Amy Allais on “Learning Everything about Everything on Set”

Recently signed to HOBBY, director Amy Allais is no stranger to groundbreaking work. Or as she calls her own work: “funny, ballsy and a little strange.” She’s been directing commercials for 20 years now, spanning epic choreographies, knee-slapping irreverent comedy and her infamous work with children and babies on set. Although, she doesn’t quite see this as her specialisation - “Sheesh. You make one cute kid commercial and they won’t leave you alone!” To her, working with children is a way to stretch her otherwise jacked directing muscles and is “just one itsy bitsy part of what she does.” “Super fun though,” she adds. Her global success across the entire EMEA region has graced brands like Gillette, Nando’s, L’Oreal and Renault, among others.

Amy’s affinity for strong visuals and “pitch-perfect comedy” finds its beginning in her childhood, throughout which she admits to having been “a thoroughly undiscriminating theatre nerd.” TV back then was only permitted for an hour a day, so it was “all about live performance” for her. This adds up, since her parents met in an amateur dramatics society which Amy would otherwise find quite cringe, but now thinks was “rather wonderful.” She even ended up memorising all the words by heart for every one of the cheesy plays that her mum and dad participated in.

Meanwhile, her mother’s day job was as a school librarian, so she managed to get Amy tickets to everything. “I hoovered it all up,” confesses Amy. “Opera, ballet, modern dance, pantomime, anti-apartheid protest theatre. And we went to the ‘art house’ (code for non-Hollywood cinema) every Friday night.”

Naturally, Amy acted in every high school play, and directed whatever she was allowed to. Despite this theatre-infused upbringing, it wasn’t until much later that the idea of becoming a filmmaker even occurred to her. However, it quickly began to appeal much more to Amy than theatre because of the technical aspects. “I’m a sucker for a lens,” she says.

One thing led to another, and Amy dropped out of university to go to film school. Although, she’s adamant to not oversell that step on the ladder as the beginning of her creative journey. One thing is clear to her: “I learned everything about everything on set. Solving problems.”

Some of her early experiences problem solving on set included doing a couple of PSAs with the production house where she was working as a creative researcher. “It was a revelation,” she exclaims.

“Finally working with true professionals opened my eyes to the essential truth of all filmmaking - you are only as good as the people you work with.”

So, when she expanded her work across multiple markets and covered some massive brands, she took that knowledge with her. Wherever she went across her region of work, Amy knew that assembling the right team is the stepping stone to a good production. That, and time and money of course. “With those things I can work anywhere really. But my sweet spot is probably working with a team I know and trust.”

When it comes to her personal sense of humour, Amy says she likes to be “caught off-guard”. Something she herself does to audiences in much of her work. This approach shines through her projects, like those with yoghurt brand Noosa. ‘Flavour From Down Under’ sees a person enjoying their morning yog upside down, but as his milk and blueberries spill under the relentless force of gravity, the Noosa stays intact. 

Similarly, her SPAR2U ad ‘Tops Braai’ utilises a level of absurdity to drive home the brief - ‘with SPAR2U, you can order anything, at any time’. The SPAR and Noosa insights have one thing in common - their simplicity. It’s the delivery where Amy’s irreverence and ability to catch the eye is evident. The sound, colour and brilliant copywriting are there as the perfect side dish to a well-rounded main course.

Her abstract approach also took centre stage in ‘Giraffe’ for King Price. Simply put, as we watch a guy in a tank top wash his dishes, a real giraffe pokes his head through the window and licks the leftovers off one of the plates. Naturally, the main character is happy with the free dish washing and puts the plate away on the drying rack without even rinsing it. Nasty, but inadvertently hilarious. 

“Giraffes do not like being transported, and I was adamant that I didn’t want any CGI,” explains Amy. “So we built the set on the game farm where the tame giraffe lived. To make it comfortable for her to put her head through the window, the whole set had to be raised on a rostrum.” But that was only the first challenge.

When it came to the giraffe licking the plate, Amy wanted crusted and congealed gravy as the leftovers, but the giraffe didn’t like anything with that texture. “The only thing she would lick was crushed up cream cheese and chives-flavoured Lays crisps. It was all very nerve wracking, but we did an extensive amount of preparation and expectation-managing, so actually the shoot itself was a riot. Somewhere out there, there’s a video of that giraffe taking a crisp out of my mouth.”

So, what does Amy Allais do when she’s not feeding giraffes from her own mouth? Knitting vintage patterns with enormous needles, cooking for crowds (but less than 12 people, because more than that “gives [her] heart palpitations”), cruising on a bicycle and looking for a playful choir to fit somewhere in her erratic schedule. All things you would expect a comedy enthusiast to be doing in their free time. So, keep your eyes peeled for what Amy does with HOBBY in her next move.