The story behind The Godfather shows the brutal reality of creativity. Photo / Getty Images
The story behind The Godfather shows the brutal reality of creativity. Photo / Getty Images
OPINION:
If you've ever been interested in the creative process behind filming a television commercial, have a look at The Offer, which is now showing on TVNZ on Demand. Particularly if you think that advertising or filmmaking might be a career that you're interested in.
This 10 part docudrama isall about the making of Oscar winner The Godfather, one of the most revered movies ever made. The Offer recounts the story of the producer, Al Ruddy, who was in charge of making the movie.
It was Ruddy's job to organise the story that the director, Francis Ford Coppola, wanted to tell. There were some tough problems to overcome and make the movie the way that they believed that it should be made. For example, the studio bosses initially refused to have either Marlon Brando or Al Pacino in the movie; the budget wasn't nearly enough for Coppola's grand schemes; and the mafia wanted to shut down production because they felt the script was derogatory toward Italian Americans.
Watching it, I was struck by how similar the process and the problems that the filmmakers faced were to the way that TV commercials are made, albeit on a different scale.
I know what you're thinking - that the making of one of the finest films of all time has little in common with a 30-second commercial that insists you try McDonald's new Chicken Burger - but believe me the processes are closer than you might think. OK, so I've never been threatened by the mafia, but overall the background issues are remarkably consistent, just the scale of talent and the sums involved are different.
Every live-action commercial made is a mini-movie and the film crews are often the same people whether it's The Lord of The Rings or a new flavour of instant porridge (available for a limited time).
Same problems, different budget
I've worked on ads where the actor chosen for the lead role has been rejected the day before the shoot because the client thought he had "peasant hands".
I've had an ad rejected while we were already shooting because the US bosses changed their minds and decided from afar that they didn't like it. "You can finish shooting if you like, but it'll never run," said our client, cheerfully.
Al Pacino was almost rejected for his lead role in The Godfather. Photo / Getty Images
On the morning of a shoot, I've had Pamela Anderson tell me that our script was crap and refuse to say her lines. I'm not saying she was wrong, but she'd already had the script for a month.
I've sheltered from a cyclone in Fiji which wiped out two days of filming so badly that the Tourist Minister of Fiji told us to go home. We still finished the ad.
I've dealt with directors every bit as obsessed as Coppola (but a lot less talented) who behave like a toddler if they don't get their way.
You might think that the Godfather was a particularly hard movie to make because they knew they were making a masterpiece. This is not true. As Hollywood writer and director Judd Apatow said: "Every movie is an experiment that might not work." In fact, Coppola was reluctant to work on it in the first place, as he thought it was culturally insignificant. The quality of a film is in no way correlated with the difficulty of the shoot.
So often we go through this tortured process for the mediocre. We spend months fighting over casting, locations, editing and music trying to make the ad as good as it can be. Then when it finally goes on air and we ask our mates what they think: "It's OK, I suppose, but not as good as the last one. You didn't make that one with the cute dog, did you?"
The only thing exceptional about the making of The Godfather was a great outcome. The making of a movie is just as stressful whether the movie is any good or not. The same is true for ads. Making a bad ad is just as hard as making a good one. Actually, it's worse because at least with the good ones you can look back with pride.
Every now and again you produce one that's really good and you make people smile for a couple of seconds. When this happens, advertising is a lot of fun. But the stress is relentless, which is why these days I'm more than happy to let someone else deal with the headaches. I've had enough of waking up with a horse's head in my bed.
