Nick Brandt, who directs commercials out of Los Angeles-based Palomar Pictures, made a name for himself in the spot world in ’97 with a harrowing public service announcement about the dangers of smoking. "Voice Box Smoker" shows a woman who has undergone a laryngectomy (a removal of the larynx which left a hole in her throat), talking about how hard it is to quit smoking. The message really hits home when she picks up a cigarette and takes a drag through the hole. The spot, for the California Department of Health Services Tobacco Education Program, via asher&partners, Los Angeles, attracted a great deal of attention and was placed in several awards shows.
In contrast, the British director’s latest work inspires sunny feelings about stout. "Spring," which Brandt recently helmed for Guinness via Weiss Stagliano, New York, carries the tagline, "Guinness refreshes your spirit." The commercial suggests the spirituality of the legendary Irish beer by transporting a young man with pint in hand from a bar to an otherworldly train, where the passengers sing "Carmina Burana," while hurtling through groves of flowering trees. The spot is part of a $40-million advertising, promotional, and public relations campaign that Guinness hopes will attract mid-20’s beer drinkers who may have been put off by the perception that its brew is heavy and sour.
"Cradle Me," which Brandt directed for the California Children & Families Commission (CCFC) via asher&partners, is another of his favorite recent projects. The CCFC is the agency responsible for implementing Proposition 10, which is meant to educate Californians about the importance of early childhood development and dangers of smoking while pregnant and around young children. The spot features shots of adults playing with and nurturing their children, while a boy’s voiceover talks about how important his parents are to him.
When asked what made "Cradle Me" so satisfying, Brandt offers, "Maybe because it wasn’t an actual solid product to be worrying about, but just making little moments of magic," adding that it was a purely emotional spot. Brandt also credits asher&partners creative director Bruce Dundore, whom he calls "very trusting," with making the project fun.
With anti-smoking and CCFC spots under his belt, Brandt faces the question of whether he has directed PSAs for ideological or creative reasons. The simple answer: "Both. Anything to do with a good cause is going to be something I’m particularly hungry to do."
Whether it’s a beer ad or a PSA, Brandt’s work contains what he calls a "humanistic" quality. He explains that he’s interested in emotion, and that everything else in the spot has to serve it. That includes special effects, such as those he incorporated in Guinness’s petal-filled "Spring."
"I always look for the most organic way to do something," he says, "but what you can do in postproduction is incredibly liberating. It’s turning the director more and more into a kind of painter."
He adds that for "Spring," the Flame artist (Chris Staves of Method, Santa Monica) was as important as the DP. As for the issue of creative control, Brandt says that while he has been brought in at different points for different projects, he has never been prevented from working all the way through post, where he feels the director’s role is "hugely important."
Clip Beginnings
Brandt started his career in the early ’90s as a music video director, first with the now defunct U.S. arm of London-based Limelight Commercials. Before signing with Palomar, Brandt was represented by bicoastal/international Propaganda Films. Brandt directed numerous clips for artists such as XTC, Lisa Stansfield, and 10,000 Maniacs. "The combination of music and imagery excites me," explains Brandt. "It makes my spine tingle and my hair stand on end. So music videos were a logical place to start." His video work continued through the mid-’90s and, in one case, gave rise to a short film. City, a slow-motion look at solitary city dwellers, was shot as a Michael Jackson video for his song "Stranger In Moscow," which Brandt helmed through Palomar. After some editing and a new soundtrack, City was entered in its own right at the Telluride, Colo., Houston, and Chicago film festivals.
Brandt has three full-length feature projects in the works, two of which he’s at liberty to discuss. One is a European-financed feature called Bleeding The Line. It’s about a serial killer who kidnaps a famous comic book artist and forces her to draw his murders. His other film project, for which he and Bridget Blake-Wilson co-wrote the script, is an adaptation of the Octavia Butler novel Kindred, the story of a contemporary black woman who finds herself transported to the South of the 1820s. The film is being produced by Palomar and company president Joni Sighvatsson.
What can audiences expect from a Nick Brandt feature? If he gets his way, perhaps something like a Peter Weir film. Brandt cites the Australian director of The Truman Show and Witness as his chief influence, praising his "emotionalism, humanism, and subtle intelligence."c
