With the hit British television series Trigger Happy TV under his belt, it was only a matter of time before Sam Cadman took aim at America. Now that Comedy Central has been airing the show in the U.S. since August, the director is hoping the program will provide the same boost to his career in commercials that it did in the U.K.
American agencies have certainly taken notice. Cadman, who directs spots in Europe via Rogue Films, London, and is represented stateside by New York-based rep firm Sandi Mollod & Associates, has talked with several U.S. ad shops about taking his sly documentary-style approach to the U.S. market. "I’m dying to do something out in the states," relates Cadman.
The Essex-born helmer has certainly kept busy in the U.K. in recent years, directing memorably loopy ads for clients including Nike, Sony PlayStation 2 and Lucozade sports drinks. Earlier this year, British TV aired a two-minute version of "Dinner," for Sony PlayStation 2, out of TBWA, London, which is a hysterical glimpse of a gourmand feasting on a PlayStation console. That spot, as well as ads for Nike and FOX Sports earned Cadman a slot in the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase at this year’s Cannes International Advertising Festival.
And then there’s Trigger Happy TV, the series that started it all for Cadman. Best explained to American viewers as a kindler, gentler version of MTV’s raucous Jackass, the shoestring-budgeted series observes unsuspecting citizens in bizarre situations. With zany sketches ranging from the beleaguered chap trapped in a narrow alley between two obese people to a disturbed golf instructor unable to strike the ball, the series finds humor in simple sight gags that rarely run more than a minute each. With Cadman behind the camera and his on-screen partner Dom Joly often at the center of whatever staged chaos they’ve concocted, Trigger Happy TV emerged as a bona fide hit when it began airing in 2000 on England’s Channel 4.
When the show came to the attention of Charlie Crompton, joint managing director at Rogue along with David Van Der Gaag, he knew Cadman was something special. "When I first saw Trigger Happy," remembers Crompton, "it was one of those rare moments where I found myself in front of the television actually laughing out loud. I knew it would be a huge hit."
In May of ’00, Crompton signed Cadman to Rogue and quickly got him work with the U.K. soft-drink Tango. Pairing the off-kilter brand with Cadman made for a fitting match; Tango drew notice for Cadman’s irreverent spot "Commentating On Your Life," out of HHCL & Partners, London, featuring an obnoxious lad with a megaphone who delivers a play-by-play voiceover of his life as it occurs. The spot, his first, earned honors at the British Television Advertising Awards in ’01.
Well on his way to becoming a respected U.K. spot director, Cadman realized Trigger Happy TV had prepared him for commercials. "I think it was training for me," he notes. "Each sketch was really about getting across all the information you needed to understand the scene in one shot."
When Ogilvy & Mather, London, called on Cadman to helm a trio of spots—"Whippet," "Push It," and "Race"—for Lucozade sports drink, Cadman returned to the same style of inspired lunacy featured on Trigger Happy TV. In order to cast the campaign’s main character—a deranged coach—he winnowed a pool of 150 actors down to four finalists. To determine which one he would choose, he had them improvise a scene in which each would try to teach squash to a man wearing full diving gear. The absurd assignment went to an Irish bohemian who runs a theater behind a Communist bookstore in Dublin. "You want to find the person who doesn’t perform the character," notes Cadman. "When you find that right actor, he’ll shine like a gemstone during the casting process."
Cadman directed the Lucozade spots to give the viewer the impression the coach is interfering in real sporting events; he even received permission to plant the coach on the sidelines of an actual soccer match at a Cardiff stadium in order to give the spots a realistic feel. "There’s nothing better than using the actual environment," says Cadman. "By choosing a real environment, you sidestep all the little decisions like, ‘What color should a lampshade be?’ Who cares, just as long as it’s funny."
Collaboration
Because Cadman brings such a distinctive approach to his work, he looks for agencies that will let him put his own stamp on a project. For "Dinner," he convinced TBWA to allow the actor eating the console (which was actually marzipan and licorice coated with black food coloring) to play it completely straight-faced instead of hamming it up as the agency originally intended.
He knows collaborating with creatives is essential to a spot’s success. "The agency insisted we do one take where he actually takes a real control button off the joystick and put it in his mouth," remembers Cadman of the "Dinner" shoot. "Thank God they did because without that shot, the viewer would have realized it was fake. With that in mind, I’m always sympathetic to what the agency wants to get as well."
Cadman’s exposure to the agency world goes back farther than his directing career. After an early stint as a painter left him feeling creatively exhausted, he began working as a runner on U.K. commercial shoots and got acquainted with the industry. It was at that time that he met Joly, where they collaborated on promos for a British cable comedy network that eventually led to a pilot for Trigger Happy TV.
Now that the show will boost Cadman’s profile in the U.S., he is looking forward to working with American agencies. "The creatives I have met in New York so far have just been fantastic," he notes. "They’re excited about my ability to provide a fresh angle."n
