Directors who’ve operated their own production companies know what a time-consuming task it is to run a business and helm commercials at the same time.
Jesse Dylan has taken that juggling act one step further. He directs through Straw Dogs, the bicoastal spot production company that he co-founded with executive producer Craig Rodgers in late 1996, and he became a corporate mogul of sorts in ’99, when publicly traded, New York-headquartered Paradise Music & Entertainment (NASDAQ: PDSE) acquired Straw Dogs. Per the deal, Dylan was named chairman/ CEO of Paradise, whose holdings include such commercial entities as bicoastal Shelter Films; Picture Vision, Nashville; and Los Angeles-based post house Vapour, in addition to music, multimedia and Internet-related firms.
Dylan seems to disprove the notion that a creative mind cannot coexist with a head for business. But while he is in daily contact with Paradise staff, who fill him in on developments, Dylan insists that his Paradise responsibilities aren’t a big deal. "It doesn’t take that much extra time," he says. "You focus on it and just do it amongst everything else. It doesn’t require me to be involved in every single decision. My main thing is commercialsaI love directing them. The other thing [Paradise] is really the same as when my company was a private company."
In fact, Dylan questions whether mentioning his Paradise role is really necessary. The topic he’s most likely to discuss is spot directing, his focus for the last eight years. For the past year, Dylan has been on a roll, staying busy with creatively rewarding work. Recent credits include three spots for TheStreet.com, a Web site offering financial and investment news, via DeVito/Verdi, New York; "What’s Coming" for Barron’s via Angotti, Thomas, Hedge, New York; and "Zoo" for Pepsi Twist via BBDO New York. At press time, he was in pre-production on another BBDO project, a spot for Pizza Hut.
It was last summer’s Dylan-directed six-spot campaign for ecampus.com, out of DeVito/Verdi, that began attracting attention. The spots touted the client as a provider of inexpensive textbooks and school supplies so that students can "get the intelligent education they so desperately need." The ads feature college-aged kids acting like, well, college-aged kids. For example, "Alphabet" features a student’s burped recitation of the alphabet. "Ransom" offers a broke college student who concocts a kidnapping ruse in an attempt to extort ransom money from his parents.
"[The creatives] loved Jesse and they thought, ‘He gets it,’ " says DeVito/Verdi executive producer Barbara Michelson, commenting on why the agency returned to Dylan to helm ads for TheStreet.com. "He has a great sense of humor and he knows what works and how to achieve that quickly."
The results for TheStreet.com include "Disorientation," which has become alternately referred to as "headupthebuttitis," the diagnosis given to an old man who has invested unwisely and, as a result, now walks around dazed, with only a dollar to his name. With a soothing voiceover complementing the black-and-white footage, the spot is a seemingly sensitive PSA about dementia, until the end. (In fact, Michelson relates, the client objected to one original sequenceawhich was removedain which the man lies on the floor and cries, "I’m so poor!"afearing it was insensitive and offensive.)
Other TheStreet.com spots are "Burger Boy," which offers a pastiche of images of a man, charting his ascendancy over the years from burger-flipper to company owner andaafter a bad investmentaback to burger-flipper; and "Brad and Susan," which spoofs Viagra commercials.
"I like comedyathe darker the better," says Dylan, who prefers the original version of "Disorientation." "I like working with good creatives, trying to figure out the best way to articulate these commercials. I really like DeVito/Verdi a lot; it’s one of my favorite agencies to work with. I think the people are really smart and cool."
Dylan also seems to have an affinity for frequent client BBDO, for whom he recently helmed the aforementioned "Zoo" for Pepsi Twist. This is a charmingly funny, effects-driven story of penguins that shed their black tuxedo-like overcoats on a hot day, punctuated by a shot of the animals clad only in thongs.
"I really like ‘Zoo,’ " says Dylan. "I think it has a really good, strong, smart concept. It ended up being so different from where it started. BBDO changes things an awful lot. I don’t mind it, but it drives some people crazy. With certain agencies these days, you have to be very, very patient … wait out your ideas and try to get them in. With BBDO, the creative changes so quickly, the process isn’t always what you think it’s going to be when you start. It sometimes becomes trickier than you thought it would have."
Another BBDO effort, the Snickers spot "Office Geek," is perhaps one of Dylan’s most amusing ads. In it, an evidently deranged office worker mugs with a picture of a panda and coos to the animal, "Pretty, pretty panda," in a singsong, falsetto voice. Captivatedaand slightly frightenedaby the spectacle, the goofy guy’s co-workers skip lunch to watch as the voiceover offers the well-known Snickers tag: "Not going anywhere for a while?"
"Panda" was a collaborative effort, with everybodyaincluding the actoracoming up with different lines. From the variety of material shot, the best lines were chosen in the edit. "Plus the actor was really funny," notes Dylan. "We searched everywhere and found him in Chicago; he was worth searching for. That was before the strike, back in the days of SAG when you really could do a search all over the country." The strike by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) against the advertising industry has made it more difficult to cast, reports Dylan, whose work is mostly performance driven.
Aside from spots, Dylan has dabbled in work for the Internet, recently directing six episodic pieces on spec. "All the new mediums and the old mediums are all about storytelling one way or another," he observes. "When you work in commercials, you have the added responsibility of trying to make something for the client. When you’re doing something for the Internet, you don’t have to please anybody but yourself."
And although he’d like to direct a feature if the right material came along, Dylan says he’d be content to direct commercials for the rest of his life. "Absolutely," he declares. "Commercials haven’t hurt Joe Pytka or Leslie Dektor none."
