As it turns out, a hallowed slice of Americana an inept boss supervising a far more capable employee isn’t exclusive to the U.S. workplace. In this Australian campaign for a job Web site (www.seek.com.au) directed by Tim Ward of Greatguns: USA, Venice, Calif., for Saatchi & Saatchi, Sydney, we see that the Peter Principle clearly applies Down Under.
In “Surgeon,” we open on a hospital’s operating room with the head surgeon taking a pee in an adjoining bathroom. Failing to wash his already gloved hands, he then enters the operating room to perform surgery on a laid-out patient.
Complaining that the toilet doesn’t flush properly, he begins requesting surgical tools. First he calls for “a slicer.” His assistant properly refers to it as a scalpel. Next the head surgeon asks for “tongs.” The assistant says “forceps.” Finally the surgeon requests “bzzzzz.” The assistant translates that “technical” term into medical English: “burr-hole drill.”
The surgeon rests the drill on the patient. The drill then falls to the floor, causing the surgeon to go under the operating table to find it. “Be with you in a moment,” he tells the patient, who is sedated and can’t hear him anyway.
The assistant explains that to his boss, noting that the patient is “under a general.”
“Ah, a military man,” says the bent over, bumbling surgeon, who triumphantly notes that he found a dollar on the floor.
We then see a graphic rainbow extending from the assistant to where the surgeon should be at the head of the operating table. “Make luck happen” is the message carried by the rainbow.
An end tag contains the slogan, “Thousands of jobs, millions of opportunities,” accompanied by the Web site address, seek.com.au.
The other two spots in the campaign are cut from the same conceptual cloth. For instance, in “Dictation,” we see a corporate exec, who has no clue, giving dictation to his female secretary. As he stammers and yammers, unable to compose a single coherent sentence, the secretary composes a well-thought out piece of professional communication. Turns out the exec is the son of the company CEO. The secretary then reminds her boss, who’s chomping on a blueberry muffin, that he’s allergic to blueberries. The next shot shows red blotches appearing on his face. He asks if he’s broken out in an allergic reaction to which she says no. The rainbow leads from the secretary to the executive’s chair, underscoring that she is the one who deserves to be the boss. The seek.com address and slogan concludes the commercial.
The Saatchi creative team consisted of executive creative director David Nobay, copywriter Anthony Moss, art director Matt Gilmore, head of production Ali Grant and producer Julia Jackson.
Tom Korsan executive produced for Greatguns: USA. Head of production was Ellen Devine. Producer was Lizzy Nash of Sydney production services shop Walkabout Films. The DP was Anna Howard. Simon Dobbin was the production designer.
Editor was Stewart Reeves of Guillotine Editorial, Sydney.
Lensing and Designing Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist”
Cinematographer Lol Crawley, BSC and production designer Judy Becker collaborated for the first time on The Brutalist (A24) and emerged as Oscar nominees in their respectiveย disciplines. Their work on the film has also earned major recognition elsewhere on the industry awards circuit. Just this week, Crawley won the British Society of Cinematographersโ Feature Film Award. He also is currently a nominee for both an ASC Award and a BAFTA Film Award. And Becker received nominations for a BAFTA Film Award and an Art Directors Guild (ADG) Excellence in Production Design Award. Crawley and Becker, though, traversed distinctly different paths to The Brutalist, being on opposite ends of the collaborative continuum with director and co-writer Brady Corbet going into the film. Crawley had already shot two features for Corbet prior to The Brutalist--The Childhood of a Leader (2015) and Vox Lux (2018). In sharp contrast, The Brutalist marked Beckerโs first time working with Corbet. Becker recalled seeing The Childhood of a Leader and immediately wanting to design for Corbet. Describing herself as โstunnedโ by the film, she related that it reflected Corbetโs talent as a filmmaker, his ability to work within a budget on a period movie and still deliver an end product that looked fantastic while brilliantly telling a story. Becker noted that a big budget period film replete with tons of set dressing, over-dressed locations and the like misses the mark for her. She asked, โWhy waste that money?โ But when Becker sees a period movie with a pared down budget that looks so good, โIโm really blown away.โ Based on The Childhood of a Leader, Becker told her agent that sheโd love to... Read More