For Chuck Bennett of Crossroads Films, bicoastal and Chicago, it wasn’t until he was back on the set helming his first commercial without a partner that he realized the transition would be smooth. Standing in a supermarket last November directing "Sample Line" for Johnsonville Sausage, out of agency Kerker, Minneapolis, any anxiety he felt about parting ways with Clay Williams, the director he teamed with for nearly a decade—first on the agency side, and later as a helming duo, faded quickly.
"Clay and I had shot in supermarkets before, so there was a familiarity in the setting for me," remembered Bennett. "Ninety-nine percent of the crew were people I worked with before. I never felt like, ‘Where’s Clay?’ It was business as usual."
Business has been good to Bennett since amicably parting in late 2001 from the partnership of Chuck & Clay; as a team the pair directed via Crossroads. Williams signed with bicoastal/international Morton Jankel Zander (MJZ), while Bennett opted to stay at Crossroads, where he has already amassed a number of credits as a solo helmer, including "National Bank of Nacho" and "Nacho & Company," for Taco Bell, out of FCB San Francisco; Maytag’s "The Search" via Leo Burnett USA, Chicago; Secret’s "Roomates," also out of Leo Burnett; and Indian Motorcycle’s "Genie" via TBWA/ Chiat/Day, Los Angeles.
The key to keeping busy, according to Bennett, is letting his career proceed without hesitation. "There’s no time to make a transition," he said. "You immediately have to jump in the deep end and go for it."
Style driven
Flying solo hasn’t been the first major shift Bennett has seen in his career. In June 2000, he and Williams, who started in advertising as a copywriter/art director duo at now defunct agency Stein Robaire Helm, began directing full-time, after a highly successful stint at TBWA/ Chiat/Day, where among other credits, they created the famous Taco Bell Chihuahua. Their track record as co-directors wasn’t too shabby, either. Among their highlights: a Diet Dr Pepper campaign out of Young & Rubicam (Y&R), New York, bearing the tagline, "Not everything can be as good as the original, but Diet Dr Pepper is"; work for Lycos out of Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, Boston; and Red Lobster via Euro RSCG McConnaughy Tatham, Chicago.
Though they no longer work together, Bennett still treasures his bond with Williams. "He’s the kind of guy that you want to have a piece of paper in your wallet in case you get killed," he jokes, "because you know he’ll take care of you."
Bennett notes that he and Williams parting ways was unexpected, but for both of them it represented the natural evolution of their respective careers. "There was no animosity, so people didn’t expect us to split up," he relates. "But working alone has given me the chance to refine my instincts without relying on someone else for backup."
Without Williams, Bennett’s style hasn’t changed much: his specialty continues to be humorously deadpan spots, a style he describes as "good, subtle, performance-driven pieces that take place in these altered reality worlds."
To deliver a truly funny ad, Bennett believes that the characters he depicts must act as normal as possible no matter how absurd the circumstances in which they find themselves. " ‘Be natural’ is what I’m always telling my actors," notes Bennett. "In reality, there are no double takes. I’m looking for something subtler in conveying what’s going through their minds."
Bennett puts a premium of preparation for each and every commercial; he provides agencies with a board of 15-20 still shots representing every image that will appear in an ad before the shoot has even begun. To accomplish this, he and his staff do intensive location scouting, taking plenty of snapshots of exactly how they want the commercial to look. His production assistants often double as actors, posing for photographs that depict the action Bennett envisions for the ad.
"By shooting this reference material, I’m able to make presentations to the agencies and get them on board with the notion of what I’m up to," he explains. "The level of confidence goes up because everyone has a clear idea of what is being done."
Another habit of Bennett’s is to do his own edit of a commercial—but only for his own educational purposes. Each night during a shoot, he will download dailies from a mini-DVD onto his home computer, where he creates his own director’s cut. It’s a practice he indulged for a new spot called "Catchy Tune" for Meow Mix, through Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners, New York. The spot depicts the contagiousness of the cat food company’s "meow, meow, meow … " jingle, which spreads throughout a neighborhood whenever a person hears someone else singing it.
Bennett does his own cuts for several reasons. It prepares him for working with an editor, for one thing. "It gets me more intimately aware of the details," he explains. "I can talk to the editor, and I’m able to tell him, ‘Hey, what about what I did on that other take?’ It’s also a nice way for me to have a hands-on look at what I shot, which helps me for my next shoot. I learn a lot."n
