By Robert Goldrich

Director Brendan Gibbons of Station Film could hardly be accused of resting on his comedy laurels which span such brands as ESPN, Nintendo, Snickers, Sprint, DirecTV, CNN and ongoing work for insurance company Progressive as well as notable endeavors that include the wry re-creation of the classic Mean Joe Greene Coca-Cola commercial with Amy Sedaris for Downy, the lauded “What’s in your hot dog?” for Applegate (via agency Taxi New York), and the recent SOFY’s “BeFresh” for Unicharm and JWT Melbourne. Gibbons has also turned out short film fare, including Dear Josh, which was recognized at the AFI and No Spot festivals, and Sheep Impact for Carlton Dry Beer with Steven Seagal as a 26-year-old guy competing for the affection of a young Australian woman.

Comfortable in such comedy pursuits, Gibbons recently sought to feel a bit uneasy and break some new ground, looking to bring a new dimension and perspective to his humor through an experimental 360-degree virtual reality (VR) short. Titled Red Velvet, the short thrusts us into a job interview that takes a twisted turn when the employee being replaced takes revenge on his boss and fellow workers with a tainted birthday cake. Red Velvet features an ensemble cast of improvisational actors who interact much like theater actors.

“A few months back I had lunch with a friend who works in VR and we got to talking about this brave new world,” recalled Gibbons. “There will be a huge need for this kind of content down the line with players like Facebook, YouTube, Oculus, et cetera. This is a way that people will be increasingly experiencing content in the future. I thought to myself that there has to be a place in VR for comedy-driven storytelling.”

That thought turned into the Station-produced Red Velvet, which was written and directed by Gibbons who wanted to explore how comedy would translate in virtual reality, giving viewers more of a participatory experience in finding for themselves what’s funny in a scene. “About half of what you do in virtual reality as a filmmaker is very similar to what we’ve been doing in production forever,” shared Gibbons. “But the other half isn’t at all. You have to let yourself go and think outside the traditional paradigm. You cannot work in the vacuum of lighting and capturing a shot to control how it will cut with something else. You have to understand that the viewer can look at any part of this 360-degree panorama at any time so you have to fit things together differently. Wherever and whatever the viewer looks at has to be as intriguing as hell—in the case of comedy, it has to be funny.

“It’s a strange forfeit of your powers as a director, editor and writer. We have learned to manipulate what we want people to see and do—right down to the split second and the exact measurements of a frame. All that gets thrown out the window as viewers can look at whatever they want. It really is completely different storytelling.”

As for the prime lesson gleaned from the VR experiment, Gibbons said simply, “I learned that it was possible to do comedy in virtual reality. I kind of knew it would be but since I’d never seen it before, I wasn’t sure. When I strapped the glasses on and had a look around, I saw we had tapped into something interesting—and that there is the potential to do much more. It’s exciting to be at a time and place where the medium is being invented as we speak—and to have a chance as a director to shape that medium is pretty cool.”

Brendan Gibbons | Behind The Scenes | "Red Velvet" from Station Film on Vimeo.

Creative roots
Gibbons made his initial mark in the ad arena as a creative, serving as a writer and then an associate creative director during an eight-and-a-half-year stretch at Ogilvy New York. A year into his Ogilvy tenure, he went out on his first commercial shoot—for IBM directed by Ted Demme and starring John McEnroe. “I had an epiphany then,” recollected Gibbons. “I had never seen the film world before until I stepped off that van in Forest Hills [New York]. Observing the director, I thought, ‘I’d like to do what that guy does.’”

So in his spare time, while serving as an Ogilvy creative producing a ton of IBM work, Gibbons began to direct on his own, turning out spec spots. “I slowly was building a reel and hustling all the time. As a creative I told myself to never be the kind who sat in the video village all day. I was constantly observing filmmakers at work. I was getting my education in filmmaking.”

Gibbons proved to be an apt pupil when in 2001 he cut some of his directorial footage into a spec commercial for Miller Lite. He showed it to the creatives at Ogilvy who were working on Miller and they were favorably impressed—so much so that they showed the piece to the client who bought it and ran the spot nationally. However, the economy was hurting in 2001, necessitating a delay in Gibbons’ plans to join the directorial roster of a production house. Instead he continued his learning curve over the next three years, shooting whenever he got the chance.

One such opportunity came in 2004 when he and John O’Hagan of Hungry Man teamed to co-direct trailers for the Tribeca Film Festival. The work was well received and through it Gibbons fashioned a close relationship with Stephen Orent, managing partner at the time with Hungry Man. This led to Gibbons joining Hungry Man, right out of the gate directing a humorous campaign for CNN which he co-wrote with the Brooklyn Brothers. When Orent eventually left Hungry Man and then became a founding partner Station Film, Gibbons reunited with him there. “Being part of Station from its inception, being in on the ground floor and watching it grow and emerge has been gratifying,” related Gibbons.

Also gratifying has been the special bond he has forged with the creatives at Arnold Boston on the Progressive account. Over the past some three-and-a-half years, Gibbons has directed the Progressive campaign starring spokesperson Flo (portrayed by actress/comedian Stephanie Courtney). Flo had already been established when Gibbons began working on the campaign but he has since helped take the work in different creative, visual and storytelling directions.

“To have a long run on a campaign is uncommon today,” said Gibbons. “But we’ve realized many benefits from all of us knowing each other over a period of time. I know Stephanie who plays Flo. We’re used to working together and know how to get the most out of each other. There’s a family relationship with the crew and the creatives. We had one spot where Flo plays different people, all the members of her family—all crazy distinct vibrant characters who are shot in an interesting filmic way. There’s a trust built over the years that enables us to stretch the campaign, the look and performances.”

Gibbons too has stretched his reach to turn out his first narrative feature, which has a distribution deal in the offing. Titled Preoccupied, the movie—both written and directed by Gibbons—gained exposure last year at the Newport and Brooklyn film festivals. Preoccupied is a funny, poignant look at our socioeconomic times as two New York investment bankers attempt to shut down the Occupy Wall Street protests of 2011, creating their own counter movement called “Occupy Occupy Wall Street.”

Table of Contents:

Lenny Abrahamson
Scott Cooper
Cary Joji Fukunaga
Brendan Gibbons
Lauren Greenfield
Todd Haynes
Ridley Scott

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