According to Andrews Jenkins, "Where there’s chaos, there’s opportunity." His statement could practically serve as the motto for his directing career. Represented by Stiefel+Company, Santa Monica (and handled in the Pacific Northwest by Food Chain Films, Portland, Ore.), Jenkins has managed to amass an impressive array of work in a very short period of time, and all without any formal directing training to speak of. In fact, the former copywriter never even had any aspirations to direct until he virtually jumped, feet first, into the mix. Jenkins has succeeded, to hear him tell it, because he just didn’t know any better.
It all started back in 1997, when he was an in-house copywriter at adidas, working with creative director Peter Moore. Budgets were tight, and Jenkins learned that if he wanted his spots to get produced, he’d have to direct them himself. And that’s exactly what he did. His inaugural effort was a client-direct spot called "Naked Runner," which plays on everyone’s nightmare of finding one’s self naked in public—only the nude guy in this spot had on great shoes. Jenkins says it was the "classic Austin Powers branch-where-it-should-be" type of gag. "It’s at least entertaining, if not embarrassing," he says, laughing. "Usually they’re the same thing."
Jenkins admits that he didn’t really dwell on the difficulties he’d face as a first-time director with absolutely no experience. "I wish I could tell you I had some insight and premeditated plan, but I didn’t," he relates. "I didn’t know any better, and where I should have been scared and probably should have fallen on my ass, I didn’t."
Jenkins equates the experience with an old Bugs Bunny cartoon, in which Elmer Fudd chases Bugs off a cliff and Bugs doesn’t fall. Elmer asks if Bugs has ever studied the laws of gravity. Bugs says no, and Elmer falls, but only because he knows he should. "I honestly had no concept of what I was doing," Jenkins adds. "And eventually Frank Stiefel [president of Stiefel+Company] said, ‘Hey, would you be interested in being a director with us?’ and I said, ‘Oh, I guess I am a director. Sure, why not?’ "
Even Jenkins’ entrée into copywriting has parallels with his fortuitous start as a director. He studied journalism at the University of Oregon, Eugene, and in ’93 was asked by president/executive creative director Dan Wieden to be an intern at W+K. Because there weren’t many interns there at the time, Jenkins says he was "thrown to the wolves"; indeed, his first project was helping with the pitch for the "Just Do It" Nike campaign. "It all goes back to me not knowing any better," he insists.
For all his modesty, Jenkins’ work certainly shows no signs of inexperience. He recently completed a :90 spot for adidas International, titled "Epic Passion," which he’s very excited about. In ’99, he helmed commercials in-house for adidas, featuring Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, and Fuzzy Mitchum, a self-confident little boy. In "The Kid," Fuzzy takes on Kobe in a hilarious one-on-one game, with shots of Kobe easily knocking the ball away intercut with Fuzzy bragging about how well he’s going to do playing against the superstar.
The latest Jenkins-directed adidas campaign to feature Bryant takes a different approach. The spots—"Speed," "Style," Poetry" and "Italy,"—were created by two Portland-based outfits: Red Button, a small boutique co-founded by Jenkins and Devin Moore last year, and Whatya Think, a two-year-old firm which focuses on work for adidas and other sports companies, and was founded by Jenkins’ former colleague Peter Moore. The spots bring out an unexpected side of Bryant—most strikingly in "Italy," which visually has the feel of a European film. In it Bryant trades barbs with players on an Italian basketball team—in Italian, which he speaks fluently.
The next installment in the adidas/Kobe Bryant series will be something of a surprise, according to Jenkins. The spots will include some of Bryant’s more famous friends. "It’s Kobe’s world and you never know who’s going to drop in," hints Jenkins. "Working on the adidas Kobe stuff has been amazing. You don’t want to jinx it, but he’s got that element of the Michael Jordan era."
Sporting Life
Not surprisingly, Jenkins’ background as a copywriter gives him a healthy respect for the creative process. "I know it sounds nice and happy and cheesy, but I love being part of the creative team," he states. A lot of people don’t realize that creative is a massive evolutionary chain. … I’ve seen so many directors take something and go, ‘This is Mine’—that whole early-’80s fascist concept of a director. It’s not yours; it belongs to somebody who thought of it in the middle of the night in bed, and to the people who had to sell it with their hearts and souls and blood to a client—it belongs to all those people along the way. So when it gets to you, you hope to be a part of it, but not take it over."
While Jenkins has directed non-sports projects, such as his recent work on "Side by Side" for Saturn, out of Publicis & Hal Riney, San Francisco, and an upcoming campaign for Telus, out of Palmer Jarvis, Vancouver, B.C., which he did through his Canadian roost, Industry Films, Toronoto, he has definitely helmed his share of sport-related ads. Those include Nike ACG’s "Chairlift," "Bed" and "Dog" via W+K; and "Soul of Gold" for TaylorMade, out of Whatya Think. (Both the Nike package and the TaylorMade spot were produced through Food Chain.) But Jenkins doesn’t worry about being typecast. "The wonderful thing about sports is it allows for so many different genres within that," he points out. "It allows you to do everything from comedy to image to high concept to the low-brow."
At the same time, Jenkins doesn’t want to pigeonhole himself. "On the one hand, I love high image, cinematic style, a less-is-more approach," he says. "On the other hand, seeing such great concept and writing from places like Wieden+ Kennedy, I just love pure, good comedy." He believes the key is to try to avoid being all one thing or the other.
Jenkins would like to eventually branch out into feature film work. "I’ve definitely got my goals set on that," he says. "That’s when the writing thing really comes into play. Because I think every director—even if they’re not a writer per se—whether they know it or not, they are a writer, because you’re asked to create on the spot."
