A car ad that focuses on the high-tech recording of performance as much as the performance itself.  We shot a lot through bendable mylar mirrors to give it that mercurial liquid look.

This was like some art school assignment with a budget; "Communicate the freedom of digital telecommunication by showing images of transcendence through wings." The one with the most freedom was me. Winner of several AICP awards. We shot in Spain and Los Angeles.

We needed someone to give us a deal on an elephant...as it turned out,no democrats own elephants...go figure!');

I almost drowned during the making of this campaign. I would have been known eternally as "the director of the snuggle spots"... and I am saying that with nothing but pride in my heart.

I loved the board. I loved the agency. I loved the crew. I love the footage. I just love doing commercials - one of the few projects that I'm completely happy with. It was all shot in one day on a stage. The mill is miniature, its interior is a "forced perspective set," no special effects at all. Everything was  shot "in camera" with trained birds.

In Ansel Adams footsteps. Experimentations with infrared and polarized filters, turning blue sky into mercurial black and white.

Blade Runner meets underwear commercial.');

It's all about reinvention. I applaud the agency for simply ignoring what is usually done for this type of client and putting an accent on Target.

A Christmas gift in itself. I could shoot this kind of shuff everyday. Painterly and enchanted photography by the always inspiring John Stanier.

Shooting with Ultra Sonics makes the smallest moments look sensational - check it out.

Nothing rehearsed here... Just real women talking.
We tried to redefine the idea of beauty by going for unique non-model characters.

I'm trying to prove here my ability to front light in that dangerously trendy flat frontlight way. Let's do something different now.

A rare treat. I got to conceptualize the entire campaign from scratch. Arnold is a fantastic agency for allowing me to do that!

I think they need to direct the bald German burgermeister type got me this gig.

The budget was too limited for computer graphics, so we took an in camera approach. To make those little cards more impressive, we put a conveyer belt from a small bottling plant into a huge industrial complex.

Shooting in Rio turned out to be a great experience - excellent crew, great rates, the most beautiful people, my favorite food, and the best beaches. Obrigado, Roberto Baker!

A corporate spot that tries not to be so boisterous.

Here is something I'll never understand, my crew can do fifty shots in one day, but if we only have to do one shot, it still takes the whole day. Go figure...

The first time I didn't loathe the casting process...
We picked up these little dialogue spots as we shot the anthem spot "they were well written" and the kids actually pulled the lines off. It was like watching a morph, like something out of Babe, not the kind of shot where you want to change lines though. I opted to print footage B&W to balance the saccharine innocent sweetness of the kids and tried in vain to sell the idea with a quote from Jim Jarmusch: "Color is reality, B&W is truth..." Anyway, I loved the whole project and the agency. We did four spots for the price of one.

The message here is: Never give up even if you urinate day glow colors.

This was a welcome opportunity to show my "kinder, gentler" side. I enjoyed doing this campaign tremendously.
Oh, the legal department cut out the scene with the kid stuffing his face with marshmallows, being afraid that somebody might try that a home and suffocate... Oh Boy!

again, a myth I think a look should follow the concept at large. Anyway, I put this one on to show my lighter, brighter side... and I'm proud of it! My biggest regret is that I didn't buy stock in Hanes at the time because they sold a big load of "undies" with this campaign.

Zang Zi of "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" fame in a 30 sec. remake of "The Driver".
The hardest thing here was that Mercedes didn't want reckless driving - where do you draw the line. How do you tell the story');

Party people in the house! A break away set with an open dollhouse facade a la 'Rear Window.

Even though this is on my visual FX reel it was made without any visual effects - this is all done "in camera" on long lenses. Fire retardant gives her that sexy "wet look".');

Shooting in Vancouver, a relatively (new) town and giving it an (old) world look. Think of me as the Canadian Woody Allen. Once again, runaway production celebrates it's triumph.

Showtime did a cool animatic but there was little faith in it with upper management - being uncertain
what alll those images meant. I felt it just needed to be summarized, to be put in context. I said "Everything you see on Showtime has one big common denominator - Mythology - (all programming find its roots somewhere in mythology). So, I proposed to juxtapose ancient mythological archetypes with modern day locations. We shot it in 2 days and spent 2 weeks in post-production. It won several AICP awards and garnered the Grand Prix at the "Broadcast Design Awards."');

This movie broke several records...with 40 million in the first weekend it was the highest opening of a r rated movie ever.');

I shot a whole movie for a budget less than what I usually spend on an average campaign.');

Shooting animals can be a Royal pain in the ass.
Both dogs just had to sit there and look at the TV; however the little one didn't want to sit down and the big one refused to look up! The train is a miniature and everything was done without the help of special effects. However, the dog's little "nuts" had to be removed digitally in post. That's America for you!

I loved the board. I loved the agency. I loved the crew. I love the footage. I just love doing commercials - one of the few projects that I'm completely happy with. It was all shot in one day on a stage. The mill is miniature, its interior is a "forced perspective set," no special effects at all. Everything was  shot "in camera" with trained birds.

We needed someone to give us a deal on an elephant...as it turned out,no democrats own elephants...go figure!');

The whole Canon campaign tries to describe the attitude of color without showing it - I love the idea of that.

This was like some art school assignment with a budget; "Communicate the freedom of digital telecommunication by showing images of transcendence through wings." The one with the most freedom was me. Winner of several AICP awards. We shot in Spain and Los Angeles.

This was all about creating a completely new visual language that Cargill would own kind of like an update of those medieval bards that would point to little pictures as they were telling their stories.

The campaign followed the poetic cadence of those "I will, I can" campaigns... A natural athletic woman with a breathy, aspirational voice. I proposed to juxtapose things a little, by replacing the woman with a cow. To prove the merit of the idea to the client, we dragged a cow along and shot her whenever we shot the woman (A well guarded and somewhat tedious secret so we wouldn't disillusion the talent on the set). I think the cow version aired once at 4 o'clock in the morning on some local channel somewhere in Milwaukee ~ That kind of thing...

Low Fi advertising

Low Fi advertising

Here, fashionable appliances are being sold in a fashionable style. A fun fact is being conveyed along the way.

A foreign film !');

This type of campaign is all about quantity of lighting setups in a day...we average between fifty and eighty.

I was always a big fan of Norman Rockwell Americana... "there's no place like home."

Cute. bewitched with in camera magic...simple split screen and monofillament technology.');

Cute. bewitched with in camera magic...simple split screen and monofillament technology.');

Cute. bewitched with in camera magic...simple split screen and monofillament technology.');

A car ad that focuses on the high-tech recording of performance as much as the performance itself.  We shot a lot through bendable mylar mirrors to give it that mercurial liquid look.

A Christmas gift in itself. I could shoot this kind of shuff everyday. Painterly and enchanted photography by the always inspiring John Stanier.

What does it all mean? It says we care! I proposed not to go with some killer techno track, but to only use sound effects. Not to polish it much, but to embrace it in an uncontrived way.

What does it all mean? It says we care! I proposed not to go with some killer techno track, but to only use sound effects. Not to polish it much, but to embrace it in an uncontrived way.

I'm trying to prove here my ability to front light in that dangerously trendy flat frontlight way. Let's do something different now.

Shooting nudes is not as much fun as one might be led to believe. We had to shoot this spot in a thousand ways, with pasties, with scarves, with towel, natural...
As any big line producer will tell you, the most expensive item in any budget is: "Just in case."

This was a welcome opportunity to show my "kinder, gentler" side. I enjoyed doing this campaign tremendously.
Oh, the legal department cut out the scene with the kid stuffing his face with marshmallows, being afraid that somebody might try that a home and suffocate... Oh Boy!

"Hi honey, what did you do at work today?"
- Oh well, let's see... we shot 12 versions of this ONE commercial.
In some countries you can't show cigarettes, in some you can, in some you can't show women smoking, in some you can hold cigarettes, but can't put them in your mouth. On top of it all, we had an alternative ending so multiply 12 by 2!
Also my art department tediously dusted up the ambiance for the exterior driving shots. Then we had to remove the dust in post because it looked "smokey" to the people at Phillip Morris...

I shot half of this spot on sinfully expensive and cumbersome color reversal film, then we ran out of the limited stock and had to continue on regular stock. At the time I thought it was a disaster. Can you tell the difference now? Exactly my point!

Zang Zi of "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" fame in a 30 sec. remake of "The Driver".
The hardest thing here was that Mercedes didn't want reckless driving - where do you draw the line. How do you tell the story');

Another Russian doll principle.

Not much to say here. We shot most of it 'in camera' and we ruined 2 cars and a mounted Panavision Platinum...

Transitioning through the decades

Guess what? We really did crash the car and the burger really did survive – I was stunned by how compact these little things are...
I like to shoot comedy spots but I don't seem to "get them" a lot. There is that myth that "pretty boys can't be funny."
Oh, one more thing, there was a big issue whether or not the dummies should be "dressed" or "undressed."
To let them crash "undressed" was considered "un-American." I remember that for equally unexplainable reasons, I was a strong advocate for them not being dressed!

OnStar_ChildsFear_60-Wiredrive Library_416 X 312.mov

I think they need to direct the bald German burgermeister type got me this gig.

This stuff was really fun to shoot. Afterwards we went bowling with the agency and I got creamed big time.

One of the few spots that my horror flicks bought me.

My reps said that I should have a car commercial on my car reel that actually shows a car!
It talked about balancing work and private life, so there...

Pennywise poundfoolish.

I shot this in Italy, I love shooting there. However I came back overweight and with a nasty Sambucca habit.');

The Hardest thing is to work in a country where people don't say "no", go figure.');

Selling Ford in China.
Lots of great unusual tunnels in Shanghai.');

I almost drowned during the making of this campaign. I would have been known eternally as "the director of the snuggle spots"... and I am saying that with nothing but pride in my heart.

Nothing rehearsed here... Just real women talking.
We tried to redefine the idea of beauty by going for unique non-model characters.

It's all about reinvention. I applaud the agency for simply ignoring what is usually done for this type of client and putting an accent on Target.

A Cinderella story in the style of those glossy homoerotic kitsch postcards. It's nice to do a little bit of fairy tale fantasy in a beauty spot.

In Ansel Adams footsteps. Experimentations with infrared and polarized filters, turning blue sky into mercurial black and white.

This was for the diamond sale. I like its unplugged quality.

Clairol Megawatts-Wiredrive Library_416 X 312.mov

An exercise in working with "real people", creating situations where people can react and interact without having to "act".

An exercise in working with "real people", creating situations where people can react and interact without having to "act".

Shooting in Vancouver, a relatively (new) town and giving it an (old) world look. Think of me as the Canadian Woody Allen. Once again, runaway production celebrates it's triumph.

Motorola for flowers.
With all this flower stuff, it was important to keep things from going kitsch. I'm not sure if we completely succeeded, but it had a huge response, so there you go...

I almost drowned during the making of this campaign. I would have been known eternally as "the director of the snuggle spots"...and I am saying that with nothing but pride in my heart.

Shooting in Rio turned out to be a great experience - excellent crew, great rates, the most beautiful people, my favorite food, and the best beaches. Obrigado, Roberto Baker!

Beer for people on Atkins, God bless his soul.

Don't ask - pretty though.
I guess I wanted to do a spot for a hair product where a woman can be playful and real, and actually move around rather than those fake looking rigid cardboard wig stands that these type of commercials usually turn females into.

Larios_Beach.mov

Here, fashionable appliances are being sold in a fashionable style. A fun fact is being conveyed along the way.

Shooting nudes is not as much fun as one might be led to believe. We had to shoot this spot in a thousand ways, with pasties, with scarves, with towel, natural...
As any big line producer will tell you, the most expensive item in any budget is: "Just in case."

I tried to show athletic "Nike" women in a less polite, less poetic, and non-posy way - featuring the blood, sweat and tears. We shot it all in a day.');

It's all about laugh lines. We had to keep this poor woman laughing for a whole day, so we hired a comedian to sit in front of her.

I almost drowned during the making of this campaign. I would have been known eternally as "the director of the snuggle spots"... and I am saying that with nothing but pride in my heart.

This was like some art school assignment with a budget; "Communicate the freedom of digital telecommunication by showing images of transcendence through wings." The one with the most freedom was me. Winner of several AICP awards. We shot in Spain and Los Angeles.

A straightforward beauty spot with demo and all. There you have it!!!!

I am a sucker for those Audrey Hepburn MGM style presentations.

I always wanted to shoot music videos for her 15 years ago, and now I get to shoot her in a commercial. so much for establishment.

I thought it was pretty straight forward but apparently it tested through the roof like nothing we have ever done before so I added it to this reel.

Got Milk_Camera Un-Shy.mov

We shot this one in Europe, “art pour I’art” with chocolate syrup! I talked the agency and the food stylist out of doing the typical “swirled chocolate shots.” Instead we poured brown paint into tanks full of mineral oil to make it look as if the sauce defies gravity. We shot it against green screens so we could composite it with the classic environment – It became sort of a baroquish melange if you will.
I have a strong affection for shooting in Europe.

MulinoBianco_AliceInWonderland_FinalDC_60-Wiredrive Library_416 X 312.mov

MulinoBianco_Cinderella_FinalDC_45-Wiredrive Library_416 X 312.mov

This is the video I'm the most proud of! George didn't want to be in it but he wanted to define the 'next wave'. I had to predict trends and with the help of some fanzines I nailed them.
We did this all before 'tattooing' and 'piercing' became trendy, before the words 'waif' and 'grunge' were coined and before detergent logos became fashionable with skateboard kids.
It also caused a trend of piercing and I met a girl that tattooed a bar code on her butt because she saw it in this video... Yeaaah Baby!

I wrote this concept in sunny LA to be shot in Spain.
I didn't think about how cold it would be in Spain around the time of the planned shoot. Lisa compensated the ordeal with lots of booze. I felt terrible.

CBS wanted to do a video for Tony and make it "hip".
I said; "keep it simple and keep him the way he is; Timeless classic is better than 'hip'!"
It went Buzz Bin on MTV - Then Tom Jones and Paul Anka tried to update themselves as well but were in my opinion ill advised!

Garnier Cow.mov

Garnier Helmet Head WD.mov

Garnier Scissors.mov

I love shooting nature (rugged).

I love shooting nature (rugged).

In Ansel Adams footsteps. Experimentations with infrared and polarized filters, turning blue sky into mercurial black and white.

Party people in the house! A break away set with an open dollhouse facade a la 'Rear Window.

Party people in the house! A break away set with an open dollhouse facade a la 'Rear Window.

Beer for people on Atkins, God bless his soul.

The message here is: Never give up even if you urinate day glow colors.

All vignettes shot with Ultra Sonics. A full mag rattles through the gates of each moment.

Shooting with Ultra Sonics makes the smallest moments look sensational - check it out.

Shooting with Ultra Sonics makes the smallest moments look sensational - check it out.

The agency asked me how to make it different from other basketball spots. I suggested to do it like the movie Rollerball and set the Gladiator-like game under a thundering surveillance helicopter.
This idea was greatly appreciated during the pre-production meeting, then someone high up saw the cut, freaked, and took the helicopter and Rollerballstuff out. A year later they sent me a choice of 6 Gatorade projects.
This industry still puzzles me.

We shot athletes at a factory, and combined them with close-ups of machine parts.
I used to design opening titles for feature films, it reminded me of those days...

This one struck a chord at the Super Bowl (USA Today gave the Golden Girl the bronze medal). Originally it was supposed to be a slender, athletic, mid aged woman - But I don't think that would have worked.
The agency was great to work with - We had a blast!

This was like college with money. The spot was supposed to be chaotic, so that's what we did. The client did not like the first cut of this one - Too chaotic he said. We had to tone down the cut.

A Christmas gift in itself. I could shoot this kind of shuff everyday. Painterly and enchanted photography by the always inspiring John Stanier.

One of the few spots that my horror flicks bought me.

I almost drowned during the making of this campaign. I would have been known eternally as "the director of the snuggle spots"... and I am saying that with nothing but pride in my heart.

Blade Runner meets underwear commercial.');

We needed someone to give us a deal on an elephant...as it turned out,no democrats own elephants...go figure!');

Guess what? We really did crash the car and the burger really did survive – I was stunned by how compact these little things are...
I like to shoot comedy spots but I don't seem to "get them" a lot. There is that myth that "pretty boys can't be funny."
Oh, one more thing, there was a big issue whether or not the dummies should be "dressed" or "undressed."
To let them crash "undressed" was considered "un-American." I remember that for equally unexplainable reasons, I was a strong advocate for them not being dressed!

I almost drowned during the making of this campaign. I would have been known eternally as "the director of the snuggle spots"... and I am saying that with nothing but pride in my heart.

The campaign followed the poetic cadence of those "I will, I can" campaigns... A natural athletic woman with a breathy, aspirational voice. I proposed to juxtapose things a little, by replacing the woman with a cow. To prove the merit of the idea to the client, we dragged a cow along and shot her whenever we shot the woman (A well guarded and somewhat tedious secret so we wouldn't disillusion the talent on the set). I think the cow version aired once at 4 o'clock in the morning on some local channel somewhere in Milwaukee ~ That kind of thing...

In case of a doubt, blow something up. An exercise in squibs.

One of the few spots that my horror flicks bought me.

This one struck a chord at the Super Bowl (USA Today gave the Golden Girl the bronze medal). Originally it was supposed to be a slender, athletic, mid aged woman - But I don't think that would have worked.
The agency was great to work with - We had a blast!

This was like college with money. The spot was supposed to be chaotic, so that's what we did. The client did not like the first cut of this one - Too chaotic he said. We had to tone down the cut.

A Christmas gift in itself. I could shoot this kind of shuff everyday. Painterly and enchanted photography by the always inspiring John Stanier.

I love working with kids - they don't act...
Anyway, the producer's assistant accidentally sent an early rough-cut to the client, the client was ecstatic and decided to air it the way it was...
That night I cut my right ear off!

This stuff was really fun to shoot. Afterwards we went bowling with the agency and I got creamed big time.

Shooting nudes is not as much fun as one might be led to believe. We had to shoot this spot in a thousand ways, with pasties, with scarves, with towel, natural...
As any big line producer will tell you, the most expensive item in any budget is: "Just in case."

Annoying commercials are oftentimes the most memorable.

The first time I didn't loathe the casting process...
We picked up these little dialogue spots as we shot the anthem spot “they were well written“ and the kids actually pulled the lines off. It was like watching a morph, like something out of Babe, not the kind of shot where you want to change lines though. I opted to print footage B&W to balance the saccharine innocent sweetness of the kids and tried in vain to sell the idea with a quote from Jim Jarmusch: "Color is reality, B&W is truth..." Anyway, I loved the whole project and the agency. We did four spots for the price of one.

The first time I didn't loathe the casting process...
We picked up these little dialogue spots as we shot the anthem spot "they were well written" and the kids actually pulled the lines off. It was like watching a morph, like something out of Babe, not the kind of shot where you want to change lines though. I opted to print footage B&W to balance the saccharine innocent sweetness of the kids and tried in vain to sell the idea with a quote from Jim Jarmusch: "Color is reality, B&W is truth..." Anyway, I loved the whole project and the agency. We did four spots for the price of one.

I almost drowned during the making of this campaign. I would have been known eternally as "the director of the snuggle spots"...and I am saying that with nothing but pride in my heart.

This was all about creating a completely new visual language that Cargill would own kind of like an update of those medieval bards that would point little pictures as they were telling their stories.');

This was all about creating a completely new visual language that Cargill would own kind of like an update of those medieval bards that would point to little pictures as they were telling their stories.

I'm trying to prove here my ability to front light in that dangerously trendy flat frontlight way. Let's do something different now.

I shot a video called Believe for Elton. He said: "my entire life I've done 'un-watchable' videos". Believe is a video I can't stop watching. With his plug on VH1 scored the Visa spot. (See also Elton John Believe)

This was like some art school assignment with a budget; "Communicate the freedom of digital telecommunication by showing images of transcendence through wings." The one with the most freedom was me. Winner of several AICP awards. We shot in Spain and Los Angeles.

Three off set cameras document the evolution of a small business. The hockeyesq treatment tries to distinguish this from other time lapse spots.

This was all about creating a completely new visual language that Cargill would own kind of like an update of those medieval bards that would point to little pictures as they were telling their stories.

This was all about creating a completely new visual language that Cargill would own kind of like an update of those medieval bards that would point to little pictures as they were telling their stories.

This was all about creating a completely new visual language that Cargill would own kind of like an update of those medieval bards that would point little pictures as they were telling their stories.');

This was all about creating a completely new visual language that Cargill would own kind of like an update of those medieval bards that would point little pictures as they were telling their stories.');

Even though the vignetty concept of the spot was somewhat familiar, it allowed me to travel to 10 countries in 1 month. To give it distinction, we manipulated the colors with unusual grads. Anyway it was a great experience.

A corporate spot that tries not to be so boisterous.

A rare treat. I got to conceptualize the entire campaign from scratch. Arnold is a fantastic agency for allowing me to do that!

A rare treat. I got to conceptualize the entire campaign from scratch. Arnold is a fantastic agency for allowing me to do that!

A rare treat. I got to conceptualize the entire campaign from scratch. Arnold is a fantastic agency for allowing me to do that!

Motorola for flowers.
With all this flower stuff, it was important to keep things from going kitsch. I'm not sure if we completely succeeded, but it had a huge response, so there you go...

Here is something I'll never understand, my crew can do fifty shots in one day, but if we only have to do one shot, it still takes the whole day. Go figure...

As this was a well-written campaign, I didn't want the images to be drawing attention to themselves in any obtrusive way.

Now here is a strange one.

Around the world in three days... The noteworthy aspect of this production is we had to provide a five-minute vignette film in three days on a lean budget. In fact, the budget was cut in half in the last minute. Somehow it always gets done.

I was always a big fan of Norman Rockwell Americana... "there's no place like home."

Ace insures the future. To beat the tight budget we pillaged Hollywood storage rooms for movie sets and miniatures, leftovers from science fiction movies, which we reappropriated, reconfigured and then we made a commercial out of it.
Believe it or not, the voiceover is a minister I heard preaching in Della Reese’s congregation at the Hotel Nikko a week earlier.

There seems to be an unwritten rule that every UPS commercial has to show a shipping and delivery vignette, a computer vignette, a sender, a receiver... That gives you little time for variables to make a new commercial or tell a story.
So, I proposed to do split frames here. To cram in some new images and at the same time arrive with a distinct look!
For reference I showed them the Thomas Crown Affair (It was one of those jobs that everybody thought they would lose their jobs because of the wacky split frames, but then everybody got a promotion instead.)

The agency sold the campaign with a rip-o-matic made entirely on my past work, to sell me, and the idea of investing from the convenience of one’s home with the use of rock ‘n roll...
The client was understandable unsure. I showed them financial magazines – even the most boring ones had surreal illustrations from the likes of Brad Holland or Matt Mahurin. I asked, if it is OK to be symbolic in print, why not in film? – Besides, if you can do your investing from anywhere (which was the idea anyways), then you could theoretically do it from the top of the Chrysler Building too – right?
It made the year end issue of Time Magazine as “...some of the best things of the year” – and we did a few more spots. Now Fidelity’s commercials feature some odd looking talking head. Go figure...

I love working with large crowds, a rare treat in commercials these days

Having done a lot of corporate anthems, this seemed like familiar terrain – They wanted it very colorful as well.
In my never ending fear of being “polite” I proposed to make the footage distinct by smearing colorful Vaseline on certain segments of the lens. (I spoke to Matt Mahurin about Vaseline effects of lenses and he told me that once, instead of Vaseline, he used a ‘booger’ to astonishing results).

World music in Monument Valley – A ‘music video’ style shoot – With the budget of a commercial. The best of both worlds.

More of the same. Guilty as charged. But I like all that flickering energy stuff, so why not?

Here we had to fake a worldwide vibe in LA, it hooked me up with a seemingly endless array of commercials for companies that do everything for everyone, everywhere, and use computers.
This one was easy – not making the others look alike was much harder but very important. I’ve never seen an “anthem” that wasn’t pretty, at the end of the job is to make them distinct and memorable.

A good exercise in recession filmmaking.
We had less than a shoot day per spot in this campaign... run and gun!

Epson_Anthem_60-Wiredrive Library_416 X 312.mov

More "must-see TV" - people talking about their fantasies was a great opportunity to show their inspirations and break away from the "mushy gushy" stuff that insurance companies mostly do. The gorilla is fake, and the dinosaur was a leftover animatronics from Jurassic Park.');

More "must-see TV" - people talking about their fantasies was a great opportunity to show their inspirations and break away from the "mushy gushy" stuff that insurance companies mostly do. The gorilla is fake, and the dinosaur was a leftover animatronics from Jurassic Park.');

More “must-see TV” – people talking about their fantasies was a great opportunity to show their inspirations and break away from the “mushy gushy” stuff that insurance companies mostly do. The gorilla is fake, and the dinosaur was a leftover animatronics from Jurassic Park.

Nothing rehearsed here... Just real women talking.
We tried to redefine the idea of beauty by going for unique non-model characters.

We needed someone to give us a deal on an elephant...as it turned out,no democrats own elephants...go figure!');

An exercise in working with "real people", creating situations where people can react and interact without having to "act".

An exercise in working with "real people", creating situations where people can react and interact without having to "act".

Here we needed low budget in camera solutions for transitions.
The hand writing on the blackboard is my producers while Alton does a quick real time wardrobe change behind the blackboard...the old switcheroo!

Annoying commercials are oftentimes the most memorable.

Zang Zi of "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" fame in a 30 sec. remake of "The Driver".
The hardest thing here was that Mercedes didn't want reckless driving - where do you draw the line. How do you tell the story');

I'm trying to prove here my ability to front light in that dangerously trendy flat frontlight way. Let's do something different now.

The first time I didn't loathe the casting process...
We picked up these little dialogue spots as we shot the anthem spot "they were well written" and the kids actually pulled the lines off. It was like watching a morph, like something out of Babe, not the kind of shot where you want to change lines though. I opted to print footage B&W to balance the saccharine innocent sweetness of the kids and tried in vain to sell the idea with a quote from Jim Jarmusch: "Color is reality, B&W is truth..." Anyway, I loved the whole project and the agency. We did four spots for the price of one.

The first time I didn't loathe the casting process...
We picked up these little dialogue spots as we shot the anthem spot “they were well written“ and the kids actually pulled the lines off. It was like watching a morph, like something out of Babe, not the kind of shot where you want to change lines though. I opted to print footage B&W to balance the saccharine innocent sweetness of the kids and tried in vain to sell the idea with a quote from Jim Jarmusch: "Color is reality, B&W is truth..." Anyway, I loved the whole project and the agency. We did four spots for the price of one.

I shot a whole movie for a budget less than what I usually spend on an average campaign.');

This movie broke several records...with 40 million in the first weekend it was the highest opening of a r rated movie ever.');

My first venture into television I got to produce and direct. I realized once again that it is much harder to work for clients with low expectations than for clients with high expectations.');

I consider myself fortunate to have made it through this project without getting beaten up - and I'm not kidding... I was going after the remake of the movie Rollerball at the time, so the project came in handy.
(Check out the Robins Leach's Most Expensive Videos Ever for more information).

This was like some art school assignment with a budget; "Communicate the freedom of digital telecommunication by showing images of transcendence through wings." The one with the most freedom was me. Winner of several AICP awards. We shot in Spain and Los Angeles.

Showtime did a cool animatic but there was little faith in it with upper management - being uncertain
what alll those images meant. I felt it just needed to be summarized, to be put in context. I said "Everything you see on Showtime has one big common denominator - Mythology - (all programming find its roots somewhere in mythology). So, I proposed to juxtapose ancient mythological archetypes with modern day locations. We shot it in 2 days and spent 2 weeks in post-production. It won several AICP awards and garnered the Grand Prix at the "Broadcast Design Awards."');

Transitioning through the decades

Party people in the house! A break away set with an open dollhouse facade a la 'Rear Window.

All vignettes shot with Ultra Sonics. A full mag rattles through the gates of each moment.

Party people in the house! A break away set with an open dollhouse facade a la 'Rear Window.

Even though this is on my visual FX reel it was made without any visual effects - this is all done "in camera" on long lenses. Fire retardant gives her that sexy "wet look".');

It is always more fun to visualize people's dreams, rather than the mattress they sleep on!');

There was zero budget, so we shot the whole spot with a motor-winder Nikon still camera, which chimed just fine with the crime scene snuff vibe of the overall concept.');

There seems to be an unwritten rule that every UPS commercial has to show a shipping and delivery vignette, a computer vignette, a sender, a receiver... That gives you little time for variables to make a new commercial or tell a story.
So, I proposed to do split frames here. To cram in some new images and at the same time arrive with a distinct look!
For reference I showed them the Thomas Crown Affair (It was one of those jobs that everybody thought they would lose their jobs because of the wacky split frames, but then everybody got a promotion instead.)

An experience in infrared film  - it turns the sky literally black. The effect helped to convey the drama Showtime was after and made the spot unique. The images had to deal with the idea of "on the edge." Advertising entertainment is great fun.

Another Russian doll principle.

Ace insures the future. To beat the tight budget we pillaged Hollywood storage rooms for movie sets and miniatures, leftovers from science fiction movies, which we reappropriated, reconfigured and then we made a commercial out of it.
Believe it or not, the voiceover is a minister I heard preaching in Della Reese’s congregation at the Hotel Nikko a week earlier.

This spot was entirely done "in camera".
No CGI, no composites, it was all done by puppeteers, all we had to do was some limited rigg removal.
As simple as it all sounds, this was the most excruciatingly cold shoot ever!');

This was all about creating a completely new visual language that Cargill would own kind of like an update of those medieval bards that would point to little pictures as they were telling their stories.

We shot this one in Europe, “art pour I’art” with chocolate syrup! I talked the agency and the food stylist out of doing the typical “swirled chocolate shots.” Instead we poured brown paint into tanks full of mineral oil to make it look as if the sauce defies gravity. We shot it against green screens so we could composite it with the classic environment – It became sort of a baroquish melange if you will.
I have a strong affection for shooting in Europe.

EASports_NBALive2005_LongJump_30.mov

The budget was too limited for computer graphics, so we took an in camera approach. To make those little cards more impressive, we put a conveyer belt from a small bottling plant into a huge industrial complex.

Motorola for flowers.
With all this flower stuff, it was important to keep things from going kitsch. I'm not sure if we completely succeeded, but it had a huge response, so there you go...

Pennywise poundfoolish.

The plane didn''t exist when we made this commercial nor did we ever go to their hub in Washington. So we digitized the airport and built the plane out of zero's and one's.');

Clairol Megawatts-Wiredrive Library_416 X 312.mov

This was all about creating a completely new visual language that Cargill would own kind of like an update of those medieval bards that would point to little pictures as they were telling their stories.

This was all about creating a completely new visual language that Cargill would own kind of like an update of those medieval bards that would point little pictures as they were telling their stories.');

This was all about creating a completely new visual language that Cargill would own kind of like an update of those medieval bards that would point little pictures as they were telling their stories.');

This was all about creating a completely new visual language that Cargill would own kind of like an update of those medieval bards that would point little pictures as they were telling their stories.');

Guess what? Oprah called to invite me to appear on her show special: "how did they do that?"
At the time, virtual travel was something new - During "Sudan like" heat we shot everything in 2 days at a hanger in Van Nuys (check out the making of video).');

I used to be a designer, doing opening titles for big movies, but got bored by it. However I like to shoot type like live action. Here we put type on different layers of glass and organically racked focus through it towards the actual live action scene - all "in camera".

Here we needed low budget in camera solutions for transitions.
The hand writing on the blackboard is my producers while Alton does a quick real time wardrobe change behind the blackboard...the old switcheroo!

This was all about creating a completely new visual language that Cargill would own kind of like an update of those medieval bards that would point little pictures as they were telling their stories.');

This was all about creating a completely new visual language that Cargill would own kind of like an update of those medieval bards that would point to little pictures as they were telling their stories.

This was all about creating a completely new visual language that Cargill would own kind of like an update of those medieval bards that would point to little pictures as they were telling their stories.

In case of a doubt, blow something up. An exercise in squibs.

Guess what? We really did crash the car and the burger really did survive – I was stunned by how compact these little things are...
I like to shoot comedy spots but I don't seem to "get them" a lot. There is that myth that "pretty boys can't be funny."
Oh, one more thing, there was a big issue whether or not the dummies should be "dressed" or "undressed."
To let them crash "undressed" was considered "un-American." I remember that for equally unexplainable reasons, I was a strong advocate for them not being dressed!

This was all about creating a completely new visual language that Cargill would own kind of like an update of those medieval bards that would point little pictures as they were telling their stories.');

There are strange misconceptions that live action shooters and food shooters are separate categories. I love to cook, eat, and shoot food... Smuckers, Lean Cuisinem Sargento, etc. etc. etc...

There are strange misconceptions that live action shooters and food shooters are seperate categories. I love to cook, eat and shoot food...Smuckers, Lean Cuisine, Sargento, etc. etc. etc...');

MulinoBianco_AliceInWonderland_FinalDC_60-Wiredrive Library_416 X 312.mov

MulinoBianco_Cinderella_FinalDC_45-Wiredrive Library_416 X 312.mov

Nothing rehearsed here... Just real women talking.
We tried to redefine the idea of beauty by going for unique non-model characters.

We needed someone to give us a deal on an elephant...as it turned out,no democrats own elephants...go figure!');

again, a myth I think a look should follow the concept at large. Anyway, I put this one on to show my lighter, brighter side... and I'm proud of it! My biggest regret is that I didn't buy stock in Hanes at the time because they sold a big load of "undies" with this campaign.

This was a welcome opportunity to show my "kinder, gentler" side. I enjoyed doing this campaign tremendously.
Oh, the legal department cut out the scene with the kid stuffing his face with marshmallows, being afraid that somebody might try that a home and suffocate... Oh Boy!

I shot half of this spot on sinfully expensive and cumbersome color reversal film, then we ran out of the limited stock and had to continue on regular stock. At the time I thought it was a disaster. Can you tell the difference now? Exactly my point!

We did 2 spots - One with a woman, and one with a girl. After editing it I had an idea (since I somehow knew that my thought of replacing them with a cow most likely wouldn't fly):
I had the daughter narrate the woman spot and the woman narrate the spot with the daughter in it. The juxtaposition gave it all a more philosophically different kind of perspective. (See also Suiza Milk "Woman")

We did 2 spots - One with a woman, and one with a girl. After editing it I had an idea (since I somehow knew that my thought of replacing them with a cow most likely wouldn't fly):
I had the daughter narrate the woman spot and the woman narrate the spot with the daughter in it. The juxtaposition gave it all a more philosophically different kind of perspective. (See also Suiza Milk - "Girl")');

Shooting in Rio turned out to be a great experience - excellent crew, great rates, the most beautiful people, my favorite food, and the best beaches. Obrigado, Roberto Baker!

I love shooting nature (rugged).

I love shooting nature (rugged).

Larios_Beach.mov

An exercise in working with "real people", creating situations where people can react and interact without having to "act".

An exercise in working with "real people", creating situations where people can react and interact without having to "act".

This scene happened while we were shooting one of those "Be Like Mike" commercials - For a whole bunch of reasons, the actual spot was disappointing to me. So I proposed this spot that I tickled out of the 3-camera coverage of a 2-second vignette. They played well off each other and Mike showed a great emotional range.');

This tries to visualize what's invisible... allergens
Poetry rather than showing those
Airborne CGI representations.');

Singular-Adult Air.mov

More “must-see TV” – people talking about their fantasies was a great opportunity to show their inspirations and break away from the “mushy gushy” stuff that insurance companies mostly do. The gorilla is fake, and the dinosaur was a leftover animatronics from Jurassic Park.

More "must-see TV" - people talking about their fantasies was a great opportunity to show their inspirations and break away from the "mushy gushy" stuff that insurance companies mostly do. The gorilla is fake, and the dinosaur was a leftover animatronics from Jurassic Park.');

More "must-see TV" - people talking about their fantasies was a great opportunity to show their inspirations and break away from the "mushy gushy" stuff that insurance companies mostly do. The gorilla is fake, and the dinosaur was a leftover animatronics from Jurassic Park.');

The Hardest thing is to work in a country where people don't say "no", go figure.');

A corporate spot that tries not to be so boisterous.

"Hi honey, what did you do at work today?"
- Oh well, let's see... we shot 12 versions of this ONE commercial.
In some countries you can't show cigarettes, in some you can, in some you can't show women smoking, in some you can hold cigarettes, but can't put them in your mouth. On top of it all, we had an alternative ending so multiply 12 by 2!
Also my art department tediously dusted up the ambiance for the exterior driving shots. Then we had to remove the dust in post because it looked "smokey" to the people at Phillip Morris...

As this was a well-written campaign, I didn't want the images to be drawing attention to themselves in any obtrusive way.

We shot 6 spots in 2 days - This is a mix of the result. I shot it a while ago but I still love the footage...
The benefit of John Stanier's timeless lightling style, he is a great teacher! When other DP's show you references they usually come from fashion magazines; John shows you torn out calendar pages with a Renoir or a Degas.');

The hardest thing about this job was to convince the agency that we can make the lobby of LA's Herald Examiner building look like a blues bar in New Orleans. Real blues artists bought us a lot of authenticity, and we just shot what happened. It was like doing a music video with a budget.');

Here I experimented with the new Frasier lens system - it gives you this macro deep focus 3-D look. And because there was no money for a crowd scene I decided to make it a night game and not light the bleachers.');

There was zero budget, so we shot the whole spot with a motor-winder Nikon still camera, which chimed just fine with the crime scene snuff vibe of the overall concept.');

The agency sold the campaign with a rip-o-matic made entirely on my past work, to sell me, and the idea of investing from the convenience of one's home with the use of rock ‘n roll...
The client was understandable unsure. I showed them financial magazines - even the most boring ones had surreal illustrations from the likes of Brad Holland or Matt Mahurin. I asked, if it is OK to be symbolic in print, why not in film? - Besides, if you can do your investing from anywhere (which was the idea anyways), then you could theoretically do it from the top of the Chrysler Building too - right?
It made the year end issue of Time Magazine as "...some of the best things of the year" - and we did a few more spots. Now Fidelity's commercials feature some odd looking talking head. Go figure...');

There are strange misconceptions that live action shooters and food shooters are separate categories. I love to cook, eat, and shoot food... Smuckers, Lean Cuisinem Sargento, etc. etc. etc...

There are strange misconceptions that live action shooters and food shooters are seperate categories. I love to cook, eat and shoot food...Smuckers, Lean Cuisine, Sargento, etc. etc. etc...');

I love working with large crowds, a rare treat in commercials these days

The anthem needed an idea, in the last minute I decided to put the stock shots of those famous people in to show the kids potential and aspirations.

The first time I didn't loathe the casting process...
We picked up these little dialogue spots as we shot the anthem spot “they were well written“ and the kids actually pulled the lines off. It was like watching a morph, like something out of Babe, not the kind of shot where you want to change lines though. I opted to print footage B&W to balance the saccharine innocent sweetness of the kids and tried in vain to sell the idea with a quote from Jim Jarmusch: "Color is reality, B&W is truth..." Anyway, I loved the whole project and the agency. We did four spots for the price of one.

The first time I didn't loathe the casting process...
We picked up these little dialogue spots as we shot the anthem spot "they were well written" and the kids actually pulled the lines off. It was like watching a morph, like something out of Babe, not the kind of shot where you want to change lines though. I opted to print footage B&W to balance the saccharine innocent sweetness of the kids and tried in vain to sell the idea with a quote from Jim Jarmusch: "Color is reality, B&W is truth..." Anyway, I loved the whole project and the agency. We did four spots for the price of one.

Got Milk_Camera Un-Shy.mov

Low Fi advertising

Low Fi advertising

Miracle Gro Get Your Garden On.mov

Gap_Acapella_69_BW-Wiredrive Library_416 X 312.mov

I love working with kids - they don't act...
Anyway, the producer's assistant accidentally sent an early rough-cut to the client, the client was ecstatic and decided to air it the way it was...
That night I cut my right ear off!

We needed someone to give us a deal on an elephant...as it turned out,no democrats own elephants...go figure!');

This was a welcome opportunity to show my "kinder, gentler" side. I enjoyed doing this campaign tremendously.
Oh, the legal department cut out the scene with the kid stuffing his face with marshmallows, being afraid that somebody might try that a home and suffocate... Oh Boy!

I shot half of this spot on sinfully expensive and cumbersome color reversal film, then we ran out of the limited stock and had to continue on regular stock. At the time I thought it was a disaster. Can you tell the difference now? Exactly my point!

The anthem needed an idea, in the last minute I decided to put the stock shots of those famous people in to show the kids potential and aspirations.

OnStar_ChildsFear_60-Wiredrive Library_416 X 312.mov

We did 2 spots - One with a woman, and one with a girl. After editing it I had an idea (since I somehow knew that my thought of replacing them with a cow most likely wouldn't fly):
I had the daughter narrate the woman spot and the woman narrate the spot with the daughter in it. The juxtaposition gave it all a more philosophically different kind of perspective. (See also Suiza Milk "Woman")

This scene happened while we were shooting one of those "Be Like Mike" commercials - For a whole bunch of reasons, the actual spot was disappointing to me. So I proposed this spot that I tickled out of the 3-camera coverage of a 2-second vignette. They played well off each other and Mike showed a great emotional range.');

again, a myth I think a look should follow the concept at large. Anyway, I put this one on to show my lighter, brighter side... and I'm proud of it! My biggest regret is that I didn't buy stock in Hanes at the time because they sold a big load of "undies" with this campaign.

As this was a well-written campaign, I didn't want the images to be drawing attention to themselves in any obtrusive way.

There are strange misconceptions that live action shooters and food shooters are seperate categories. I love to cook, eat and shoot food...Smuckers, Lean Cuisine, Sargento, etc. etc. etc...');

The first time I didn't loathe the casting process...
We picked up these little dialogue spots as we shot the anthem spot “they were well written“ and the kids actually pulled the lines off. It was like watching a morph, like something out of Babe, not the kind of shot where you want to change lines though. I opted to print footage B&W to balance the saccharine innocent sweetness of the kids and tried in vain to sell the idea with a quote from Jim Jarmusch: "Color is reality, B&W is truth..." Anyway, I loved the whole project and the agency. We did four spots for the price of one.

The first time I didn't loathe the casting process...
We picked up these little dialogue spots as we shot the anthem spot "they were well written" and the kids actually pulled the lines off. It was like watching a morph, like something out of Babe, not the kind of shot where you want to change lines though. I opted to print footage B&W to balance the saccharine innocent sweetness of the kids and tried in vain to sell the idea with a quote from Jim Jarmusch: "Color is reality, B&W is truth..." Anyway, I loved the whole project and the agency. We did four spots for the price of one.

This tries to visualize what's invisible... allergens
Poetry rather than showing those
Airborne CGI representations.');

This one essentially "auto-assembled." I loved the whole process. However, what I didn't know at the time was that Billy was about to go through with his divorce from Christie Brinkley.
The song Lullaby" was his "goodbye song" to his daughter - I always thought it was a special clip. CBS hated it; Some suit said that the kids in their homemade angel costumes made him think of "dead children". Sometimes you can't win!');

I like to shoot in the timeless style of classic Time/Life Photography. We shot it all in 2 days.');

More "must-see TV" - people talking about their fantasies was a great opportunity to show their inspirations and break away from the "mushy gushy" stuff that insurance companies mostly do. The gorilla is fake, and the dinosaur was a leftover animatronics from Jurassic Park.');

This tries to visualize what's invisible... allergens
Poetry rather than showing those
Airborne CGI representations.');

Singular-Adult Air.mov

One of the stranger demos, not easy to push the envelope with pharmaceutical ads these days.  All done "in camera" The fish is in a submerged foreground tank.');

In the endless quest to come up with metaphores for ulcers');

 In the endless quest to come up with metaphores for ulcers

I know pain!

Rollercoasters are bloody hard to shoot well...

 We got busted at barcelonas customs woith oversized paxil pill (the size of an egg)we had lots of explaining to do

Nothing rehearsed here... Just real women talking.
We tried to redefine the idea of beauty by going for unique non-model characters.

More "must-see TV" - people talking about their fantasies was a great opportunity to show their inspirations and break away from the "mushy gushy" stuff that insurance companies mostly do. The gorilla is fake, and the dinosaur was a leftover animatronics from Jurassic Park.');

More "must-see TV" - people talking about their fantasies was a great opportunity to show their inspirations and break away from the "mushy gushy" stuff that insurance companies mostly do. The gorilla is fake, and the dinosaur was a leftover animatronics from Jurassic Park.');

More “must-see TV” – people talking about their fantasies was a great opportunity to show their inspirations and break away from the “mushy gushy” stuff that insurance companies mostly do. The gorilla is fake, and the dinosaur was a leftover animatronics from Jurassic Park.

Hip older lady's.');

Shooting with Ultra Sonics makes the smallest moments look sensational - check it out.

The message here is: Never give up even if you urinate day glow colors.

The agency asked me how to make it different from other basketball spots. I suggested to do it like the movie Rollerball and set the Gladiator-like game under a thundering surveillance helicopter.
This idea was greatly appreciated during the pre-production meeting, then someone high up saw the cut, freaked, and took the helicopter and Rollerballstuff out. A year later they sent me a choice of 6 Gatorade projects.
This industry still puzzles me.

I tried to show athletic "Nike" women in a less polite, less poetic, and non-posy way - featuring the blood, sweat and tears. We shot it all in a day.');

I love shooting nature (rugged).

I love shooting nature (rugged).

In Ansel Adams footsteps. Experimentations with infrared and polarized filters, turning blue sky into mercurial black and white.

There seems to be an unwritten rule that every UPS commercial has to show a shipping and delivery vignette, a computer vignette, a sender, a receiver... That gives you little time for variables to make a new commercial or tell a story.
So, I proposed to do split frames here. To cram in some new images and at the same time arrive with a distinct look!
For reference I showed them the Thomas Crown Affair (It was one of those jobs that everybody thought they would lose their jobs because of the wacky split frames, but then everybody got a promotion instead.)

We shot athletes at a factory, and combined them with close-ups of machine parts.
I used to design opening titles for feature films, it reminded me of those days...

Here I experimented with the new Frasier lens system - it gives you this macro deep focus 3-D look. And because there was no money for a crowd scene I decided to make it a night game and not light the bleachers.');

The whole Canon campaign tries to describe the attitude of color without showing it - I love the idea of that.

Beer for people on Atkins, God bless his soul.

I'm no golfer and to me all golf spots look the same - so we tried to make it a little bit more rock 'n roll.
It's odd, I like videos that look like commercials and commercials that look like videos.');

One of the stranger demos, not easy to push the envelope with pharmaceutical ads these days.  All done "in camera" The fish is in a submerged foreground tank.');

Not much to say here. We shot most of it 'in camera' and we ruined 2 cars and a mounted Panavision Platinum...

Shooting with Ultra Sonics makes the smallest moments look sensational - check it out.

All vignettes shot with Ultra Sonics. A full mag rattles through the gates of each moment.

EASports_NBALive2005_LongJump_30.mov

Blade Runner meets Basketball.
For the epic scale we shot it under a bridge - I think there is no location left that basketball hasn't been shot in.

Chances are this is the least polite spot the Postal Service ever did. I have no idea how we slipped this one by....');

Every second a shot...quick and cheap with recession friendly digital video camera!two spots for the price of one...

Every second a shot...quick and cheap with recession friendly digital video camera!two spots for the price of one...

I shot a whole movie for a budget less than what I usually spend on an average campaign.');

A Christmas gift in itself. I could shoot this kind of shuff everyday. Painterly and enchanted photography by the always inspiring John Stanier.

Blade Runner meets underwear commercial.');

I'm trying to prove here my ability to front light in that dangerously trendy flat frontlight way. Let's do something different now.

A rare treat. I got to conceptualize the entire campaign from scratch. Arnold is a fantastic agency for allowing me to do that!

A rare treat. I got to conceptualize the entire campaign from scratch. Arnold is a fantastic agency for allowing me to do that!

A rare treat. I got to conceptualize the entire campaign from scratch. Arnold is a fantastic agency for allowing me to do that!

Shooting nudes is not as much fun as one might be led to believe. We had to shoot this spot in a thousand ways, with pasties, with scarves, with towel, natural...
As any big line producer will tell you, the most expensive item in any budget is: "Just in case."

I loved the board. I loved the agency. I loved the crew. I love the footage. I just love doing commercials - one of the few projects that I'm completely happy with. It was all shot in one day on a stage. The mill is miniature, its interior is a "forced perspective set," no special effects at all. Everything was  shot "in camera" with trained birds.

Zang Zi of "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" fame in a 30 sec. remake of "The Driver".
The hardest thing here was that Mercedes didn't want reckless driving - where do you draw the line. How do you tell the story');

This movie broke several records...with 40 million in the first weekend it was the highest opening of a r rated movie ever.');

I love working with kids - they don't act...
Anyway, the producer's assistant accidentally sent an early rough-cut to the client, the client was ecstatic and decided to air it the way it was...
That night I cut my right ear off!

OnStar_ChildsFear_60-Wiredrive Library_416 X 312.mov

A Cinderella story in the style of those glossy homoerotic kitsch postcards. It's nice to do a little bit of fairy tale fantasy in a beauty spot.

One of the few spots that my horror flicks bought me.

This was like college with money. The spot was supposed to be chaotic, so that's what we did. The client did not like the first cut of this one - Too chaotic he said. We had to tone down the cut.

This one struck a chord at the Super Bowl (USA Today gave the Golden Girl the bronze medal). Originally it was supposed to be a slender, athletic, mid aged woman - But I don't think that would have worked.
The agency was great to work with - We had a blast!

A teaser trailer for my next feature project, shot entirely in a Thousand Oaks garden in one day. Production designer, Greg Blair, really excelled by building the pond and foreground trees, as we were afraid of snow storms up north.

This stuff was really fun to shoot. Afterwards we went bowling with the agency and I got creamed big time.

"Hi honey, what did you do at work today?"
- Oh well, let's see... we shot 12 versions of this ONE commercial.
In some countries you can't show cigarettes, in some you can, in some you can't show women smoking, in some you can hold cigarettes, but can't put them in your mouth. On top of it all, we had an alternative ending so multiply 12 by 2!
Also my art department tediously dusted up the ambiance for the exterior driving shots. Then we had to remove the dust in post because it looked "smokey" to the people at Phillip Morris...

In case of a doubt, blow something up. An exercise in squibs.

Guess what? We really did crash the car and the burger really did survive – I was stunned by how compact these little things are...
I like to shoot comedy spots but I don't seem to "get them" a lot. There is that myth that "pretty boys can't be funny."
Oh, one more thing, there was a big issue whether or not the dummies should be "dressed" or "undressed."
To let them crash "undressed" was considered "un-American." I remember that for equally unexplainable reasons, I was a strong advocate for them not being dressed!

I shot a video called Believe for Elton. He said: "my entire life I've done 'un-watchable' videos". Believe is a video I can't stop watching. With his plug on VH1 scored the Visa spot. (See also Elton John Believe)

The first time I didn't loathe the casting process...
We picked up these little dialogue spots as we shot the anthem spot “they were well written“ and the kids actually pulled the lines off. It was like watching a morph, like something out of Babe, not the kind of shot where you want to change lines though. I opted to print footage B&W to balance the saccharine innocent sweetness of the kids and tried in vain to sell the idea with a quote from Jim Jarmusch: "Color is reality, B&W is truth..." Anyway, I loved the whole project and the agency. We did four spots for the price of one.

The first time I didn't loathe the casting process...
We picked up these little dialogue spots as we shot the anthem spot "they were well written" and the kids actually pulled the lines off. It was like watching a morph, like something out of Babe, not the kind of shot where you want to change lines though. I opted to print footage B&W to balance the saccharine innocent sweetness of the kids and tried in vain to sell the idea with a quote from Jim Jarmusch: "Color is reality, B&W is truth..." Anyway, I loved the whole project and the agency. We did four spots for the price of one.

The whole Canon campaign tries to describe the attitude of color without showing it - I love the idea of that.

Shooting animals can be a Royal pain in the ass.
Both dogs just had to sit there and look at the TV; however the little one didn't want to sit down and the big one refused to look up! The train is a miniature and everything was done without the help of special effects. However, the dog's little "nuts" had to be removed digitally in post. That's America for you!

This was a welcome opportunity to show my "kinder, gentler" side. I enjoyed doing this campaign tremendously.
Oh, the legal department cut out the scene with the kid stuffing his face with marshmallows, being afraid that somebody might try that a home and suffocate... Oh Boy!

I shot half of this spot on sinfully expensive and cumbersome color reversal film, then we ran out of the limited stock and had to continue on regular stock. At the time I thought it was a disaster. Can you tell the difference now? Exactly my point!

L&M _LinearStory_60-Wiredrive Library_416 X 312.mov

MulinoBianco_AliceInWonderland_FinalDC_60-Wiredrive Library_416 X 312.mov

MulinoBianco_Cinderella_FinalDC_45-Wiredrive Library_416 X 312.mov

Its a whole new economy.
They had to do six three min pieces of content in two days that where supposed to look as if they where lifted from one of my feature films.
I went with digital video and by doing so. bought them a third day.
Now I want to shoot my next movie digital.

Its a whole new economy. They had to do six three min pieces of content in two days that where supposed to look as if they where lifted from one of my feature films. I went with digital video and by doing so. bought them a third day. Now I want to shoot my next movie digital.

My first venture into television I got to produce and direct. I realized once again that it is much harder to work for clients with low expectations than for clients with high expectations.');

Bush wanted to do a remake of The Shining for this song. I talked them into the idea of an evil man fighting his better conscience. It generated a shit load of scripts from Hollywood with lesser ideas.
The great thing with commercials and videos is that one can afford to say no to bad movie scripts. I won an AICP award for best direction and best editing.

I consider myself fortunate to have made it through this project without getting beaten up - and I'm not kidding... I was going after the remake of the movie Rollerball at the time, so the project came in handy.
(Check out the Robins Leach's Most Expensive Videos Ever for more information).

What is more surreal than Cher in a song about Elvis?
Cher cross dressing as Elvis! I figured she would never go with it, but she loved the idea. She sent me some variety show from the 70's where she played all the parts of  West Side Story in one production (including the Jets); You've got to hand it to her!
Ironically we had a drag queen Cher impersonator as a stand-in for her, as (s)he was the only one tall enough for the job. John Stanier; the D.P. who has always had a warm spot for Cher couldn't tell the difference and embarrassed himself to everyone's amusement.