During a recent interview with the bicoastal WildLife Management directing team known as the Snorri Bros. (Einar Snorri and Eidur Snorri), the two referred to themselves as the Blues Brothers in disguise. "We’re on a mission-undercover," said one Snorri in an endearing Icelandic accent. While the pair may have only been joking, as they often do, they’re not too far from the truth.
The Snorri Brothers, both aged 27, are not really brothers, but rather best friends from Iceland with the same middle name (Snorri) and a fetish for photography. They don’t like to distinguish themselves as individuals to the press because they claim that they are of the same mind. Three years ago, the duo left their Arctic homeland where they had made a name for themselves as photographers and headed to New York on a mission to break into spot directing. Virtually unknown in the States, the two tucked a portfolio of black and white stills under their collective arm and started knocking on doors.
The Snorris first gained recognition in the States photographing bands like No Doubt and Green Day, rapper Busta Rhymes and, of course, Icelandic singer-songwriter Bjrk. Spin, Details and Interview magazines all tapped into the Snorri Bros.’ creative vision. Under the WildLife banner, the Snorris started to direct music videos in the U.S. in ’96. But the big break-in terms of breathing life into their commercial prospects-came about six months ago with R.E.M.
Warner Brothers’ VP of video Randy Skinner met the Snorri Bros. when they shot stills for WB recording artist Green Day, and made a mental note of the duo’s work. Later, R.E.M was looking for a director to helm a video for the song "Daysleeper," and Skinner put the Snorri Bros. and R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe together and the three clicked.
The video, which was shot in October ’98, immediately caught the world’s attention, not only because it was R.E.M., but because of a technique they used, where they took 10,800 stills, fed them into a computer and then edited it all together to look like stop-motion film. The method, which they have been developing for a long time, introduced an interesting prospect to the spot world.
Shortly after "Daysleeper" aired, St. Louis-based boutique agency Core (part of
Ogilvy & Mather’s creative syndicate) called the Snorri Bros. and asked them to shoot a regional ad for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch entitled "Sunday." "I guess shooting a video for a big name like R.E.M. somehow validated them as directors," said WildLife producer Jonathan Jardine. Again, the commercial employed some of the same techniques used in the R.E.M video and thrust their work further into the mainstream.
Coming directly on the heels of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch shoot, the duo scored its first national spot campaign for Oxford Health Plans via New York-based Merkley Newman Harty. According to Merkley copywriter Troy Torrison, Oxford was looking to break the mold in healthcare advertising. "They really wanted to get away from the whole imagery of babies and elderly people and talk about their core values and inspire people to start thinking in a different way," explained Torrison. Alison Brown, the art director on the campaign, had seen the R.E.M. video and picked the Snorris for the job.
The two :30 spots, "Swing" and "Intersection," were shot with a 35mm movie camera and then selected images were edited out to give the spots a staccato effect. In "Swing," the camera follows the movements of three children as they swing higher and higher on a playground swing set. Their movements are jarring, as if a piece of film has been cut out of every other frame, while a voiceover asks "What if there is something better out there?" In the final seconds, a boy jumps off his swing and is suspended in midair by freeze frame as the single word "dare" appears. "Intersection" bears a similar style where a man hesitates to step off a curb at an intersection. Just as he does, the shot is again frozen and the word "explore" comes up on the screen.
"There is nothing going on in these spots so the question was, how do you make nothing look interesting and the Snorris just got it," said Torrison.
In Iceland, the Snorris were from the school where, as directors, they had to do everything themselves. They observed that shooting here is very different from working in Iceland where there was never an extensive crew to lean on. Consequently, the pair has a way of being extremely resourceful as directors. On "Swings" they constructed a rig that would mimic the movements of the swings and then attached a camera to it. They don’t own any equipment, claiming that renting gear for each shoot gives them the freedom to try out different approaches, depending on what the job demands. They also do all their own editing and in the case of "Intersection," they composed the music.
"They definitely had a vision in their heads of how it would all work that was hard for us to envision so we just had to kind of stand back and trust them," said Torrison.
In addition to Brown and Torrison, Merkley Newman Harty credits for "Swing" and "Intersection" include chief creative officer Marty Cooke (now at M&C Saatchi, New York) and producer Susan Macy. The online was done at Tape House Editorial, New York, by Jay Tilin and the colorist was Stefan Sonnenfeld of Company 3, Santa Monica. The music for "Swing" was composed by Michael Carroll, New York, and mixed at Sound Lounge, New York, by Tom Jucarone.