New Talent: Kiran Koshy

Kiran Koshy> I grew up in India, mostly in Bombay. A bulk of my childhood was spent drawing things, notably the fertilizer plant on the horizon, and the orange plumes of Sulfur it spewed out every evening. And I climbed a lot of trees, which probably explains why I had more than one pet squirrel growing up.

KK> With degrees in Economics and Public Administration, I was on my way to becoming a bureaucrat in the Indian government. But, my mom thought otherwise. She felt I’d be happier in a creative field (a rare thing in ‘90s India.) So, she called a friend who had a son working at Ogilvy & Mather and got me an interview with the creative director. That was it. The moment I stepped into Ogilvy, I knew advertising was for me and that I’d stumbled into my calling. The CD happened to be a chemistry-major-turned-copywriter from my college, so we really hit it off. He gave me a creative test, and a week later, hired me as an art director.

KK> Paul Arden’s book, ‘It’s Not How Good You Are…’ inspired me. It got me thinking about what I wanted for a future. I loved advertising, and wasn’t looking to stray from it. It struck me that I was my happiest on set, bringing ideas to life with a director and crew, and had developed my filmmaking instincts over the years. Directing started to feel like a natural next step for me. Building a reel from scratch, however, seemed too daunting a task. But then, a student of mine at the Texas A&M ad program had an idea for the One Show Student Contest that I felt would make a fun spot. So, we went ahead and shot it as a class. It was my first directing experience. We won Gold. I knew I was onto something then.

KK> I’ve only being doing it in a focused manner for around three years, on the side, so I guess it’s a relatively new thing. 

KK> The Thousand Dollar Shave Society film: It was my first real directorial piece. It’s a 90-second film that demanded a very high aesthetic quality, given the nature of the brand. We didn’t have a crew, or a real budget. And the client was the principal actor. Our dolly was homemade from PVC pipes. Given the constraints, we (Mike Jensen - my DP, and I) managed to create something rather special. It got into CA and won a Gold Adweek Watch Award for ‘Videos Targeting Men,’ among other things.

Atomic Candy’s ‘The Shed’: My first two-day shoot. Once again, we didn’t have a real crew, or a budget, so I had to call on one of my former students, a cosplay junkie, for help with the make up. Another re-skinned the piñata, while I built its sphincter. My copywriter played the clown, and composed the music. It won us a Bronze Epica. Particularly thrilling because some of my heroes – Peter Thwaites, Jim Jenkins, Ulf Johansson – won Gold and Silver.

And, there’s the Organic Doggie Treat campaign, and my latest long-form film for Atomic Candy.

KK> If I had to pick just one, it’d be my 2009 Super Bowl spot for Bridgestone, featuring the Potato Heads. The spot survived a 36-team battle at the agency to make it to the client. I got to make it with the great Daniel Kleinman, and the incredible team at Framestore London, led by William Bartlett and Michael Stanish. It won Adbowl, and was No. 4 on Admeter.

KK> About a year or so ago, I was stuck in traffic en route to LAX, in an Uber. Being the chatty sort, I got talking with the driver, Don, who (despite having been through more than his fair share of economic hardships) was an incredibly jovial guy. He mentioned that he’d just started a dog food company (because he was a dog lover), which was struggling to take off. I had to help. 

Over the next few months I developed the campaign, and shot it with various dogs on SoCal beaches. Don really didn’t have a budget to spend, so our main expenses were gas, coffee, product samples for volunteer dogs, and about $6 in beach parking. I used up every favor I could to produce the three spots in the campaign, even recording the voice for the pug on my iPhone because I couldn’t find a sound booth. It took a year to complete and was well worth it. Besides the Clio, the spots also got me into SHOOT Magazine’s Annual New Directors Showcase. 

And Don is selling more bags than he can handle.

KK> A friend sent me the script. Another heard it and suggested I shoot it in an abandoned school. I loved that thought, and set about trying to find one. We focused on Detroit due to the sheer number of abandoned schools there. The search took us nine months, as the city wouldn’t permit most of the public schools our location scout found. So, we turned our attention to abandoned schools within the Catholic Diocese. That worked. 

We flew into Detroit on a Saturday, scouted the two options we’d narrowed our search to, picked one, and shot all day Sunday. We shot in natural light on a Red Weapon in 8K. It was a cloudy day, which was perfect for the mood we wanted. We didn’t have a crew. It was just the DP, our producer, a PA, our location guy, and I, with our incredible talent – James Rubiner, a 92-year old practicing attorney from Detroit who’d never really acted before. He’s a friend of our producer and I’d only seen pictures of him before shoot day. He had to chew the gum very carefully due to his dentures. We didn’t really need any production design as the location was so well preserved, in dust. The film ran in full-length on National Chewing Gum Day (September 30) in theaters, in Denton, Texas, where the store is based.

KK> I directed a pro-bono piece for the ‘Day Without A Woman’ movement, which was really challenging, and fun. It involved shooting 13 cats and their actor owners, in six locations, in a 12-hour day. All without permits or a budget, with an all-volunteer crew. The concept really needed the director to get the tone right, or it risked falling apart. And, I had to do it with a cat dander allergy.

As a creative, my campaign for MetroPCS (a telecom company) was incredibly satisfying. It was bold, provocative (got hate mail), and relied on offbeat humor to stand out in a segment dominated by a few giants. It ran for two years and changed the trajectory of the brand,for the better.

I’m rather proud of my recent car launches for the Hyundai Ioniq, and the Hyundai Sonata. Car launches are incredibly hard nuts to crack, with a lot riding on the broadcast spot. And you know if your idea has worked pretty quickly. They were both resounding successes.

KK> Frank Budgen. Daniel Kleinman. Ivan Zacharias. Bob Barrie. Bob Isherwood. David Lubars. All superhuman creative chameleons who can do anything without imposing a telltale style, while making the work unique and beautiful. 

Roy Andersson. Tom Kuntz. Gerry Graf. For their comedic vision.

KK> I hope to be shooting my last reel-building piece in November. It’s an idea I’ve been living with for about six years, and am finally close to making. It’s pretty ambitious for my limited means, so wish me luck. 

KK> It’s usually quality time with my wife and two kids, and our community of friends in Long Beach. I spend a lot of time cleaning and listening to my vinyl. Oh, and table tennis…as often as I can. I cut and glue my own paddle rubber, and go to a serious club with 26 tables and 400 members.