I made a living for 10 years making very typical TV commercials. But I always wanted to reach beyond that and do stuff that people might relate to in the way they relate to my nonbranded content.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I started off in a small theatre performance company and worked my way into commercials.
And I've always loved commercials. I like working out how to organically weave a brand's message into the writing process. It's like an improv show, where comics ask the audience to throw out a word and a skit is built around it.
I know a lot of people who have tremendous commercial success and they go directly for it. There's something that has always been difficult about that for me.
I started as a teenager going up on commercials.
I started with commercials - for shampoo, pancakes, insurance, Volvo. I did a Lux soap commercial with Sarah Jessica Parker. And I got a role in an indie film called 'Satellite' that did well in festivals.
I started to make some commercials, which was a way for me to finally make a living at last. But it was only really a couple of films in that it looked like a viable career option.
I started out doing commercials, like Diet Coke and Pizza Hut. And I started to find there was a different life for me, in a different field. From there, I got a call from a director in Italy, and we did 'Indio' I and II, and that's where it started.
People are aware of what I stand for through television. Nobody gets rich on TV but you build brand. That's what I'm attempting to do.
I'm a huge cinemaphile. My interest in filmmaking came out of experimenting with different genres, and I wanted to go back to working in a way that was more personal, which, for me, was artwork. Commercials and films are more collaborative.
I've spent over 25 years in the television industry, the direct response industry. I met a lot of people and certainly learned the power of commercials and their brand building potential.