In 70 seconds, "Places" goes places. A spot for Leisure Planet, the ad comprises a dreamlike montage of exotic peoples, striking vistas and vivid moments. Beginning with a shot of a young woman walking across a green field, the commercial features a female voiceover that runs on, nonstop, sometimes clearly, sometimes in an indistinct echo. "What are we doing?" she asks. "What’s it all about? What is it you think you want?"
The images come quickly, most for less than a second: people surfacing from the sea, a woman riding a horse on the beach, a couple embracing, an elderly woman smoking, a young child walking in a man’s oversize sneakers. "What will become of me? When will I fall in love?" More images, until the final two: the face of the girl who is speaking as the VO, followed by a shot of her standing on a wharf in front of a billboard reading, "Leisure Planet.com." "Reach deep inside your head," she directs, "and find new worlds to think about."
"Places" was helmed by the directing duo Big TV!—a.k.a. Monty Whitebloom and Andy Delaney—via Atmosphere Interactive, New York. The team joined bicoastal/ international Propaganda Films in October 2000. "Places" was one of Big TV!’s last assignments out of its former roost, Academy Commercials, London. A Mercedes ad called "Tipperary," via Merkley Newman Harty, New York, that the two directed through Academy, was short-listed at the 2000 Cannes International Advertising Festival. Prior to joining Academy, the team was repped by bicoastal/international @radical. media. Big TV! Is currently working on ads for Mitsubishi, out of Deutsch, Los Angeles.
"Places" is typical of the unusual, visually striking work turned out by the London-based duo. "We try to make pieces that are almost anti-advertising," observes Whitebloom. "We, ourselves, are the target audience: sophisticated but jaded old fucks like me and Andy. We want to seduce people who know it’s advertising, but appreciate that it’s fresh and modern, not plastic."
"I think there are two things we do well," adds Delaney. "We are good at shooting people on location, getting at humanity, moments of truth. Allied to that is a similar intention. We try to create moments of poetry."
"There may be quite a few teams out there now," says Whitebloom, "but we’re unique because we have managed not to split up."
OLD BUDDIES
Indeed, they’ve been together since meeting at Goldsmiths College, London, in the 1980s. While still in school, they shot and edited film footage for use at raves and nightclubs. It was through such work that they forged friendships with such pop stars as Seal, The Beloved, and Happy Mondays. They even got their name from the club scene—Big TV was the name of the first venue at which they worked.
The team eventually moved to Los Angeles and started making music videos." "Music is our first love," explains Delaney. "That’s where we’ve done some of our best work."
Nonetheless, the duo quickly entered the commercial arena, working on spots for Eurostar, Peugeot, Kodak, Mercedes, and Reebok. They feel that their collaboration is not unusual. "Filmmaking is all about collaborating," states Whitebloom.
And the secret to their collaboration? "Neither of us is an egoman-iac," Whitebloom continues. "There are so many jobs to do on a shoot; it must be a lonely job to be a single director, who has to know everything."
Whitebloom and Delaney are currently developing two feature films. They hope to shoot the first, How Life Is, in April, and the second in the fall. "You have to have two projects running at one time in order for one to happen," notes Whitebloom.
The team thinks it is important to keep in touch with its creative roots; that is why the pair launched Studio, in conjunction with Propaganda, in London. In addition to being the duo’s production roost in the U.K., the operation will act as a workshop for a broad collection of artists creating, photography, music, and film. "It is small," Whitebloom says. "With it, Andy and I can do short films, art shows, records, encourage other artists."
"The thing that is important to us is that it gets us back to the basics of our art school background," adds Delaney. "We need to be always broadening our horizons. If we don’t start from scratch again, we run the danger of being too professional. It’s a good idea to keep an amateur spirit."
