Jordache – The making of a commercial
My latest commercial for the legendary “Jordache Jeans” brand was released nationwide this week.
Jordache has been around for decades and is known for it’s funky commercial spots with great theme tune yet it has been 20 years since their last commercial aired. So it was an honor to be asked to direct the latest commercial by CEO of Jordache Shaul Nakash and his creative team at DMA headed up by Sam Sohaili. They had been responsible for the highly acclaimed and successful print ads of late using Heidi Klum and Elizabeth Hurley for Jordache.
At our first meeting Shaul described his initial idea of taking the viewer through the eras of 70s to now, representing Jordache Jeans all the way. It was my job to bring it to life and come up with a creative that was direct-able and within budget! We had 4 decades that we needed to portray the 70s, 80s, 90s and now. The biggest challenges were going to be how to transition from one decade to another and how to tell this whole story in just 30 seconds…
I worked with a fabulous storyboard artist Geuri De La Rosa who sat with me for hours as I brainstormed various concepts and locations etc. Finally I presented the idea of a Brooklyn townhouse as aspirational city living that was not pretentious but obviously nostalgic. We decided to shoot the various decades using specific technology or film treatments reminiscent of the eras. So for the 70′s we actually shot the whole scene on a Super 16mm camera that belonged to my DP in order to get that jumpy and scratched looking footage that’s super saturated. For the 80s we went with a hand held, early MTV video look and feel with video monitor lines across the picture and poppy colors. For the 90s we removed the color but kept the blue in for the jeans reminiscent of early photoshop tricks that were prevalent at the time and of course for now we used the most modern sophisticated equipment at our finger tips. The music was also an important factor so we had it remixed for each era, the 70s was left in the original format then we changed the 80s to be more poppy/Michael Jackson meets the Pointer Sisters and the 90s we gave a R&B feeling similar to En Vogue. And for now we gave the theme tune a Postal Service meets Feist feeling…. Each scene is peppered with props to decorate the set like a series of cars that were generation appropriate and hair, make up and styling were pivotal. Of course the commercial came together so well because of the talented Katrina Bowden of 30 Rock fame who literally rocked each decade of Jordache jeans. The current Jordache jeans are available at Walmart so now you have no excuse to get yourself a pair and shake what your Mama gave you!
Many thanks to my glam squad – Andrew Fitzsimons for Hair, Quinn Murphy for make up and Emily Barnes for wardrobe. Emily actually had to buy vintage Jordache jeans from Ebay to get the actual accurate jeans from the 70s and 80s! Many thanks to Forest Watson for perfect prop styling and set design. Thanks to Ali Azios at Studio NB and Nicole Rodan at Harbor Films for producing the film flawlessly. To Noah Lit and his band in LA who remixed the Jordache jingle like true maestros! I want to give a huge shout out to Marcus Brooks my DP and Theo Stanley who was second camera on this assignment as well as the teams of gaffers, grips and ACs etc. Both men have worked with me on my Haiti films, Generation Free shot in Tanzania and A Sealed Fate? shot in Canada as well as countless commercial projects for major advertisers.
5 Comments
Been waiting to see this, well done on a great commercial. Was longing to see what you had done with the 70s (my era as a bright young thing!) I don’t recall that much of the midriff ever being shown, but I did have a little top very similar to the one being worn, with jeans of course, we loved mixing cotton lace camisole tops with denim. So, yes, you got it perfect, except for the style of jeans in the 70s, never would we have worn drain pipers, we were wearing flares! The wider the better!
Thanks Chrissy – the jeans are actually vintage Jordache jeans from the 70s and Farah Fawcett was well known for showing a little midriff…..
NB
Loved it! The concept of the different eras worked very well. I’m a 90′s baby by the way
The glam squad are the best! In using a little slang from todays era to mean approval or praise, tell Quinn, Andrew, and Emily I said “werk!!” haha.
-Brandi Nicole
“Werk” would explain the rather odd noise my daughter is inclined to utter from time to time, and there was I thinking it was rather good seagull impersonations!
LOVE this! got so excited when i finally saw it! awesome!!