REAP WHAT YOU SOW - The Drum

24DESERT ISLAND CLIPSwww.thedrum.com 12.APR.13 THE DRUMdesertislandclipsStuart Douglas of NiceShirt Films imagines himselfcastaway on a desert island,relaying to Jason Stone ofDavid Reviews the film clipshe’d want to take with him.Each interviewee in this serieshas faced the difficulty of decidinghow much of their own work toinclude in their selection, but noone seems to have agonised overthis as much as Stuart Douglas ofNice Shirt Films. It was clear thathe’d much rather champion filmsmade by other directors than bigup his own work.This is one of the reasons whyhe’s as far from the stereotypicalrepresentation of a film director asit’s possible to be. Quietly spoken andfaultlessly polite, Douglas is thoughtfulin both senses. It wasn’t a surprisewhen he revealed that the thought ofincluding any of his own commercialshad made him “uncomfortable” and itwas only because of arm twisting bycolleagues that he’d included anythingfrom his own canon.His life behind the camera beganas half of the stills photographyduo The Douglas Brothers. He andhis brother Andrew established aformidable reputation in the late1980s and were celebrated for adistinctive look that was much copied.Like some of their contemporaries,they graduated from photographingalbum covers to directing pop promos.Then, as now, pop promos did notpay very well, so the brothers jumpedat an opportunity provided by TimDelaney. Having just won the Adidasaccount, Delaney wanted to surprisethe sportswear giant with an “entirelynew approach” and believed he coulddo this by giving the Douglases carteblanche – “he gave us a bunch ofmoney, the likes of which we’d neverseen before, and said ‘Go away. Bringme back films. Bring me back stills. Bringme back anything,’ and so we went toAmerica, toured around, and came backwith around 17 different commercials.”Was it terrifying to be given suchan open brief? “No, we thought itwas normal. We thought this washow it worked – they just give you aload of money and you make whatyou want.” To his regret, Douglas hasspent the rest of his career discoveringhow atypical this experience was.He and Andrew stayed togetherfor as long as they could, trying tomake the dual director approachwork: “It’s not easy. On set, there’sa machine and the instructions needto be clear. And quite often wewould give conflicting directions.”As the younger of the two, herecognises now that he was tryingto grab his “own bit of authority”.“It became quite fiery. We’d have fistfights on the set, much to the crew’samusement. And we held it togetheras long as we could but actually it wasreally miserable. Miserable for us andmiserable for the people around us.“We called it a day – quite“it became quite fiery. we’d havefist fights on the set, much tothe crew’s amusement.”acrimoniously actually – and he wentto the States which was good as it gaveme some space here and, of course, itgave him space over there. We didn’t talkfor about five years but we’re fine now.”Although it was “daunting” to stepinto the directing arena by himself,he had all the experience requiredto quickly established a solo careerand he’s been successfully makingcommercials ever since.01 Mercedes ‘Time’“It’s just so stylish and edgy at thesame time,” explains Douglas whenasked why he selected Johnny Green’s2008 Mercedes commercial featuringJosh Brolin. “It gets its tone from themusic track (by Nick Cave andWarren Ellis) which is really dark. It’sreally well cut and it’s really well shot.And it’s just full of atmosphere. Andbecause it’s a car that can sometimeshave connotations of being driven bygentle old men, it provided a reallyfresh look at [the brand].”After delivering such a positiveappraisal, Douglas laughingly ownsup to professional envy: “I was guttedwhen I first saw it... because I loved it.”This leads to a discussion about theway directors can be typecast whichis clearly a source of frustration: “I findthat I’m pigeon-holed in a number ofpigeon holes. There are some peoplethat only know me for car photography.