With four new commercials for its client TexasLending.com, Whiskey Bacon Club has added commercial directing to its scope of client services.
“In order to be true to the idea of bringing brilliant efficiency to clients’ ad budgets, we felt it was important to offer the option of directing the commercials we write,” explains Whiskey Bacon Club’s founder Kevin Sutton.
“The first time you do something like this takes a leap of faith by the client and, luckily, Kevin Miller from TexasLending.com has a lot of faith in us,” Sutton adds.
The spots were co-directed by Sutton and Keith James of Republic Editorial fame.
Sutton explains, “I was mentioning the idea of directing to Keith and it occurred to me, as an editor, he has a great idea of the footage needed to tell a compelling story, and maybe that expertise would come in handy.”
As for division of labor, Sutton concentrated more on directing the talent and James more on the shot list and technical aspects. Sutton reached out for advice from friend and mentor, director Jordan Brady, who joked, “Don’t tell anyone but the secret to directing is just get yourself a great DP.” They hired Dallas-based shooter Mark Fisher.
“He’s amazing,” James notes. “I’ve cut a lot of spots he has shot, and he has such an incredible eye. I felt he was the guy we needed in order to pull this thing off.”
They also needed production support, which they got from Brian Hwang of Threaded Pictures.
“We shot all four of these spots in one day, with a company move—that’s an efficient agency at work,” says James. “With both the writer and the editor calling the shots, we knew exactly what we had to get.”
Asked if there were any major challenges to overcome on their initial directorial effort, Sutton revealed, “Yes. I’m standing there at the monitor wondering, why isn’t anyone yelling ‘action?’ when it occurred to me, ‘oh, yeah, that’s my job now.’”
Watch the four new spots for TexasLending.com below and learn more about Whiskey Bacon Club at whiskeybacon.club.
Credits:
Agency: Whiskey Bacon Club
Directors: Whiskey Bacon Club
Director of Photography: Mark Fisher
Editor: Keith James, Republic Editorial
Production Support: Threaded Pictures
