Change, as the saying goes, is good. And so far that seems to be true in the case of the directing team Joe Public. In June, the comedic duo of Adam Cameron and Simon Cole, looking for "a fresh change," shifted their production company affiliation after a successful decade with bicoastal Headquarters, joining bicoastal HSI Productions.
Cameron cites HSI’s international reputation as one appealing factor—the production company maintains a relationship with London-based Exposure Films for overseas spotwork. British natives Cameron and Cole moved to Los Angeles in 2000, and after several busy years in the U.S., Cameron notes, "You have to remember that we are European. We’re not sure how aware people are that we have that sensibility."
Moreover, adds Cole, "Stavros [Merjos, founder/president of HSI] promised an environment where we could concentrate on creative advertising. He puts us under no pressure to do turnover work."
The pair also says that "there was a need for us" at HSI—a company best known for representing visual rather than comedy directors. The move to HSI makes further sense upon viewing Joe Public’s current show reel. The directors, who have built a reputation—and garnered two Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award nominations for best commercial director of the year, in 1999 and ’01—based on quirky, performance-based humor, have apparently been steering their reel in a visual direction. Gone are the amusingly silly DGA-nominated spots for Church’s Chicken ("Fire 2") and adidas ("El Duque Dance"). In their place are a couple of comparatively restrained car ads.
Case in point is Toyota Camry’s "Solo" via Saatchi & Saatchi LA, Torrance, Calif., which, produced through Headquarters, reflects the directors’ growing interest in visual storytelling. The ad shows a driver in a Camry maneuvering through major Los Angeles freeway interchanges, which are deserted. There is a subtle comedic bent to the spot—in one scene, for instance, the driver has pulled over and is sprawled on his back in the middle of empty lanes—but "Solo" is much more about expansive freeway shots and car performance than acting and comedy.
"It’s probably the first and last time it’s ever going to be done," says Cameron, referring to the future improbability of a film crew being allowed to shut down Los Angeles’ 10 and 110 freeway interchange just north of the city’s downtown, a bottleneck that also joins with the 5 and 101 freeways. According to the directors, an estimated 750,000 cars were held up in traffic, 10 minutes at a time, due to the shoot.
Such logistic complexity underscores the point: "Solo" is not the sort of spot that comedy-dialogue directors typically bid on; it’s the kind that established car directors pursue.
"We’ve always had confidence in our ability [to tackle that type of work]," relates Cameron.
Adds Cole, "There’s no reason why comedy needs to look ugly. We decided to pursue the idea that comedy could look appropriately visual. [Joining HSI] was a perfect marriage."
More recently, the pair—who has directed ads for Harley-Davidson, BMW, MasterCard, Netflix, McDonald’s, Amazon.com, Sprint, Budweiser, Nike, Visa, 7-Up, Cingular Wireless and Snapple—helmed Toyota Camry’s "Makeover," produced through HSI for Saatchi and Saatchi LA; the spot spoofs MTV’s Pimp My Ride, a makeover reality series that spiffs up people’s old, beat-up cars.
CONSTANT
Though Joe Public’s production company and reel may have changed, what remains constant, the duo says, is their working relationship; Cameron and Cole have no plans to pursue solo directing careers. "We’ve worked together for fifteen years, and our egos do not need to be satisfied by that," Cole reports.
The team recently wrapped "Whopper Heads" for Burger King, out of Crispin Porter+Bogusky (CP+B), Miami, that features teens buying Whoppers in order to get free music downloads from AOL.
Next up is a client-direct campaign for HBO, which the duo will write, as well as direct. "We’re the agency, as well as the directors, which is very cool," Cameron says. "We’re really enjoying the process."
The directors consider several factors when deciding what assignments to pursue. One, says Cole, is airtime—whether a campaign "will be seen by the industry. The danger for a director is that you shoot stuff that’s not going to be seen."
Consideration is also given to the strength of the relationship between the client and ad agency. "You’re desperate to know that a job comes from an agency with the ability to sell creative work," Cole remarks.
But the most important factor, not surprisingly, is an ad’s core concept. "We can always bring a five to a seven," says Cameron, "but we look for an eight that we can execute to its highest potential."
Likewise, feature films remain a future possibility for the directors, but so far they have yet to come across a truly compelling project. "The quality of the scripts out there are just not good enough," explains Cole. "We’d rather make really great commercials than an average comedy feature that no one sees."
"We’re still motivated by the diversity that the advertising world gives us," adds Cameron. "When we’re not, that’s when we’ll move on."
Joe Public’s other recent spots include "Umbrella" for the Mini Cooper via CP+B, which isn’t slated to air until ’05. Shot earlier this year in Barcelona, the ad shows a guy driving a Mini convertible with the top down. Despite the pouring rain, the driver manages not to get wet—much to the chagrin of some drenched onlookers. Cole describes the spot as "an American idea done in a European way, which is how we started."Z
