As reported earlier (SHOOTonline, 9/12), Coca-Cola’s “Heist” directed by Todd Mueller and Kylie Matulick of Psyop for Wieden + Kennedy (W+K), Portland, Ore., won the 2009 primetime commercial Emmy Award.
While our initial coverage had “Heist” insights from several W+K artisans as well as John Leverence, senior VP, awards, for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS), SHOOT garnered further feedback from Mueller and W+K senior producer Matt Hunnicutt.
“The Emmy is a testament to the great creative relationship between W+K and Coca-Cola,” stated Hunnicutt. “Our goal has always been to produce work that isn’t just superb branded storytelling, but something people actively seek out and enjoy for entertainment’s sake too–“Heist” was the culmination of both, and it’s an honor for our team to receive such high recognition.”
Indeed given the changing nature of advertising where prospective consumers have more control over what they watch, the entertainment dynamic has become exponentially more important than it was years ago when a heavy media buy could ensure eyeballs. With the Emmy being based on a project’s entertainment value, the award carries arguably more heft than ever before in the ad community.
“Commercials need to be considered entertainment–they were framed in this exact context during the Emmy Awards show [the Creative Arts Emmy ceremony on Sept. 12],” related Mueller. “Typically five spots are nominated. This year there were eight which shows there is more interesting work being done, with the TV Academy placing a keen eye on entries.”
(Editor’s note: There were eight nominated commercials due to a five-way tie in the voters’ tally for fourth place. The ATAS awards committee thus had a choice of going with the top three nominations or expanding the field to eight. They opted for eight given the high quality of the work.)
To recap, W+K had three of the ’09 Emmy-nominated ads: Coke’s “Heist” as well as CareerBuilder.com’s “Tips” and Nike’s “Bottled Courage.” DDB Chicago had two nominated commercials: Budweiser’s “Circus”; and a web spot for Bud Light, “Magazine Buyer.” And scoring single nominations were: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, for Sprint/Nextel’s “Wedding”; Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Miami and Boulder, Colo., for Hulu’s “Alec In Huluwood”; and Ogilvy & Mather, N.Y., for AmEx’s “Airport Lounge.”
Quipping that it was a blast topping high-profile spots “with porn [‘Magazine Buyer] and Alec Baldwin [‘Alec In Huluwood’], Mueller said in a more serious vein that the Emmy represented “a fantastic accolade,” underscoring the great working relationship Psyop has enjoyed with W+K and Coca-Cola. That track record includes the lauded Coke spot “Happiness Factory” for W+K, Amsterdam, which received an Emmy nomination in ’07.
“We collaborate to find things beautiful in everyday life and then somehow turn them on their ear with something madly inventive,” said Mueller. “Wieden and Coke help us to push boundaries, to put a level of quirkiness into the work.”
As for his and Matulick’s approach to the combination animation/live-action “Heist” spot, Mueller said, “We have done so much animation over the years, our eyes are so tuned to the detail of everything from the palette to the animation to how things reflect, the quality of the surfaces, that we have developed an acuity which we bring to the live-action world. I think that helps us as we transition into larger scale live-action. As far as animation is concerned, we approach it differently. We try to steer away from what people have gotten used to, what they think computer graphics are supposed to look like. We approach our animation and live action cinematically.”
Regarding the biggest challenge Psyop faced on “Heist,” Mueller observed, “The job was complex but the hardest part was getting awarded the job to begin with. We were going up against some big names. We fought really hard and put a lot of effort into our presentation and thinking–and specifically the choreography for the domino change of events that still needed to be as clear as possible in the commercial.”
Asked what the Emmy win might do for his and Matulick’s directorial careers–which are already quite accomplished in the ad arena–Mueller said, “I’m not really sure what we can expect. Kylie and I have been directing together for 10 years. We didn’t have a meteoric rise–instead we have taken a more methodical route by being consistent and doing good work over the years. Hopefully the Emmy will give us a nice bump. We have some feature work in development now. And the Emmy recognition might add some weight to our effort in that realm.”
Jane Schoenbrun Jolts Cannes With Queer Slasher Movie “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma”
"A good electric chair" is how Jane Schoenbrun describes their first Cannes Film Festival premiere.
"I really felt like my body was in a state of convulsion," says Schoenbrun.
The day after the premiere of "Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma," a bold, bloody queer slasher film starring Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson, Schoenbrun and their co-stars were still buzzing from the ecstatic response. The movie, one of the most prominent American films in Cannes this year, gave the festival a gonzo jolt.
For Schoenbrun, the leading trans filmmaker of their generation, the film extends their intensely personal exploration of gender and the movies that defined their youth. But their first two films — 2024's "I Saw the TV Glow" and 2021's "We're All Going to the World's Fair" — were the raw, burning products of Schoenbrun's transition. "Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma," drawn from Schoenbrun's happy, exploratory post-transition life, isn't that.
It's about desire and sex. It's a biting satire of reboot-mad Hollywood. It's a schlocky and subversive slasher movie homage. It's a lot of fun, and quite tender, even when bodies are blood-spurting geysers.
"This is the first movie that feels like it represents the fullness of who I am," Schoenbrun says.
But Wednesday's moment of triumph in Cannes was hard-won. Ten years ago, Schoenbrun, now 39, was working in the film industry in a job they hated.
"The first time I came here, I just felt like, 'Oh my, god. I can't believe I'm in Cannes.' I went to, like, 'The Lobster,' at the Palais in my boy tux. I was like: 'This is it. I've done it,'" says Schoenbrun. "Then the next year I came back and I was so depressed. I decided to quit my job. If I'm depressed at Cannes,... Read More