shots Iconic Covers: Bryan Buckley

Hungry Man director, Bryan Buckley, has featured heavily on the pages of shots over the years with work for brands such as Microsoft, Orange, E-Trade and so many more, demonstrating his ability to amuse and entertain audiences at the Super Bowl and beyond.

In issue 142 he was in fact labelled 'God of the Gaps' for his eclectic range of spots at the biggest sporting event in the world and his work has also picked up an Oscar nomination and won multiple awards in advertising.

Having stepped in front of the camera to become the shots magazine cover star on two occasions in the past, Buckley chose to tap into his experience with animals on set and the result is two striking pictures taken at contrasting points in his career. Below, the New York-based director reveals the stories behind the eye-catching portraits to mark 25 years of shots.

Tell us about the concept for your cover for issue 109 with the gun and the monkey…

Well, it's fairly simple. I had been shooting with chimps (they get offended when you call them a mere monkey) for several years on Super Bowl Spots. I thought to myself what if the chimps decided to exact their revenge against me for all the years telling them to hit their marks and making them wear humiliating outfits. How would they go about it? My conclusion was they wouldn't go through the trouble of biting my face off. Nope, too messy and exhausting. They would walk into a store and get a gun, because after all, this is America.

Where did the shoot for the chimp series take place?

That was in an ally in the back of some apartments in Los Angeles.

Tell us about posing for the image – how did you get into character? Did it just come with all the cuts and bruises?

I imagined, given the countless amount of takes I've made chimps redo and redo until we got something right. They would return the favour by making my death slow and painful. So they'd beat me up a bit. Strip me down. And take my favourite hat. Before killing me.

And what about with the cat for issue 142?

Once the chimps had fallen out of favour in the ad world, and animal right activists had them all but banned from the screen, a new animal needed to take over the world of comedy. Enter the white-haired feline. Having originally made his cinematic debut in James Bond films, what better character to put into our film on Somali pirates.

How did it feel to be on the other side of the lens for the images for both issues?

Never a fan of being on the other side of the lens. Just seems strange.

And the two covers are contrasting, was that a conscious decision or did it just happen with the ideas as they came?

Very conscious. You can't go down the same road twice. And they tied into what I was doing in that period.

Where did you get the cat for issue 142 and was it well behaved?

That furry dude was basically a complete doppelgänger for the cat we shot in ASAD. He was a NYC native and seemed to be willing to do anything for small fish smelling treats. Plus, by his pupil size, I think he might have been on some drugs the day of the shoot.

And how did the production work for the other picture with the chimp? It feels like there’s a great level of detail with both considering the gunshot and the wink…

Ah - yes. Strangely enough, the chimp would not hold the gun up to my head. Seems they know something we don't. So we had to comp him together with me. The cat meanwhile did the wink on his own. Photoshop free. Go figure.

How well do you think each image fits with the respective interviews in hindsight?

I think given the subject matter and my emotional mind-set at the time, both stories dovetailed really well. That, I must say, is a rarity.

Did you receive any feedback from the covers when the issues were released and tell us about that…

I heard from a bunch of directors who were friends over in the UK. And some creatives. Still to this day, someone will stumble on the images and say "WTF?" And I get a call saying asking for an explanation.