1) The most important thing for new directors is to understand the brand, and the business problem their advertising is trying to solve. They should be curious about the strategic underpinning of the campaign and how it relates to the creative execution. Most importantly, understand the ecosystem where your work is going to be consumed so it fits contextually.
2) Don’t be afraid of taking on more than what you think is the job of the producer (which is admittedly broad in some cases). The best producers I have come across are eager to make things work, and are relentless when they see an opportunity to make something amazing.
3) My most recent moment of clarity is that even though things are moving at a million miles an hour in our industry, it is really important to take the time you need to evaluate and study each project and find the best path.
4) We recently produced a few digital films for Kia Cadenza where we used real valet drivers, blindfolded, and asked them to guess what kind of luxury vehicle they were sitting in. They were all surprised with the quality of the Cadenza, and the films turned out really great. They were both entertaining, and are helping to change consumers’ perception about the quality of Kia vehicles.
