This month Zombieland opened to widespread acclaim as critics and audiences saw beyond the movie’s title, recognizing that the flesh-eating creatures and their exploits served ultimately as a backdrop for a character-driven, post-apocalyptic action comedy/buddy picture starring Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg.
In the process, director Ruben Fleischer made an auspicious feature directorial debut, topping the box office derby for the film’s opening weekend. Fleischer’s helming roots are in music videos, which led to a successful diversification into commercials. In fact, he recently secured new spot representation with production house Caviar.
Fleischer’s big-screen showing continues a mini-trend in 2009 which has seen commercialmakers make their marks in their first go-around as feature motion picture directors. Prime examples also include Marc Webb who directs music videos and commercials via Hollywood-based DNA, and Neill Blomkamp, a visual effects artisan who then established himself in the commercial director’s chair and is on the roster of RSA Films.
Webb scored a major success with the premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival of the post-modern love story (500) Days of Summer starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. The movie, which was since released wide, has scored with movie-goers and critics alike.
Meanwhile Blomkamp’s feature directing debut, District 9, has been hailed as a poignant sci-fi thriller.
So as part of this Fall Directors Series Issue, SHOOT thought it fitting to explore some of this theatrical movie success, and the role music video and/or spotmaking experience played in it.
Ruben Fleischer
In his commercials, Fleischer became accustomed to working in open collaboration with agency writers and art directors, and that carried over for him in Zombieland out of Columbia Pictures.
“The movie had a pair of talented writers [Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick] and I wanted to work with them closely,” related Fleischer. “In features it’s less common for screenwriters to be on set. Often the studio doesn’t prefer it because it can introduce problems–cast members for example going directly to the writer, bypassing the director, to expand their parts.
“But I wanted Rhett and Paul on set,” affirmed Fleischer. “We developed a great working relationship, and it very much reminded me of the relationships I’ve enjoyed with the copywriter and art director on a commercial production–creatives watching the monitors, providing their feedback, suggesting and exploring different options, ‘let’s try it this way instead’ or ‘let’s tweak it a bit.’ For me it was a natural progression to have the writers on set [for Zombieland]. I argued on their behalf to have them there. They’re another set of eyes and sensibilities. I like having the creators of the material as collaborators on set.”
Another benefit of spot and music video experience, observed Fleischer, is the tradition of always trying to raise the visual bar. “For music videos, you’d always be trying to up the ante visually as compared to other videos whether it be deploying a certain technique, a visual effect, a different perspective or approach. We tried to do that with Zombieland.”
Fleischer cited a car accident scene from Zombieland in which a housewife comes flying out of a minivan. The accident scene wasn’t highlighted in the original script but upon seeing it, said Fleischer, “I immediately knew I had to have a cool visual context and approach. The car accident had to be the most jarring car accident we’ve ever seen in a movie. I thought of the car accidents in Spike Jonze’s Adaptation, and in Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead. Both Spike and Zack are commercial guys, which to me is clearly no coincidence.”
Fleischer’s music video chops also helped from a bottom-line perspective. “I came up the ranks doing super low budget music videos. So even though we had a more limited budget [for Zombieland], we were able to make a big Hollywood movie.”
Fleischer started his career sans any filmmaking aspirations. He landed a gig as an assistant to feature director Miguel Arteta (The Good Girl, Chuck & Buck). “At first, it was just a job to me,” recalled Fleischer. “But I caught the filmmaking bug.” For Chuck & Buck, Fleischer was a jack of all trades–Arteta’s assistant, a camera assistant, a location scout. “I never went to film school. This was my education. And by the time the second film [The Good Girl] rolled around, I found myself studying Miguel’s process, how he set the tone on the set, how he worked with actors.”
So Fleischer set out on his own to direct, working on low budget music videos and directing some shorts. In doing so, he put his personal finances out of whack. “I was about $40,000 in debt,” he noted, before his shoestring budgeted clip, DJ Format’s “We Know Something You Don’t Know,” made a splash in ’03. Largely on the strength of that piece, London production house Stink signed him for commercials, followed by Smuggler stateside (where he directed Burger King’s “Up Late” for Crispin Porter + Bogusky).
Fleischer’s music video stock also rose with clips for the likes of Kanye West, M.I.A. and Dizzee Rascal.
Fleischer later helmed the DVD documentary Gumball 3000: 6 Days in May, chronicling the famous car race across Europe, which draws rich and famous drivers. There he met pro skater Rob Dyrdek and his bodyguard Chris “Big Black” Boykin, and they went on to team on the reality series Rob & Big, and its sequel Fantasy Factory for MTV.
The plunge into reality TV saw Fleischer take a hiatus from commercials. He later returned, signing with production house Sandwick. There he helmed spots for such clients as ESPN and Boost Mobile.
Key in attracting interest in Fleischer from Columbia Pictures for Zombieland was a series of short films he directed for Comedy Central featuring comedian Nick Thune (currently one of the correspondents on Jay Leno’s new primetime show).
Zombieland producer Gavin Polone, affirmed, “I never had any anxiety whatsoever about Ruben. I’ve worked with many first-time directors, and I was confident that Ruben had the vision and commitment the project needed.”
No sooner does he wrap a significant chapter in his career with his debut in features, Fleischer embarks on another new journey, linking with Caviar, which has offices in Venice, Calif., Brussels and Amsterdam. Helping to bring Fleischer into the Caviar fold was director Keith Schofield (who was included in SHOOT‘s 2008 New Directors Showcase).
“Keith is a bit of a protégé of mine,” explained Fleischer. “I remember meeting him at a film festival and we hit it off. I helped him get a couple of his music videos to direct. Later I found myself impressed with how Caviar was able to take his cool music video work and help him develop a full blown commercial career. It’s a transition that I still feel I never fully capitalized on–and I think Caviar can now help me more fully realize that potential.”
Indeed Fleischer is serious about commercialmaking. He told SHOOT that he would very much like to land spot representation with a U.K. production house. “I loved working on commercials in the U.K. back when I was at Stink, and I’d like to renew my commercials career in London.”
Marc Webb An accomplished music video director who successfully extended his reach into commercials, Webb reflected on how his short-form experience prepared him for his feature debut, (500) Days of Summer, out of Fox Searchlight Pictures.
“For the last eight years, I’ve been getting up every morning and going to set or prepping or writing treatments, primarily for music videos,” said Webb. “The process of making film is second nature to me on some level. I’ve learned a lot about the nuts and bolts of filmmaking, have had great chances to experiment, to try out different methods and techniques. I know what a twelve-hour day can be like, I know where the camera should be, what needs to be done.
“So showing up on set the first day of the feature felt quite natural to me. They’re two sides of the same coin in some sense. Dealing so extensively with the actors was probably the biggest difference. But that was the most rewarding part of it all–Joe and Zooey are terrific, insightful performers. They are very different from each other in terms of their methods but their chemistry is quite fantastic.”
Webb expressed gratitude that Fox Searchlight was open to him directing the film. “Some people seem to be conditioned to think of music video artists as only thinking on a visual level. My video work has been all over the place, exploring different styles and genres but much of it has been narrative. The people at Fox Searchlight knew I directed videos that told stories. They knew that I was a storyteller. They were very supportive and speak the language of filmmakers.”
Via production house DNA, Webb has been active in clips and spots. His ad endeavors include work for Target as well as a series of USA Network promos for the detective series Monk. Among Webb’s lauded music videos are My Chemical Romance’s “Helena,” All American Rejects’ “Move Along,” and Weezer’s “Perfect Situation,” all of which contributed to Webb earning director of the year distinction a couple of years ago at the Music Video Production (MVPA) Awards. “Move Along” also won an MVPA kudo as pop video of the year as well as an MTV VMA.
When SHOOT caught up with Webb at press time, he had just wrapped the international leg of promoting (500) Days of Summer. So it remains to be seen how the film and its success might impact his commercialmaking career.
Webb hopes to find out in the coming months as he currently has a decent-sized window of availability for spots and videos. Webb managed to helm a few clips shoe-horned to fit within the heavy promotional tour schedule for (500) Days of Summer, a film he described as being “a coming-of-age story masquerading as a romantic comedy.” The director observed, “I had the feeling that the movie helped me in the casting of the videos. Talent seemed a little bit more willing to work with me on budgets and different things because I had a movie that came out.”
In the big picture, Webb affirmed that working with the actors in (500) Days of Summer was “a very helpful experience for me as a director though I entered the movie with a background in working with talent. It’s just a different vocabulary in features and you’re exercising different muscles in terms of getting character development in a long-form movie as compared to the limited time frame of videos and commercials. That experience can only benefit all my work.”
District 9
District 9 director Blomkamp made his first major career splash with Citroen’s “Transformer” commercial produced by The Embassy VFX in Vancouver, B.C.. for Euro RSCG, London. The ad, which showed the transformation of a Citroen car into a dancing robot, earned the top spot category honor at the 2005 Visual Effects Society (VES) Awards.
Building Blomkamp’s spot momentum was Nike’s “Evolution” for Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore, produced by Spy Films, Toronto, leading to his breaking into the U.S. ad marketplace for representation in late ’05, signing with RSA. At the time RSA president Jules Daly related that she was drawn to Blomkamp’s “passion for CG and live action. We fully expect Neill to ‘put the soul’ back into CG work.”
While Blomkamp wasn’t available for comment at press time, Daly’s assessment proved prophetic in light of District 9, a social-political satire reflecting an intellect and insight commensurate with its visual prowess spanning live action, CG and effects. The movie also registered big time in the box office, having reached in excess of $114 million domestically and a worldwide tally of nearly $163 million as SHOOT went to press.
Flip side Meanwhile the crossover dynamic flows in varied directions, among the latest examples being Guillermo Arriaga, the noted writer who received an Oscar nomination for Babel.
Arriaga’s feature film directorial debut, The Burning Plain, was recently released. And as reported in a separate story in this issue, Arriaga has signed with Santa Monica-based Independent Media for his first career spot representation as a director.
