Our Work

Imagine this: We start with a head-on shot of Blogger Boy sitting at his desk in a sizeable pre-war New York apartment with hardwood floors and white walls. The camera moves in and his thoughts are superimposed up on the “wall” behind him. The camera then swings sharply left (90 degrees) and starts to move upward. At that same moment, all three of the walls begin to move back and the ceiling lifts up, totally out of sight. The floor also moves to a new position, sliding deep into the foreground and out of our view. What we’re left with is a reveal of Blogger Boy literally sitting at the epicenter of his imagination: just behind home plate on a baseball field.

The walls that have swung away are 20-foot long by 15-foot high projection screens, and even as they move they show everything from Hank Aaron and Lou Gehrig’s great moments, to last year’s world series, to Kurt Gibson limping around the bases. Once the walls are gone from our view, we feel a baseball stadium illuminated behind the blogger.

As much as | like doing a spot this strong and noisy, with the rollercoaster’s great rush of sound, the type of music we choose will also be very important in communicating emotion. We’ll need to ask ourselves whether we’re scoring more for the excitement of the rollercoaster or for the interplay between the mother and child on board. Knowing that an emotional connection is paramount, it should have a quiet, personal, and introverted slow start to bring us in to the interplay between the characters. We can build sound effects as the ride progresses. Then, we’ll have a moment of abrupt silence when the rollercoaster disappears into the cloud, and a big rata- tat-tat for the finale where it bursts out and shoots over the camera.

This spot certainly lives by its contrasts. A lush jungle environment evokes a sense of bold adventure and limitless possibility, and it will be fun to play with peoples’ expectations by filling it with city sounds. Maybe, when we look at it from that perspective, our everyday world is more unpredictable and challenging than we thought. Whether we shoot the jungle on location or on a stage, it will be beautiful, lush and green with wild branches and vines, and animals coming into view as the car rolls along.

Rather than just showing the jungle world through P.O.V. shots I’d like to see it “painted” on the car through reflections in windows, mirrors, and other shiny surfaces. For visual interest, the exterior of the car can show the family through the windows, with the jungle reflected on the glass. We might also see one of the animals in the rear or side-view mirrors. Looking out through a window, we might see a little bit of the interior of the car, and just outside, the toucan on that conveniently placed branch at just the right height and proximity.

By taking it to the street, this wonderful and funny spot introduces an element of surprise to the breakfast menu. Carl’s, Jr. is all about enjoying the familiar and well loved, while branching out with whimsy and humor. And breakfast, the greatest American innovation, is ripe for experimentation. Why not try something new with an old friend? Have a little fun without stepping too far out of the tried and true. We’ll bring on the smiles with a new twist on an old favorite.

Casting will be crucial to achieving an ingenious rapport between our freewheeling interviewer and the man on the street. We’re going for down-to-earth characters who generate spontaneous and natural performances through a carefully controlled merger of street and conventional casting. This is a process i love to direct. The right people matched with handheld, lively camerawork will capture the hectic heartbeat of morning rush in the city, and these colorful interactions will pop off the screen with an urban edge that excites curiosity and stimulates viewer appetite.

Power. Class. Speed. Elegance. The Porsche 911 is a world-renowned car, and the fastest highways in the world were built for it. How many others can show up with all that caché? There’s nothing like checking out the smooth lines, sliding into the elegant driver’s seat, and listening to the engine purr. This spot taps into the adventure of driving not just a car, but a whole iconic persona. We’ll tell a story that packs a cinematic aura of suspense and mystery into less than a minute, luring the viewer to imagine a life behind the wheel of this exceptional automobile, and the glamorous, intriguing world it would lead to.

The impact of this story will depend on how we build the cinematic tension. A large part of this will lie in casting actors whose chemistry fuels the suspense, and shooting them in each location with nuanced skill. We’ll get extensive footage of the drive, capturing inspired lighting such as the chiaro scuro found in tunnels, listening to the quiet as the driver speeds up. Or the blast when it gets loud and he puts it through its thoroughbread paces. We’re going to weave a lot of scintillating moves into this spot, so take a deep breath and let’s get started.

Well, this really is a cool moment in my life. I’ve been directing since I was a teenager—won an MTV Award, made the most-played TV commercial in the history of television…one of my commercials was even found on the hard drive of Osama Bin Laden in the caves of Tora Bora by the US Special Forces…I’ve had just wild times. But the one thing I’ve never done is a Coke spot.

I grew up with Coca-Cola. When I saw the tennis star Boris Becker on TV saying he drank three Cokes every morning I went home and tried to do the same thing. My dad put a stop to that pretty fast, but I’m still a Coke-drinker today. No brand has more value, no brand is more global. Directing a Coke campaign is high on my bucket list. So I couldn’t have been more excited when I saw these boards.