Allen Martinez didn’t want to be a director. He wanted to be a drummer. He moved to Los Angeles from a small town outside of Chicago in ’89, and studied at Hollywood’s Musician Institute for two years. During that time, Martinez played everything from funk to country in Los Angeles clubs. "But my career wasn’t going like I wanted it to, so I choose another dead-end career-art," says Martinez, who now directs spots out of Tate & Partners, Santa Monica. Martinez enrolled at the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, Calif., with a major in advertising. He took a course in filmmaking, and his teacher was so impressed by Martinez that he encouraged him to change departments.
"We sat out in the parking lot after class for an hour, and he’s telling me why I should switch over to the film department," says Martinez. "I’m the kind of guy who was never good at sports-you know, always intramural everything-and here’s this guy saying, ‘You’re really good at something.’"
It was good advice. After earning honors from the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Show in ’98 and ’99, Martinez seems to have found his true calling. "I’ve gotten a lot of attention in a relatively short period of time," he says. "Any attention is good. We’re just trying to create a buzz and say, ‘Hey, I exist.’"
The spot honored by the AICP in the low budget category in’99 was "Kaboom," for Ugly Duckling Car Sales, via dGWB, Irvine, Calif. A man stands on a desert roadside making a phone call from an emergency phone box. In the background is his broken-down car. As he tries to explain to a mechanic that the car is making an odd, "rah, rah" sound, the mechanic tries to determine exactly what the sound is. Suddenly, the auto explodes, and the frustrated motorist deadpans that the vehicle is now making a "boom" sound. The mechanic says, "A boom?" And the driver says, "A kaboom."
Martinez is reluctant to call himself a comedy director. "I’m always trying to find the balance in things," he says. "If you give me a comedy board-and my sense of comedy is more on the dry side-I’ll try to find the reality in a situation, because the reality is where the humor is. You have to really dig into the drama; then the humor will come out. In the same respect, if you gave me a really dramatic board, I’d try to find the irony in it, and use the irony to bring out humor, so [the spot] isn’t so heavy."
Martinez found that balance late last year with Totes’ "Flambe," out of Sive/Young & Rubicam, Cincinnati. The ad features a man and woman enjoying a romantic dinner. As a waiter prepares to flambe the dessert for the couple, he is captivat ed by the woman’s looks and fails to notice how much wine he has poured into the pan. As he strikes a match and lights the alcohol, a huge flame hits the ceiling and sets off the sprinklers. As other diners frantically exit the restaurant, the couple opens up two Totes mini-umbrellas and continue the meal.
Rocky Road
Martinez’s career got off to a somewhat bumpy start after he graduated from Art Center and signed with A Band Apart Commercials, Los Angeles. After not landing any spots with A Band Apart, Martinez switched to Tate & Partners. "Tate has been great," he says. "David [Tate] is like a dad, always taking care of me. We challenge each other, always evaluating everything we do, every move we make, making me more and more focused about what I want to do, where I want to go. It’s like iron sharpening iron."
An added benefit to being with Tate & Partners is that agencies often associate Martinez with another Tate director, Baker Smith. Many consider Martinez to be Smith’s protege, because of their similar styles. "It’s a good problem to have," Martinez says. "People call the company, and if Baker isn’t available, then I am. This has definitely gotten me a higher caliber of work in a shorter period of time."
What attracts him to a job? "I’m looking for a story that grabs me," he says. "When I see that, I see it in my head, then I go into what it’s going to look like. But really, it’s about the concept. My question is always, ‘Are the look, the style, and the editing going to reinforce what that concept is?’ My job is to protect the concept."
One concept Martinez guarded carefully was for a Coca-Cola spec spot called "The Bowler" that featured a dancing bowling pin that he created while at the Art Center. "I presented [the idea] to the teacher and he said, ‘How the hell can you do this? It’s impossible-you can’t compete with Coca-Cola. You’re talking about a million dollar commercial!’ A few days later, we were shooting plates, shooting an empty alley before the pin was there. I had all these students working as my crew, looking at me like, ‘What are we doing? What do we focus on?’ I said, ‘Just pretend there’s going to be a pin right there.’ There was just all this resistance."
Also, the person who was supposed to do his computer graphics bailed out at the last second. "I had to do it all myself," relates Martinez. "I spent literally hundreds of hours learning about CG, which was really invaluable because everything today is CG.
"The whole thing could have gone bad, but it really came together," he continues. "By producing that spot, I learned a lot about myself, about getting things done. You can’t tell me ‘no’ now. No just makes me more persistent."c
