The ads honored at this year’s Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Show in the talent/performance category represent a diverse selection of real people and actors. One spot, Budweiser’s "Out of Towner," offers a broadly comedic take on gangster-speak à la The Sopranos. A PSA for Citizens Against Terrorism, "Tourists," uses ironic humor to urge tourists to return to New York in the wake of 9/11. And Powder Keg, is a serious dramatic piece sponsored by BMW, in which a mysterious driver is on a mission to rescue a wounded photojournalist. But in each case, it is the performances of the talent that breathe life and a sense of realism into the stories.
"Tourists"
Bryan Buckley, partner/director at bicoastal/ international hungry man, helmed "Tourists" for Citizens Against Terrorism. The spot was cast entirely with real New Yorkers who each give their take on the Big Apple without tourists. The joke is that all of them—embodying the stereotypical view of New Yorkers—express happiness that the tourists aren’t around.
Shot in Times Square, "Tourists" consists of man-on-the-street scenes. In response to an off-camera voice asking what he’d say to get tourists back to the city, John Grigoli answers, "Tourists, who needs ’em?" Cut to an old man, Shelley Lubow, garbed in cap and yellow sweater who stands near a subway entrance and says, "You don’t see people like this," he says, while craning his head side-to-side while looking up. "Like they’re looking at a monster."
Ken Cox enthuses, "The dance floors are actually breathable. I don’t have anybody from Kansas or Wyoming knocking me down." Cox is followed by Ko Niizuma, a freelance scout who often works with Buckley, commenting, "I can get any donut I want."
Cut to a young man screaming at a tour bus across the street. Finally, talent Ken Sheehan says: "We’re doing fine. You know, uh, it’s easier for me to park my truck. I can get into restaurants. I don’t care if people come to the city … ." His thoughts are interrupted when he turns to yell "Shut up!" at a car honking its horn. We continue to hear him challenging someone ("What are you looking at?"), as the final copy comes up: "It’s nice to see N.Y. getting back to normal."
The nature of the PSA demanded real people, so Buckley turned to hungry man’s in-house casting department, Downstairs Casting. Headed by freelance casting director Stacy Osnow, Downstairs Casting was officially launched last fall, at about the same time "Tourists" was being done. Osnow started working with Buckley some two years ago, and she gradually proved herself to have "an eye" for the real-people type of casting that many of Buckley’s projects require. The director wanted to have an in-house casting resource, and Osnow was deemed the natural choice to head it up.
The casting idea for "Tourists" was to find New Yorkers that reflected the diversity of the populace. "Normally you have something very specific in mind [for casting], but this project was easier because Bryan knew he wanted to capture the diverse range of ethnicities, and people of different ages," explains Osnow. Casting for "Tourists" took about three days, with the final performers culled from about 100 prospects.
Osnow found Sheehan, who works as a key grip on the Late Night with David Letterman, outside the Ed Sullivan Theater, where the CBS show is filmed. "[Sheehan] has an amazing voice," says Osnow, "and he had the perfect weathered look … a typical New Yorker."
A visit to Central Park yielded Cox, a department store worker on his lunch break, whose flamboyant manner attracted Osnow’s interest. (Buckley subsequently cast Cox in "Theatre," for the New York Miracle campaign done via BBDO New York).
Osnow’s colleague, casting director Lori Fromewick, found Lubow coming off a subway. "He was the cutest little old man," notes Osnow. "All he wanted was his coffee and a donut."
There were no callbacks for this project, because Buckley wanted to capture the talents’ responses while they were fresh. While there was initially a script, the final spot materialized through a tremendous amount of improv. "When you give non-actors a script, they get it in their head and it becomes rehearsed," explains Osnow. "So we told them the idea behind the PSA, and they all got the joke. Bryan would feed them lines and give them questions to respond to on-camera."
It was a tricky project in that the PSA reflected a serious subject and was shot shortly after 9/11, says Buckley. "The idea was that of things getting back to normal when we start acting like New Yorkers again," he notes. "Stacy went out, on the streets, into parks, and came up with a tremendous group of people. Real people casting is really difficult, and she has a knack for it. Part of it is actually having the guts to go up to people and start talking to them. And we found that people were anxious to help out—no one was paid, and everyone who we called in actually showed up for the shoot."
"Out of Towner"
"Out of Towner," directed by hungry man’s Allen Coulter via DDB Chicago, features a group of guys from New Jersey who could easily be extras on The Sopranos. The "Jersey Guys" reprise their roles from other Coulter-helmed Budweiser spots, "Whassup!/Jersey Guys" and "Phone Chain."
Beth Melsky, casting director at Beth Melsky Casting, New York, cast all three spots, along with Kathy Knowles, casting director at 5th Street Studios, Santa Monica. The campaign revolves around a bunch of guys, perhaps affiliated with the mob, greeting each other incessantly with the phrase "How ya’ doin’?" Last year, Coulter was tapped to helm "Whassup!/Jersey Guys"—his first commercial—based in part upon his experience helming numerous episodes of The Sopranos.
Melsky relates that her mandate to find Jersey Guys was exactly that: Jersey guys. "They wanted some people with the feel of a Jersey city guy … Italian," says Melsky, who has worked extensively with the directors at hungry man, casting spots for E*Trade, Federal Express, Nike, Snickers and Monster.com. "Although they didn’t have to actually be Italian. … It was more about a look; I mean, there’s not too many blond, blue-eyed Jersey guys I know. And they wanted a few specific types: a big guy, a bartender."
"I had a very strong opinion about what guys I thought would work," says Coulter. "We saw a lot of guys that were real, but not funny; and conversely, guys that were funny but were not the real deal."
Of the initial 100 or so casting tapes of talent, around 20 people were brought back. From there, Coulter spent hours directing them, narrowing down the group and finding out who worked well together. After a lengthy series of callbacks, Ned Eisenberg, DC Benny, Paul Regina, Wass Stevens and Patrick Gallo were named the Jersey Guys.
When the Jersey Guys proved to have a cult following, DDB and Anheuser-Busch wanted to continue using them in future Bud ads. The idea for "Out of Towner," Coulter explains, is that of a misfit joining the regulars at the bar. The kicker is that, in response to every rhetorical "How ya’ doin’?" directed to him, the newcomer, on vacation, gives a unexpectedly detailed response: "I’m doin’ fine. Just got in today. My brother-in-law picked me up at the airport—mighty big airport y’all got here. And the people here are so nice."
Melsky notes that, in this instance, Coulter was very particular about making sure that whoever filled the role was a real Texan. As a result, she went to a much wider pool of talent, including actors from the theatrical realm. "We looked at anywhere from thirty to forty guys," she notes, "from people in their thirties to those in their fifties."
"When the spot came to me, it simply said ‘a Texan.’ I’m originally from Texas myself, and my focus was on making sure [the character] was not a cliché caricature," explains Coulter. "The trick was that he had to be real and funny, and acceptable to the client."
Ultimately, after casting extensively in New York and Los Angeles, they cast Clyde Tull, whom Knowles had found. Although not on the initial list of picks, Tull was included in the callback session at Coulter’s urging.
"Clyde came through in the callback," says Coulter. "He has an innocence and a sweetness about him. When people see the spot, he seems familiar to people. But that’s the nature of people who are specific—they’re very real and seem familiar."
He notes that they allowed Tull to improvise at the audition, and subsequently, Vinny Warren, associate creative director/copywriter at DDB, worked with Tull to shape his response into what appears in the final version. During filming, Coulter did many takes in order to allow Tull to relax and help create the script as he went along. "I’d say ‘Keep that phrase’ or ‘Keep doing it.’ It was a real work-in-progress."
Coulter adds that he always gets extremely involved in the casting for a job. "I’d probably not do a spot where I didn’t have a heavy say in who is cast," he comments. "My job is to use all the tools available to the best of my ability. Casting is one of the tools."
Powder Keg
A prominent example of advertising-sponsored entertainment is "The Hire," last year’s series of Web-based short films out of Fallon Minneapolis, and helmed by noted feature filmmakers, with production by bicoastal Anonymous Content. (Fallon and BMW are currently working a second series of shorts, this time to be produced by bicoastal RSA USA.) The Fallon creative team worked collaboratively with the feature directors, who were given tremendous freedom to create a short film. Although BMW is not mentioned by name, the car figures prominently in all the films. The main character in each, The Hire, was played by British actor Clive Owen (Croupier).
Powder Keg, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, (Amores Perros), revolves around a journalist played by Stellan Skarsgård (Breaking the Waves, Time Code), on assignment in a war-torn Latin American country, who has captured war crimes on film. It’s up to Owen to get the man, who has been injured, past a heavily guarded border to safety.
Shot in Guajaca, Mexico, Powder Keg was cast by Manuel Teil of Manuel Teil Casting, Mexico City. Bruce Bildsten, associate creative director at Fallon, notes that Powder Keg was a very gritty, weighty film, and that the primary goal of casting was to find top-notch actors—not necessarily household names. "Stellan is one of those great actors you see in film over the years, whether it be in U.S. or European movies," explains Bildsten. "He looked the part; he felt the part—he delivered the goods. And in the cameo at the end, his mother was played by Lois Smith. The goal was to get great people. We weren’t interested in a marquee name."
Bildsten relates that the casting process proceeded pretty quickly. There were only a few people considered for the photojournalist, including Skarsgård. By far, the biggest challenge of The Hire was casting the pivotal role of the Driver, which ultimately went to Owen. Bildsten says that Anonymous had hired a "big name" celebrity casting agency for the project, which wound up sending names of "a lot of Hollywood pretty boys" for consideration. "You know, Ben Affleck is not the new Harrison Ford," laughs Bildsten. "The goal [for the Driver character] was to make James Bond look like a wimp. We wanted someone truly cool and truly real."
The credit for casting Owen goes to Fallon producer Robyn Boardman, who’d been impressed with his work in Croupier, and pushed hard for the relatively unknown British actor. "Clive has that intensity," says Bildsten. "He simmers beneath the surface. I think in Clive’s case, he’s an actor on the verge. We had some difficulty convincing him that he was not going to be selling his soul—that these weren’t commercials. We wound up signing him the day before filming started."
