By JIM SPRUELL
ful world of faxes, you, the bidding director, have seen the storyboard. The conference call begins. Your producer is on the phone. Our agency producer is on the phone. Even the rep is on the phone, for Gods sake. I quickly go through my horribly drawn concept board and tell you how I initially see the commercial shaping up.
Then I ask a simple question: Well, how do you see it?
Silence. Thick and deadly silence. Like something from a bad Stephen King novel, it seeps out of the speakerphone and crawls toward me. I hear breathing on the other end, so I know that we havent been disconnected. Our producer looks confused and angry, your producer clears her throat and the rep is probably scanning her Rolodex to find new talent. We wait for you to take my vague notion of a spot and work your magic. We wait for your clarity of vision. We wait for your film-school-inspired insanity to kick our ass straight into the Cannes Film Festival. We wait for genius. But mainly, we wait and wait.
Then, after what seems like eight or nine years of nothingness, you say, Yeah, thats pretty much how I see it, too. What? Thats all? Thats it? If thats the way you see it, too, then maybe I should direct it, take your fee and slam it into my savings account. After all, Ive got a kid to put through college. I could use the cash. On the other hand, if you really dont like the spot, tell us before we go through the motions. Were big boys, and we can handle rejection. We deal with it every single day from our clients.
Being the executive creative director for a broadcast-heavy agency. Ive been on roughly a jillion conference calls, and I cannot overemphasize the importance of chemistry on those things. When the call is made, you can assume we like the spots on your reel. But, at the same time, you can assume that we probably dont know you at all. Make us love you. Make us want to give you our spot. Make us want to give you a big bag of money. In effect, make us see and feel good about why we called you in the first place.
Face it. Times have changed. In this day and age of client nervousness and bottom-line thinking, there is a lot more riding on every spot produced. As agency folks, we need to have the confidence that youve got the goods to make us heroes. Not only with our client but also within our industry. Keeping a spot brilliant all the way through to completion is usually a struggle. An against-all-odds kind of battle. And we want to make sure were going into that battle with someone we trust. Someone we like. Hopefully, a very talented friend.
So when we ask, Well, how do you see it?, wow us with your intellect. Blow us away with your perception. Be smart about it and you may end up with another great spot on your reel. And-who knows?-you may even take home a big bag of money.
Damon Wayans and Damon Wayans Jr. Explore Generations, Old School vs. New School, In “Poppa’s House”
Boundaries between work and family don't just blur in the new CBS sitcom "Poppa's House" starring father-and-son comedy duo Damon Wayans and Damon Wayans Jr. They shatter.
"It's wonderful to come to work every day and see him and some of his kids and my sister and my brother and nieces and nephews. They all work on this show. They all contribute," says the senior Wayans. "I don't think there are words to express how joyful I am."
Wayans plays the titular Poppa, a curmudgeonly radio DJ who's more than comfortable doing it his way, while Wayans Jr. plays his son, Damon, a budding filmmaker who's stuck in a job he hates.
"My character, Pop, is just an old school guy who's kind of stuck in his ways," says Wayans, who starred in "In Living Color" and "My Wife and Kids."
Pop yearns for the days when a handshake was a binding contract and Michael Jordan didn't complain if he got fouled on the court. Pop laughs at the younger generation's participation trophies.
"It's old school versus new school and them teaching each other lessons from both sides," says Wayans Jr., who played Coach in the Fox sitcom "New Girl."
"They (the characters) bring the best out in each other and they're resistant initially. But then throughout the episode they have revelations and these revelations help them become better people," he adds.
The two have worked together before — dad made an appearance on son's "Happy Endings" and "Happy Together," while son was a writer and guest star on dad's "My Wife and Kids." But this is the first time they have headlined a series together.
The half-hour comedy — premiering Monday and co-starring Essence Atkins and Tetona Jackson — smartly leaves places in the script where father and son can let... Read More