Brett Wild
Cell C “Casableepa” and “Aliens”
Agency: Net#Work BBDO South Africa, Johannesburg
Production: Picture Tree, Johannesburg
Editorial: Sabrina O Sullivan Post Production, Johannesburg
Editor: Sabrina O Sullivan
Affiliation: Picture Tree, Johannesburg
How did you get into directing? It started off with a love for film. I spent 14 years in advertising agencies making sure I had the opportunity to work on a lot of TV. I then ended up in an agency in Singapore where there was no TV to be had. I was called by a fantastic producer in South Africa who said, “Hey you dig film, stop being a wally and come direct. We’ll have fun and we’ll be damn good at it.” I left a few days later and we are having fun and we are damn good at it.
Why do you want to direct commercials? Because I love great ideas and the creative process that drives advertisements.
What’s your most recent spot project? We’re about to shoot a nice fat Ford ad and we’re busy finishing a beautiful black and white TVC for a financial institution. That was cool; we got to blow up aeroplanes and stuff.
Do you have plans to work in other areas–e.g. shorts films or features or TV? Have you ever done any of that in the past? I want to win a couple of BAFTAs, Cannes and Academy awards for South Africa in the full-length feature category. It would be great to show the world just how much talent this country has. But I’m gonna have to be grown up for that and I’m not simply biding my time doing ads in the mean time as I have no intention of doing anything else for a while.
What do you think is the best part about being a director? I always had a thing about the people that come together to make an ad and there are a lot of them. And it’s great to have a seat right in the middle of that.
The worst part? That’s easy. Research.
Who is (are) your mentor(s)? My true mentor comes in the form my four-year-old daughter. She’s really good at showing me how easy it is to be happy in life. And farting is very funny actually.
Not counting your own work, what’s your favorite recent ad? Why? I’m desperate to have a clever or popular answer here, but I’m going to have to say Honda Cog. It shows enormous restraint from a director’s point of view. It also shows that you don’t have to have an entire city of people climbing onto each other to impress. It’s a beautifully balanced ad.
