Into the Library with Amy Allais

Shortlisted for the Young Director Award at Cannes.

This was a little labour of love. As my first-ever commercial job, it brings back very happy memories. Directing is always hands on, but never more so than in those early days. I persuaded a friend to write the cheesiest, naivest love song you could imagine – and then sang it myself in Afrikaans. I remember driving around a bunch of creepy mannequin graveyards trying to dig up the right dolls. We shot with a tiny – and I mean tiny – crew, but it all just adds to the intimacy of the film. The whole ad has a handmade feel that I really love. 

No doubt the creatives were inspired by the hot puppet sex of ‘Team America: World Police’, and in the script the mannequins were more like Barbie dolls getting down to business. But that felt derivative and I really wanted this to have a vibe all of its own. I auditioned a lot of sinister modern mannequins before stumbling across these two plastic lovebirds. They have a vintage look, straight out of an Enid Blyton novel, which captures the innocence the story needs.

I’ve obviously worked on much bigger productions since, but it’s interesting to see that a lot of my directorial style is already there in these first fumblings: the music, the comedy… the weirdness. It’ll always have a very special place in my heart. 

Gold - Pendoring Awards

I can’t think of many car adverts that feature mutual moustache stroking. It’s not the most natural way to sell your latest set of wheels, so hats off to Lexus for taking a chance with this intense slice of hairy erotica. But it’s the kind of subtle, awkward comedy that really appeals to me. 

I love making an audience squirm. Not that I don’t like broader comedy – I’m not the kind of person who uses the word slapstick as a slur – but it’s so much more fun to play it straight. You shoot it like a drama; no cartoonish performances, no crash zooms and whip pans. Let the awkwardness breathe, let it linger and seep into your pores until your skin starts to crawl.

It’s all about subtlety, and I think that working in Afrikaans really helped here. There’s a weird disconnect when you hear people speaking English in South African commercials. You feel a kind of colonial cringe. Being able to use vernacular language was much more freeing for these actors. It gives them more nuance to play with as they savour those sweet-smelling staches.

I don’t know how many cars this commercial sold, but it won Gold at the Pendoring Awards, the South African awards that celebrate adverts made in local languages. I think it’s a memorable film, even if the Lexus didn’t get a whole lot of screentime. Rest assured, I am still available for car adverts. Hit me up, Honda. 

Everyone knows in a 30-second spot, you’ve got to hit the ground running. You can’t waste a single frame of screen time. For me, a huge part of that is world building.

I wanted to flesh out this guy’s character super quickly. It’s all there in those opening frames: he’s got the laid back vibe of The Dude from ‘The Big Lebowski’, but his bathroom looks like it belongs to an older lady. Weird. This gives a clue to his wider world, to who he is. Perhaps he still lives with his mum. Or life took a turn and he had to move back home. Either way, he’s a chill guy – happy just blowing bubbles and doing his thing. Why should he cook? He’s got enough going on. That’s his story, and it’s written right there in the bathroom. 

Incidentally, we moved the shoot from Cape Town to Bez Valley in Jo’Berg, because I couldn’t stomach creating a fake rainstorm when Cape Town was suffering a huge drought. It’s a neighbourhood where lots of immigrant families congregated back in the day, including my own grandparents when they first moved over from Italy. Just a little detail to flesh out my own world for you…

Gold Award - Ciclope Africa

This was a rare treat – to shoot my own project in between commercial jobs. It all came about because I’d worked with this incredibly talented boy, Lukhanyo, and couldn’t resist creating a vehicle for his awesome skills. I mean, just look at this guy. I got my hands on the track from a musician friend and he gave me free reign to go for it. That’s always a thrill.

The story was inspired by the culture of live-in domestic workers, which is common in South Africa. The workers often have their kids with them, who grow up as part of the household. There comes a time when the kids age out of being cute and the dynamic becomes more fraught.

To be honest, my first attempts at a narrative were a little, ahem, on-the-nose. It would probably have been VERY earnest and annoying. I usually get bored watching music videos – I’ll sit through a verse and chorus then I’m out! So the plan was to keep ramping up the energy and shooting off in unexpected directions. 

To keep the story fresh, I wanted to introduce new kids as we made our way through the house. Finding young dancers who could hold their own against Lukhanyo was a big ask. My choreographer, Natalie Fisher, and I scoured endless showcases and dance schools until we found these other awesome kids. Then we hooked up with another choreographer who specialises in Pantsula, the dance movement that emerged from the black townships during the Apartheid era. 

It’s great to have something on your reel that is all yours, rather than based on a brief – and this one is very dear to me. 

Bronze & Silver Awards - Loeries. 

Let’s be honest, in advertising we often see the world through rose-tinted glasses. A little sugar-coating here, a little greenwashing there. It is what it is. So I was surprised – and impressed – that the client wanted to show the realities of migrant labour in this film.

The story of migrant labour is ubiquitous in South Africa. People move from rural areas to the city, earning money to send back to their families. This creates lots of intergenerational households, where children are raised by their grandparents or other relatives. Many kids have very little contact with their parents – or none at all. 

I’ve shot a lot of comedy in my career, but I enjoy making drama just as much. The truth is, there’s no real difference. It’s two sides of the same coin – you’re still just trying to provoke an emotional reaction. Sometimes you make ‘em laugh, sometimes you make ‘em cry.

As for me, I cried during the casting callbacks while explaining the story to the talent. I cried on set, and I cry every time I watch it. We got to shoot in real villages, with real houses and minimal set dressing. That’s not always the case in advertising, and I think you can see that honesty up there on the screen in this film. 

This is the kind of all-singing, all-dancing brief I love to get my hands on. I made a musical piece for a telecom brand a while back which went viral (back when going viral was first becoming a thing). I got a lot of music briefs after that, and this was one of them. It’s funny – something similar happened when I made a film with a kid in it. It’s like, you make one cute kid video and suddenly that’s your thing!

Not that I’m complaining! It’s super fun working with kids and I love working on musical pieces. Music is a huge part of my creative process. Wherever I’m plotting out any kind of story I have a track in my head – it helps ground my thoughts, set a tone, and synthesise everything. 

This was my first time filming in Turkey and I remember we were skating close to the wind trying to find the right lead and location. My choreographer and I were blocking out moves on the flight over – I’ve got a video of us pony-hopping around the aisles at the back of the plane with the cabin crew, which was so much fun. 

It’s flattering when you get known for a certain type of project – kids, or comedy, or music – but the truth is, I like to stretch my muscles. That’s why I think it’s a real blessing that I came up in South Africa. The agencies there embrace your versatility, they let you explore different genres and styles. That doesn’t always happen globally. Maybe some directors just find their thing and run with it. But that’s not me – I want it all!

They say never work with children and animals. Well I’ve worked with both and, let me tell you, butterflies are divas. 

I was determined to get real butterflies for this. Determined. I wanted to capture as many as I could in camera and duplicate them in post. We went all out, hiring two expert butterfly wranglers (that’s a thing, apparently). We had a huge net covering one section of the set and a temperature-controlled habitat filled with hibernating butterflies. But these insects were primadonnas. Only one woke from its slumber and graced us with its presence. Honestly, it was heartbreaking. But we always knew that was a possibility, so we had a contingency plan to use CG butterflies. It all worked out in the end. 

Being neither a child, nor an animal, the actor did a great job – perfectly capturing that languor as he basked in the sun. Unlike butterflies, some actors want to perform a bit too much. I don’t blame them – they want to earn their fee and give you all they’ve got. But for a spot like this, you have to encourage them to play it very low-key. Less is more. 

Talking of less is more, when we cast the guy, he had recently shaved his chest for a previous job. Not ideal for a film centred around chest hair. But I loved his overall look so much that we worked with it. He worked hard to grow much of it back in time for the shoot, so we just had to augment it a little here and there.

The lesson? Whether you want butterflies or chest hair, you’d better make damn sure you’ve got a plan B.