Peer Review: JamsBash

Who are three contemporaries that you admire?

Jams: I'm a big fan of Megaforce. I like the work that they do. There’s a whimsy and fun to their work that we also try to capture in ours. It's very different from what we do, but I like the vibe, energy, and excitement they bring to it. 

Bash: Both of us love Hiro Murai's work—the quality of the cinematic language is always so well thought out and well-placed. That’s something that we aim to bring to our advertising life. In our early days of making commercials, we found that if we could make something somewhat soothing to watch, it could separate itself from all of the other noise that was out there.  

 I think an interesting thing that starts to happen with us, is that there’s a sense of joy that comes from the competition we have with each other. 

Jams: The third one for me would be Dave Free. The stuff that he does with Kendrick is fantastic. The way that he has contemporised black life in America as a form of art and used that image as a piece of advertising—I think that’s brilliant. What he did with Not Like Us was so different; it showed a specific brand of black life in America that was very free and open but presented in a way that felt like fine art at the same time. It's a music video, sure, but it's also very considered, and he takes that approach with all of his work, and that's pretty wonderful. 

Please share 3-4 pieces of work that exemplify great directing, and explain why?  

Jams: The one I always come back to is Spike Jonze's IKEA Lamp commercial. It is just pitch-perfect: the whole twist hinges on the fact that you have to fall for the storytelling of the commercial, and then he completely pulls the rug out from under you in a way that's just hilarious and makes you question everything you watch. When I first saw it, I was like, “Oh yeah, I want to make commercials.” 

Another one for me is the piece Jonathan Glazer did for Sony Bravia, where colour explodes out of tall council estate buildings in the UK. The whole thesis of the commercial is like, “The Sony Bravia TV has the best colour.” For 60 seconds, it is this kind of wonderful symphony of images, that has a humour and wit to it but in a completely wordless way. It's just colourful abstract imagery, and it's really dope. 

When I was in school, everyone was trying to think of the next best thing. It made me think that competition could never be joyous or fulfilling.

Bash: Similarly, I also really love the San Francisco spot where all the balls were bouncing down the hill. It was around when I Heart Huckabees came out, and those thoughtful, family-oriented, emotional pieces were in the air in a way. There was something about that era of commercials: it was super simple, beautiful camerawork, and the visual experience warmed your heart. 

Also, God Made a Farmer, which was just photography. The sermon is about the world created by the farmers, appreciating an era where things were done with hands. This was the early days of automation coming after people's jobs, and this was a thoughtful response to that. It was a very interesting technique that we experimented with on a show we worked on called Wolf Hall. 

What do you like most about the work that you do?  

Jams: We just get to have fun, man. This is what I hoped directing was when I was a kid, just making cool stuff. And it's even more fun than that, because we get to work with athletes and celebrities doing funny stuff and making people laugh. And I'm doing it with my closest friend! What's better than that? We try to run everything from our initial client pitch meetings to creative kickoffs to how things are on set, with a sense of joy, pleasure, and happiness, which shows in the work. 

Two straight young black guys running creative on Broadway. It was quite an uphill battle, we faced a ton of naysayers, but we got a ton of reps in. 

Bash: And talking smack (in a healthy, competitive way). When I was in school, everyone was trying to think of the next best thing. It made me think that competition could never be joyous or fulfilling. I think an interesting thing that starts to happen with us, is that there’s a sense of joy that comes from the competition we have with each other. And the competition that we have, for the most part, is when we're like free flowing or talking about creative, and he'll say something that I haven't heard him say before, and I'll be like, “Damn, nailed that shit.” It's just a good feeling.  

What was your journey like to becoming filmmakers and working together as JamsBash?  

Jams: We started working together in 2011. I was an editor, working at a bunch of shops around New York, LA, and London, and it was slow. The economy had tanked, and I decided to go freelance. Long story short, I took a freelance job at an ad agency called AKA, and the executive creative director there was Bashan. 

We’d walk into these meetings, and people would say, “Huh! Two black dudes. You guys did the Fiddler on the Roof commercial?” 

He somehow tricked me / fooled me into coming in-house, to start what we then called the Broadcast Department, and we essentially started an in-house production unit. We were developing concepts, farming it out to freelance directors, and cutting it ourselves. And it got to a point where it was just like, “We want to do the fun part too.” You know what I mean? The directing is the fun part! And that's kind of how we came together. 

Bash: At the time, we were doing a lot of research to sell these ideas to clients. And when somebody eventually let us do one, we took hold of it and never let it go.  We’d walk into these meetings, and people would say, “Huh! Two black dudes. You guys did the Fiddler on the Roof commercial?” 

Jams: Two straight young black guys running creative on Broadway. It was quite an uphill battle, we faced a ton of naysayers, but we got a ton of reps in. It was a good training ground for developing our style. 

Do you each find inspiration from similar sources? How do you balance your individual creative visions and input when working on a project together?  

Bash: When we start talking about a project, a bunch of new ideas come up, and for each, we're like, “Ok, let's put that aside for now.” The problem is, one of us will mention an idea that has absolutely nothing to do with the project at hand, and then we'll be like, “No, we have to go back to this other thing that we need to finish.” So part of it is an effort to not derail each other with silly ideas that we're not going to turn into movies, because I think we're both inspired by the small what-ifs.

You need a system of meritocracy. You must truly agree that the best idea wins and not be butthurt about it if you lose.

I have children, so I get ideas all day from them, and the small stories just find their way into the things we like to ruminate on. Jams is an avid collector of many things, and those things inspire us as well. He's like a massive comic book head. I make fun of him for that, but it gets us jobs. It's a wild array of stuff we're interested in that gets our juices flowing. 

Jams: It goes back to our training. I’m a very academic film school kid and always reach for those classical film references first. Bash is much more trained in fine arts, photography, and design. But the thing is, after working together for so long, it just starts to intertwine. I can look at something and think, “I know where Bash is going to go with this.” And vice versa. We're in each other's brains, creatively, and we know the wells we each like to go to, to get the juices flowing.  

What is one thing every filmmaking collective needs?  

Jams: You need a system of meritocracy. You must truly agree that the best idea wins and not be butthurt about it if you lose. Some of our biggest arguments are when we don’t follow that rule. The “best idea wins” also helps two minds not become convoluted, so you're not trying to make two ideas into one idea, which muddies the vision. 

 I've met creatives who will judge you based on that stuff, it's kind of wack. 

Bash: And good merch, gotta have good merch: a good key chain, a good hat, something. Don't show up to the party with nothing – that's what my mom always said.  

Who was the greatest director of all time? Why?  

Jams: This is the question I try to avoid answering and the reason I don't have a Letterboxd. I've met creatives who will judge you based on that stuff, it's kind of wack. That being said, it's probably Billy Wilder – he was good at the comedy stuff, but he also had some great dramas, great film noir pieces. 

 You have to lean on the thing that brought you here in the first place, which is a desire to tell stories.

Bash: I'm such a fickle being as far as what I like at any given moment, so this question is always challenging. But I always come back to Paul Thomas Anderson films. Every time I watch one, I think, “I don't know how long it would take me to attempt to make something this human.”