Before I was a Melbourne-based television commercial director I was a Canberra-based television commercial director. Before that, I was a kid growing up in the 80s and 90s in Canberra - that’s ‘League Country’.
From the late 80s through to the mid 90s, rugby league was the biggest thing in Canberra and the Raiders were arguably the best league team in the world. I followed them because my family did, and I didn’t argue with them because the Raiders didn’t lose. The first grand final I watched they won, the second - they won that too. We wore Video-Ezy branded t-shirts with ‘Back to Back’ on them and drank Raiders Lime milk. In 91’ I went out onto the road behind my house and waved a big green flag at passing cars.
They lost that year so make of that what you will.
I left league country in 2006 and landed in Melbourne and learned to stop talking about Canberra. It didn’t sit well with most during my round of ‘hi, I’m new in town’ meetings at various production companies and agencies. It was suggested to me that the work I had done up until then wasn’t worth the SP Betacam it was shot on.
Best to invent a new origin story.
I switched my appreciation to AFL and Carlton (it seemed like a great idea at the time, it’s only just starting to pay off) and set to wrapping my head around the life of a freelance director. Work came slowly - but it did come and my love of sport was able to express itself through the work that I was being offered. Spots with AFL players, golfers, swimmers, jockeys and cricketers began to slowly collect on my reel.
But in 2013 when Jess Evernden at NB Content got in touch and said she had a small job to shoot with ‘some guy who plays league for Queensland named Cooper Cronk’ I almost leapt down the phone line. ‘Whatever I’m doing I’ll cancel it”, I said.
Because while I had been slowly enjoying a false sense of security as a Carlton supporter during the Juddy and Fev years, I was making space three times a year to watch the State of Origin. This was the only league I would watch. It was also the only league on television in Melbourne bar the Grand Final. It allowed a quick glimpse into who the best players were at the time and more importantly, it reminded me of home. As a Canberran, you are a default supporter of NSW and I was instantly reminded of the strange wave of state patriotism that leaked into the nation's capital around that time of year.
The spot called for highlighting an extraordinary moment in Cooper Cronk’s career where he kicked a field goal in the dying seconds to win the 2012 State of Origin series. If you haven’t seen it, take a look here. As a New South Wales supporter I remember seeing it live as it set NSW on the road to another defeat. I lost my mind.
Jim Ingram at Cummins and Partners (now Thinkerbell) had a great idea to re-create the winning field goal in super slow-motion while Cooper recalled what was going through his mind. We broke the kick down into its component parts and slowed the 2-second kick down to 26 seconds. This meant shooting at roughly 800 frames a second on a Phantom Flex. We boarded the spot with the very talented Michael Camilleri and off we went.
The shoot with Cooper was great. He was very accommodating - giving us two days of his time. He also hit his marks with precision and accuracy every time (something that the focus-pullers out there will appreciate).
Furthermore, during the shoot, there was a moment where I found myself being the expert in the room on Rugby League (beyond Cooper and his manager of course). The Melbourne-based crew had no idea who Cooper was or how this strange game worked.
But I knew. Because I came from ‘league country’.
My unspoken origin story had a reason to come out. It had become useful. So useful in fact that when the shoot required a double to pass the ball directly at the lens, I was the only one who could do it.
The final piece is something that I’m really proud of. I love the crispness of the images by Joel Betts, the edit and the haunting soundscape by Damian Capicchiano. Even the storyboards are something I like looking back on.
But outside the technical achievements I love the job because it serves as a nice little reminder of what I’d achieved up until that point in my career. It’s a marker on a road that stretches back to an 80s Canberra and my own origin.
Something today I have no problem telling people about.
JEEP - The Extraordinary
Agency:: Cummins & Partners | Creative :: Jim Ingram | Production:: Nicebike | Producer:: Jess Evernden | DOP :: Joel Betts