As a commercial director, it seems like Spencer Susser of bicoastal Bob Industries popped onto the scene out of nowhere. But to Susser, his directing career has been a slow build that started when he was, oh, about 12. "There’s no such thing as an overnight success," says Susser, who concedes a minute later that yes, there are cases of instant fame. "But for me, I’ve been working so hard for so long that you kind of lose track of how you got here," he relates.
Susser, who SHOOT singled out as an up-and-coming director two years ago (10/12/01, p. 7), recently appeared on the radar as a commercial director after helming the second round of a Snapple campaign featuring anthropomorphic bottles out of Deutsch, New York. The package included "Pamplona," "Bachelorette Party," "Synchronized Swim," "Wedding" and "Bouncing Car." But what many don’t know is that since high school, Susser has shot countless music videos through bicoastal RSA USA, edited spots for five years at Rock Paper Scissors, Los Angeles, and even shot a documentary for George Lucas on the making of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones—and he’s yet to hit 30.
In a way, Susser has been training for a campaign like Snapple all his life. Completely self-taught as a director, he’s spent the last 15 years learning to do everything associated with a shoot by himself. It’s this kind of obsessive dedication to homegrown filmmaking that is necessary for pulling off the tedious craft of bringing glass bottles to life.
The Snapple campaign—conceived by David Rosen, senior VP/group creative director/copywriter at Deutsch, and Scott Bassen, senior VP/group creative director/art director—operates on the premise that an obsessed Snapple employee fashions elaborate vignettes starring the bottles in his basement. "Pamplona" is a twist on the running of the bulls; in this case, the bulls are played by more size-appropriate guinea pigs with horns strapped to their heads. The melee associated with the Spanish tradition ensues, including the requisite goring of a bottle by a wild-eyed guinea pig. "Bachelorette Party" features lady bottles out for a last pre-nuptial fling at a strip club. When a male dancer dressed as a cop rips off his Snapple label, the bachelorette bottles rush the stage. As in the earlier campaign, the humor in these spots is in the details, which means the meticulous use of all things homemade. "Wedding" shows bride and groom bottles about to start their wedding, when another bottle starts pounding on the glass high above the altar, à la The Graduate, the twist being that the groom takes off with the interrupting bottle.
To prepare for the shoot, Susser built a crude, yet fleshed out rendition of the miniature. "I was very impressed that he made all these sets out of stuff from his house so he could practice all the angles," recalls Rosen. "He really went all the way—even shooting and editing to music."
When it came time to shoot, Susser already knew what needed to happen based on his research, which included doing a run-through with the guinea pigs in the parking lot. "The guinea pigs were the easy part," he says. "It was controlling the bottles that was hard."
Early start
When Susser was younger, he traded in his grandfather’s camera—an older, valuable model—for a Super 8. He admits today that it probably wasn’t a very good deal, but at the time he was psyched to have a moving image camera to work with. He’d already been experimenting with photography when he started making films with his friends in junior high.
"I’ve always thought it was fun to make these elaborate things out of nothing," notes Susser. "It became an obsession because I loved film and I wanted to tell stories."
The obsession continued after high school, when Susser got a job working as a runner at editing house Rock Paper Scissors. He learned from the likes of editor Angus Wall, and soon started cutting himself. Meanwhile, he would stay late to edit his own films on the Avid. "I’d be there at night working on these amazing machines, and I felt like I was breaking the law," notes Susser. What also seemed criminal to him was how much fun he was having. "I never felt like it was a job in any way," he says. "All I was thinking about was having a good time and making films. I was making money, but I never spent any of it because I was busy working. That’s all I wanted to do. I would have paid money to do it."
The quality of film he saw come through the door from the likes of directors Pam Thomas (bicoastal Moxie Pictures), Mark Romanek (bicoastal Anonymous Content) and Roman Coppola (bicoastal The Directors Bureau) only inspired Susser to work harder, and he started directing low budget music videos for friends. Rock Paper Scissors executive producer Linda Carlson encouraged him to keep developing as a director and eventually brought Susser to the attention of RSA USA.
Susser began juggling editing with shooting clips through RSA’s music video division, Black Dog, for artists such as The Offspring, Shaggy, OPM and Verbena, among others. In between, he would shoot a commercial here and there through RSA when the budget was low. For instance, his work for the Library of Congress, out of DDB Chicago, proves that you don’t need a lot of money to make a great commercial. The campaign shows kids trying to play with cardboard cutouts of historical figures. In "Abe Lincoln," two kids duct tape a life-size cardboard figure of Abraham Lincoln to a skateboard. They send him down a ramp and gravity takes over. Old Abe teeters and scrapes himself all the way down the incline. The voiceover: "There is a better way to have fun with history."
After nearly five years of editing, Susser was offered the opportunity to shoot the making of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones in Australia. At first, he turned it down because of the two-year time commitment the documentary required. "For the first time in my life I was working somewhere where someone else was paying for my film. It was the best place in the world to be, why would I want to leave?" explains Susser. Ultimately, the folks at Lucasfilm cut it back to six months, and Susser jumped at the chance to watch George Lucas in action.
Upon returning from Australia, Susser made the move to Bob Industries, citing the appeal of a boutique company. In addition to the Snapple campaign, Susser has shot a second round of Library of Congress ads through Bob and DDB, including "Liar’s Poker," "George on a String," "Pool," "Karaoke" and "Wrestling." He’s also recently helmed an adidas spot titled "Backroom" through TBWA/Chiat/Day, San Francisco, as part of a Footlocker promotion.
Ultimately, Susser’s goal is to work in longform. He recently shot a 17-minute short film called Cornuto, which is Italian slang for "Your girlfriend is cheating on you." According to Susser, it is all in Italian and has a Federico Fellini/Jim Jarmusch filmmaking style. "I wanted to play with a different style," he says. "Something slow and beautiful."
