Elegant in its simplicity, Volkswagen’s "Squares" looks more like a piece of modern art than a commercial. Created by Arnold Worldwide, Boston, the spot depicts a series of square objects—an electrical outlet, a piece of toast, industrial buildings and the like—before settling on the appealingly rounded Volkswagen Beetle.
"We had some really stupid arguments on the set [about whether some objects were square]," recalls Malcolm Venville, who directed the ad out of his stateside roost, bicoastal Anonymous Content. " ‘That’s a square.’ ‘No, it’s not a square.’ ‘Yes, it is a square.’ It was a bit like playing in a sandpit at school."
Geometrical disputes aside, "Squares" is the type of project Venville likes best—a basic idea conveyed through striking visuals. "I hate too much storytelling," he says. "There’s just not enough time [in commercials] to tell stories like you do in movies. I’d rather just forget about it and make great images."
It was Venville’s facility with images that first captured the interest of the Arnold creative team. "My work is visually economical," he explains. "I believe in keeping a spot as uncluttered as possible. I guess that’s what they saw in my reel."
Venville was excited about the project from the start. "I told [the creatives], ‘This is the purest, most lucid idea I’ve come across,’ " recalls Venville, who shot what he estimates to be 60 or 70 squares for the ad, but ended up using only 30. "Everything that wasn’t a perfect square went. Some images I wished I could’ve used. I shot off one of the big buildings in Wall Street. We hung a camera looking down from about forty stories over a square intersection. I thought it worked brilliantly, but somehow or other it didn’t have that visual simplicity we needed."
In addition to its sparse look, "Squares" features a simple soundtrack composed by recording artist Joshua Ralph of Joshua Ralph, New York. While he didn’t have the track to reference during the shoot, Venville was involved in the music search. "English directors tend to be control-crazy," he notes. "I was lucky because the editor, Andre Betz [of Bug Editorial, New York] is a good friend of mine, so I was there [for the edit]. Going to an edit for an American agency is like going to a party you’re not invited to—everyone looks at you weirdly."
Nonetheless, Venville says he "got on really well" with the Arnold creatives. "I’m easygoing," he says. "My philosophy is to listen, and if something good comes out, I’m open. Compared to that stereotypical idea of the egotistical director—I’m not really that kind of director. It’s only when people start spouting rubbish that I worry."
When it comes to scripts, Venville is very choosy. "A few years ago, I was more keen to learn and experience, but now, I’m much more snobbish about what I look at. It’s hard work doing commercials, and I’m lazy. I’d rather sit on a hammock than do a bad ad."
Visual orientation
Venville developed his keen visual sense at an early age. "I’m the hearing child of profoundly deaf parents," explains the director, who told his parents’ story in the 1997 short, Silent Film. "I think that the simplicity of seeing things—of looking at things from a graphic perspective—came from them."
A still photographer for several years before directing his first commercial (Audi’s "Boxer" for Saatchi & Saatchi, Amsterdam) in ’93, Venville has maintained that interest throughout his spotmaking career. His first book of photography, Layers, published by Thames and Hudson, London, is due out in May, and not surprisingly, the scripts he likes best are the ones that make the strongest visual statements, like "Squares."
Shortly after he began directing spots, Venville launched his own London-based production company, Therapy Films, which represents him for spotwork in the United Kingdom and Europe. In ’97, he signed with now defunct Propaganda Films for stateside representation, and when Steve Golin, one of the founders of Propaganda, opened Anonymous in ’00, Venville followed.
Among Venville’s favorite recent projects is MasterCard’s "The Date," which debuted during this year’s Super Bowl. In the humorous spot, which Venville directed via McCann-Erickson, San Francisco, a young man goes on the date, and the price of everything he pays for with his MasterCard Debit Card—dinner, a movie and ice cream—is shown on the screen. Cut between scenes of the young man on his date are images of presidents Jackson, Lincoln and Washington waiting for him to come home. The guy finally returns to find the presidents still waiting up, and the voiceover states, "Leaving your cash at home: Priceless."
"It was a simple script; all about casting and prosthetics," Venville says. "There are people that do look-a-likes, but they’re just awful. They look as much like Abraham Lincoln as I do. But we were able to get these amazing prosthetics guys, and I think it came out hilarious. I really enjoyed that one."
This fall, Venville hopes to begin production on his first feature film, Deaf Road, a ’40s coming-of-age story about two deaf boys, done entirely in sign language with subtitles. Until then, he’s keeping busy, shooting a six-spot UPS campaign via The Martin Agency, Richmond, Va., among other projects.
"When you see a really good script, you don’t feel like you’re on a commercial," Venville observes. "You don’t feel like you’re selling anything. You just become absorbed in communicating something."
