Expedia’s first time in the Super Bowl reminded us to value travel and experiences over things.
Production during the Omicron surge, a last minute celebrity scramble, no available backlots, and a down-to-the-wire shooting schedule (with Covid constantly threatening to shut us down) made for a real Christmas and New Year’s pressure cooker.
It would not have been possible without this production/client/agency dream team.
And of course, the inimitable Ewan McGregor.
Produced with Lance Acord @ Park Pictures for Anomaly LA.
Apple Music produced a suite of films to celebrate Rihanna and their first Super Bowl Halftime Show.
I joined the production team at the end of December 2022 and was en route to New York two weeks later to help produce the “Diamonds” and “Pose” social films.
The usual Super Bowl pressure cooker, but with the freedom of no broadcast ad placement during the game (social only!), this was a special project without any product to sell, just a celebration of a legendary musical artist and her cultural impact.
Very proud of the end product and lucky to a part of this team.
Directed by King She @ somesuch.
Filming John Malkovich in Paris as he prepared for the launch of his fashion line has been one of the greatest highlights of my career to date. Truly a legend.
Directed by Miles Jay at Smuggler for JohnXHannes
Campaign Recognitions:
Cannes 2017: 4 Silver Lions, 1 Bronze Lion, 10 Shortlists
2017 Clios: 3 Silver, 1 Bronze, 4 Shortlists
2018 D&AD: 2 Wood Pencils
2 Chainz and Adam Scott star in the world’s first music video you can expense, part of a brand campaign for Expensify that launched in the weeks leading up to Super Bowl 2019.
A monster to produce, this was another amazing collaboration with my friends at JohnXHannes New York.
Directed by Andreas Nilsson @ Biscuit Filmworks
Campaign Recognitions:
Cannes Lions 2019
- Entertainment Gold Lion: Music
- Film Craft Gold Lion: Use of Original Music
- Digital Craft Silver Lion: Cross-channel Storytelling
- Direct Silver Lion: Launch/Re-launch
- Direct Bronze Lion: Use of Mobile
- Entertainment Bronze Lion: Excellence in Brand Integration & Sponsorships/Partnerships for Branded Content
- Entertainment Bronze Lion: Talent, Digital & Social
Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle and Ellen DeGeneres bring the funny to some of the most iconic dramas on Netflix.
A true joy to work on, this campaign debuted during the 2017 Primetime Emmy Awards.
Produced for Battery and directed by Neal Brennan at Caviar. Seamless VFX work from Jane Studios.
Campaign Recognitions:
2018 Cannes Lions - Bronze for Film / Online Media + Entertainment, Shortlist for Film Craft Editing
2018 D&AD Wood Pencil for Integrated Campaign
2018 One Show Film Finalist
Vrbo’s first campaign for their partnership with College Football was a whirlwind production from the moment we got the green light. Dozens of set-ups over five shoot days in three cities, five mascots, and an extra condensed schedule to prep and post. Agency/client/production were all in lockstep knowing what we were up against. One team, one dream.
Football away, baby.
Directed by Abteen Bagheri @ Love Song for Anomaly L.A.
Klarna’s first time in the Super Bowl got the green light just before Thanksgiving 2020.
A last minute Super Bowl production would be challenging enough during ‘normal’ circumstances, but add a global pandemic, no on-camera talent locked by Christmas, heavy visual effects, mandatory COVID testing, a director who needed to quarantine for two weeks, little horses, big horses, more COVID testing, a popular music track to find/license/re-record, custom costumes, additionally mandated COVID testing, and heavy art department… it was life imitating art in the Wild West.
Seeing it all come together during the 4th quarter on February 7th, 2021 made it all worth it.
Directed by Andreas Nilsson @ Biscuit for Mirimar LA.
Swedish brand Klarna launched in the U.S. in 2020 with a campaign using existing Swedish film, television, and archival footage that we licensed and added our own cheeky English subtitles to.
What we learned very quickly is that a majority of Swedish footage is not licensable because it’s owned by the government, which made sourcing usable footage incredibly challenging. YouTube, Vimeo, googling “Swedish…”, friends of Swedish friends of Swedish friends’ friends, Swedish student films, Swedish exploitation films from the 60s and 70s, the Swedish film institute website, and lost CD libraries of Swedish mid-century experimental films became our sources for over 30+ spots that we were able to produce for this launch. I’ve never sent so many random DMs on Instagram trying to track Swedes down.
This was a björn to produce and a real team effort between Mirimar creatives, our rock star business affairs manager who was able to track down rights holders on vacation (many on boats) with no wifi, offline editors constantly loading mass quantities of footage and trying dozens of versions of rough subtitle scripts, post production working with the lowest of low-res footage - and all of it done over video calls. Add a shoot done remotely in Sweden at the height of production shut downs, an online giveaway produced by our unicorn digital producer which also required 15x versions of the same spot with VFX comps, plus one video in Danish that we needed to cast and overdub into Swedish, of course.
I am very proud of what we were able to achieve. Tough to narrow them down, but here are some of my favorite spots from the campaign.
Agency: Mirimar US
Directed by Andreas Nilsson @ Biscuit
What began as a low-profile digital effort turned into one of the most recognized campaigns from Super Bowl LI. A two-part story based on real events, "johnmalkovich.com" aired pre-game, and was followed up with "Calling Johnmalkovich.com" during the game.
Directed by Miles Jay at Smuggler for JohnXHannes.
Campaign Recognitions:
2017 Emmy Winner for Outstanding Commercial "Calling JohnMalkovich.com"
Cannes 2017: 4 Silver Lions, 1 Bronze Lion, 10 Shortlists
2017 Clios: 3 Silver, 1 Bronze, 4 Shortlists
2018 One Show: Gold, Bronze, 7 Nominations
2018 D&AD: Graphite Pencil
2018 Webby Winner
We awarded the job and were shooting five days later in Oakland, California.
Draymond Green and the Golden State Warriors came together with E-40 to pay homage to the Bay Area and the excitement around the 2016 NBA Finals.
Directed by Dante Ariola at MJZ for R/GA Hustle
Co-produced with this lovely lady.
Ricky Gervais channeled his inner Kevin Spacey for this Netflix original programming spot which premiered during the 2014 Primetime Emmys.
Directed by Randy Krallman at Smuggler for Ignition Creative.
Squarespace partnered with Google to showcase three small businesses working to bring positive change to their communities.
Directed by Daniel Kaufman @ Anonymous Content.
Agency: JohnXHannes
Who's the greatest NBA team of all time? Celebrities and Superfans debate.
Confession: I don't know anything about basketball.
Directed by Nick Jasenovec at Caviar Content for 72andSunny.
Michael Madsen is ready for battle in this launch campaign for Recoil.
Directed by Alan White at Bob Industries for Battery LA.
Campaign Recognitions:
Clios Shortlist 2017
One of the last campaigns I produced at Chiat\Day L.A., where I spent nine years training under Elaine Hinton (mom) and Richard O’Neill (dad), this campaign was a real joy to work on.
Jimmy Dean introduced a new line of breakfast products and paid homage to the great superhero shows of the 1960s.
The Anthem spot debuted during the 2010 Emmys and was directed by The Perlorian Brothers at Furlined.