Spike Lee, Tango and ‘La Haine’: The Work That Made Jack Cole
New RSA UK/US signing Jack Cole is a filmmaker renowned for his comedic storytelling. His work reflects a talent for casting and performance, complemented by striking visuals and art direction.
Jack has directed work for agencies and brands worldwide, including campaigns for Mother, Droga5, BBH, AMV BBDO, BETC, and Uncommon. Jack's recent commercial work includes back-to-back campaigns for Red Baron, and Little Caesars 'The Lake Giveth” campaign, winning several awards including a gold CLIO.
In addition to commercials, Jack directs shorts and installation films and is an avid stills photographer. His artworks have exhibited widely, with The National Gallery in London commissioning him to create a film installation for their major exhibition, ‘Seduced by Art’. His work has also been shown at the Salon Art Fair in New York, the Spazio Orlandi Gallery in Milan, and Paul Smith in London.
Jack chats to LBB about his love of 90’s Nike ads, shooting live ostriches for his first US job, and why work is always better when everyone is on the same page.
The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…
Jack> Not sure exactly how I saw them then, as I doubt they would have aired on UK TV, but somehow, I saw the early 90’s Nike ads directed and starring Spike Lee alongside Micheal Jordan. They were fresh, punchy and felt so different to UK ads of the time, and full of stuff I was into back then – trainers I could only dream of, Michael Jordan dunking and Spike Lee’s playful, funky film style. It made me think ads could actually be cool.
Also a special shout out for the Tango ‘You’ve been Tango’d’ spot. It was so brilliantly weird, original, and hilarious… and Gil Scott-Heron on the voice over at the end.
The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…
Jack> I studied film during an amazing period of music video and ad production, which was hugely inspiring. The era of Spike Jonze, Jonathan Glazer, Michel Gondry, and the ‘The Work of’ DVD compilations (these were compilation DVD’s showcasing the work of the top directors – if you know, you know!).
The range of creativity, ideas and different filmic styles in this short-form world drew me in and I started to think ‘I would love to do that’. I loved the humour and tone of Spike Jonze’s work, and the cinematic nature of Jonathan Glazer’s films.
There’s an edit sequence that builds to an epic final slow-mo shot at the end of UNKLE’s ‘Rabbit in Your Headlights’ video that I thought was the absolute pinnacle. I’d watch it over and over trying to decode how it worked.
The creative work that I keep revisiting…
Jack> I’ve watched ‘La Haine’ more than any other film. It’s the film that made me want to make films, and I’ll never tire of it.
I would have been 16 when I first saw it, and it felt like a slap around the face – the story, the filmmaking, the mix of hip hop wrapped in European art-house sensibility. Even the fact it’s in black and white with sub-titles added makes it feel sophisticated and profound. I still think it’s a complete masterpiece and embodies everything I love about film.
Among all the drama and beautiful cinematography, some of my favourite scenes are those that punctuate the story with absurd humour. Like when Vinz (Vincent Cassell) sees the cow he’s been telling his dismissive friends about, as it appears bizarrely in the middle of the Parisian ghetto. Or the scene in the public bathroom, where a stranger appears from a cubicle to recount a story – a life lesson of sorts – that leaves the main characters completely baffled.
My first professional project…
Jack> I began working as part of a directors duo with Norwegian director, Stian Smestad. We’d made some short films together that did well, and off the back of those managed to get ourselves repped and secured our first jobs. The very first one was a Norwegian Lotto commercial in Oslo.
I was completely unprepared for the weather conditions while shooting at a ski-slope, even though the Norwegian crew advised me otherwise and I wore inappropriate gear (I thought they were over-egging it, I mean it’s not like we’re going up Everest is it?).
Cut to – a shivering me, sliding slowly, uncontrollably down the slope in my jeans and trainers, with an audience of North Face-clad locals watching unimpressed.
The piece of work that made me so angry that I vowed to never make anything like *that*…
Jack> There’s no particular piece of work… but I do get irked when an art-direction or wardrobe detail is obviously wrong in its context. You can just feel it’s been chosen by people who don’t understand. The most common example of this trope is an urban youth character in an ad wearing totally the wrong fugly trainers. From personal experience, this can be a tricky bit of styling to navigate due to the whole ‘must be unbranded’ thing. But I believe details like this need to be right to avoid feeling cringe. I have been known to go shoe-shopping on my down days, spending per diems to address this very detail. It’s more niche but also don’t get me started about ‘art directed’ graffiti. I always swore that if I ever needed to art-direct graffiti for a shoot, I would insist on getting someone ‘legit’ to do it, instead of an art-direction assistant having a go at their first ‘tag’.
The piece of work that still makes me jealous…
Jack> Pretty much anything that Andreas Nilson, Jeff Low or Nick Ball makes at the moment… ha! I love the Andrex spots by Mr Nilson – ‘First Office Poo’ and ‘First School Poo’. They would have been dream jobs – with farts, toilet humour, comically over-dramatised builds, cinematic framing and lighting. The score on both these ads are inspiring. When I first watched ‘First School Poo’, the moment when the heavy beat kicked in, I definitely thought ‘dammit I wish I’d done that’.
The creative project that changed my career…
Jack> A couple spring to mind. My first US commercial that was actually shot in London. It was a spot for Stride gum, featuring Stride employees bursting through walls riding ostriches. We won the job with a ‘let’s do it for real’ approach, shooting with actual ostriches in a grubby London studio. It went down well and with that successful first US job under my belt, I was able to begin working more regularly in America.
Another key project was YouTube ‘Spacelab’, which is nearly 15 years old now. I was involved from the inception of the idea, developing the creative and taking it all the way through shoot and post. It didn’t have a huge budget, but I poured myself into it and it taught me the valuable lesson that working hard, really caring, refining every little detail (e.g. make the artwork for book covers yourself or pillage your home for props when needed), then you can really feel it in the end result. Our ‘little’ project totally exceeded expectations and got massive views online.
The work that I’m proudest of…
Jack> Is my short film ‘An Ode to Hill and Adamson’, which I made with artist Maisie Broadhead and hung on the walls of the National Gallery, London. It was part of a major exhibition called ‘Seduced by Art’ that included a broad range of artists and photographers such as Julia Margaret Cameron and Martin Parr as well as historic paintings from the NG collection. I’m a fine-art painting nerd, and the National Gallery is an important place to me. To have my work on those hallowed walls was special.
The recent project I was involved in that excited me the most…
Jack> I’ve loved collaborating with the TBWA/Chiat/Day creatives on the Red Baron pizza campaign over the last couple of years. It’s been a joy to have the trust of the agency and client on two rounds of films for the campaign, and the work is always better when everyone is on the same page. Creatives Will and Andrew have such clever and funny writing, often coming up with new lines on set, and they’re always pushing the comedy further. It was really fun to spin a base concept across a number of films and define the personality of the campaign while also making each one visually and tonally different.
