Two and a half years ago, director Gerard de Thame told SHOOT he hates to be typecast. At the time, two spots directed by de Thame, "Brief Encounter" and "Synchronicity" for the Volkswagen Jetta via Arnold Worldwide, Boston, were in heavy rotation—both on the air and at industry awards shows. In fact, "Synchronicity" was nominated for the Emmy Award for best primetime commercial in 1999.
This year, another de Thame-directed commercial—"Modern Ark" for Mercedes-Benz USA, out of Merkley Newman Harty & Partners (MNH), New York—was nominated for the Emmy. (The winning spot was "Photo Booth" for the Public Broadcasting Service out of Fallon Minneapolis, and directed by Errol Morris of bicoastal/international @radical.media.) Unlike a couple of years ago, de Thame no longer expresses any concern about being typecast as a "sheet metal guy." "I’m not at all worried about it," states the director, who is represented by bicoastal HSI Productions and London-based Gerard de Thame Films. "I do tons of other stuff. I’ve done a lot of cars, but I’ve done a lot of other products, too. There are people who do typical sheet metal spots, and I’m sure they do it better than I do."
Even a casual examination of de Thame’s recent work shows that even though clients include Volkswagen, Mercedes, Jeep, Audi, Volvo and Lincoln, de Thame’s car ads are, as he suggests, not typical of the genre. There are no long skids on wetted roads, no idyllic cruises down autumnal two-lanes. Instead, you have a Jetta in a New Orleans rhythm warp in "Synchronicity"; a muddy Jeep Cherokee making like a wet Labrador retriever in "Shake," out of PentaMark, Southfield, Mich.; and a pair of his-and-hers Mercedes Benzes rolling onto a modern day Noah’s Ark. The last, of course, is "Modern Ark," this year’s Emmy nominee. It may be a cliché, notes de Thame, but "it’s a real honor to be nominated. To win one is fantastic."
As would be expected for such a complex spot, "Modern Ark" didn’t just fall into place. "There were all the things you would expect to be slightly troublesome," de Thame says. "Working with animals and motion control is obviously difficult because animals will do what they do. The timing of all that was technically very difficult. There were a lot problems to solve."
Props for "Modern Ark" included a 20-foot scale model of the ark and a full-size side section, ramp and doors. The pairs of animals were shot against bluescreen as separate motion-control passes at Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, England. "I had a good friend of mine who is a still photographer go out to Jordan where he shot the kind of fantastic landscapes that we put around [the Ark]," explains de Thame. "It was quite a technical exercise, but fun. It’s great, because I think when you look at the scenery, it just kind of looks like it’s there—that’s how special effects should be."
The spot cost about the same as previous ads de Thame has directed for Mercedes out of MNH. "I’ve done quite a few spots for that client and [the agency]," he notes. "They generally tend to spend about the same amount. It may go up a little bit with inflation, but pretty much since ‘The Artist’ and ‘Falling in Love,’ they’re all pretty much the same budget." (Both "The Artist" and "Falling In Love" were critically lauded ads directed by de Thame through Lowe & Partners/SMS—now Lowe Lintas & Partners—New York, the agency which had the Mercedes account prior to MNH.)
Post Involvement
Like a number of de Thame’s jobs from U.S. agencies for air stateside, "Modern Ark" was shot, edited and posted on his side of the pond. It’s one way that de Thame keeps himself involved in the process after the shoot. "A lot of the stuff I do for the States I shoot here or in Europe," he says. "If I do that, I tend to finish them up here as well, and do the post work with a company I work with a lot here."
"Modern Ark," was edited at Cut and Run, London, with post and visual effects done at three London companies—Smoke & Mirrors, Sprint Den and The Mill.
De Thame has had a long relationship with the latter, and he recently became one of the first directors to use BEAM.TV, a subsidiary of service of The Mill, which offers a comprehensive way of sending, receiving and archiving film. The director utilized BEAM.TV for four spots—"Lake," Cleveland," "Interview," and "Cab"—that were done for AT&T Wireless, out of FCB, New York.
U.S. agencies don’t seem to mind that de Thame does most of his work in London. "Generally, people have been really pleased with that way of working," de Thame says of shooting and posting in the U.K. "Things finish up so quickly now, compared with how they used to. You’re getting a cut within two days of finishing principal photography. It’s not like agency creatives have to hang around for ages. Sometimes they’ll go back and we’ll set up a hot link across so they can look at stuff as it’s being worked on. It’s really pretty easy for them now."
Recent work from de Thame includes two spots in a genre he normally does not work in: comedy. The ads, "Parachute" and "Nightclub," were done for Zenith, out of Cramer-Krasselt, Chicago. Both ads illustrate the mesmerizing effect of high-definition Zenith TV sets. In the former, a parachute packer is so distracted by the TV picture he packs his laundry instead of the parachute, much to the chagrin of the jumper. In the latter, a nightclub patron is so taken with the TV in a men’s room that he accidentally wets his pants.
"The Zenith ads were really fun to do," de Thame says. "I really enjoy doing comedy stuff. It’s a challenge and I really get a lot of pleasure from it. What I’ve liked about U.S. agencies is that there is a real openness—a willingness to send me lots of different types of work, which is great. That’s what keeps the job really interesting."
Next up for the director is a three-spot package for New York Life Insurance Co. via Berlin, Cameron & Partners, New York, and a 200th anniversary spot for DuPont. "The New York Life stuff follows the work I did for them a while back," de Thame says. "The statement behind it is that the insurance company has been there for years, and it will continue to be there for a long time in the future, thereby giving people security in their investments. It recreates different periods in history."
For now, de Thame says his goals are simply to continue doing more diverse work. "I’m pretty happy with the way things are going," he says. He still gets asked to do an occasional music video, but so far not for the right song, and he is still very much interested in making his feature film debut. "I’m still looking for the right project," he notes. What might that be? "I’ll know it when I see it."
