If This Is A Blog Then What's Christmas?

Who are the top directors these days? Let’s see…Fredrik, Chris, Frank, Danny, Ringan, Nicolai, Noam, Ivan, Tom Kuntz, maybe Rupert Sanders and, of course, Michel and Jonathan if they’re not on a movie.

I think I’ve said this before, but that’s a fairly similar list to 5-10 years ago. Nicolai and, to a lesser extent, Noam are the only ones you hadn’t really heard of in 2000, but if you had a great script at the turn of the century, chances are it would have gone to one of the others.

So why is it so difficult to break into the hallowed turf of these top guys, and why do they rarely fall off?

I was talking to the MD of a production company last week, and his theory is that it’s down to scale. Once you’ve done one big job well, you’re in, and that’s because if you can do it once, people are happy to trust you with it again. For example, Nicolai shot Sony ‘Balls’, and was subsequently given other Biggies such as Guinness ‘Tipping Point’ and Monster.com ‘Morning’.

Biggies are a certain type of ad that has several tempting features: a substantial timelength, a juicy budget, less branding (therefore a cleaner film for the director), exotic locations and a better shot at awards. That’s why, once you’re in, you’re in, and only a large number of financially motivated turds will see you cast from the Golden Mountain (see Gerard De Thame, Tarsem, Tony Kaye etc.). Even those who have had to move to the foothills of the Golden Mountain may be called upon again at any time for another shot (see Traktor’s ‘Men v Women’ Mail on Sunday ad).

Obviously, you have to maintain a certain standard, but then the playing field is tilted in your favour forever more. The real question is, how do you get your first Biggie?

I guess there’s a good argument for the incremental progression of a career that finally gets you to the point where someone will trust you with their baby. For example, Danny Kleinman was hardly an overnight success before he got this:

But in those days he was generally thought of as just a comedy director, so with the coolness and scale of ‘Wakeboarder’, he stepped up fully into the bigtime, particularly for the scripts that leaned in the direction of funny.

Oddly enough, the same team and client gave Nicolai his Biggie break:

So there we have it: if you get invited to the Golden Mountain and don’t mess up, you’re in for as long as you can keep your mojo going.

Will anyone get there soon? Well, after HSBC ‘Lumberjack’, I’d expect Vince Squibb to step up. Dougal Wilson looked like he was going to, but seems to have gone a bit quiet lately. And then there’s Jonny Green – a director with all the requisite potential.

Good luck to them all.

Meanwhile, on planet earth, we have this lovely little viral for Samsung:

(Thanks, L)

The obligatory explanatory film is here at Creativity Online, but for those of you who can’t be arsed to sit through that, I’ll just explain that Oasis launched their new album in New York by teaching the songs to buskers and getting them to play them throughout the city.

Like this fellow with the electric violin:

I’ve loved the electric violin ever since I saw the Trilams trounce the jocks with one in the peerless classic, Revenge of the Nerds.

Ah, happy days:

Thanks to everyone who voted in last week’s poll.

78% of you would rather be an unknown genius than a known not-quite-genius.

I think that’s about right. If I knew I’d written There Will Be Blood, I’d feel quite pleased with myself both for writing it and for nobly keeping it to myself.

This week’s question is not ostensibly related to advertising, but watch me give it a go…

When I was ten, I thought Roger Moore was the best James Bond, Octopussy was the best Bond film and Paul McCartney was the best Beatle.

I was young and foolish. How could I rate the weird figure-skating plot and wooden eyebrow-raising over the naked girl painted in gold and ‘The namesh Bond, Jamesh Bond’? Or the Frog Chorus guy over the bloke who wrote Imagine?

But as time passed, I saw the merits of Connery, Goldfinger and Lennon.

Then my tastes changed again, mainly because Sean thinks women deserve a schlap, Goldfinger’s a bit straight compared to Diamonds Are Forever and ‘Imagine No Possessions’ is a bit rich coming from a bloke with a Roller.

So I guess I’m trying to say that you never know which direction your likes and dislikes are going to go in, and you’ve no idea how embarrassing your current favourites may turn out to be.

That’s both an arse and bit of fun.

(Oops…forgot to make it anything to do with ads. Um…I used to prefer Creek to Drugstore, then I changed my mind. How about that?)

Not 100% sure of his every waking moment, but there is this Lynx ad that’s appearing around and about:

(Thanks, L)

UPDATE: That’s Frank Budgen, by the way.

Well, Geoff Seymour did come up with ‘Reassuringly Expensive’, ‘The World’s Favourite Airline’, ‘The Australian For Lager’, the Cockburn’s ‘Lifeboat’ ad, ‘Irn Bru – Made In Scotland From Girders’, and this:

Cheers, Geoff.

Or Predator Rap?

At some point your advertising career will come to an end for one of the following reasons:

1. You couldn’t keep up.
2. You interrupted a PPM with your elephant impression (the one involving your genitalia and trouser pockets).
3. You were sent down for a twenty stretch, possibly for the brutal murder of a client.
4. You couldn’t give the first fuck about 25×4 price ads for carrots anymore.
5. You kept getting kicked upstairs until the most important decision of the day involved choosing which helicopter to take into work. Going into work seemed pointless.
6. You died, possibly from the boredom of going to Slough for client meetings.
7. You time ended.

Point seven occurred to me the other day when I was downloading some Suede off itunes.

It’s often suggested that retirees may not be able to hack it any longer, or they don’t care anymore or people stopped wanting them. But what if, like Suede, they had a time?

In the nineties, Suede were pretty big. Now they’re not. Are they shit? Can they no longer play their instruments? Has their taste completely disappeared?

Maybe, but maybe they had their time, a time when their drive, talent and look was right for the public. Then it wasn’t. Is it their fault that they didn’t continue to adapt after Britpop to prolong their cultural relevance? were they lazy? Should they have compromised their art to shape to a perception of the market?

Perhaps they were just lucky enough to synch with a huge audience for several years, then most of that audience moved on.

If you’re creative you need a number of people to be receptive to that creativity. There are no guarantees (look at Gorilla and Trucks), so if people want your stuff, ride the wave while you can.

You never know when it’s going to end.

This ad was made about five years ago for the Buckfast quaffers on the North side of Hadrian’s Wall:

This, on the other hand, just won a few golds at the BTAAs, but was made only last year:

(Thanks, G.)

Here (thanks, L).