Actor/director Scott Baio has signed with 30 Second Films, Santa Monica (formerly Gun for Hire Film & Tape) for representation as a spot helmer.
He joins veteran actors/directors Debbie Allen and Tony Dow, who are also available to direct commercials through the production house founded by partner/executive producer Alan Stamm and partner/producer Bob Kronovet. Baio, best known for his roles on television’s Happy Days and Charles in Charge, has directed episodes of Charles in Charge for ABC, Family Man and Shaky Ground for CBS, and episodes of Malcolm & Eddie for UPN, and The Jamie Foxx Show and Unhappily Ever After for the WB Network.
Though Baio’s commercial experience has so far been limited to a PSA for the National Council on Rape Prevention in ’91, he explained, "I always wanted to do it [spots]; I just never had the time or [knew] the right people. When I ran into Bob Kronovet and he told me what he did, I told him I’d wanted to do commercials for a long time, but I’d been busy doing television." Kronovet suggested that they work together, and a partnership was born.
"Commercials are like tiny movies," Baio said, citing the ranges in style and scope a spot can encompass, from gangster films to space-age sagas, all in a :30 time frame. "Commercials are very meticulous in that it’s about the product—you have to sell the product, and you have to make the product look the best that it can. So in that sense it’s different than anything else. It’s much more micro-managed, which I don’t mind because I have that eye for meticulous detail."
Baio’s directorial training has been informal, but his confidence is derived from years of experience: "I’ve been around it [the camera] my whole life. In my work, I’ve just picked it up."
But Baio’s move behind the camera wasn’t a result of the "What I really want to do is direct" line that many actors spout. He explained, "It was just two things: I didn’t like the directors I was working with, and I started thinking differently. I was acting and working with directors that—though I liked them personally—I didn’t think their methods were right or what they were putting on film was right. I realized, ‘This shouldn’t look like this.’"
Part of Baio’s turn to directing may have been a desire to prove himself after some reversals in his acting career. He said, "What people don’t realize is that if a television show gets cancelled, the only people that get blamed are the actors, and it’s not really the actors’ fault. So out of [a need for] survival, I said, ‘I want to do this myself, because I don’t trust these people anymore, and I have a better vision of what this should be.’" His instincts proved right, and a second career as a director has offered Baio a chance to expand his Hollywood résumé.
Success as a director hasn’t ruled out other options for the television veteran, however. "I just want to do stuff that I like to do, whatever it is," he declared. He has just written a screenplay called Family Business, and plans for the future remain flexible. "Will I stick only to commercials? If I do fifty a year, sure!"
30 Second Films is repped nationally by Los Angeles-based Molly Montgomery.
