ’06 MVPA Awards.
On the commercialmaking front, The Malloys just finished an eight-day real people documentary brand campaign for Ford, featuring owners/drivers of Ford vehicles for ad agency Team Detroit.
The Malloys also did an online piece with hip-hop/R&B artist Kenna promoting HP’s “You On You” video contest via Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, and a Kashi cereal commercial for San Francisco agency Amazon.
The Malloys have worked on the Kashi campaign from its inception four years ago, starting with a profile of an employee who’s a surfer. Kashi and its agency originally gravitated to The Malloys for the surfer story based in part on the directors’ unique brand of surfing films, including their first feature Thicker Than Water. Ever since, The Malloys have been directing the Kashi campaign annually featuring employees from different walks of life.
“We very much enjoy this broad mix of work and genres,” said Brendan Malloy who hopes this bent will translate into more opportunities along the lines of the Oasis campaign and other new forms of branded content that can benefit from filmmaking experience and sensibilities across multiple disciplines.
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