Dodge Dart "High Speed"

Click here to watch. 

Credits:

Director: Matt Devino
Producer: Francoise Saint-Pierre
Production Co: Snackhaus

Mr. Fisher: Alain Azoulay
Guy: Erik Duchesne
Girl: Wendie Weldon

Executive Producer: Emile Hanton
Copywriter: Alan McCoy
DP: Darrin P Nim
1st AC: Kevin Hughes
Sound Design: Steve Devino
1st AD: Neil Arnote
Makeup Artist: Marley Gonzales
VO: Erik Duchesne
PA: Jake Torossian, Jeffrey Sicile, Simone Silva

Why this script/concept? How does it reflect your vision as a
commercial director?

I chose the "High Speed" script for a few reasons. It grabbed my attention immediately, and it was a great concept that included a kind of quirky comedy that I'm drawn to. My favorite kinds of commercials use comedy in a way that makes you think "what the heck is going on here" and then you laugh about it, like the Old Spice spots or the recent Skittles spots. I also liked that it was a car commercial, and for some reason I've done a lot of work with cars and other vehicles in my directing career already so I had experience with that. That last thing that I liked was that it was simple yet compelling, just one location and a few driving shots, so I felt achievable on a tiny budget.

What was the casting process like?

The casting process was great, we used Cazt in Los Angeles and had a fairly big turn out. It's a really cool service where they give you casting space for free and film each audition which is automatically uploaded to their server for you to watch later. All you have to do in return is give written feedback on each actor's audition. In the end I had to make some hard choices between some really good actors, but I think my cast for this spot was great and they all played really well off of each other.

How did you search for/lock a location?

Getting a location for this spot was fairly easy. There's only the one conference room location, so we used the office building that my Dad works in and were able to get it for free. Living in LA there's a few obvious choices for locations when shooting vehicles, and the canyons that run between the PCH and the Valley are what we went with. The winding roads and beautiful back drops really helped add a dynamic feel to the car footage.

How did you select your DP, crew?

My crew mostly consisted of friends I've met over the years working in the film industry in LA, everyone donated their time on this and I couldn't thank them enough. My DP, Darrin P. Nim is a friend who I've known for a while but never had the chance to work with before. I'd always really liked his work, especially a recent music video he DP'd for Alkaline Trio featuring Milla Jovovich. My producer Frankie Saint-Pierre was actually interning with the production company Snackhaus that I do a lot of work with. She'd been interested in producing so I brought her on as a learning experience for her and she did a great job. My Dad did the sound recording and post sound work, he works in the music industry full time, but it's fun to work with him on projects like this. Everyone else from my 1st AD to AC's were friends of mine or other people on the crew, and we got a few PA's and Hair & Makeup off of craigslist.

How did shooting go? Any challenges?

Shooting went pretty well overall. The office stuff was just about running the scene enough times to get some funny reactions from everyone that worked together. The piece of paper hitting the Mr. Fisher character in the face was a complete accident, but he didn't break character and it worked out great in the final spot. The biggest challenges revolved around the car itself. My DP originally rigged Kino bulbs along the sides of the ceiling of the car for the dialogue shots, but because we were forced to mount the camera on the hood of the car we saw the bulbs in the frame. We ended up having to lose those and go with a much smaller Kino in the center of the ceiling near the dome lights. This only provided light for our actress Wendie, so when we did the car to car stuff we had to drive around running the scene over and over until we got a good take with the right amount of natural light on our two male actors in the front seats. The other challenge was getting the beauty shots of the car, normally you'd want a russian arm for that sort of thing but that was way out of my budget. We settled for shooting out of the back hatch of an SUV with the camera on a tripod. It sounds like it shouldn't work but we were able to get quite a lot of good shots, way more than what made it into the spot.

Tell us about editing and finishing.

Editing was interesting on this one. I was an editor full time for quite a few years before moving into directing, so I still like to edit my own projects. We shot the spot on the Canon 5D Mark III using the Magic Lantern hack so we could shoot Raw video. The picture quality is amazing, it's similar to a RED camera for a fraction of the cost. Where you pay for that is in post. Right now there isn't any editing software that supports the files it creates natively, so getting every shot processed and into an editable quicktime format adds a ton of work. There's a great article that explains the whole process here - http://nofilmschool.com/2013/09/tutorial-canon-5d-mark-iii-magic-lantern-raw-offline-online/ Once I got a handle on the workflow it was editing as normal. 

In retrospect, is there anything you would have done differently?

I can't really say I would have done anything differently on this spot. If we had a budget for some bigger and better equipment I would have done things differently, but that wasn't the case. We used what we had and made something I'm really happy with. With the right crew of talented people and some creativity you can make something good without a huge budget, you've just got to have the motivation to do it.

"Brides VS Zombies"

Click here to watch.

Credits:

Director: Laura Somers

Director of Photography: Erik Forssell

Brides: Tricia Pierce, Tunisia Hardison, Claudia Perea, Michelle Halterman, Lorren Cotton

Zombies: Popeye V, Cole Taylor, Larry Herron, Patrick Herncamp, Robert Bravo

Zombie Makeup:  Robert Bravo

Why this script/concept? How does it reflect your vision as a commercial director?

I picked this script because I LOVE ZOMBIES!   Well, all horror, actually, and I’ve never gotten the chance to direct anything of that genre.   Also, the concept is hilarious – having been in many weddings I can tell you angry brides fighting zombies would be a tough call.   

As for my vision as a commercial director, I just like creating offbeat worlds with a sense of humor and I thought this really fit the bill.

What was the casting process like?

Casting was easy on this one.  I direct for a web-based sketch comedy group, and called on all the actors I work with to come down and do the spec.   They loved the idea of a girls vs. guy thing. 

How did you search for/lock a location?

I found the zombie alleyway through a search on craigslist.  This was the back of a tiling store in Van Nuys that rented itself out to indie filmmakers for a good price.  They loved having zombies on their property and even asked for a group photo.  You gotta love property owners like that.

For the brides, I picked Newport Beach because it had an iconic pier that a lot of wedding photographers use for their backgrounds.  I thought it would be a great way to unconsciously sell the brides being on the beach, because it was the type of location that people often think of for weddings.  We contacted the City to find out about permits, and they said since it was such a small group we could get away without one.  Nobody bothered us, and we showed up at dawn for the shots.  But boy, that beach filled up with people quickly!

The third location is my home.  That’s mine and my husband’s arms fighting over the remote at the end.  That’s the closest I’ll ever get to convincing him to be on camera.

How did you select your DP, crew?

Erik Forssell the DP is always my go-to guy.  He’s extremely talented and loves to have a good time on set.   He brought along a couple of his friends to help out with grip and second camera.  We’re all just people who like to shoot stuff as much as possible.   I own a handheld audio recorder and got wild audio for the zombies and brides at the end of the shoot.

I’ve been doing all the costumes and art direction for my specs.  I don’t like to work alone, but it helps keep costs down.  I distressed the zombie costumes with a hand-held sandbelt and some coffee grounds, tea bags and mud.   It was a blast!

How did shooting go? Any challenges?

Shooting went relatively smooth on this spot.  I think the biggest challenge was that the all of zombies’s prosthetics kept falling off.  Those poor guys had to hold their heads at weird and uncomfortable angles to keep their makeup on.  I think it helped them get into character.

Tell us about editing and finishing.

For the edit - it was all about the music for me – I let the pacing be dictated by the two compositions I used.  I knew at what point in the story I wanted the action music to ramp up, so everything that came before that cue was about keeping the story moving forward.

I worked with an excellent post team who was able to do some magic on the shots – the colorist brightened up the dark beach skies and made the color tones match the zombies.   Another colorist was able to smooth out the shot of the pull back from the television – it was a little bumpy and steppy.  I think they added some extra frames.  It’s really nice looking now.

In retrospect, is there anything you would have done differently?

I had originally wanted to shoot the brides in a botanical garden but I didn’t want to spend the money – it was crazy expensive.  But in retrospect, I wish I had.  I was disappointed with the beach, because the sky was gray and ugly when we shot it. I forget that you’ve got the marine layer out here in California in the early mornings pretty much without fail.  Or maybe we should have shot at sunset – but then we’d have a huge crowd of people behind us.  Fortunately the colorist was able to help out a bit and give it some life.  Plus the girls are so colorful in their dresses that it makes the shot pop.

Las Vegas "Cindy"

Click here to watch. 

Credits:

Director:  Laura Somers

Director of Photography:  Erik Forssell

Cindy:  Heather Dudenbostel

Prince:  Michael Lanham

Chauffeurs:  Gustaf Saige, Mark Wenzel, Steven Bartlett

Why this script/concept? How does it reflect your vision as a commercial director?

I thought this was a really cute concept.  I’d love an opportunity to reject a gorgeous prince on my doorstep.  Plus, I’ve always been a fan of the What Happens in Vegas spots, and so I wanted one of my own.  I also chose this spec because it had high production value opportunity, but was something I could shoot in a day.

It reflects my vision as a commercial director because I love to do offbeat, character driven stories with humor.  I love working with actors probably the most out of the whole process, so I usually choose scripts that are performance heavy.  I am also always looking for opportunities to tell women’s stories.

What was the casting process like?

For this spot I turned to a couple of casting websites: Now Casting and Breakdown Express.  I was looking for some very specific types – “Cindy” needed to be pretty and wholesome and the “Prince” needed to be a drop dead gorgeous model type.  I held auditions at Space Station Casting and found the Prince and chauffeurs quickly.  With Cindy I had to do two or three rounds to find the right person.

How did you search for/lock a location?

I always try to find locations first before I schedule a shoot, that way it I’m not under any pressure to lock something down and take just anything.  If you get the right location, that can do a lot of your art department work for you, and most importantly, up production value.   Since I didn’t have any connections to an upper middle class American looking house in the suburbs, I went through a lot of different avenues to find one:  craigslist, location managers in all the surrounding cities, until I finally found a location manager who works with indie filmmakers – Tony Ware.   He was able to get me a nice looking house in the West Adams district.  This is a really important neighborhood for low budget projects, because these are old historical homes that transport you outside of Los Angeles, much like Hancock Park does, but go for a lot less.  Making specs on a shoestring budget is a must for me since I’m trying to build a reel.

How did you select your DP, crew?

Erik Forssell is my favorite DP, and we’ve worked on numerous projects together since 2005.   His motto is to keep everything simple.  He knows how to make something look gorgeous with minimal equipment – and that’s really helpful when we’re trying to shoot these specs in a short amount of time.

Erik teaches cinematography at a community college and he often brings along his students to work on our no budget projects because it affords them an opportunity to learn how a set works.  Erik’s an excellent, patient teacher and I’m always impressed with how well his students take to their jobs.

How did shooting go? Any challenges?

Oh man, this was a shoot that really tested my sanity. It wasn’t so much the actual shooting day, but more like the day before the shoot.  The script called for some luxury vehicles in the background – I had reserved three vehicles a month in advance to pick up the day before the shoot.  When I called the car companies to confirm, I learned that one of the vehicles had been wrecked by the previous renter, and the car was undriveable.  I have to mention here that for some reason, Luxury Range Rovers are very popular rentals, and White Luxury Range Rovers are nearly impossible to find.  And of course this is the car that had been wrecked, and to me, nothing else would do!  So Dan and I scrambled to find another one. He happened to have a friend of a friend with one who loaned it to us for the day.  Problem solved.  An hour later, I got a call from the other luxury vehicle rental company and they told me that the previous renter refused to return the vehicle that I had rented, and there was nothing they could do.  So I was out another luxury suv, again!   After another gut wrenching scramble, and with a lot of luck, I found a guy on craigslist with two matching luxury SUVs who rented them to me, in my budget range (but not without a LOT of haggling)!

Fortunately, the shooting day itself went off without a hitch, and we all had a great time!

Tell us about editing and finishing.

I did about ten edit passes on this spec before Dan and I decided that the story just wasn’t working.  The beautiful thing about editing is that you don’t have to throw in the towel when that happens, you just find another way to move the pieces around.  I passed it onto another editor to do a cut for a fresh eye.  We shared our cut with our trusted friends and got some great feedback and were able to look at the story in a different way, which brought us to the cut that exists now.   I think I ended up doing about 20-30 different cuts, it took forever, and was at times extremely frustrating, but sometimes you just have to keep tinkering with a piece.  There’s always a way to make it work, provided you have a lot of patience and enough footage to move around. 

In retrospect, is there anything you would have done differently?

I would have done a lot of things differently, but that would have included a bigger budget, and sometimes you just don’t have that luxury.  So you have to make do, if you want to make it at all.  I’m just glad we survived J