http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEbpbNTkIdk
It’s the touches.
I mean, the idea is lovely, but it’s the executional details (eg: the mom hiding behind the cleaner) that must have come after the initial idea that really make this wonderful.
That campaign is a tough act to follow, but they keep doing it.
You know where the hat is going?
That’s right: off.
UPDATE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW7Fmi8_kfU
Welcome to 2014, a year in which Faye’s comet will reach perihelion and Russia will demonstrate its hatred of homosexuality by staging the calendar’s campest event: The Winter Olympics.
That aside, I know what you’re thinking: it’s been three/four/five days and I need a fucking drink right fucking now.
Either that or you’ve promised yourself this will be the year in which you achieve something significant or memorable outside of your expected daily tasks. Perhaps you intend to reduce the extent to which your abdominals resemble a hundredweight of uncooked bread dough, recreate the Bayeux Tapestry out of liquorice, or resign, go to work for Amnesty and actually make some sort of positive contribution to planet earth.
Whichever it is, you’ll need a little fillip, and that’s where the 157th most influential advertising blog in the world comes in.
Here’s a little video I watched the other day of a conversation between Tim Ferriss and Neil Strauss, which not only contains absolutely all the essential tips, helpful websites and effectiveness strategies you need to write a book, but also many pieces of advice that can apply to any goal you might have taken on:
See you in 365 days with your tasks completed…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8nJKWJTsUg
Sorry about that.
To balance it out, here’s Coppola and Lucas discussing Kurosawa and Kagemusha:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLPV3nUyTvwwrDy2K-Bj3TSLJ1EoZMeV5T&v=S_f9E-qd6Os
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTNXCCJ_TWI
And a chat with Scorsese and Coppola:
Michael Caine teaches film acting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjqkQlvCs-M
Quentin Tarantino, David. Russell, Ben Affleck, Ang Lee, Tom Hooper and Gus Van Sant chat film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAK3aUq25fo
Woody Allen on Parky:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldBQ4icOzWk
Hitchcock Masters Of Cinema interview:
Scorsese interviewed at Brown University:
And the only thing that matters to any of us is love:
I’ve written before about the fine line between getting the most from your staff and abusing the grey area that allows you to ask them to extend their working hours.
When I was a freelancer the difference became very clear: I might be called in to work a Sunday, but I’d be offered an extra day’s pay for that inconvenience (sometimes a day and a half). The full-timers had to do the same extra hours as part of their contract, so their happiness wasn’t quite as colossal as mine. From my perspective it seemed as if many Creative Directors were sneakily getting the work of a person-and-a-half for the salary of a single person.
Now, I’m not saying for a minute that people should never have to work weekends or evenings – it’s often in their interests as campaigns get completed on time and at a higher quality, conferring benefits on both the agency as a whole and possibly the creatives themselves – but there has to be a limit to those requests and ideally some sort of time-in-lieu compensation, if possible.
When you just work people to death, you can end up, well, working people to death. When that article was left on a comment on this blog last week another commenter said:
I work for an Asian company, albeit in London. They are totally mental, have no regard for human life and are obsessed with status (hence the buckets of scam awards they crave). It probably wasn’t the 3 days straight that killed the poor fucker but rather the years of abuse leading up to it. Look at the education league. Korea top for education and child suicide. What matters?
What matters indeed? Probably not the ad the poor copywriter was working on. But I think we’re all aware of the pressure that often exists alongside the presenteeism that infects so many agencies. These days, when the client is an even more powerful king than it was before, the feeling that we ought to be supplying ever more ‘routes’ and ever more executions of each route in ever more media channels sits like a giant cloud over many creative departments. It’s very difficult to measure the subjective value called ‘quality’ but no such problem exists when it comes to quantity. Just place a ruler against the pile of paper or count the pages of the Keynote; the extent of our devotion is right there in Googled images and YouTube references.
So what does this all come down to? Well, the comment I left suggested it’s up to all of us (employers and employees) to take responsibility for the situation. Asking people to work hours that are seriously detrimental to their health is ultimately of no benefit to anyone, just as working 30 hours on a Red Bull drip can only end in disaster. There’s no need to continue flogging the already well-flogged, just as there is no need to behave like a compliant serf for the umpteenth day in a row.
But I also understand that perhaps that’s easier said than done, and that some will feel the pressure more than others, and feel less able to speak up. That’s where employers must be as vigilant. We don’t have the physio data that tells professional football managers when their players are entering the ‘red zone’, but we all have experience, eyes and ears. Using them to avoid misery, decreasing performance and death seems like the least we can do.
So how do you feel about your own situation? Are you overworked? On the edge? Just dandy? Let us know…
New reaches me this week of two interesting new takes on the idea of getting people to drink less.
Coincidentally both come from AMV BBDO, where people are sober all the time and they don’t have a bar in the office (except for that one on the ground floor).
The first is the latest attempt to encourage people not to drive the morning after they drink.
http://vimeo.com/82306078
Apparently they took the actor out for a lot of drinks and then got him to record the voice track. Then they shot the same actor a couple of days later (sober) as he lip synched to his drunk self. No post production; just booze. Dominic Savage directed.
So it’s nice to know that getting people drunk can lead to fewer people getting drunk.
Talking of fewer people getting drunk…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od9vBBDXakc
I assume that was also done in camera. Good to come at the same issue from the angle of humour.
Here’s hoping they both work.
Why Thriller was such a great album (thanks, T).
Really fucking pointless photoshopping of Jennifer Lawrence (thanks, J).
Michel Gondry animates Noam Chomsky (thanks, R):
What words were invented the year you were born? (Thanks, J.)
Director and writer audio commentary from Taxi Driver:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U_flduhfss
Leo, Jonah and Marty on The Wolf Of Wall Street (thanks, J):
Guy apes real estate ads (thanks, J).
Fashion or porn? (NSFW; thanks, D).
Amazing tilt shift pictures of cosmos (thanks, S).
Are you a writer? Fancy a free house in Detroit? (Thanks, T.)
I was sent this rather nicely shot, NSFW ad the other day (thanks, S).
It’s a spoof of this campaign from Hennessy, which is a load of old poo.
Here’s what the director, Andrea J Colomb has to say about it:
I guess I’ve always wondered why no one has ever taken the piss out of ‘What’s Your Wild Rabbit?’. Asking for trouble… and why not poke fun at a 70 million dollar, pretentious ad campaign and a billion dollar corporation with my 5 dollar (and a lot of favours) film?
Here are 88 pieces of advice from top cinematographers. They seem like cinematography advice, but they go a bit further than that.
These are my favourites:
‘The edges of the frame are often more interesting than the center.’
Luciano Tovoli, ASC, AIC
Life is like an airplane: you either get onboard, or you don’t. It’s up to you.
Xavier Grobet, ASC, AMC
On my first day on my first job as a PA, the production manager was late, and a grip said, ‘It is disrespectful to be late on a shoot day.’ That made a big impression on me.
Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC
Don’t try to be someone you are not.
Alar Kivilo, AS, CSC
Stay calm, listen, observe and lead by example.
Jonathan Taylor, ASC
From George Miller: ‘Just be bold, Dino! Be as bold as you want!’
Dean Semler, ASC, ACS
I’ve learned so much from reading American Cinematographer, and the best professional advice I ever received was from an interview with Gordon Willis. In it, he stressed the importance of always having a point of view when approaching a scene. It’s the first question I ask myself when I’m designing my coverage: what is the point of view, or whose? Once I’ve answered this question, everything falls into place with much more ease.
Ernest Dickerson, ASC
When I was an AC, a gaffer told me, ‘Don’t run on a set,’ because you show everyone that you probably forgot something. I still don’t run on set, and I try not to forget too many things.
Bruno Delbonnel
The film business is like a prizefight: It’s not how many times you get knocked down that counts, it’s how many times you get up and go again.
Sam Nicholson
From my agent: ‘Be the happiest guy on set.’ He was right.
Frank B. Byers
From Tim Beiber: ‘Show up early, don’t sit down, and act like you give a shit.’ It’s easy to remember and has far-reaching implications.
Jim Denault, ASC
From Jordan Cronenweth: ‘Minimize compromise, be prepared for rejection, and save your money
Thomas A. Del Ruth
The advice I got the first day I worked in the film business: Always be five minutes early to work, never five minutes late. But more importantly, live on the edge when it comes to your photography — take risks. Put your ideas on film and fall down a few times; it will make you a great filmmaker.
Salvatore Totino
From John Frankenheimer: ‘Alan, whatever you do in this business, don’t ever let them push you into shooting something you know is just bad, something you’ll end up regretting or hating. Simple rule of thumb: don’t shoot s**t!’
Alan Caso
Legendary gaffer George ‘Popeye’ Dahlquist used to tell his lamp operators, ‘Boys, if you’re not 10 minutes early, you’re 10 minutes late.’ Readiness is a big part of what we do.
Thomas Ackerman
We’re all replaceable.
Ron Fortunato, ASC
Early in my career, an old veteran told me, ‘The industry is a lot of fun, but never forget it’s a business with a lot of money being spent every second. Don’t laugh your way out of your job, and if you stretch your arms out and you can’t touch the camera, then you’re probably in the wrong place.’ Good words to remember.
Craig DiBona, ASC
Some people (I think they’re at Mother) have come up with an interesting wheeze to raise money and awareness to help the fight against homophobia in Russia.
They’ve created some Russian dolls that involve well known homosexuals fitting inside each other (Fnarr! Fnarr!).
Bid on them and pass the message on.
By the way, I thought the world was becoming generally more tolerant and civilised. The Russian homophobia, along with the news that India has just criminalised homosexuality is fucking ridiculous. If consenting adults want to do non-harmful stuff to each other in the privacy of their own homes then what the hell is the problem?
Bible bashers seem oddly obsessed with homosexuality. Considering the Bible mentions it 7 times but the proper use of wealth 250 times it seems that we hear an entirely unbalanced rhetoric concerning the degree to which it is evil. Very understanding.
Fuck intolerance (ironically) up the arse.
I was watching this interview the other day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RKUUTLLDQc
If you want to find out how Jonah Hill got his big break by making prank phone calls for Dustin Hoffman it’s pretty interesting, but there was another part of it that stuck with me:
Late in the interview Jonah reveals that his dad was seriously concerned that he’d ever amount to anything, or even be able to support himself. As a parent I can utterly relate to that concern; even though my kids seem bright and are growing up with privileged opportunities I still worry (the end of the world due to climate change aside) a lot about whether they’ll be ‘successful’ or ‘happy’ (those are in inverted commas because I have no idea what they mean) and what I can do to help.
But then the Jonah Hill thing is quite liberating: apparently you can believe your kid will be a pointless fuckup a mere couple of years before they become a massively successful writer and movie star. I suppose if that’s the case we can all be more OK with our children’s potential to do well or badly because we really have no idea.
(By the way, for the purposes of this post I asked my parents if they ever worried about whether I’d amount to much. Although they said they didn’t I certainly had my doubts, mainly around the time I got sacked from Y&R. But it all turned out fine (so far).)
Did you ever think your life was going to head down the pan before it headed gratifyingly in the opposite direction? Or did you waste your massive potential somehow? Are you still concerned you might spend some of your future living in a cardboard box under Waterloo Bridge?