Reflecting on his most recent commercial credits, director Kevin Molony, of bicoastal Piper Productions, says he tries whenever possible to avoid defining his own work. Not easy, he admits, in an industry that depends so heavily on perception. "It’s all about the way people see you, isn’t it?" observes the 39-year-old British director. "Perception is everything in this business. I’ve done a lot of commercials with animals lately. I guess that makes me ‘animal boy.’"
Not that Molony is complaining. He says the work—including spots with rhinos, hawks, snakes, and dogs—has been challenging and increasingly rewarding. Living on the Isle of Wight, off the coast of southern England, Molony is enjoying the fruits of his labor. Although he hopes to one day direct a feature film, he says he has no intention of giving up shortform work. "I love the challenge, the adventure of doing spots," he says. "There’s nothing that competes with it."
Molony concedes that adventure, infused with an underlying sense of reality, best describes his "style." "The more you can shoot that is real—in real places with real performers—the better the results," he says. It isn’t that Molony is against the use of visual effects—he’s been successfully working with computer graphics since he graduated from The Polytechnic of Central London in ’82. It’s the over-reliance on special effects, he says, that has lent a lackluster quality to most of what is filmed today. "So much of what you see is all effects and basically soulless."
Free Spirit
Molony cites BMW’s "Ship" via Fallon McElligott, Minneapolis, as standing out for its authenticity and daring spirit. In the spot, a freighter is frozen in the ice of an arctic sea. Its desperate crew discovers the cargo they are hauling happens to be a fleet of BMWs in which they can escape their icy predicament. The crew hops into the luxury automobiles and drive over the ice to safety.
BMW wanted its cars to be seen as capable of driving effortlessly across a frozen sea under the most trying conditions. That meant the cars had to be filmed moving on real ice; digital substitutes were out of the question. "It was one of those rare instances where you get to back up the claim with real action, as opposed to relying on postproduction," says Molony.
Knowing he was in for what he describes as "an adventure-and-a-half," Molony used his longtime friend and preferred DP, Vit Dabal, for the shoot in Prague and on the Baltic Sea. The job involved filming in minus 50-degree weather in what amounted to less than two hours of light each day. "I always drag Vit with me when I can," says Molony. "He’s from the Polish school of cinematography. They don’t complain too much."
Despite the hardships, everything went smoothly. The only mishap involved one of the lead characters, a 72-year-old actor, having to be airlifted to the hospital. His jaw froze while being filmed in an open air car on the last day of the shoot. "He was a real trooper, though," recalls Molony. "He never complained until we wrapped up. He even hurled his wool cap effortlessly—accidentally—into the lens of the camera, providing us with the perfect wipe to the closing scene."
The one digital touch involved the cargo vessel. There were none to be found frozen off Finland, so Molony and Dabal shot a vessel iced in at a Baltic seaport instead. It was then digitally composited into the Finnish sea ice. "Special effects used sparingly and effectively," says Molony.
Even when a spot does incorporate strong elements of technology, such as "Taxi" for data and Internet sevice provider Broadwing, via Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, Boston, Molony insists that the post efforts remain transparent. For "Taxi," which features a hawk’s eye view of Vancouver and its surroundings, Molony was intent on creating an organic rhythm to the swooping and diving camera movements. To achieve realism in the effect, he researched the flight patterns of a real hawk and simulated the fluidity of movement during the shoot. "I was keen on establishing a sense of living flight, a slightly queasy sensation—as if the viewer was really experiencing a bird’s point of view," explains Molony. "I didn’t want the feeling that it was a helicopter up there doing the shooting, or that it was filmed from a crane.
"My job, I believe, is more than simply solving engineering and logistical problems," he continues. "The storyboard may be in place already, and the concept on paper, but there is still room for investing your own creativity, your heart and soul."
The storyboard was already completed when Molony signed on for St. Paul’s Insurance’s "Rhino," out of Campbell Mithun Esty, Minneapolis. The spot emphasizes trust by featuring a four-year-old girl hugging a rhinoceros and kissing it on its snout. Molony wanted the spot to mirror a contemporary fairy tale. Soft-edge compositing was necessary to capture the rhino charging across a grassy hillside. The hug and kiss, however, were completely authentic. "There is no substitute for reality," says Molony, who also directed "Matador" for the insurance company. "Of course, offscreen, there were a bunch of huge guys standing by to jump in if something went wrong. It didn’t. The client was very happy."
Molony recently completed a screenplay about Napoleon for Roberto Passolini, producer of The Full Monty. The film will soon begin production via Channel 4 Films, London. Although Molony didn’t get the chance to direct the film—something he says he was quite interested in—he is getting a screenwriter credit. In the meantime, he is content directing commercials, though his schedule is getting tighter and the challenges more daunting. "When I think about the spots I’ve directed over the past three or four years, I don’t think there was a single feature film project that could ever combine all the challenges and adventures I’ve had to face," he says.c
