Many moons ago a feature director working in commercials was frowned upon in some circles. That was due to the prevalent notion that only a filmmaker with extensive ad experience would have the proper creative and political sensibilities for spots. Happily that line of separation has since disappeared—in both directions, with feature directors making their mark in ads, and a number of spotmakers diversifying successfully into features and TV.
On the former front, we’re seeing more examples during the course of our “The Road To Oscar” series and related coverage. In our profile on Scott Cooper (SHOOT, 10/23) relative to Black Mass, he talked of his trust in the movie’s producer John Lesher, who’s a partner in Superprime Films. Cooper has joined Superprime for spots and branded content.
In this week’s “Road To Oscar” we interview Tom McCarthy who directed Spotlight. Via Park Pictures, McCarthy recently directed his first commercial, Duracell’s “Teddy Bear” for Anomaly NY.
Seth Jacobs, group CD at Anomaly, said, “Tom is a master storyteller, and his ability to convey emotion in a short amount of time is uncanny. From Station Agent up through Win/Win and now with Spotlight he has cemented himself as one of America’s great directors. We were honored to have his talents on ‘Teddy Bear.’ Tom is an actor’s director, quickly able to get incredible performances that got to the essence of the story. Transitioning from features to commercials is not always easy. It is a very different medium. Telling a story in 60 seconds is not something a feature filmmaker needs to do. Getting a consumer audience to actually feel strong emotions in that amount of time is even harder. Add onto that the fact that there are clients sitting there and it can be a daunting task for some feature directors, but Tom navigated it with ease and delivered a beautiful, emotionally resonant story that audiences have loved.”
And delving into spots can lead to new collaborators. Costume designer Paco Delgado earned an Oscar nomination for Les Misérables, his first feature with director Tom Hooper. Now a return engagement with Hooper has yielded The Danish Girl. Delgado first worked with Hooper via Smuggler on a Captain Morgan commercial. This eventually led to Delgado getting the Les Misérables gig.
Sometimes “The Road To Oscar” is paved by commercialmaking.
