Three years ago, when Russ Lamoureux decided he wanted to become a commercial director after several years of being a copywriter, he set out to make it happen. Since then, he has earned himself a place at bicoastal/international Hungry Man, and directed several spots that have garnered attention, including Heineken’s "Present," out of Publicis, New York, which was a recent SHOOT Top Spot; and Toyota’s "Sports Illustrated Video" through Saatchi & Saatchi LA, Torrance, Calif., which won silver in the video/cinema category at this year’s International Automotive Advertising Awards. He also directed "Big Meat" for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), out of agency Crazy Dave’s House of Ads, Philadelphia.
As a helming novice, it was no easy feat to catch the attention of a big production company like Hungry Man, but Lamoureux accomplished this through simple perseverance. "[Before getting signed], I found my own jobs and got [Hungry Man] to produce them for me and give me feedback," recalls the director, who befriended Hungry Man partner/ director Bryan Buckley while still a creative at Saatchi & Saatchi, San Francisco.
Lamoureux officially signed on as a director with Hungry Man last spring, and says that he is now "completely settled in. I couldn’t be happier," he adds. "It’s so important to have a good company behind you. [It’s hard to] break in and do a good job as a rookie because you get jobs that are a little underfunded. Without a great company behind you to make that stuff work to your advantage, a lot of spots [can turn out to be] disasters. I learned really quickly how lucky I was to have Hungry Man helping me and backing me."
In turn, Lamoureux’s agency background made him a good catch for the production company. "I feel for the guys who come out of film school and don’t know the agency world," he says. "Understanding how the process works, and understanding that clients tend to be nervous and don’t always want to take the risks that the agency wants to take, makes guys like me work better with the agency and get stuff through. Instead of throwing a tantrum, we understand what they’re up against, and we can actually help them sell the idea to their client."
Lamoureux’s spots tend to be quirkily humorous, as demonstrated in Toyota’s "Tire," through Saatchi and Saatchi LA. The ad features a young man putting on a helmet and getting into a rubber truck tire. He and his friends are at the top of a steep, rocky hill, and a push from one of the buddies sends the tire—with the guy tucked into it—on a bumpy ride down. When it reaches the bottom, the man gets out of the tire, shaky but triumphant. He lifts his arms to the cheers of his friends above—but the act proves too challenging for his current state, and he ends up falling over. "If you really want the feeling, you’ve got to drive the truck," the ending supers read.
What seems to be the ultimate stupid human trick actually turns out to a "sleight of hand," according to Lamoureux, who reveals that when the tire is going down the hill, the man isn’t in it at all. "It’s all one take," he explains, "but we just cut out the frames where the guy is getting out of the tire [at the top of the hill] and where he’s getting back into the tire at the bottom of the hill." All of the guy’s buddies simply froze in place while he performed his "great escape."
"You could have done a bunch of cuts [with that spot], but we wanted to figure out a way to do it all in one take," Lamoureux continues. "And that’s what we did. It was a lot of fun, and that [spot] is the one I probably get asked about the most, which probably means that we did a good job."
SHOOTING STYLE
While the director’s reel reveals his affinity for comedy, style and the way things are shot are important to him as well. "It doesn’t just have to be about a joke," he says. "Stuff where you can do a little more with the cinematography is pretty fun to do too."
For example, Lamoureux’s first directing assignment for Hungry Man, a Powerade ad via Wieden+ Kennedy, Portland, Ore., features a series of amateur basketball players dunking the ball and hanging from the rim as Mel Torme’s "Hang on Me" plays. "The Powerade stuff is more graphic, but it’s still got a fun vibe to it," comments Lamoureaux.
Lamoureux also directed a Pedigree spot through Grey, Los Angeles, which benefited from a bit of stylistic tweaking. "Meeting Girls," which broke in February, begins on a crowded beach, where a guy and his dog are hanging out. A girl walks by and the dog snatches her hat out of her hand, bringing the pooch’s apologetic owner onto the scene. It turns out that the hat attack was no accident at all—the dog had been trained to perform the ice-breaking trick using Pedigree dog treats.
"It was not the typical kind of script I would have been drawn to," Lamoureux says. "It could have been a very happy, slice-of-life thing, but [I made it] a little more stylized and realistic and more my cup of tea. It was one of those projects that was a lot more fun than I’d expected it to be, and we got a really great spot out of it. I liked the fact that I was able to do something that’s broad comedy, but shoot it in a way that’s a little darker."
Lamoureux’s latest project, a campaign for Cooper tires out of Fahlgren, Toledo, Ohio, will also be a challenge to shoot stylistically. "It’s narrative stuff," he reports. "There’s very little tire in the spots. It’s a series of misdirects with conversations that appear to be about something that’s more dramatic than the tire."
With all his past experience and recent success, Lamoureux finally feels like he’s found his niche. "What I liked about copywriting was writing scripts and then watching them come to life, and now [as a director], I get to spend all my time making scripts come to life," he observes. "I’d love to do a feature—I don’t know who wouldn’t—but I’m going to be patient. I really enjoy spotwork—it’s such a great way to learn—so the longer it takes for a chance to do a feature, the more prepared I’ll be. I’m not in any hurry. I know the ad world, I’m very comfortable in the ad world, and I think it’s a great place to be working."
