By Emily Vines

With feature films like Serendipity and Shall We Dance under his directorial belt, Peter Chelsom has found that Independent Media, Santa Monica, is the perfect place for him to launch his return to the spot world. “I liked the idea,” notes Chelsom, of the company headed up by executive producer Susanne Preissler. “The whole function of the place is that it represents feature directors who make commercials as opposed to commercial directors who would like to do features.”

Though he is an accomplished filmmaker, his path to the profession was not direct. From the ages of 18-22, he was a photographer. He also studied acting and worked as a performer for 10 years. He did stints with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, and the Royal National Theater in London, in addition to appearing in television shows and films in the U.K. Though he enjoyed acting, he eventually realized that he had an entrepreneurial spirit and began writing and directing. In 1987 he decisively moved away from acting when he wrote and directed a short film titled Treacle, which was nominated in ’88 for a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award for Best Short.

After finding success behind the camera, commercial houses came calling. He worked at several production companies, including Outlaw, London. During a six-year period, from about ’88 to ’94 he was also working on features like Hear My Song. He did Funny Bones in ’95.

Diversity

The director says he enjoys directing spots because the medium encompasses both creativity and technical skill. “It’s like the two sides of me–the person who likes to be technical and the person who likes to be artistic,” explains Chelsom, “go hand in hand with commercials and that’s what I love about that challenge.”

Feature films, which have a long lead-time, don’t allow for as much action behind the camera as spots do, relates Chelsom. Spot work allows him to shoot more frequently, and also work with a wider circle of people. He cites Oscar-award winning DP Robert Richardson (The Aviator) whom Chelsom worked with on a Match.com campaign through Hanft Raboy & Partners, New York. (Richardson also directs spots via bicoastal Tool of North America.) The three-spot package consisted of “Football” “Drawer” and “Amber.” The first features a man cheering in the stands at a large football game. He suddenly takes off his shirt and pants and runs on the field during a play. He seems like an enthusiastic fan, but his painted belly eventually reveals the message, “Forgive Me Andrea.” Cut to his love interest watching the game at home with two friends. Horrified, she puts down her ice cream and leaves the room, grabbing her coat, presumably on her way to get him. The message from the voiceover explains, “Love might make you crazy, finding it shouldn’t.” In the humorous “Amber,” we see a couple walking down the street when they unexpectedly encounter the gentleman’s ex-girlfriend–when he doesn’t immediately introduce his companion as his girlfriend, in voiceover, she relays frustration at the snub: “I am not Amber, I am girlfriend Amber!” she thinks. Eventually he identifies her correctly and all is forgiven.

It’s easy to see how the director’s background in acting enriches his current work. “I love to always think of it as a moment that is part of a much longer film,” says Chelsom on what attracts him to a script. “And then I, with the actors and everyone else, invent for ourselves the life before and the life after the moment we shoot.” He relates that with “Football,” he and the actor developed a detailed back-story for the character. This gave rise to why the man seemed so odd when he sat in the stands prior to running onto the field. For example, he and the actor discussed how the relationship had gone wrong, the character’s thoughts on trying to repair it and how she would have felt about him. “It is so worth doing all that work because it feeds all of it into the moment you shoot,” explains Chelsom.

Since joining Independent Media about 10 months ago, Chelsom also directed “Smokies” and “Chinatown” for the American Egg Board through Grey Worldwide, New York. In “Chinatown” a pregnant woman seeks a “miracle food that makes you stronger in mind and body–even nourishing the unborn.” After wandering thorough an exotic urban environment, she finds her way to a diner where she enjoys some eggs. “Smokies” shows a man running through the woods. Dramatic images appear, like a young boy catching a fish with his hands. This journey ends at a cabin where the residents serve him eggs.

Chelsom is currently working on a Puma spot through GBH Design Limited, London, and a feature titled The Food of Love, which is expected to start shooting at the beginning of next year. “I feel so glad to have such a rag bag of different experiences,” he says of his career. “I feel like I use all of myself and I’m just so glad to have worked in so many different places at so many different levels.”

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