Ronald Koetzier, definitely one of the masters of tabletop, sits down with us to share his insights for a perfect food commercial, as well as his angle for achieving the ideal close-up and his legendary suitcase of gears. The interview was conducted by Jakub Laskus, founder of Bites, and Agnieszka Celej, editor-in-chief of Director’y.
Agnieszka Celej: Ronald, how do you feel as a director whose stills land in almost every brief as the mood board?
Ronald Koetzier: That is what happens a lot nowadays – agencies and clients are looking for examples. You can’t just say ‘oh, the chocolate’s flowing from left to right and in the meantime there are hazelnuts flying in the air‘. They need to see examples. They end up looking for examples and they see my work and go… ‘ah!‘.
But, to be honest, I do the same. I also look at someone else’s work and say ‘that’s nice’ and sometimes, if it was done with yogurt and strawberries for example; you can use the same good trick, but with chocolate and hazelnuts. You just change it a little bit and you have something new.
The only thing that’s not-so-nice, is when the client insists on doing something exactly the same way someone else has already done it. So agencies are looking for examples, and once it’s approved by their bosses, the example becomes a 1:1 reference. It’s a pity. There is less freedom nowadays.
A: Do you see such a tendency? On one hand we are surrounded by tons of images, but the result is the opposite? Instead of having a broader imagination, do we end up with less freedom?
R: It’s rather that the companies are getting bigger and everyone is afraid that they’ll make the wrong choices. They’re looking for examples, they test things and they change the storyboard. Run tests again, till, finally, after 3 months, it’s a perfect storyboard. The director is called; and as a director, if you want to change something, it’s not possible. In such situations I always tell them ‘ok, I’ll be a cameraman then – it’s much cheaper‘.
via www.ronaldkoetzier.com
A: Are you suggesting that the director should be involved in the creative process prior to the brief?
R: That would be nice. It happens, but rather rarely. Sometimes I feel sad for the agencies, because it’s tough to come up with something new. Doing something completely differently is super hard. Then again, sometimes I’m happy that I get the ready idea, or 80% of the idea. If I did it all myself, it could take a lot of work and a lot of frustration.
A: Having such vast experience and shooting so many commercials, is there any product you’d still like to shoot?
R: What I like about shooting is lighting, the composition and movement – just making beautiful pictures. That’s the reward for me, when you go ‘wow, that’s fantastic!‘.
It can happen with any product. A bottle of perfume, flowing chocolate; literally anything.
A: And how often do you feel rewarded after seeing the final result? How many times is it exactly what you’ve imagined?
R: Oh, yeah, that’s a funny question. The thing is, on set, especially when you do a lot of special effects, things change. Plan A never works – you always end up with plan D or E.
Sometimes, you see the storyboard and you think, ‘oh, that’s gonna be fantastic‘ and then in the end it doesn’t work out like that- the effects don’t really work well. Then sometimes you see a storyboard and you say ‘it’s gonna be boring, but let’s do it’- and it turns out to be great.
A: What would be the perfect recipe for a good commercial?
R: What I always suggest is a combination of spectacular, appetizing shots. For me that’s the perfect commercial. For example, if it’s a chocolate commercial, you can explode the chocolate rock and fly around it and you see the chocolate parts crumbling; you see power. That’s spectacular, but not appetizing. After that you need beautiful dripping chocolate which is mouthwatering. Then of course, if you have interesting live action in there – I think that’s the best recipe for tabletop.
