Wild Plum's Goubeaux Gets Tough on Beards
The director's comic concept for a Braun web video wins a crowd-sourced competition on Tongal.com and makes for hilarious viewing.
Wild Plum's Mike Goubeaux Creates 'Tough' Spot For Braun
The director's comic script for a Braun web video wins a crowd-sourced
competition on Tongal.com and makes for hilarious viewing.
Director Mike Goubeaux is no stranger to winning video contests. Since college the filmmaker, who's represented in the US by Wild Plum in L.A., has regularly won or placed in a variety of "call to action" competitions, including one of the Doritos' Super Bowl challenges, where he was a finalist. His latest feat is a Braun branded content piece entitled "That's Tough," which was selected through www.Tongal.com, which claimed the top prize.
"Tongal is a relatively new crowd-sourced creative hotbed," states Goubeaux. "There are plenty of commercial and video contest sites out there, but Tongal is a bit different. They strive to give brands access to great creative at lower costs while giving creators the opportunity to hone their craft for actual brands and actual dollars."
Through Tongal, brands post creative briefs to which the community responds with one line ideas based on the brief. Next, creators pitch their vision for the handful of selected ideas and finally, videos are produced based on those pitches. Some projects allow for a "wild card," in which a filmmaker can submit his or her own video that didn't go through the three phases. This is exactly what Goubeaux did.
"For Braun, I decided to just go straight to a final spot," the director recalls. "I think the idea and pitch phases are very valuable, and lead to cash prizes as well as confirmation the brand likes where you're going, but I was out to make this spot for my reel as much as I was to please Braun, so we just went for a wild card submission."
While Goubeaux doesn't necessarily see Tongal replacing traditional advertising or agencies anytime soon, he does see it as a valuable and progressive tool for brands as well as creative talent.
"Leaving wild card slots open may generate something totally unexpected and wonderful," he says. "We skipped right to the final product and ended up winning top prize and really pleasing the brand; perhaps with an agency this idea wouldn't have made it past the first conversation. There's something to be said for looking at a final product instead of an idea on paper. It doesn't always make sense, but it worked in this instance."
Upon seeing the creative brief from Braun, the director immediately began thinking of ways to bring a magical, wacky feel to an electric razor. Very quickly he focused on the idea of insane beards being magically generated on test subjects.
"I loved the brief for Braun because they were insisting on a fun spot that would demonstrate the toughness of their electric razors," he explains. "They of course want to touch on some of the key points for the brand and the product, but it was clear they wanted something that was actually fun to watch. Many razor spots are really about how the blades work or how they magically lift hairs for a closer shave. I think as viewers, we all know that's the goal of each razor. I thought it might be more interesting to take a slightly more irreverent look into a supposed testing lab."
As is the case with most spec/contest pieces, Goubeaux says he had to make every dollar count and relied on his personal relationships to create the award-winning piece. "[Lead actor] Sam Richardson is a friend of mine. He's a great improv actor that does really fun work. After one conversation with Sam, I knew he had to be our Chief Tester," says the director.
On the production side, Goubeaux relied on long-time relationships with his DP and VFX supervisor. "I really wanted to work with DP Dallas Sterling again," the director offers. "He and I have started shooting more and more together, and he works magic with very little gear and money. His work is top notch and you'll never hear him complain about gear. Sometimes we get 10-ton trucks, sometimes we have a reflector; he makes great looking material either way."
Goubeaux turned to another regular collaborator, Andrew Cook, for VFX work on the spot. "When I write spec spots or contest pieces like this, I usually develop visual effects gags that I know I can achieve with very little outside help," the director explains. "Andrew's a super talented VFX generalist and I usually work to support him by doing some of the easier shots, while he does things like simulate 10,000 disposable razors falling into a pile. I did take the opportunity to learn how to simulate facial hair on this project, and ended up executing the second and third beard seen in the short. So beyond more work to promote my directing career, I'm always excited to have a chance to polish up my post skills."
On the challenges of this type of work, Goubeaux says "it's really great to be signed with a production company that supports spec work and projects that help build the reel. Wild Plum not only helped financially, but helped get the project properly produced. With 14 actors, a sound stage, prop rentals, gear, etc., it's hard to imagine having to write and direct but also produce and do the bookkeeping at the same time. Having the support of Wild Plum was key. I suppose it's an unfair advantage over some other Tongalers, but I'll take what I can get."
Braun is running the spot on YouTube and on other video sharing sites across the web, where it's already racked up more than two million views. The client also engaged Goubeaux to cut teasers from the video, and may even create more material with the director based around this character.
"If this happens, we'll have turned a crowd-sourced contest piece into paying work," the director says with enthusiasm. "You can't ask for a better outcome. It's like sneaking into the back door of a club. It might be a little underhanded and it may have been a long shot, but either way you end up inside."
Braun Creative and Production Credits:
Director/Editor: Mike Goubeaux
Production Company: Wild Plum
Executive Producer: Shelby Sexton
Producer: Ted Robbins
DP: Dallas Sterling
Production Design: Amelia Brooke
VFX Supervisor: Andrew Cook
Music: "Supermom," by Mark Petrie (courtesy Audiosocket.com)
Published 7 December, 2012
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