When Alan White’s life came to a crossroads in 1987, Rolling Stone magazine was there to cover it, albeit unknowingly. The very same issue that contained a review of the first album from his rock band, The Faith, also extolled his directorial work on some commercials for Homer Hudson ice cream in the "Who’s Hot" section of the magazine.
Luckily for the advertising world, White stopped moonlighting as a guitarist soon after and concentrated on working behind the camera. That decision has yielded an impressive body of work for clients including Nike, ESPN, Mitsubishi and Lee Jeans, through his association with bicoastal/international @radical. media, his production roost since ’92. White also finds himself nearing yet another career crossroads as his feature film career continues to blossom; he is working on several projects to follow up on two movies he directed that were well received in his native Australia.
However, his latest production is his proudest yet: His first child, Madeleine, was born in August. He’ll spend some well-earned downtime with his wife and daughter at his Malibu, Calif., home, but not for long. "Right now I’m considering a bunch of different projects, so I’ll be busy again real soon," he relates. "When you start out, you’re eager to work, and that has never left me."
White got his start as a copywriter for McCann-Erickson, Sydney, Australia, in the mid ’80s. He had been a wordsmith since his college days at Macquarie University, Sydney, and worked briefly as a freelance journalist. But he left copywriting behind once he was on the set of his first commercial shoot and came face to face with a motion-picture camera. "I was just fascinated by all it could do," he remembers.
White experimented with cameras by shooting music videos for other rock bands before taking a stab at commercial work. He quickly made a reputation for himself in Australia, forming a now defunct production company called Black with producer Andrew MacPhail in ’91. It wasn’t long before he grew frustrated by limited opportunities in their homeland and looked abroad for work. "I thought, ‘America is a bigger place. Let’s experience a bigger country,’ " he says.
After signing with @radical. media, White was a whirlwind of activity, flying all over the globe as he took on roughly six projects per year. Still, he didn’t move to the United States until ’96, when @radical.media co-proprietor Jon Kamen was able to lure him over. At that time the bulk of White’s portfolio was increasingly concentrated here, and @radical.media was set to help him finance and produce his first feature film.
White has demonstrated a broad stylistic versatility in his commercial work, sometimes even for the same client. While a brisk, documentary feel graces his "Roo Boy" spot for Nike, out of Wieden+Kennedy (W+K), Portland, Ore.—which depicts a weirdo soccer fan’s obsession with a player he’s convinced is really half kangaroo—it’s a world away from the abstract style of "Goal Post," also out of W+K. Not a single word is uttered in that commercial; without music, the only sounds heard are the "boing" noise of the Nike Shox sneakers and the crash of the goalpost after an athlete rams it to the ground. He also directed Nike’s "Tow."
"It may sound pretentious, but I like to think of my style as cinematic storytelling," says White, who doesn’t favor fancy camera angles. "What my eye consistently gravitates toward are simple graphic frames that communicate clearly what the story demands. I like to think the camera has a reason for being in each shot."
Creative Storytelling
White also prides himself on giving actors creative freedom in his commercial work. Rather than dictate their every movement, he works with them to develop back stories for their characters, and then permits the actors to infuse their own idiosyncrasies into their roles. For instance, in "Date" for Mitsubishi, out of Deutsch LA, a man stands proudly in front of a shining new Mitsubishi in order to mislead a woman into thinking he owns the car.
When White discussed the role of the disingenuous guy with the actor who played him, they concocted a back story that isn’t even hinted at in the commercial: that the woman he’s trying to impress is an ex-girlfriend who was always on the guy’s case about making something of himself. He is showing off the Mitsubishi as a sign of his imaginary success.
White believes his emphasis on actor development lends his work a more natural tone and removes any of the frustrations that can impede a performance. "Ninety-nine percent of the time actors say, ‘Gee, we’re usually ignored or just don’t know what to do,’ " he states. "But they’re there to do what you want them to do. You have to communicate with them in the right way."
If White’s approach to actors in commercials seems a tad cinematic, it’s certainly no coincidence that his film career is taking off. In ’99, he directed and produced Erskineville Kings, a gritty drama that earned several awards for its star, Hugh Jackman, who has since crossed over to Hollywood with major roles in X-Men and Swordfish. A year later, White followed up with Risk, a dark examination of the insurance industry.
White is currently working on several film projects. He is attached to Marchlands, a film that will be an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Karla Kuban. He’s writing his own screenplay about a family of cannibals in Australia; and he is also attached to American Woman, adapted from the novel The Unexpected Salami, by Laurie Gwen Shapiro—a comedy that @radical.media is producing, along with White, about a romance between the title character and an Australian rock star. "It’s a great story for me because it’s cross-cultural," notes White. "It’s always good to bring a part of you to a project."
Despite his feature film success, White has no plans to abandon spot work. "With commercials you can work out an idea in a microcosm, instead of the year or two it takes to make a film," he relates. "It’s something that’s kept me addicted to the process for all these years."
