Chris Riess and Amy Hill—a.k.a. the directorial team of Riess/Hill—have a storytelling pedigree spanning pathos and comedy, actors and real people. The latter has recently led to noteworthy déjà vu. Earlier this year, Riess/Hill helmed a four-spot campaign for the American Heart Association via Campbell-Ewald, Warren, Mich.
One of the public service messages, centering on twin boys, made SHOOT’s "The Best Work You May Never See" gallery (4/23, p. 15). Riess/Hill directed the job while at bicoastal Anonymous Content. Shortly thereafter, the duo moved on to bicoastal production house GARTNER.
Shot in a documentary style, the spot opens on the twins seated on a bed. "I was born thirty minutes older," says one brother.
The other chimes in, "We’re not the same height—and he has heart defects and I don’t."
The scene cuts to the two boys standing side by side. They pull up their shirts. They both have slender physiques—but one youngster has a scar running down the center of his upper torso, from his chest to his belly button.
A supered message against a gray background reads, "Heart disease can affect anyone."
We then return to the twins. The kid with the heart defect explains his illness. "A heart defect is when your heart isn’t fully healthy," he relates. "It’s not like other people’s hearts."
His brother observes, "I get really sad ’cause he goes into the hospital and I’m not able to play with him."
The boys’ facial expressions and body language show the bond they share, and the love and friendship they have for one another. The healthy boy then says of his brother, "He’s really brave."
The spot is tagged with an American Heart Association logo, contact info and the slogan, "Let us help your family."
Well Riess/Hill decided to help the youngsters by keeping their personalities in mind for future work. "Directors often pull in actors they have a rapport with," said Riess. "We have—and we have also done it when working with real people. We keep files of our own, Polaroid shots so that people we meet along the way aren’t forgotten when the right opportunity comes up."
I recently saw part of a Quaker Oatmeal Breakfast Blast commercial on TV; the kids looked like the same twins, so I inquired about the piece. I found out that the spot for Element 79 Partners, Chicago, was directed by Riess/ Hill. Soon thereafter, I confirmed that the kids in the oatmeal ad were the American Heart Association PSA twins—Khamal and Khalil White—accompanied by their mom, Eugenia Gardner.
"The kids were perfect for the spot, so we suggested them," said Hill.
Riess noted, "We hadn’t planned on using the mom in the commercial. It just sort of happened on set. They’re high-energy kids—but she’s able to help harness that energy, to control them, and the rapport between her and her sons is wonderful. We cut a piece of wardrobe for Eugenia and put her in."
"The commercial was pretty much the kids looking at an oversized [cereal] box, tasting the oatmeal and then reacting to it and to each other," continued Hill. "There’s not a single piece of script in there."
However, the serendipity of the kids being cast in the spot reads like a Hollywood script. "Eugenia is a hard working single mom with a son who is chronically ill," related Hill. "For obvious reasons, it was great to be able to get them this work. They gave so much of themselves for the [American Heart Association] PSA. And to have that later translate into a successful commercial for a major advertiser is to say the least a gratifying bit of casting."
