It may simply be a commercial for Ford touting the car-maker’s sponsorship of The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation’s race for the cure event, but it is as impressionistic—and moving—as a big slice of reality. "We’re Getting There," directed by Barbara Kopple of nonfiction spots and longform, Santa Monica, via J. Walter Thompson, Detroit, begins with a shot of balloons, followed by a woman in a baseball cap, saying, "It’s such a celebration of life." A title comes up, superimposed over soft images of women runners: "Since Ford became partners with Komen Race for the Cure…"
A hand-held shot of a woman follows. She is saying, "I’m fighting it. I’m doing it for my daughters." More shots appear now, some in slow motion, all accompanied by subdued but inspiring music, followed by more titles explaining that Ford is contributing money to the fight against breast cancer. There are also more heartfelt comments: "Since I’m going through it right now, to see all these women … God, I hope I’m here in ten years … "
And so it goes, hand-held documentary-like footage, powerful moments, and it is all the more striking because it is real: a collection of spontaneous moments in time, captured hauntingly in a :60. Reality: what a concept. And with network TV’s Survivor and Big Brother dominating the air waves, real people programming seems to be the newest genre to capture the public’s fancy. Yet in the world of commercials, the old wheel turns and the same spoke comes up. What is new is old.
Freelance director Laura Slutsky, CEO of PeopleFinders Productions, New York, has been a part of the reality spot landscape for years, dating back to when she began casting people from the streets, shopping malls and grocery stores. Slutsky first worked as a "people hooker" for Eye View Films Associates, then in New York, now in Darien, Conn., in the early ’70s. ("They called me Slutsky, the hooker," she says with a laugh.) In ’74 she opened PeopleFinders. "My first job was to find people who ate Bird’s Eye frozen foods in San Francisco for Young & Rubicam," she recalls. "I loved the challenge."
Nonetheless, real people commercials have never been hotter. The ads have the capacity to capture moving, funny and quirky moments that are endlessly appealing. These seem to be—and are, say their creators—spontaneous moments that no one could have made up. "Using real people can have a tremendous impact," explains Gerry Gartenberg, co-owner/interviewer at casting agency Hidden Talents, New York and New Rochelle, N.Y. "To some extent people have become jaded by the hard sell. When you can present a person talking about what they lived and experienced, viewers are more inclined to relate to that experience. They see themselves. There’s a real connection. Television does a real good job at capturing emotions."
In addition, with the SAG/AFTRA strike against advertisers lingering on, some are wondering, will non-union, real people spots become more prominent than ever? "Because of the strike, the opportunity is more available," says Kelly Green, a producer at Publicis & Hal Riney, San Francisco. But she and others say the strike will probably not make a difference. That is primarily because using real people in ads is generally part of a carefully executed strategy. Although such spots seem unscripted, everything but the actual moment caught on film is carefully thought out.
Logical Choice
First, there is the concept. Agencies decide to go with reality commercials for very specific, product-based reasons. Chief among these is need for honest emotions. "Whenever you can capture the consumer experience, when consumers can talk effectively about it, then that is a great opportunity for real people advertising," says Gartenberg, who recently cast a series of real people Maalox spots, including "Who Knew?/Revision II" and "Who New Orleans." Both were directed by Michael McNamara, who at the time was with X-1 Films, bicoastal and Chicago, via Grey Advertising, New York. (McNamara has since left X-1.) "When you’re doing shampoo or weight-loss products," continues Gartenberg, "who better to discuss what it’s like to have a problem than people who have lived it and experienced it?"
Slutsky agrees, noting that real people are best employed for phone and car companies, detergents, and floor wax, but not for products such as jewelry. "Diamonds are an aspiration," she explains. "It is about a fantasy—about seeing a gorgeous woman running through a meadow, or a beautiful couple. That’s not where real people can be used to great effect. There are certain products where actors do an incredible job."
Subject matter aside, the preparation is paramount because of the dangers in real people spots: You are working without a script and working with non-professionals. Therefore a lot depends on the search process. The agency will sit down with the casting director and put together a demographic of the kinds of people needed, specifying age, gender, ethnic diversity, and so on. Slutsky says she searches in "shopping malls, apartment-house waiting rooms, hospitals, airports, all over. I walk on the street and I look at faces, listen to what people say when they’re buying things at the supermarket."
Then the casting companies (and/or production houses) stage extensive pre-shoot interviews to get a sense of the people. They usually tell interviewees that they are engaged in market research. (This is also done for legal reasons, to prove that the testimonials were unsolicited and sincere.) "I always find the shiest people are the best," explains Slutsky, who has cast and directed spots for clients such as Bell Atlantic (now Verizon) and Poli-Grip. She also helmed and assisted in the casting for an American Express Small Business ad. "The guy who puts a lampshade on his head at a party is usually not as good as the shy person who is sincere," she adds.
At the shoot, the director has to be good at capturing emotions. "When you get to a commercial, you have one twelve-hour day to shoot your story," observes Green. "In a scripted spot, you can depend on the actor to put forward the story. But on real people spots, a lot falls on the directors to elicit honest performances. Even when you use a still camera, people ham it up. So a lot depends on the director."
That is why a number of agencies turn to companies that feature a roster of directors well versed in the real people genre. Nonfiction spots and longform—which has a lineup of documentary filmmakers, including Peter Gilbert and Kopple—and Maysles Films, New York, which also has several documentary-makers on board, are two of the many companies that feature spot helmers who specialize in real people. "Our directors have experience dealing with real situations and are able to turn those into something that works on film," explains Loretta Jeneski, executive producer of nonfiction spots and longform. "Documentary filmmakers are particularly good at going after the moment and knowing the response the client is looking for and making everyone comfortable in going for it. Their experience helps. They’re dealing with real people." For instance, on the aforementioned "We’re Getting There," Kopple "needed to establish rapport with real people. She had to establish a comfort level and get people to open up to her. She did that incredibly well."
Similarly, in "Laura’s Dad," an anti-smoking commercial directed by David McNamara of Maysles Shorts, New York, for the Maryland Department of Mental Health and Hygiene, a teenaged girl very movingly talks about what it’s like to grow up without a father, who died from smoking-related causes. (Maysles Shorts is the division of Maysles Films that represents McNamara; Maysles Films represents directors Gilly Barnes, Susan Froemke and Jeremy Warshaw.)
"The directors have to be great interviewers, great at drawing people out," says Bill Curren, executive producer at both Maysles Films and Maysles Shorts. "When you’re working with teenagers, you have to make them feel like they’re not talking to a film director; they have to have empathy for their subjects. These people aren’t real actors, so you can’t ask them to switch things on or off. You have to make them feel comfortable in the environment and have sensitivity to the subject. They are important, and you have to make them feel they’re important. That’s really critical."
The main challenge through it all: keeping it spontaneous. "You have to let them keep thinking that you’re still doing market research when you do the shoot," notes Sandy Nelson, a producer at Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer/Euro RSCG (MVBMS), New York, who works on the Dr. Scholl’s account. The campaign features actual people with foot problems and their reactions to Dr. Scholl’s products.
"We try to do productions in such a way that you do not have motor homes and grip trucks spread all over the place," explains Nelson. "We try to make it a small shoot. You do not want to inhibit these people. Because of the nature of the commercial, you want to get real responses to the project. It’s funny: If people think it is a commercial, they’ll often say things they think will get them in the spot; it doesn’t sound true. If they do not know it’s a commercial, the responses are much more real and interesting."
Producer Green of Publicis & Hal Riney recently worked on a series of ads for Discovery.com that featured non-actors. The four spots—"Mosquito," Meteor," "Chum" and "Lion" —were helmed by the directing collective Traktor, which is represented by bicoastal/international Partizan. The slightly bizarre commercials feature costumed characters in such environments as a shark’s belly or the interior of a meteor. Each spot opens on stock footage of something in nature—"Lion," for example, features a group of the beasts roaming the plains for dinner. Cut to a close-up of a half-eaten zebra—actually a man dressed in a really bad zebra costume, surrounded by equally poorly dressed men in lion suits. They then have a conversation about the information found on Discovery.com. "It was not supposed to look like a TV production," Green explains. "We wanted the people to read off of cue cards, giving it a less polished, sort of amateur look."
All four ads were cast in San Francisco out of cafes, convenience stores, and boat shows. "We hired them for who they were," says Green. "Did they get nervous in front of the camera? Did they act honestly? We had them act out something they read off cue cards. We got more [people] than we needed, as backups."
Traktor used different techniques to keep the performers spontaneous. "We would keep them off-balance," recalls Green. To that end, dialogue was put up on different teleprompters each time, with variations in the speed of the text crawl, and new words were randomly added. "We wanted to keep them fresh, so that it would not become rote," she explains, "so they’d retain this innocent, naive approach."
Without a Net
In shooting any sort of real people spot, the agency has to be spontaneous, as well. Nelson recalls the Dr. Scholl’s spot "L.A. Construction," directed by freelance director Brian Coyne, who helmed the spots through Travisano DiGiacomo Films, New York. Coyne shot footage of four different construction workers with the intention of using two. "We ended up putting all four in the spot because all of them were so good," says Nelson. "Often, you decide in the editing room."
Curren agrees that flexibility is crucial. "Sometimes, you just don’t know what you’re going to get in the commercial," he explains. "You may not know until you’re in the editing booth, and you have to cut it a number of different ways."
For all the challenges in concocting real people spots, those involved argue that doing them is worth the effort, because there is no substitute for the real thing. "I think that real people give you things you don’t expect and things that look like they’re unrehearsed," Nelson observes. "They’re spontaneous."
Will the popularity of real people spots continue? Gartenberg, for one, says yes, insisting that such spots play a crucial role in the world of advertising. "What’s interesting in contemplating the difference between reality-based shows and real-people advertising is that the first puts ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances—you have to survive on an island to win a million bucks—whereas real people advertising captures people right in the real world," he explains. "It elevates the everyday experience of people, and says that the everyday experience is important. I think the jury is still out as to whether these reality TV shows will last. But the jury is not out on real people advertising. It’s here to stay."]
