After two years of nonstop spot directing, Andrew Douglas needed a break. The London-based director had completed an array of spots—including two Super Bowl ads—and switched his representation from bicoastal/international Satellite to bicoastal Anonymous.
But Douglas wasn’t in front of a TV on Super Sunday; he was traveling in Cuba—one leg of a two-month vacation that also included parts of the American South. "With commercials," says Douglas, "you get your head down so much that on the rare occasion you come up for air, you have to reassess what you want to be doing."
After a year of high-profile work, Douglas has plenty of breathing room. In addition to the two Super Bowl contributions—Monster.com’s "The Road Not Taken" via Mullen, Wenham, Mass., and Nuveen & Co.’s "Advances" via Fallon McElligott, Minneapolis—Douglas helmed the visually striking "Hands" for Jeep out of FCB Worldwide Detroit, Southfield, Mich. Douglas also picked up honors in cinematography and art direction from the ’99 Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Show for Nike’s "Naked Athletes," out of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco.
Douglas started the new millennium by signing with the aforementioned, recently formed Anonymous. The director parted ways with his former company after a tumultuous stretch that saw several directors from bicoastal/international Propaganda Films (Satellite is a sister shop to Propaganda) leave for Anonymous, including David Fincher, Malcolm Venville and Gore Verbinski.
Douglas harbors no ill will toward his former spot roost. "It wasn’t personal," he says. "I still have great friends over there. I left because there was lot of indecision about the direction of the company. I was getting bored of it, really. In the end, I took the opportunity to have a new adventure."
First stop on the new adventure: a Summer Olympics-themed spot for Coca-Cola called "Kinetic" out of Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Picture Perfect
Not bad for a former album cover photographer whose early collaborations with his younger brother Stuart made them an acclaimed duo in London—first in still photography, and later as the directing team The Douglas Brothers. They were represented in the U.K. by D-Films, London, and stateside by Ritts/ Hayden, Los Angeles. Now Andrew is working apart from his brother and his native city. He has done little work in the U.K. over the past couple of years, which suits him fine.
"The London [ad] industry is very snobbish about working in America," says Douglas. "They think you’ve sold out. The few things that did come my way in London weren’t nearly as interesting as the stuff in America. It was almost as if I were a relative heavyweight in America and a middleweight in London."
Douglas roiled waters on both sides of the Atlantic with "Advances," which featured a digitally altered Christopher Reeve, who was paralyzed in an equestrian accident, getting out of his wheelchair and walking. The ad drew heavy criticism for giving false hope to paraplegics given that—according to experts—such medical advances are not on the horizon.
Douglas knew the concept would raise eyebrows. "Initially I wasn’t quite sure about it," he says. "It seemed in questionable taste."
But a conversation with Reeve changed his mind. "He convinced me that it wasn’t tasteless, that it was inspirational. And if it’s inspirational to Christopher Reeve, then there was a moral responsibility to take it on. It was an extension of his evangelical mission: the need to attract funding for medical research in general. From that point of view, it seemed we should do it."
Douglas admits this ad could only be made in the U.S. "The American sensibility, which isn’t embarrassed by commercialism—it’s part of the culture—made it so that it could be seen by many as an inspirational piece. Yet some people who wrote about it over here [in London] thought it was in bad taste and somehow duplicitous."
The director took the inevitable skepticism into account in his technical plan for the shoot. "I shot it as flat as I could, to get rid of all gimmickry. I thought it was so vulnerable to accusations of tastelessness that I wanted it to work like a little piece of film, so it [would have] integrity."
The special effects were also tricky. After finding a body double for Reeve, Douglas’ team developed a waist-harness that added heaviness to the stand-in’s gait. "We thought, ‘If he were to recover in ten years, what would he walk like?’" says Douglas. "We all agreed that he wouldn’t sprint on stage." Postproduction work by West Hollywood-based Ring of Fire Advanced Media blended the footage of Reeve and his double.
When Reeve watched the finished product, Douglas says, he told the director that it was "eerily similar" to what he envisions for himself.
Douglas faced a different kind of challenge when he signed to direct this year’s Super Bowl spot for Monster.com, the job search Web site that made a splash during the ’99 broadcast with "When I Grow Up," directed by Bryan Buckley of bicoastal/international hungry man.
Monster.com and Mullen went for something a little more understated this year: strangers on a city street reciting the Robert Frost poem "The Road Not Taken." Douglas was intrigued by the idea, but had one suggestion: the final shot of a gaggle of schoolgirls floating gently into the air. "I thought the concept was lacking a bit of magic, so I sold them on that ending," he says.
Douglas prefers to be brought in early on during the creative process. "I’ve got something of a reputation of being a good collaborator," says Douglas. "People will bring me in earlier rather than later with a more or less developed storyboard. I come in on the idea, and then, time permitting, we build from that."
Evolving as an artist is a priority for Douglas. His split with his brother three years ago was a bitter parting, and left wounds that are only now beginning to heal. After three years of silence on both ends, Douglas contacted his brother, and he says they are starting to mend their relationship.
Directing solo required some adjustment. "The first year I worked on my own, I felt flabby because I wasn’t sure about anything," he says. "But by the second year, I was really able to test things in my mind a lot better. Now I realize I feel as if I have achieved [success] on my own."c
