When he was casting "Wigs," Jim Tozzi learned that one head can be better than two, or even three. In "Wigs"—the latest Tozzi-directed spot in the wacky Rice Krispies Treats campaign via Leo Burnett Co., Chicago—a bald man dons a brown suit and a wig sculpted from chocolate Treats and heads for the disco. He’s a real hit with the ladies, until his doppelganger arrives on the scene, wearing a white suit and a "blond" wig comprised of original Treats. After a tense standoff, the identical disco kings resolve their differences by switching ties and boogying down.
The same actor plays both wigged-out Treats aficionados, as well as an admiring club patron in a yachting cap. But Tozzi, who is represented by bicoastal M-80, says that was not his original plan. "We were looking for two different guys to play the rivals," he recalls. "We had scheduled two or three days of casting, but we wound up using an extra day, because it just wasn’t happening. When it came down to matching up the two people, no combination seemed to work. We did have one character that we were happy with—a side character called The Gentleman Caller, who had the cap and the yachting look. That actor had been one of the first people called in for casting, and I’d said, ‘We definitely have to have this guy in this role.’
"On our last day, there was a mix-up, and he was asked to come back," he continues. "Just for fun, we had him go through the actions of the two main characters. We were like, ‘Wow, that’s pretty weird—but weird in a good way.’ "
After the decision was made, Tozzi faced the unforeseen challenge of making one actor appear to be three separate characters. "That actually wasn’t very hard, because we didn’t want to make it look too slick in the first place," he relates. "I thought it would be funnier if it wasn’t too convincing. It’s part of the joke that we use these old tactics—body doubles and a very simple, down-the-middle split screen [to make one character appear to be three]. Part of the inspiration was the old Star Trek, when they’d have these scenes where you’d see Captain Kirk get thrown, and it would obviously be some totally different guy wearing his clothes. We decided to cast a body double who was bigger than our actor. You can see that he’s taller when they’re dancing together, and the clothes didn’t quite fit him right."
The resulting ad, like much of Tozzi’s work, is sharp, clever and weird. "When I watch a spot, I want to be amused and interested, and also surprised," he says. "That’s always on my mind whenever I get a new board. I think, ‘How can this be done in a new way?’ I still want it to be referential to what the audience understands, but I also like to shock them a little bit."
FLying solo
Tozzi has been directing for more than half a decade, but he’s only been doing it solo for about a year. Until the fall of 1999, he co-directed spots with his wife, Vezna. The duo had been working out of now defunct Voyeur Films, a satellite of bicoastal Giraldi Suarez Productions. When Bill Perna, executive producer at Voyeur, moved over to M-80 to serve in the same capacity, he brought several Voyeur directors, including Tozzi, into the M-80 fold. (Perna left the shop earlier this year to form New York-based DCODE; Perna’s new venture is part of iNTELFILM, the publicly traded, Minneapolis-headquartered company that has significant holdings in the spot industry.)
When the move to M-80 occurred, Vezna Tozzi opted to leave the spot business. "She was fed up with the advertising industry in general," her husband explains. "When the time came that we had to leave Voyeur, it seemed a logical conclusion [for her to stop directing.] For the few jobs that we had towards the end, I had been doing most of the work, and she had been concentrating more on art direction and stuff like that. She was concerned that it would affect me, but I said, ‘I’d rather have you be happy. If it’s not your dream to direct commercials, you should get out and do what you want.’ "
Since leaving spotmaking, Vezna has pursued her interest in Eastern healing and martial arts. "She’s been doing Tai Chi and Kung Fu and studying shiatsu, and she’s thinking of going to school to learn about Chinese medicine and acupuncture," reports Tozzi. In addition to the Rice Krispies Treats campaign (which also includes "Commute," where Treats are used to secure an unfortunate subway rider’s hand to the strap, and "Floating Friend," which depicts a man who fashions a "girlfriend" out of the snack bars), the director has helmed spots for the Oregon Lottery via Moffatt/Rosenthal, Portland, Ore., and the Houston Rockets, out of GSD&M Austin, Texas. He says going solo has been relatively easy for him: "Since Vezna was doing less and less, it gradually got me up to speed as far as being able to work on my own."
The Tozzis’ collaboration began when they were students at the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, R.I. They worked on numerous films together, including Vezna’s thesis project, Lush Puppy, which she directed and which he acted as DP on. After graduating, Tozzi got a job as an animator at the now defunct Broadcast Arts, but he soon moved out of animation and began helming music videos with Vezna. "We got tired of that. We really wanted to do commercials," says Tozzi, who got his wish in ’95, courtesy of Nick at Nite. "We had been [pitching] ideas to them, and finally the head of promotions called us and said, ‘We’re starting a new channel called TV Land, and we want you guys to come up with some promos for it.’ "
The couple quickly went to work. "It was pretty cool," says Tozzi, "because we were essentially acting as an agency. We had a bunch of ideas, and they really liked one of them." That idea was the Twip campaign. Produced, directed and written by the Tozzis, the 12 spots trace the evolution of a fictitious, ever-changing product, Twip, from the 1950s to the present. In keeping with the retro theme of TV Land, each ad looks as if it were made during the era it represents.
Soon after Twip, the Tozzis signed with Voyeur, and began helming spots. Tozzi say he is "very happy" at M-80, and next up on his agenda is a package for Sony PlayStation, via TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles. "One spot is based on the Godzilla movies and the other is for snowboarders," says the director, who, unlike his wife, wants to stay in advertising for a good long time.µ
