As we get ready to unveil this year’s crop of talent in SHOOT’s 5th annual New Directors Showcase later this month, fittingly one of those helmer candidates, Matthew Helfgott, is behind this week’s selection for our “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery.
In this National Job Bank spot, which recently debuted in Holland, we open on an office where seemingly everyone is working in slow motion. The environment is one of tedium as we see one worker peck away at a snail’s pace on a computer keyboard, another pull out a creaking file cabinet drawer, yet another struggle to seal an envelope. Not fitting into the scheme of things, however, is a worker who is actually working, hammering away on the computer keyboard. But given what’s around him, you have to wonder what’s the use of trying to be productive in this setting. No one seems to care.
Yet out of the blue, boredom is disrupted by the sound of a jackhammer that is pulverizing the ceiling, causing chunks of debris to fall upon the office. The size of the hole in the ceiling grows large enough so that we can see who’s doing the dismantling–a hard hat-wearing rescue team, including a trusty dog. The guys rappel down into the office, shining lanterns on the workers who for the most part suffer from deer-in-the-headlights syndrome.
Clearly they are all beyond help, except for the aforementioned industrious gent on the keyboard. The rescue team secures him in a harness-like device and air-lifts him out of the office to the floor above–as if rescuing a coal laborer from a mineshaft. As the office worker makes his ascent to freedom, a super reads, “Rescue is close,” followed by another message: “61,290 jobs.” The rescue team embodies Holland’s number one job site, Nationale Vacaturebank.nl (National Job Bank), offering opportunities to the competent who through no fault of their own are stuck in employment purgatory.
Helfgott directed this commercial, titled “Office,” via his Helfgott Productions, LLC, in Los Angeles, for Dutch ad agency Selmore.
The creative team at Selmore, Amsterdam, consisted of creative director/copywriter Poppe van Pelt (who is featured in this week’s SHOOT Chat Room), creative director/art director Diederick Hillenius and producer Ronald Milton.
Koo Abuali and Raegan Klein produced for Helfgott Productions. Klein also handled the casting. The DP was Jesse Eisenhardt. Production designer was Linda Burton. The stunt coordinator was Nick Brett.
Offline editor was Annelien van Wijnbergen of Post Office, Amsterdam. Online editors were Post Office’s Patcharee Sa-ardkitinun and Remco Smit.
Creative initiative
Helfgott landed “Office” based on his having befriended Selmore creative partner Bas Korsten. “I write creatives whose work I like,” said Helfgott. “I made contact with Bas in September [2006], introduced the agency to my spec work and then this job came along. They needed a Hollywood production but had a tight budget. He suggested me to Poppe [creative director van Pelt] and we eventually wound up working together on the project.”
The director set up Helfgott Productions to handle the assignment. Up until then, Helfgott had primarily been directing spec pieces to build his reel. He is now looking to secure a slot on an established commercial production house roster.
Helfgott has befriended several agency creatives over the past year and a half, which has translated into his landing some good spec concepts, including Ameriquest’s “Brownie,” which he completed in January. “Brownie” is based on a concept from creatives at Ameriquest ad agency DDB Los Angeles. The spec piece was produced as part of Helfgott’s tenure this past season with Group101Spots, a collective designed to help establish directorial talent through spec projects.
Spec route
Earlier Helfgott garnered a spec concept from a copywriter at BBDO New York and he is currently working on a spec spot for a hot sauce, the concept for which came from a creative director at Energy BBDO, Chicago.
Helfgott graduated from the cinema and business program at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, in 2004. He then landed a production assistant’s gig on the FOX primetime television sitcom Arrested Development and later began serving as a P.A. on various commercials. This experience on ad projects led Helfgott to pursue a spot directing career. He decided to go the spec commercial route about a year and a half ago in order to showcase his abilities as a director.