Some might claim that director Doug Pray of Oil Factory Films, Beverly Hills, Calif., and London, is exclusively a documentary filmmaker. After all, his two early claims to fame were the feature-length documentaries Hype! (1996) and Scratch (’01), about the Seattle grunge scene and DJ phenomenon, respectively. But Pray sees what he does as something more all encompassing.
"Being known only as a documentary film director is tricky because you are perceived as only doing documentary, when the truth is I feel like I know so much more about real filmmaking," says Pray. "When you do documentaries, you have to use every single filmmaking skill there is, and really think on your feet. To me, that’s what directing is all about."
For Pray, the process of getting a performance out of real people is the same approach he uses with actors, something he’s done at length. And he also edits almost all of his own work. But to discuss any one of these points individually seems futile—one look at Pray’s reel and you know that this director has mastered the art of filmmaking.
Consider the series of short documentaries Pray directed for the "Veer" campaign for Dr. Martens out of agency Buder Engel and Friends, San Francisco. The three- to five-minute shorts are day-in-the-life portraits of people who have non-traditional jobs. Between Lanes, is the story of Whylee, a motorcycle courier in London; 50,000 and One features Janette, a woman dedicated to being a DJ; Sidewalk Gallery introduces Adam, who paints multiple self-portraits and then leaves his artwork on the streets of London. Passersby either stare at the canvasses or throw them in the trash, but to the artist, the paintings are not complete until they exist within the framework of the city. Then there’s John, the engineer whose Corner Office means scaling an enormous bridge; Mark, who in 10:00 PM Doors sets up and breaks down band equipment for live shows; and Ndidi, who demonstrates her metalwork artistry in Patience Has a Rhythm. In each case, the viewer might catch a glimpse of a Dr. Marten shoe, but the message is more about lifestyle than footwear.
The shorts were shot on 16mm black-and-white film by DP Denzil Armour-Brown and cut by Pray. (Pray’s longtime DP and collaborator Robert Bennett died in March of ’04.) The director spent more than a month talking to people in England, trying to find stories that excited him as a director and fit into what Dr. Martens was trying to do. Once settled on his subjects, Pray cultivated a rapport with them, running up a $2,000 phone bill talking to the people he would eventually film in London. "I invest in the interviews I’ll eventually get, so when it comes time to shoot, they feel like they know me," explains Pray. "When you’re dealing with real people, research and editing are really important and completely underestimated. The shooting is just ten percent."
The series represents the first advertising by the company in four years, and can be viewed online at www.drmartens.com; some of the films will also be seen on Spike TV and the Independent Film Channel. Additionally, DVDs of the six shorts are being made widely available, and at press time, Pray was working on putting together a half-hour piece of all the footage for television. As commercials go, it is a dream project for Pray because there is almost nothing commercial about them. "Dr. Martens doesn’t do traditional advertising so we never called them commercials," he notes. "If people see the movies and get a sense of the [brand’s] attitude or spirit, then that’s what the company wants. There was no pressure to even show the shoe."
Reel Life
Clients like Dr. Martens are rare, and Pray is realistic about his role as a commercial director and how it fits into his life as a documentary storyteller. "I never thought about commercials," says Pray, "and then one day I saw that Errol Morris [who directs ads via bicoastal/international @radical.media] did a documentary-style ad and I thought, ‘I get it.’ If you can work [on ads], then you can continue to do documentaries."
Since that revelatory moment, Pray has had the good fortune of landing commercial jobs that employ his flair for real life. His first foray into the spot world in conjunction with joining Oil Factory Films in ’02 was an adidas commercial titled "One" out of TBWA/Chiat/ Day, Los Angeles. The ad shows footage (some real and some staged) of athletes coming together as team players. It is aptly backed up by the Aimee Mann version of the song "One."
It was the first time Pray worked with an advertising agency, which he admits took some getting used to. "Shooting ‘One’ was really intense," he recalls. "It was half actors and half real people, six locations a day. So much was going on that when people would come up to me and whisper in my ear that the client wants something, I’d be like ‘Who? What? We’re working here.’ "
Pray laughs at his reaction back then—no doubt the byproduct of a filmmaker who is used to cruising around in a station wagon with only a cameraman and some interview questions. But now he views the experience of shooting commercials with full crew, client and agency in tow the same as making documentaries, just with more stuff.
Pray recently completed directing and editing a real people campaign for Valvoline motor oil out of Borders Perrin Norrander, Portland, Ore. According to the director, the four :30s consist of interviews with people who use Valvoline and why they think it’s cool. Meanwhile, Pray is in the midst of making three documentary films, including Big Rig, Surfwise and a "film about graffiti artists." The latter is being produced through 1171 Production Group, Hollywood, where the director is also represented for music videos.
In the fall of ’03, Pray finished a six-spot package out of DDB Seattle for The Gill Foundation, a privately funded lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organization. The "TurnOut" campaign is a reaction to the fact that it is still legal in 36 U.S. states to fire someone for being gay. For the project, men and women agreed to come out to their bosses in documentary-style ads. While the moment of confrontation is never shown on screen, what is captured is the hugely pregnant moment just before their admission. The resulting spots are honest snapshots of people who are about to do something that could get them fired, and it is the realness of that moment that helps to communicate the unfair nature of their predicament. The campaign scored a Bronze Lion at this year’s Cannes International Advertising Festival.
While no one can fake being the person they really are, Pray’s interviewing skills are at play behind the "performances" in The Gill Foundation work. "To me, it’s all about the approach," says the director. "You can come into someone’s home in a way that makes them feel hunted, or they can feel like we’re doing it together. I’ve worked with actors a lot, but I think there’s something so satisfying about getting a performance from someone who isn’t a performer."Z
