From Dust to Golden Slience
By Robert Goldrich
On its seventh year anniversary a couple of weeks ago, harvest, the Santa Monica shop formed by director Baker Smith and executive producer Bonnie Goldfarb, debuted a Smith-helmed short film, Dust, which opened the currently running art exhibit of Ethan Murrow at the Obsolete Gallery in Venice, Calif.
There was no plan for the two events to coincide but they did, representing a happy and most fitting turn of events in that, says Smith, one of harvest’s goals from its very inception was “to not be just another production company but to be open to try new things, to dive into uncharted waters.”
Dust is true to that spirit as it brings to video installation life Murrow’s graphite drawings which depict the arduous exploits of fictitious “dust miners.” In this other world, dust has become a coveted commodity pursued by doomed explorers. They ravage the land for it, blowing holes in terra firma and using a tweezer to pick up precious dust and to place it into vials in exchange for money which they then fritter away. The absurdity of the situation is evident, with viewers left to their own interpretations.
Murrow’s artistic signature is creating work based on imaginative fiction that reflects societal values–or in some cases, the lack thereof–and in the process sparks insights into both the good and bad in people. Smith became enamored with Murrow’s drawings and then got to know the artist, who is the grandson of the late, great pioneering broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow.
Smith and Ethan Murrow struck up a friendship and when the latter asked the former if he would collaborate with him on a video installation (a.k.a. a short film), Smith jumped at the opportunity. Also in the mix as collaborators were Goldfarb and Vita Weinstein Murrow.
While Dust is a new longer form means of expression for Smith, he notes that commercialmaking remains his prime focus. The director says at the same time, though, that he’s diversifying his creative lot. For example, Smith was at press time about to embark on a project that will start virally and then evolve into a full campaign on TV for a client he wasn’t yet at liberty to publicly identify.
The desire to push new creative boundaries not only spawned Dust but over the years has also translated into mainstream spotmaking success for Smith who’s established himself as a leading director. He has earned varied honors during his career, perhaps most notably the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award as best commercial director of 2002 based on a collection of memorable commercials displaying a wry sense of humor, including FOX Sports “Lightning” and “Wind,” the promos “Black Bands” and “Visigoths” for Canal+, and BMW Mini Cooper’s “Clown.”
Silent treatment
Dust contains some of the sensibilities of the classic silent films, a genre which Smith became an unabashed fan of during his childhood. As a youngster, he would watch old silent films by the masters unspool at a local pizza parlor in Bloomington, IL. And he recently took silence to a new level with a groundbreaking Pepsi spot–sans sound–which premiered during this year’s Super Bowl pre-game show.
Part of PepsiCo’s EnAble initiative to encourage diversity, the Pepsi spot “Bob’s House” shows two deaf guys in a car, the driver drinking a Pepsi. They are going through a residential neighborhood at night, trying to find the house where their buddy Bob lives. Via sign language, one asks the other which house is Bob’s. In their signing exchange, both assumed the other knew the exact location of Bob’s house. All the signing is subtitled as is the noise, in this case the honking of the car horn (subtitled “Honk”), as the driver resorted to this disruptive means to find Bob. The incessant honking wakes up the neighborhood as house after house turns on its lights–except for one, which is Bob’s in that he too is deaf and cannot hear the blaring horn. By the process of elimination, Bob’s house is found and the two guys pay their friend a visit. Bob answers the light-activated “doorbell” and then looks back sheepishly at a peeved neighbor who was awakened by the car horn.
“Bob’s House” marked Pepsi’s first venture into broadcasting to a hearing impaired audience. Beyond its Super Bowl pre-game life, the commercial has also drawn nearly one million hits on YouTube.
Smith directed the spot’s real people talent via a sign language interpreter. “It took some getting used to,” relates Smith. “I like to be very close to actors physically when shooting dialogue, whispering things in a spontaneous manner. But when you have to communicate through an interpreter, seconds are lost and it’s a different dynamic. Still, it was an absolutely wonderful educational experience for me. It’s my understanding that this storyline is kind of a classic joke in the deaf community. It’s kind of akin to those proverbial ‘this guy walks into a bar’ jokes that are widely known and enjoyed.”
French fare
Continuing his recent spate of atypical fare, Smith just wrapped a two-minute Internet film from which has been culled broadcast spots for client Bouygeus Telecom, France’s third largest telecommunications company, out of DDB Paris. The work takes us into Mathieu’s phone book, with all the people listed, easily in the hundreds, congregating in an other worldly place shot on location in Burgos, Spain, about three hours north of Barcelona at the foot of the Pyrenees Mountains. Among the people gathered en masse are his girlfriend at work and the same girlfriend at home, a woman who’s his answering machine, and assorted others. There’s even a guy who appears by sharp contrast in utter isolation looking for anyone nearby. Turns out he’s in the Z’s and finally has found another person who’s last name ends in Z.
“I’ve had a recent run working in other languages–first sign language and then in this French spot shooting in another country, learning about other people and their customs,” says Smith. “I’ve enjoyed the experience in that being a director is sort of like being an anthropologist going out in the field.” He then hesitates as he rethinks what he just said, noting that “anthropologist” is probably too grandiose a comparison. “Whatever, it’s fun exploring new worlds.”
Review: Writer-Director Andrea Arnold’s “Bird”
"Is it too real for ya?" blares in the background of Andrea Arnold's latest film, "Bird," a 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams) rides with her shirtless, tattoo-covered dad, Bug (Barry Keoghan), on his electric scooter past scenes of poverty in working-class Kent.
The song's question — courtesy of the Irish post-punk band Fontains D.C. — is an acute one for "Bird." Arnold's films ( "American Honey," "Fish Tank") are rigorous in their gritty naturalism. Her fiction films — this is her first in eight years — tend toward bleak, hand-held verité in rough-and-tumble real-world locations. Her last film, "Cow," documented a mother cow separated from her calf on a dairy farm.
Arnold specializes in capturing souls, human and otherwise, in soulless environments. A dream of something more is tantalizing just out of reach. In "American Honey," peace comes to Star (Sasha Lane) only when she submerges underwater.
In "Bird," though, this sense of otherworldly possibility is made flesh, or at least feathery. After a confusing night, Bailey awakens in a field where she encounters a strange figure in a skirt ( Franz Rogowski ) who arrives, like Mary Poppins, with a gust a wind. His name, he says, is Bird. He has a soft sweetness that doesn't otherwise exist in Bailey's hardscrabble and chaotic life.
She's skeptical of him at first, but he keeps lurking about, hovering gull-like on rooftops. He cranes his neck now and again like he's watching out for Bailey. And he does watch out for her, helping Bailey through a hard coming of age: the abusive boyfriend (James Nelson-Joyce) of her mother (Jasmine Jobson); her half brother (Jason Buda) slipping into vigilante violence; her father marrying a new girlfriend.
The introduction of surrealism has... Read More