In the tradition of all spiritual searchers, Carlton Chase has come down from the mountain. Few things provide more contrast than directing commercials and devoutly studying Buddhism, and yet Chase, a Clio- and ADDY-winning director at Ritts/Hayden, Los Angeles, is a true syncretic. Reconciling apparent contradictions is in his blood. A descendant of Bolshevik revolutionaries, now a practicing Buddhist, Chase was raised Catholic and also studied at a yeshiva at the age of 18. Now, at the end of a year-and-a-half hiatus during which he studied the Tibetan and Sanskrit languages, he is directing commercials once again.
Chase informally began to study the languages of Buddhist religious texts after beginning to practice the religion eight years ago. But he found squeezing solitary scholarship into his free time difficult, and so, when a long-term personal relationship came to an end, Chase decided to go off and study the languages in a more formal setting.
Beginning in May 1997, Chase took intensive classes in Tibetan, Sanskrit and Buddhism at both the University of Virginia and Harvard University. The courses amounted to a study of, as Chase describes it, the hermeneutic structures of sophisticated forms of Buddhism. This education involved a differentiation of Buddhist practice between Sutra and Tantra lines and the history of Buddhisms evolution in both China and India. Chase adds that layers of meaning are encoded in the religious texts through a complex use of language, which makes linguistic knowledge essential in interpreting and gaining insight from the texts. Now that Chase has the fundamentals under his belt, he continues to practice Buddhism and study on his own.
The study was fruitful not only for Chases spiritual growth but for the insights hes inevitably gained into other activities. The way I started to see film a long time ago led me to looking at things, and that in turn introduced me to Buddhism, Buddhist studies and language studies, he noted. They lead you to thoughts about various ways of seeing things and utilizing symbols.
Chase notes that historical overviews of both religion and film highlight the relativity of conceptual structures that have emerged over time. Just as Buddhism offers an alternative to a Western framework, Chase observes, filmmakers such as Sergei Einstein
and Dziga Vertov suggested that there is more than one way to approach developing characters and to build narrative structure. In addition, the multiplicity of both symbolic and literal meanings within the Buddhist religious texts makes Chase more conscious of the subtleties and layers of filmmaking.
During his course of study, Chase managed to complete two spots, Freedom of Speech and Revolution, for Oracle via THINK New Ideas, Los Angeles. The spots allude to historical repression, such as the Khmer Rouge takeover of Cambodia, in order to emphasize the importance of a free flow of information. The ads (Revolution won a Gold Clio in 1998) end with Oracles name above the tag Enabling the information age. And while some viewers might be critical of couching atrocity in what is essentially a product sell, Chase argues that the ideas featured in the ads have a message that goes beyond the mere pitch. Since intent is a key touchstone of Buddhism, Chase contends that the advertisements, in the crush of other cultural messages, can elevate their audiences with subtle social and cultural messages.
In his own work, Chase pushes clients to feature representations of characters other than handsome white males. In spots Chase recently completed for Canadian Airlines, he features an Asian woman and a short, dumpy guy as protagonists. The spots, part of the airlines identity re-launch, came out of agency Gee Jeffery & Partners, Toronto, and were produced by Radke Films, which Ritts/Hayden has a relationship with for Canadian production.
And even before his retreat, Chases altruistic and spiritual bent were evident in his international spotwork: Yemen, for American Express, sets a womans wanderlust against the mystical backdrop of the desert; Jaguar, for the World Wildlife Fund, evokes the great beauty, grace and utter fragility of the rain forest; and Paris, for Yves Saint Laurent, alludes to the work of French filmmaker Alain Resnais, conjuring unrequited love, bittersweet memory and the unrelenting passage of time.
As for getting back into directing, Chase says he enjoyed the respite and was refreshed by his sanctuary. He plans to continue the scholarship he began while he directs. To procure the working knowledge as a sideline was terribly difficult, and [the break from directing] was making a sacrifice to procure this working knowledge, Chase said. Now the two can go in tandem much easier.
