This spec commercial takes us through the life of a young boy into manhood, starting with his playing on his beloved automobile tire turned swing hanging from a tree. He takes the tire with him everywhere and it’s a habit he can’t shake.
For instance, we see him seated with the tire at the dinner table as his concerned parents look on. As an older lad, he is a passenger on the school bus, accompanied by the tire.
Years later we see him in the movie theater, seated next to his tire. Other kids throw popcorn at him.
He even takes the tire to the high school prom as his date.
Belittled and derided as a loser for his tire fetish, one day the tables are turned when a lovely woman is stranded due to a flat tire on her car. Along comes our boy turned man walking along with his tire. They smile at each other and clearly a romance is sparked–turns out that tire came in handy after all. They speed off together in her sports car convertible.
“A Boy and His Tire” was directed and written by Jeannette Godoy, a choreographer and stylist now making her way to the director’s chair via Superlounge, a Santa Monica-based production house recently launched by director Jordan Brady and executive producer Dave Farrell.
Godoy said the spec spot concept was inspired by Lars and The Real Girl, a feature film–directed by noted spotmaker Craig Gillespie of MJZ–which centers on a delusional young man who enters into a relationship with an anatomically correct doll he orders online.
The DP on the Bridgestone :60 was Jeanne Lipsey.
Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey Launch Production House 34North
Executive producers Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey have teamed to launch 34North. The shop opens with a roster which includes accomplished directors Jan Wentz, Ben Nakamura Whitehouse, David Edwards and Mario Feil, as well as such up-and-coming filmmakers as Glenn Stewart and Chris Fowles. Nakamura Whitehouse, Edwards, Feil and Fowles come over from CoMPANY Films, the production company for which Cicero served as an EP for the past nearly five years. Director Wentz had most recently been with production house Skunk while Stewart now gains his first U.S. representation. EP Clancey was freelance producing prior to the formation of 34North. He and Cicero have known each other for some 25 years, recently reconnecting on a job directed by Fowles. Cicero said that he and Clancey “want to keep a highly focused roster where talent management can be one on one--where we all share in the directors’ success together.” Clancey also brings an agency pedigree to the new venture. “I started at Campbell Ewald in accounts, no less,” said Clancey. “I saw firsthand how much work agencies put in before we even see a script. You have to respect that investment. These agency experiences really shaped my approach to production--it’s about empathy, listening between the lines, and ultimately making the process seamless.” 34North represents a meeting point--both literally and creatively. Named after the latitude of Malibu, Calif., where the idea for the company was born, it also embraces the power of storytelling. “34North118West was the first GPS-enabled narrative,” Cicero explained. “That blend of art and technology, to captivate an audience, mirrors what we do here--create compelling work, with talented people, harnessing state-of-the-art... Read More