Bryan Buckley on Crafting a Santa with Danny Zuko’s Soul
On behalf of Capital One, John Travolta is back as Santa – and this year, he has Danny Zuko’s soul. After launching during covid with a Samuel L. Jackson reunion and continuing with a Saturday Night Fever homage, the latest edition of the campaign from GSD&M and hungryman director Bryan Buckley is a full-scale reimagining of Greased Lightnin’.
To bring it to life, the team rebuilt the iconic sequence from the ground up. The choreography was adapted for the rhythm of a modern commercial, production tracked down and transformed a pair of matching 1949 Fords, and the post team brought a full herd of reindeer to life in just two weeks. John even performed the famous slide under the car himself. No CGI, just Santa committing to the bit like it’s 1978.
To find out more about recreating one of cinema’s most iconic scenes. LBB’s Addison Capper chatted with director Bryan and Scott Brewer, SVP/creative director at GSD&M.
LBB> Bryan, what was your first reaction when you heard the idea – Santa doing ‘Greased Lightnin’’ with John Travolta?
Bryan> "The real giants have always been poets, people who jumped from facts into the realm of imagination and ideas." Being an ad nerd, this famous Bill Bernbach quote sprung to my mind as I read through the script from GSD&M.
The creative force of Scott Brewer, Ryan Carroll, Brandon Curl and Dale Austin had channeled the very notion of Bernbach's words into what I thought could become an instant classic.
LBB> How did John respond to the idea of returning to such an iconic role in this way?
Scott> John has been great and it has been quite a fun walk through memory lane for him to tap back into dance moves from his iconic roles in ‘Saturday Night Fever’ and ‘Grease’. The anticipation of the third script in the series was already there, and given that this was the third in the series he was already comfortable with Bryan and the teams at hungryman and GSD&M to pull off the execution. The only thing left was nailing down the scene and once he saw it would be a reprise of such an iconic moment in Greased Lightnin’ he was all in.
LBB> How involved was John in shaping the performance?
Bryan> John and I were in constant communication from the time the boards reached him. It's one of the most beautiful things about working with John. From us talking character to choreographing dance steps. Everything was discussed weeks out. And then walked through on set the night before the shoot.
Scott> John was of course very involved in shaping the performance along with Bryan and a broadway choreographer who helped shape the dancing elves around John. John even went so far as participating in a rehearsal day to smooth out the choreography for the next day so that it was more ironed out when the lights came on. It’s also incredibly impressive that he agreed to Bryan’s idea of having him replicate the slide under the vehicle from the original Greased Lightnin’ scene. That’s not AI, folks.
LBB> How did you find the challenge of ‘recreating’ something so iconic? And how did that inform your approach?
Bryan> The movie was filled with clever layers. We needed to approach this the same way – but with the lens of ‘what would Santa do?’ And specifically, what would a Santa with Danny Zucko's soul do?
LBB> What details from the original ‘Grease’ performance were you most determined to honour – and where did you allow yourselves to break from it?
Bryan> Ahh. The most determined to honour... I think transitioning between the garage ‘real’ Santa world and the all white ‘surreal’ world was just such a cool thing to use as our north star. I mean after all, it's not often you get to do a Christmas spot when even Santa's north pole world isn't surreal enough, right?
Far as breaking from things – Only Bad Santa owns the world of foul language. Sorry, Danny Zucko, we had to clean you up a bit.
Scott> Starting with the ‘Holiday Night Fever’ spot, Bryan has been so impressively diligent about studying the original scenes of that film and ‘Grease’ as he brought the spots to life. The set design has so many nods to the original Greased Lightnin’ and John’s choreography and slide under the car as the transition to the white room world were spot on and something Bryan wanted to make sure he honoured from the original. It’s been a production goal to honour the original films with scenes that match almost shot for shot from the originals. And again, it's been so impressive to see John not only being asked to replicate dance moves he did 48 years ago, but also have to do them dressed as Santa.
LBB> How did the choreography, lighting and camera movement work together to sell that classic ‘Grease’ feel?
Bryan> Andy Blankenbuehler is a genius. Sure he choreographed that musical ‘Hamilton’. But the way he figured out how to get elves to execute QuickSilver card swipes was mind-blowing.
My never-stop-tinkering-for-a-better-shot cinematographer, Scott Henriksen, tested a series of lenses to capture the exact vibe of the film. He suggested using Tamashii lenses. They have a less clean look, more flawed than what you generally see for Christmas spots.
LBB> And how did you navigate that as director?
Bryan> When you get a board this good, and a client and a creative team's full trust, then the only navigation you're doing is how to make every second of your shoot day as good as it can be. (That includes lengthy meetings with my producer Matt Lefebvre, GSD&M producer Jon Ellis, and my AD, Craig Owens. All of us putting our collective heads together to make a one day shoot schedule with Travolta work.)
LBB> Which other aspects did you really find yourself spending a lot of time figuring out and grappling with?
Bryan> My very gifted editor, Mike Leuis, and I worked on countless board-o-matics to help tell the story and figure out key timings for the dance moves and lyrics.
I am talking like 20 board-o-matics. Nothing was left to chance.
LBB> What were the biggest production challenges and how did you solve them?
Bryan> Well, finding the original 1949 Ford from the movie and converting it into a sleigh had to be the craziest challenge. Oh, then finding another matching car for the surreal world and modifying it red sleigh worthy of a Travolta-Zucko Santa. All that credit goes to my insanely detail obsessed production designer David Skinner.
Then after completing that mission, we had to create eight reindeer in two weeks (complete with leather helmets and flying goggles) to pull the damn thing. That task was completed flawlessly by the effects team led by Eric Mason at Parliament.
How we got that done that fast required going to some reindeer farm 2500 miles away and taking countless reference shots. And building the reindeer ahead of time.
Scott> Probably the hardest thing for John has been matching his well known dance choreography with the pace of an edited commercial. If you think about Broadway or the choreography from his old movies, it timed out much differently than the short three-four-second scenes we asked him to perform throughout a 30-second or 60-second commercial. But to his credit he and the hungryman team put in the time to get those details dialed in and the changes in timing are hardly noticeable from the original scenes. I won’t mention the difficulty of keeping the reindeer from grazing at craft service.
LBB> What’s one thing people would be surprised to learn about how this spot was actually made?
Bryan> All the elf dancers were under 5 feet 5 inches. And the entire bag going in the back of the sleigh choreography was improv’d in five minutes as a last second thought. That's a lot of fives.
Scott> That John Travolta did all of his dancing and performance moments in-camera without CGI assistance. While also wearing makeup and a heavy Santa costume. So impressive. The move under the car and then out the other side in the white room being one of the most impressive physical feats of the shoot.
LBB> Any parting thoughts?
Bryan> "An idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on the talent that rubs against it.” Well I started this interview with a Bernbach quote. Why not end it on one, right?
