By Robert Goldrich

Peter Moore Smith–who spent the past four years as executive creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi New York–has embarked on a directorial career, moving over to his first production company roost, Aero Film.

Smith has more than 20 years’ experience in advertising. He had a 15-year tenure at BBDO NY, rising from a budding creative star to senior creative director while working on campaigns for brands such as Pepsi, Visa, GE and FedEx. During his career, Smith also held a similar position as executive VP/exec creative director at Publicis before moving on to Saatchi, where he assumed the title of ECD and even interim chief creative officer for a time. At Saatchi, he oversaw all creative on General Mills and worked on notable campaigns for Cheerios as well as Walmart and Duracell.

Smith is no stranger to the director’s chair. In fact earlier this year (3/30/15) he was included in SHOOT’s Up and Coming Directors feature coverage largely on the strength of an emotionally poignant and thought provoking PSA he wrote and directed while at Saatchi: “The Talk” for Harlem-based youth development organization Brother/Sister Sol.

The spot depicts several discussions between African-American parents and their sons about how to avoid potentially dangerous encounters with the police. This is a common dialogue dubbed “the talk” in black households. In sharp contrast, the piece next shows a white father telling his teenage son that the police are there to help and to seek out an officer if there’s trouble. Then the question is ultimately asked, “Do we want one America–or two?”

While at Saatchi, Smith also directed select jobs for Cheerios, including a mini-documentary about Phil Zietlow, the architect of gluten-free Cheerios.
 

CHEERIOS_GLUTEN_FREE from Aero Film on Vimeo.

Smith’s working relationship with Aero Film–which is run by partners Skip Short, Lance O’Connor, and Klaus Obermeyer–dates back to his days at BBDO. In regards to what Aero’s newest director brings to the table, O’Connor recalled, “When we got the first script from Peter for Visa, Klaus and I were blown away by the caliber of writing. We knew we were dealing with a real talent. Over the years, that’s only gotten better. Seeing him as a director, his instincts for casting are amazing. He’s the ultimate storyteller. Performance is his strong suit.”

SHOOT: Why is the time right for you to move over to the production house side of the business and commit fully to a directing career?

Smith: I’ve been building a reel for the past year and a half or so and now I have some strong pieces to show. I’ve had directing aspirations for some time and was sort of going back and forth over the years–questioning if I should stay on the agency creative side or make the jump. I just felt I was ready and very confident about going to a company I totally trust.

Also some things happened at Saatchi–one of my favorite clients, Camille Gibson, business unit director for Cheerios, was leaving. She’s a great personal friend and played a role in helping me build my reel. We did a lot of good work on Cheerios together [including projects for which Smith played a dual role creatively and as a director]. I had a great experience working with her and a lot of people at General Mills and throughout Saatchi. But it just seemed like the right time to start a new career chapter and do something [directing] I’ve wanted to do for a long time.

SHOOT: What drew you to Aero Film as your first production company roost?

Smith: I’ve always wanted to be a director and I never thought I’d want to do it for anybody else but Aero. I’ve had a long working relationship with Lance, Skip and Klaus. I did a Visa job with them about 16 years ago when I was writing at BBDO. It was one of the first big jobs they did at Aero. We became great friends.

Since then, when I directed select projects while at Saatchi, Aero Film was the production company–they produced “The Talk” PSA and the Cheerios work I directed. It’s been a great experience working with them as a creative and as a director.

SHOOT: Reflect on the impact of “The Talk” PSA on your career.

Smith: It was a great experience from beginning to end. There’s a real urgency to the issue. The very idea of “the talk” was something I didn’t even know about. I grew up in the U.S. Army. My father was an Army officer so I grew up in an integrated world. Yet when someone told me about “the talk,” what African-American parents tell their sons about police confrontations, I was surprised. It meant I had friends who were having these conversations but weren’t telling me. I figured if I didn’t know about it, a lot of other people didn’t either. I felt it was important for white people to know that these conversations were happening–whether you support it or are against it. What was great about the experience of making this PSA was that everybody I asked for help was immediately on board. There was support from Saatchi, Aero Film, General Mills. In fact, the idea to do a commercial about this came from a leading executive at General Mills, Marc Belton, a brilliant guy and one of the most successful African-American executives in America.

As a director, the PSA let me do what I love most–to work with great actors. I was also able to work with Bill Ahrens, a terrific DP known for his great visuals. He worked a lot with Klaus Obermeyer, which means he shot people scaling mountains, jumping out of planes. But Bill in this showed his talent in working with actors and dialogue. Plus I got the chance to work with editor Nate Taylor of KYLE Edit. Nate is one of my best friends. In fact, he directed a feature I wrote called Forgetting The Girl. We have a close working relationship.

We had a lot of influences and a lot of people working together to bring this PSA to fruition. And if anything, this spot confirmed for me that I should be a director, that this was something I wanted to continue to do.

SHOOT: How has your agency experience informed you as a director?

Smith: I started doing commercials back in the day as a creative at BBDO. That agency had an environment in the 1990s which was about doing a lot of big TV production. My very first commercial was for Visa directed by Jim Gartner [now with production house GARTNER]. He was incredibly generous and willing to answer every stupid question I had. He shared everything about the process.

Gartner was just one of the A-list directors I worked with as a creative. I worked quite a bit with Joe Pytka [of PYTKA] who contrary to popular belief was more than willing to explain what he was doing, what was going on, what kind of lens he was using and why. He was a generous, loquacious guy with me. I also worked with director Matt Smukler [Community Films] on Cheerios. He’s brilliant with dialogue, great with kids. Matt and I have similar takes on advertising and I learned a lot from him.

On the agency side, I worked with a lot of great talent, meaning I could absorb and steal from them. It was a great ongoing education.

I also bring from the agency side an understanding of the creative team, what motivates and what matters to them. As a creative, particularly when you’re a young creative without a big title yet, it’s really important to you that your idea is respected and cared for. It’s easy for a good idea to be mistreated. I’ve seen directors who understand that and have been really generous, who work with and respect an idea. I’ve also worked with those who don’t have that understanding–maybe they don’t have the agency experience or just aren’t sympathetic to that world. Having been on the agency side, I have sympathy and empathy for what creatives do and what they go through. I also have that same feel for clients who I’ve spent a lot of time with. I like to think I understand what matters to them also. Clients have to hit numbers, sell units, move merchandise. They have responsibilities to their companies. I understand all that. It drives clients crazy to see directors putting the product shot last in a production. It makes them feel they’re not being valued. Hopefully as a director I can bring some perspective and an understanding of what matters to clients and agencies.

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