Bucking both the odds and conventional wisdom would seem to be a prerequisite for becoming a director as evidenced by this fall’s crop of up-and-coming spot helmers. One director defied her parent’s insistence that she go to a school that had a prestigious reputation, instead attending an experimental art college 3,000 miles away from her home. One moved to San Francisco to study improvisational acting, wound up hanging out with a bunch of creatives from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners (GS&P), San Francisco, and, the next thing he knew, was directing a commercial about a pants burglar. Yet another new helmer started out by directing a one-act play at a community theatre, where he claims, "I didn’t really know what I was doing." Whatever their career origins, here are five young helmers who could very well turn out to be among the next generation of star directors.
Pep Bosch
When you ask Pep Bosch, a native of Barcelona, Spain, what he does for fun, he responds, "I work." When you ask him what work is like for him, he answers, "Fun." His hobbies? "Thinking about work." And what is Bosch doing when he’s not thinking about work? "Reading feature scripts." That about sums up what Bosch is like as a director—the job is he and he is the job.
"The whole time I am trying to think what I have not done and what I must do," says Bosch, who admits that he’s "a little obsessive." But his obsession has paid off. As a relatively new director, Bosch has established himself in the European commercial market and is now looking to penetrate the American scene.
In Europe, Bosch has been represented by Stink, London, for two years. In March, he signed with Palomar Pictures, Los Angeles, for stateside representation, based on a reel of foreign spots and a 12-minute film called The Praying Mantis, a dark comedy about marriage. While Bosch has yet to shoot a U.S. spot, Palomar chairman/ CEO Joni Sighvatsson is optimistic. "We’ve been showing [the short] here in the United States, and it’s getting tremendous response," says Sighvatsson.
Although Bosch has only been behind the camera for a total of three years, his reel represents the artistry of a well-entrenched helmer. A :45 he directed for the BMW Iberica out of SCPF, Barcelona, called "Mathematician," won a Bronze Lion at this year’s Cannes International Advertising Festival and also received a Gold Sun at the 1999 Festival Publicitario de San Sebastian. The ad, which he shot with the production support of Lee Films, Madrid, features a methodical family man explaining the reasons behind the choices he has made in his life. "My wife: I married her for her combination of tenderness, intelligence and understanding spirit. My children: I had two because it’s the perfect balance between the loneliness of just one and the excessive commotion of three." He goes on to articulate the merits of his home and dog, but when he gets to his car, he is flustered when he can’t come up with a logical reason for having it. The super follows: "BMW, Beyond Reason."
While "Mathematician" demonstrates Bosch’s skill with casting and directing actors, another spot, for the Mitsubishi Pajero via Rimo Asatsu, Madrid, titled "Twin Brothers," shows the director’s skill for visual mastery and storytelling. It is the story of twins who can feel everything each other is feeling, even when they are apart. One brother marries a beautiful woman, and when he is about to consummate the marriage, feels like the other brother is present. The newlyweds get into their Pajero and drive to the top of a mountain, where the unmarried twin can’t possibly share his brother’s experiences. The tag: "The Pajero takes you places no one else can reach." The spot garnered a Silver Sun at this year’s Festival Publicitario de San Sebastian.
Before becoming a commercial director, Bosch had several interesting jobs, including working as an inventor at a toy factory, shooting background footage for 30 Karaoke videos, and designing book covers. Four years ago, he directed a short film that he characterizes as "terrible," but, nevertheless, got hooked on the medium. He continued to direct spec spots until he signed with Rodar, Barcelona, a small company that only generates projects in Spain. After a year, Bosch left the company to see if he could direct in the rest of Europe.
"When I started with [Stink] I didn’t know any English, and it was my project to learn how to work with a foreign company," explains Bosch.
He continued to win bids, directing spots in Europe through Stink for clients that included Via Digital, Audi and Bahlsen. In Spain, he works with various production companies on a case-by-case basis, but no longer has affiliations with any one shop.
John Dolan
There’s something to be said for being in the right place at the right time, and John Dolan’s good fortune was to have friends in advertising. According to Dolan, he never intended to get into commercial directing, but after making some ad pals, the move became obvious.
Dolan started out as an aspiring writer in the creative writing program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C. There he became interested in acting and moved to San Francisco after graduation, where he attended classes at the American Conservatory Theater, a prestigious regional company that offers training. His growing enthusiasm for improvisational acting led him to start his own improv group, called Impulse Theater. While in San Francisco, Dolan made a slew of friends in advertising, but it would still be several years before his connections would pay off.
Five years ago, Dolan moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles, where he wrote a short film called The Line. At first, the prospect of directing the film himself seemed daunting, but a sequence of events brought him back around to the idea.
He started working as a production assistant in the art departments at bicoastal houses HKM Productions and Morton Jankel Zander. The latter affiliation gave Dolan the rare opportunity to work as a production assistant for director Rocky Morton. Next, he worked as a stand-in for actor David Morse in Michael Bay’s The Rock. (Bay recently left his spot roost, bicoastal/international Propaganda Films, to start his own as-yet-unnamed commercial production company.) The balance of these experiences gave Dolan the confidence to direct his short, which went on to be honored as a finalist at the USA Film Festival in ’97. But following this success, Dolan found himself at a crossroads. "I knew the step up to do an independent feature was a mammoth undertaking that would tap every single resource I had," he explains.
Dolan’s first foray into directing commercials came at the persuasion of Eric King, then a copywriter at GS&P. (King is now a copywriter at TBWA/Chiat/Day, San Francisco). With King serving as the copywriter, the two came up with a spec spot for Levi’s that came to be affectionately known as "Pants Burglary."
The ad, shot on video with production support from Crash Films, Santa Monica, is filmed like an episode of COPS. A policeman in a cruiser is informed of a "916" in progress, which is code for a "pants burglary." The cop spies a man stripping another man of his denims. The confused victim, sans pants, points in the direction where the suspect has run off. Following a trail of pants-knappings, the cops finally detain the suspect and justice is served. At the spot’s conclusion, the cop speaks gravely about what could have happened if the evil pants burglar had gotten hold of a little kid.
After "Pants Burglary," Dolan shot two more spec pieces: the first for Liberty Mutual Insurance, done through bicoastal Headquarters; and the second for E*Trade, shot with the help of bicoastal Coppos Films. "I had a connection at each [production company], so I would call up and say, ‘Here’s the deal: We don’t want any money, but we need a place to work out of, production services and your company letterhead,’ and people were really cooperative," recalls Dolan.
Needing one more piece to round out his reel, Dolan directed a three-spot spec campaign for IBC Root Beer, in which we’re treated to three morning-after situations illustrating why sometimes the best beer is a root beer. In "Playhouse," three young children run screaming from their playhouse when they discover that a man smelling of booze and wearing the remnants of a tuxedo has passed out there. "Arm" shows a guy wearing a party hat, waking up on the sidewalk to discover that he’s been handcuffed to a detached arm. Finally, in "Monkey," a man wakes up in a cage at the zoo, where he’s being romanced by an amorous monkey in the throes of afterglow. All three spots were shot through The Director’s Bureau, Hollywood.
"After working with all these companies, I had a feel for who was who, so I was sort of targeting a very short list [of where I wanted to sign with]," explains Dolan. High on the radar for Dolan was Anonymous, a bicoastal company which signed him in mid-June. "It had the excitement of a new place, but it was grounded by people who I knew were serious heavyweights, and that was just an unbeatable combination for me," Dolan explains.
The director’s first job for Anonymous was a spot for Sprite titled "Weak Defenses," out of Lowe Lintas & Partners, New York. The commercial shows a street-wise basketball player trash-talking on the courts of Manhattan. When the camera pulls back, we realize his opponent is an immobile can of Sprite.
Steven Oritt
Steven Oritt sums up his first "professional" directing experience—helming a one-act play at a community theatre—straightforwardly. "I didn’t really understand what I was doing, but I learned pretty quickly that I had to know what I wanted," recalls Oritt, who is now a commercial director with Drive Media, Venice, Calif.
At that point, Oritt had been living in Los Angeles for a year and already knew what he wanted in terms of a career. From ’92 to ’96, he had attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis., earning a film degree with a concentration in advertising. From there he had moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a production assistant and grip on various projects, including serving as a PA on the blockbuster film Face Off. But as time went on, Oritt’s film degree gathered dust, and he realized that if he wanted a career as a director, he would have to make it happen himself.
"I was tired of being a perfectionist and waiting for the perfect script to come along," Oritt explains, "and I knew I needed the experience, so that [realization] pretty much got me started."
In ’98, Oritt lengthened a shorter script he had written, called Beer Run, and got a crew of 30 people together to shoot it. Set in the ’80s, the eight-minute short is a semi-autobiographical flashback to a night in high school when a guy and his buddies get into trouble by making a trip to the liquor store. "It was an incredible experience," muses Orrit. "I had all my friends walking around in knee-high socks and tiny shorts."
Oritt took Beer Run to New York, where he met with several commercial production companies. "Overall I got a good response, but people told me that in order to be taken seriously, I would have to put together a spec reel," he says.
Taking this advice to heart, Oritt returned to Los Angeles, and in March ’99, hooked up with a young creative team comprised of Tim Leake, who was a copywriter at TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles, and is now at Colby Effler & Partners, Santa Monica; and Jennifer Young, who is currently an art director at TBWA/Chiat/Day, but was freelancing back then. The trio batted around some ideas and came
