Dream Teams: MAMA on Living in a State of Tinkering and Riffing

Together, Mark Potoka and Matt Spicer form World War Seven’s directing duo, MAMA. Before bringing their talents onto set, the pair were deskmates and became friends at Wieden + Kennedy. Despite initially being told their joint creative was “too dark”, they eventually were allowed to work together, and from there, Matt, a trained copywriter, and Mark, an art director-turned writer, wrote as many comedic scripts as they could get their hands on the briefs for.

Now pairing their funny dialogue with cinematic visuals, they are carving out a distinct comedic look and voice, influenced by their years of ad writing. As a directorial duo, the pair has now worked with the top agencies on campaigns for household names, including GEICO, Rocket Mortgage, Dave’s Hot Chicken, Hershey’s, Anheuser Busch and more.

Constantly communicating to achieve a “hive-mind consensus” on each creative decision, MAMA doesn’t divide its roles and responsibilities between the two, instead vetting each other's ideas until a refined, unified approach is met. So when it comes time to shoot, there’s little question as to what needs to be executed.

“We both have a very good sense of where each other’s heads are at and what performances we’re after,” says Matt. “Of course, we also improv with actors and make adjustments, but that’s the fun part. It’s also where we shine. Riffing and throwing out lines until we make the work as funny as can be.”

For Mark, it’s only ever the little things that cause clashes between them - be it a lens choice, how a shot is framed or whose line is funnier - but these disagreements rarely escalate to frustration. Matt jokes, “We have a small room on every set where we can beat up effigies of each other and then go back to set and let cooler heads prevail. It’s why we’re sometimes holding fake limbs and why we’re always a little sweaty.”

Transitioning to the production world has proven easier than expected for MAMA, with Matt going as far to say it felt “a little like cheating” to start their directing career with several years as a successful creative partnership already under their belts. “We just start with the ball at the five-yard line every time,” he says, explaining how the pair try to re-write every bit of creative they’re given to give people an insight into their style, and to shake off some of the inherent restraints of the idea.

“We know how it goes - how many iterations, clients and creatives weigh into the work through the process. So sometimes it’s good to approach it with fresh eyes and ideas that don’t have all the baggage,” says Mark. “Sometimes, we push things too far, want to set too many things on fire, or want to jackknife too many semi-trucks (if anyone has a concept that allows us to do this, please call us).” 

Above: 'Stain' for GEICO

He continues, “We’re always putting thoughts and all our creative energy into that part, because we’ll always feel better about ourselves knowing we tried to make something the best it can be. And if you saw any of our work that wasn’t good, that’s the part where they didn’t listen to us…”

Matt adds that they’ve always had the ability to make each other laugh and push the envelope when writing together - the only difference now is that people tend to trust their ideas more as directors. “It’s nice and also terrifying,” he says. Saying this, pushing people to go along with their riskier ideas is always a challenge. The pair uses the entire pitch and prep process to prove an idea out and quell any doubts, utilising casting, storyboards and rough animatics (which they lovingly dub “shit-o-matics”) to find the funniest way to tell a story.

With the utmost admiration for the writers and creatives whose shoes they were in just a few years ago, MAMA agree that there’s “nothing better” than working with talented comedy actors and crew. Describing the dynamic between a director and the perfect comic actor as a “weird flow state”, they explain how a well-developed relationship with a comedic actor can take a film to strange but previously unattainable places and unlock another level of funny.

“It makes our jobs so much more fun when we’re able to cast strong comedic actors,” says Matt. “Whether we’ve worked with them before or not, there’s always a moment on set where they realise we want to push things to weirder and darker places, and they can let their ‘responsible commercial actor’ guard down a bit.” 

He continues, “We are big fans of the stupid. Finding the most absurd and dumb situations we can get our characters into, while still treating them and the material with sincere seriousness, is the crossroads of what usually makes us laugh the most.”

Anything “a little twisted and dark” is also sure to grab the pair’s attention, adds Mark. “Clever subversion is a true art that when you see it, even on paper, you know it right away.” With so much risk-averse content in adland, he says that it’s refreshing as a director to see someone truly take a swing and make something much more impactful. “We love impact,” he says. “People call us the impact boys sometimes (never mind, no one calls us that).”

Bringing their passion for absurdist comedy to life, MAMA has built a reel around lots of practical effects and visual stunts - constantly discovering new ways to make the surreal real. Some of these uniquely odd challenges have involved creating an over-powered coffee maker that aggressively spews coffee, sending a woman sliding out of her house and down the street in her favourite armchair, and creating a scene where a woman talks to versions of her own head on her bathroom shelves. 

Above: 'Vent' for American Home Shield

Most recently, they created a man’s fever dream - an office filled with flamingos and a talking ice cream cone. For this one, and most of their projects, they riffed together and brought the crew on as soon as possible, having group meetings with the producer, DP, production designer, stunts, hair and makeup and VFX from early in the treatment phase through to wrap. “It was challenging to find the right comedic tone so that it felt like a dream,” says Matt. “We landed on taking metal yard ornament flamingos and augmenting them so that a few could be puppeteered, so what didn't seem real at first suddenly sprang to life.” 

Mark adds, “Whatever the project, it’s always a process of testing as much as possible, and then making some decisions on the fly. We like living in that state of tinkering and riffing to make things more visually interesting and ultimately funnier.” During their years as a team, this riffing process is one of MAMA’s biggest lessons learned together - even taking shape as an improvisational electronic music outfit called Rat Dust. Long since being left as a memory to collect, well… (rat) dust, in Mark’s basement, a revival of the band is yet to be seen.

The riffing, however, lives on in their professional careers, says Matt, “We’ve learned to try and ‘plus up’ one another’s jokes before moving on to another setup. We almost always get to a funnier place that way.”