For us, the challenge is always to integrate product into the humanity of the story," says Tim Cronenweth, who along with his brother Jeff Cronenweth are the directing team known as The Cronenweths. Jeff also DPs spots directed by the two, who are represented by Untitled, Santa Monica. "Oftentimes, when it’s cars, there are no people, but we find ways to humanize the cars and make them the characters," Tim adds.
The brothers, who started co-directing in 2003, have been getting quite a bit of attention lately, especially for their distinctive car spots. The Cronenweths recently crafted two striking ads: GMC’s "Ideas," out of Lowe, New York; and Jaguar’s "Mechanical Rabbit" via Young & Rubicam (Y&R) Brands, Irvine, Calif. Both spots stand out in the car commercial genre, and both required innovative approaches to bring the ads to life.
"Ideas" shows a quiet landscape. Out of nowhere, the frame of a car crashes down to earth, as if dropping from the sky. Other car parts continue to fall in dramatic fashion. The action then cuts to an engineer at a drawing board, crumpling up design ideas that aren’t quite right and tossing them aside. Each tossed design is a car part that falls from the sky—the surreal imagery is meant to represent the ideas that don’t meet GMC’s standards. The tag: "GMC professional grade engineering. It’s not more than you need, just more than you’re used to."
Early on in the project, The Cronenweths considered using miniatures and CGI to create the effect of falling cars. "Those different possibilities, as well as using cranes and cables to drop stuff into frame, all fell short for numerous reasons," says Tim. "We wanted to make it as real as possible."
The team eventually found a pneumatic device that was capable of launching cars into the air. "That was what we opted to do, even though it was a bit of a gamble," says Tim. "During the first couple of tests it was kind of anti-climactic, but we quickly used the learning curve to increase the angle and the pressure in the pneumatic cannon. By the time we were on the set, we were hitting the marks."
Jeff points out another reason why the pair shot real—rather than virtual—action. "There’s the magic of things that happen that you can’t expect," he says. "We didn’t want to miss out on [that]."
Jaguar’s "Mechanical Rabbit" opens with a wide shot of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. Then we see a shiny metal rabbit speeding along a track as it travels across the iconic bridge. A chrome cat—the Jaguar "leaper" hood ornament—comes into frame, along with the XJR sedan it adorns. The Jaguar proceeds to chase the rabbit across the bridge and through the streets of San Francisco. The text, "Born with: 390 supercharged HP," appears as the hunt continues. The rabbit tries to lose the leaper by going into a building, but the car heads it off. The closing tag: "Lives for: the hunt."
Jeff says he had to film the spot without relying on commonly used techniques for shooting cars. "Unlike a traditional car chase-type sequence, you had to avoid a lot of the quick blur cuts that create energy because you would miss the story of the hunt. We ended up being forced, as storytellers, to stay much wider and try to create that energy in ways other than using sheet metal blurs and whip-pans. That was a very interesting challenge."
"I found that the most interesting part of that job was the characterizations that we were able to impute on the vehicle and on the rabbit," Tim adds. "There’s no dialogue, and yet you feel like you go through a three-act with a resolution. The challenge was to create a dynamic to the chase that allowed the audience to see an intelligence behind both the vehicle and the [rabbit]."
"There’s always been a storyline in the car spots that Tim and I have been fortunate enough to be attached to," says Jeff. "For us, that’s what’s been compelling." (The Cronenweths directed a second Jaguar spot, "Critical Delivery," also via Y&R.)
Beyond Cars
It’s clear that The Cronenweths love helming car commercials, but their reel displays a range of work, including McDonald’s "Surfaces," out of DDB Chicago, which features tennis aces Venus and Serena Williams; and Sprint’s "Facilities" through Publicis & Hal Riney, San Francisco. Other recent jobs include Target’s "Runner" and "Kick Boxer," via Peterson Milla Hooks, Minneapolis; and Chevrolet’s "Pas de Deux," promoting the Malibu Maxx, through Campbell-Ewald Advertising, Warren, Mich. The McDonald’s, Target and Chevrolet work all aired during the telecast of the Summer Olympic Games in Athens.
The Cronenweths are sons of the late cinematographer, Jordan Cronenweth, who lensed such films as Blade Runner and Peggy Sue Got Married. In addition to shooting spots, Jeff has worked on a number of features, including serving as second unit DP on The Game, and camera operator on Se7en, both directed by David Fincher, who helms spots via bicoastal Anonymous Content (Jeff also recently DPed a Lexus spot for Fincher). Tim has a background in writing and editorial work.
The brothers obviously soaked up a great deal of knowledge from their dad. "We both picked up an enormous amount of aesthetics from his work," says Jeff. "Ninety percent of the time we see eye-to-eye aesthetically."
The Cronenweths characterize their working process as a true collaboration. Jeff says that "aside from me speaking to the crew about where lights go," it’s hard to tell the difference between the brothers’ individual roles.
But Tim points that each of them brings something a little different to their projects. "We did grow up in the same household, so there’s a tremendous amount of commonality in terms of our origins," he says. "However, we do have different approaches to certain things, and those differences, however subtle they are, are some of what drives us to excel. The agencies get a right- and a left-brain type of mentality, and we’re able to shine together."Z
