JEAN: ‘The Noodler’ and ‘The Talker’
This may or may not be a photo of the duo…
If Armand Prisco had to get stuck in an elevator with anyone, he’d pick Eric Eckelman, his directing partner and fellow co-founder of full-service production company JEAN’S SISTER.
The pair are the brains behind directing duo JEAN. Webby award-winning and ‘Certified Fresh’ on Rotten Tomatoes, JEAN’s work is irreverent yet real, known for transforming moments from ordinary to memorable.
The world has MTV to thank for Armand and Eric’s partnership; it’s where they met in 2005 and quickly struck up a rapport. Armand had grown tired of ad agency life, and together with his partner (and now wife) Nat Prisco, they opted to leave McCann Erickson behind in search of somewhere where their “not normal” ideas would land.
“At the time, MTV was kind of the creative promised land,” says Armand. “So we mapped out a plan and developed an animated brand campaign for the network that Nat wrote and I illustrated, emailed the head of the On Air Promos department with it, and told him he should hire us… believe it or not, that actually worked.”
Meanwhile, Eric was a writer and director at MTV. “[I] was overloaded with work and looking for some help,” he recalls. "Armand and I (and Nat) got partnered up more or less the first day they arrived, and we immediately clicked.
“My first impression of him was that he was tall and slippery-looking, with a very dry and quick sense of humour. From his general demeanor and in talking to him about non-work related things like movies, films, bourbon, and the best places in NYC to buy sneakers, I could tell we were on the same page.”
The pair got to work quickly, with their first assignment being to write a brand campaign for the VMAs.
“Within a couple of days, we had the idea and scripts, sold them through, and two weeks later, we were shooting, which was so unlike my experiences at big agencies,” says Armand.
He adds the change of pace was refreshing yet a “little scary”. “Is it possible to come up with something that quick and have it actually be good? The answer is yes, it can be if you’re working with the right people.”
And, within a month of meeting, their work was live on air. An experience which proved pivotal in the long run, according to Armand, the tone of those spots would play directly into much of what shapes their work today.
In the years following their MTV tenure, Armand and Eric would continue on to become a fully-fledged director duo in the commercial space. But, that's not to say they followed the most ‘conventional’ pathway to get there.
“We would sit around and wait for the phone to ring, talking about how stupid people were for not hiring us,” says Eric. “So, we decided to hire ourselves and wrote and directed a campaign by us, AKA JEAN, which we aired on WPIX NY in the middle of the night. We got quite a few calls from some creeps that were up watching WPIX at 3 AM, but also got a lot of good exposure in the ad world, which helped establish us.”
It was here that Armand and Eric really put their personal preferences together for the first time, forming the uniquely ‘JEAN’ tone of voice and approach they’re known for today. “Our sensibilities are like, the same, but different, but also the same,” says Eric. “To us, it’s all about exposing those authentic moments that can sometimes be a little dark and hard to watch, but also honest.”
“If we were movies and not actual people, I’d say I’m probably more ‘Big Lebowski’ and Eric’s more ‘Fargo’,” Armand adds. “We’re constantly checking ourselves, and trust each other enough to know that if one of us doesn’t like an idea, it might not be great, or we’re pushing it too far or not far enough. I think one thing you can say about our work is that it has a nice sense of balance.”
As part of this, the two strive to impart their craft with a degree of fluidity made possible by two decades of working together and knowing each other’s strengths inside-out.
Eric explains, “We don’t assign roles or have lanes we feel compelled to stay in; our approach is always to share the responsibilities. What I will say though is that Armand started out as an art director and is also an illustrator, so he’s definitely more focused on production design, establishing colour palettes, and the overall look of the film. He’s known to noodle a lot on set with set dressing… If calling him ‘The Noodler’ didn’t make crew people feel weird, I’d probably call him’ The Noodler’. But we won’t do that.”
Meanwhile, Armand points to Eric’s extensive vocabulary and ability to make almost anything interesting as an explanation for his role as ’The Talker’ within the duo.
“It’s quite remarkable, actually. He can talk just about anything and keep it entertaining. You want to talk about the best toothpaste to use? Call Eric. You want to talk about why London Dry is the best style of Gin? Call Eric. If you had to be trapped in an elevator with one person, pray that it’s Eric. He’ll make the time go by pretty fast.”
Today, the duo keeps their work fresh by looking to the world around them, inspired by film, TV, music and art, directors including The Coen Brothers, Edgar Wright, Paul Thomas Anderson, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and Bong Joon Ho have made an impact in their approach. “Filmmakers that are always pushing boundaries but keeping that human quality in the work that keeps it grounded.”
Eric adds, “Another big place we draw inspiration from is just life, observing human behaviour, and soaking in the world around us. From production design, to wardrobe, to an actor's performance, a lot of the ideas and tone we’re going for are drawn from things we’ve seen or experienced.”
A great example of this can be seen in a recent JEAN’S SISTER production for soft serve company CVT. The spots, titled ‘Lottery Ticket’ and ‘Lake House’, needed to feel authentic and representative of working class realities, and so the pair dug through their own memory archives, opting to shoot in the working-class town in Long Island where Armand grew up, source the same car his family had driven when he was in high school, and even dress the lead actress in a pantsuit similar to the one Eric’s mother used to wear at her sales job.
“That’s a long-winded way of saying authenticity and specificity always plays a big role in everything we do,” says Armand. “Our goal is to always create worlds that people know are JEAN spots without knowing it’s us, if that makes any sense.
“We also want everything we put out there to feel fresh and never derivative. Having our inspiration come from things that we personally know and love, and from things we’ve experienced, results in an end product that is uniquely us. It’s like we’re putting a big stamp on everything we do… but you can’t see the stamp, which is good, because it would definitely be weird if all of our spots had giant stamps on them.”
Equally important in this equation is JEAN’S SISTER itself, which is built to reflect who Armand and Eric are as directors and creatives. “A lot of our best work is work that we’ve not only directed, but also written, produced, and done all of the post on,” Eric reflects, referring to previous projects such as ‘Recipe for Seduction’ for KFC, which went on to be named ‘Certified Fresh’ by Rotten Tomatoes.
“There’s still a tonne of work out there where you have a traditional agency, which hires a production company, and then a separate post house is brought in,” Eric notes. “But there’s also an increasing demand for places that can do it all. Our model can do it all, or we can keep it OG and just do some of it. We always like to say that ‘we can do everything you need, or just some of the things you need’.”
“We have writers and art directors from the advertising industry, as well as screenwriters and producers from television and film,” Armand continues. “Bringing a fresh perspective to all of the work with a team that knows how to think big is something that is important to us, and we’re set up to do just that.”
While the sense of humour that has accompanied JEAN throughout their career has of course permeated JEAN’S SISTER too, it’s also accompanied by a broader ambition to make work that really resonates.
Armand explains, “For us, it’s not about always being funny; it’s about triggering an emotional response no matter where it comes from. We want to put work out there that moves you in some way. If you walk away from it feeling something, we’ve won. (Unless that feeling is utter disgust because you hated it so much… then, we lost).”
Looking to the future, the pair share a great deal of excitement, despite the amount of change happening in advertising at the moment. As Eric puts it, “[It] seems like every week we’re discovering a new technology, whether it be a new camera or a piece of VFX software that makes our jobs a little easier.”
Armand adds, “We look at this time in advertising similar to the indie film movement in the ‘90s, where the film business became democratised by writers and directors that were looking to figure out a way to get great work out into the world. As with most production companies out there, we’re always set up to take on and crush the big jobs, but we also want to give our smaller clients the opportunity to do great work and not have challenged resources be the barrier to entry that they once were.”
With this in mind, as the JEAN’S SISTER roster grows – JEAN are the only directors on it, as it stands – Armand and Eric are steadfast in their belief that collaboration, teamwork, and being A-grade advice givers must remain a hallmark of their work, no matter how the company continues to evolve.
“We believe the best creative comes when you have the right people to bounce ideas off of, and if we bring in more talent, we will be fully committed to being not only EPs, but true creative partners, because we understand better than most that when a director feels supported, they’re going to do their best work,” says Armand.
“It starts with us, but it extends to the team we have in place,” Eric concludes. “Line producers, DoPs, production designers, wardrobe stylists, editors… If you don’t have great people, even the most talented director will be set up to fail.”
