Several years ago, I interviewed Breck Eisner, the director of THE CRAZIES for Shoot Magazine (which focuses on commercials). Breck was probably both the most talented and easiest to talk to commercial director I interviewed for Shoot (I was trying to connect to the next big film director) so I thought I'd run that interview here, since Eisner directed the first episode of FEAR ITSELF and is preparing to direct a new version of CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON and FLASH GORDON!
A vicious poodle chases a man into a bar. The somber,
Bergmanesque funeral procession in stark black and white. A
computer animated adventure inside a vending machine. A tuxedo
clad gentleman lights a cigarette at a glossy high society event.
Pixilated post apocalyptic bikers battle each other as they zoom
through grungy hallways... without motorcycles. A wacky parody
of Kung Fu features an usual way to snatch the pebbles from my
hand. A lone worker averts a power crisis in a foreboding
German expressionistic metropolis.
Watching Breck Eisner’s reel, it’s hard to believe the spots were
directed by the same person. "I try and find a style that’s
appropriate for the ad and the product, rather than put my style
onto the concept", the 28 year old director says. "Is it an
absurd spot? A realistic spot? I try to make the funny spot as
funny as possible, and the make the bizarre spot as bizarre and
imaginative as possible."
After only a year and a half, Los Angeles based Eisner has helmed
fourteen high profile spots, winning a Clio Award right out of
the gate with Powersurge for Budweiser via DDB Needham, Chicago
which aired during the 1997 Super Bowl. "I didn't know anything
about the commercial world, I was fresh out of film school. I
thought: this is a normal way to start, a Super Bowl spot,"
Eisner laughs. "People kept telling me it’s going to be ranked
in USA Today. Had I known then what it meant to have a Super
Bowl spot I think it would have been a lot more pressure."
His next spot was Comrades for Rold Gold Pretzels also for Greg
Popp at DDB Needham, Chicago. "The Jason Alexander spots for Rold
Gold had been a very funny and memorable campaign," Eisner says.
"I had to make sure this spot lived up to the others." The
whimsical ad has Pretzel Boy on a rescue mission to the Mir Space
Station with bags of Rold Gold Pretzels was shot on a gimbel and
features full weightless sequences thanks to GCI wire removal.
His two anti-smoking spots for California Department of Health
Services via Asher & Partners, Los Angeles, were selected as Best
Spots in back to back issues of Adweek. Eisner’s Mad Dog spot
for Coors Zima via Foote, Cone & Belding, San Francisco aired
during the Sienfeld finale and was chosen by USA Today’s Ad Meter
as the number one spot with a 9.21 rating (out of 10)
.
Talking with Breck Eisner, he makes you feel like an old friend.
It’s easy to forget this exuberant young man is Hollywood
royalty. Yes, his father is Disney’s CEO Michael Eisner.
"That's one of great things about getting involved in
commercials," he says. "The commercial world is a much different
world than the film world." Breck never trades on his family
name, going so far as to direct his USC thesis film RECON under
the name "Breck Jones" to avoid any possible favoritism. The
eight minute tech noir thriller features 30 CGI shots including a
3D computer generated helicopter and an animated ‘memory wash’.
"The majority of the effects were done at USC on SGI machines
donated by Silicon Graphics. The CG supervisor was a student. We
wrote our own program for the 'memory wash' that created a line
drawing of the actual footage then superimposed that image onto
the film."
He began directing commercials almost by accident. "We had used
some of Digital Domain's processors to render images on RECON
and some people over there who work in commercials suggested I
meet with commercial production houses," Eisner says.
"Eventually I met with Jonathan at Palomar Pictures. I realized
the commercial world was a great place for me to get some
experience and do some exciting work."
Eisner's work often uses classic film techniques in innovative
ways, like the strange over-the-shoulder tracking shot of the
vicious poodle in "Mad Dog" or the 'Hitchcock cuts' using trees
passed in the foreground to connect shots in his "Funeral" anti-
smoking spot or that luxurious moving camera work in his "Gala
Event" PSA for the California Department of Heath Services.
Combine this with his possible genetic knowledge of animation as
seen in his "Sonic R" spot for Sega via Foot, Cone & Belding, San
Francisco and his "Can" spot for Coca-Cola via Leo Burnett, New
York and you have Eisner's edge.
"The Coca-Cola and Sega spots are polar opposites in the
animation field," Eisner says. "The Coca-Cola job is completely
CG, including the set! The basic idea on the spot was to see the
world inside the Coke machine. A very general concept. I spent
a lot of time imagining what this fantasy land inside the machine
would be. They wanted epic, and dynamic... and cold," Eisner
laughs. "We used references from the North Pole, glaciers, and
the Blade Runner world outside. Creating a world which doesn't
exist except inside that Coke machine. That was a spot that went
from a very basic one line idea to the finished commercial."
"The Sega job is stop-frame animation. No computer manipulation
at all. They wanted these guys to fly through hallways, but they
had a very small budget, so we had to do it in a low tech way.
There was no way we could do rigs or wire removal," Eisner says.
Substituting imagination for high cost effects provided the
pixilated solution. "We would have the guys jump into position
and take a single frame, step 15 inches forward, then jump up and
we'd shoot the next frame."
His success in the commercial world has opened doors for Eisner
in the feature world. He's signed to direct the comic book based
"Dead Of Night" for Miramax, a film version of Ray Bradbury's
story "The Sound Of Thunder" for Baldwin-Cohen, and an untitled
cyber-punk film.
With influences as diverse as the cool austerity of Stanley
Kubrick, the wild comedies of Preston Sturges, early Ridley Scott
and the biting satire of Billy Wilder it’s no wonder Breck Eisner
seems capable of doing anything.
