Staying Ahead of the Curve with Revolver's Richard Cureton and Luc Frappier
Richard Cureton and Luc Frappier met back in 1996. Pre-millenium, music videos were in a league of their own, with Revolver behind a great many of them. Being at the forefront of the music promo boom in the '80s, '90s and '00s, Revolver’s landmark contributions to the scene put them on the map beyond their borders. With music videos unexpendable from its DNA, the duo decided to expand the company’s offerings, venturing into the advertising space.
From their vantage point on Queen West - a section of Toronto famous for its ties to broadcasting, performance, music and visual arts - Richard and Luc have witnessed the creative winds constantly changing direction over the last decade. Understanding the rapid speed at which the industry moves to keep up with the culture - they were at the forefront of it throughout the nineties after all - the effervescent pair have been bouncing big ideas off of one another for almost 25 years. One of their most fruitful ideas was to develop Revolver from music video institution to breeding ground of transcendental creativity, thus becoming a world class interdisciplinary production company. Together, they have updated and upgraded capabilities, reinstating Revolver as an all-encompassing powerhouse.
Here, LBB gets the scoop on how one of the best and brightest dynamic duos in the industry successfully infiltrated adland by leveraging the cultural, creative and technical learnings ingrained in them from years of collaboration, to affix a fresh and exciting commercial arm to one of Toronto’s most celebrated production companies.
LBB> Can you tell us the story of how you guys met?
Richard> Luc and I met at a company I started with two mutual friends in the late 90’s called Projektor (yes, with a K) and we mostly made music videos for Canadian artists. We had a massive space in the east end of the city which was pretty underdeveloped at the time. We lived and shot in the studio for around 6 years. It became a hang out for local directors, photographers, artist and musicians.
Luc> I was working as a production manager back then - this was in the mid 90s - and I got a call to work on a Jacksoul music video with these guys called Projektor. When I met Richie and the gang, they had this crazy hybrid loft / warehouse work space on the east side of the city – it was pretty wild in those days.
Richard> Luc met up with us towards the end, when we were becoming better known for our parties than the films we were making. One of the partners at Projektor had been directing the bulk of the stuff we were producing and Luc thought he might make a good commercial director. Then Luc got his first EP job at a company called Zoo TV, I kind of tagged along to work on a couple of spots with them. As time went on, Luc and I became good pals and we both ended up working at multiple companies together as EP's: him mostly on the advertising side; me on music related content like videos, live shows, band and DJ visuals etc.
LBB> What is it about your creative style and approach that means you work well together?
Richard> We are pretty different, as people, but we have always shared a visual sensibility. Luc is super organised, whereas I thrive under pressure, amongst the chaos. Our backgrounds really compliment each other though: Luc grew up in and around the business and I came to it from being around music from a young age.
Luc> I think the diversity of our backgrounds paired with the fact we are such close friends has culminated in a great working relationship. We inherently trust each other but we also share a very similar visual aesthetic when it comes to work, art and music… for the most part anyways.
Richard> We also both spent time living in Europe as kids. I was born in Glasgow, and Luc attended high school in Brussels for a while. As a result, we both tend to veer more towards the UK/European aesthetic than a North American one despite being based in Toronto.
LBB> Together you decided to re-launch Revolver in 2012, breathing new life into the company as you pursued the direction of commercial content. What challenges did you face when reintroducing Revolver to the industry as a primarily advertising focused production company?
Richard> It was a bit of a double edged sword. Since Revolver as a brand was so well known in the business as a premiere music video production company, the scale of the projects being produced meant that there was name recognition for the company as a producer of high end content. The challenge was getting people on board with the fact that we were invested in becoming a force to be reckoned with in advertising. We had a good foundation, with Luc being a go-to EP for the previous companies he had been at.
Luc> As Richie says, we literally went door to door, knocking on every agency door in town who would have us introduce ourselves, to let the industry know we were looking to rebuild Revolver as a legitimate contender in the advertising space. We were very well represented in the music world but not yet as proven in the commercial arena.
LBB> Why did you decide to head in this new direction? How did you orchestrate the rebrand and announce it to the industry?
Luc> It was time for Revolver to grow and expand.The music video business in Canada is sadly not much of a business any longer. We had an incredible opportunity to take this storied company and completely rebrand and relaunch it into a new space, so while that was quite daunting, it was also an impossible challenge to pass up. We threw a massive party to announce it - which also coincided with Revolver’s 30 year anniversary - hosting 1,000 industry types at the C-Lounge, a nightclub run by our founding partner, Don Allan and kicked it all off in grand style. It was a rainy night so we had hundreds of Revolver Films branded umbrellas made which served as an ingenious bit of branding!
Richard> Bringing the local production community together is a great way to re-introduce ourselves and it went down well! If in doubt, throw a raging party… It then came down to the small matter of not having any directors or a website. We identified a few directors we had history with, while also keeping an eye out for new talent we thought fit the new incarnation of the company.
LBB> How do you work together to preserve the music and entertainment legacy of Revolver since shifting to commercial pursuits?
Richard> The music video business in Canada has changed so much in the past decade since we took over and has presented a number of challenges in terms of staying as active in that space. We look at a music video the same way we look at any potential project, on creative merit, it’s going to be an investment of time and resources so it needs to be something special to get involved. With that being said, we still produce a handful of music videos in any given year, Revolver is a big supporter of the Canadian music industry, and it is still very much an important part of our DNA.
Luc> In a true reflection of our music and entertainment legacy, we produced the Triumph music doc, ‘Rock & Roll Machine’, which had its premiere at TIFF in 2021. These types of projects emanate from the long relationships we’ve built with bands over the course of all these years.. Don Allan, has also been developing a few other music related long form projects And we hope to be in production on a couple more music projects in the coming 12-18 months.
LBB> Do you have a favourite project from the last decade? If so, why does it stand out as a special project?
Luc> The OWD Project with Canadian filmmaker, Bruce McDonald, was a special project for us. It was the first initiative of its kind and required a strong POV to make it credible. The end result was quite powerful and picked up quite a few awards. The ‘Haulers’ ad for Canadian supermarket chain, No Frills, was also major! Full props to agency, John St, and the creative team for buying into Scott Cudmore’s vision and trusting him to execute a film that would become so iconic. Kinda made No Frills the coolest low price grocery chain in North America.
And the Maple Leafs 100 year anniversary film with Ian Pons Jewell was another special project. Taking a VO the Sid Lee CD’s had written, Ian crafted a beautiful visual narrative, to create an incredible homage film of this storied franchise. Even though I’m from Montreal and a big Habs fan, it’s objectively a great piece of work.
Richard> A few come to mind for different reasons. Rune Milton’s ‘Start Your Impossible’ for Toyota is one of them. What my favourite projects have in common is the fact they are always a battle to make. With this Toyota project, it was a global Olympics spot and one of the first since Toyota had taken over as a principal sponsor. During the pitching stage Rune and I spent a lot of time on Google Earth, looking for a unique space that would serve as the structure which would morph throughout the spot, turning into a massive modern Olympic stadium. When we found an “abandoned" bus station in Kiev we knew we were onto something amazing. The first of a few hurdles we faced upon arrival in Kiev to scout it out was the space being literally packed full of Soviet era buses, stacked one on top of the other, as far as the eye could see in every direction. We needed it empty for the shoot, so we hired massive tractors to drag buses out of the space for 24 hours a day for about a week, before we could shoot. The night before the first shoot day we also made a pretty bold decision to switch the order of our days, shooting the bus station first based on it being the only sunny day we had there the entire time we were in Ukraine. We were fortunate that the beams of light made the space feel like the interior of a spaceship. It was a nervous drive to the location that morning but it really paid off.
LBB> I know you are proud of Revolver’s Toronto roots – how does the city influence the creative and the clients you work with?
Richard> Revolver and Toronto are hand in glove. The part of Queen Street West where our office is located has been a hub of Toronto culture for decades.
Luc> Having had such a presence in Toronto for all these years, it feels the two are somewhat intertwined. Revolver has worked with almost every music label, artist, band and ad agency here, and we’ve all grown up together with Toronto as the backdrop for all of it.
LBB> What qualities does a director have to possess in order to qualify for the Revolver roster?
Luc> There is an intangible component you sometimes come across when looking at directors reels. It’s this ‘sticky’ quality of work that becomes impossible to ignore, and when you find it and the human aspect compliments the work, you will generally find success.
Richard> The answer is two fold. The first is obviously that the work is high quality, complimenting the existing roster and fitting in with our brand. We see a lot of reels so it is a mixed process of understanding our market, speaking with the director multiple times, and making sure the synergy is there and the work hits the mark.
The second, and equally as important part, is the person behind the work. We must make sure we are bringing on people who are passionate, determined and skilled, but also the type of person that share our values and commitment to working collaboratively with our client and agency partners. It’s a business that throws up a lot of curve balls and puts pressure on directors and production to problem solve on the fly.
LBB> What projects do you have coming out this year that you are most excited about?
Luc> Our upcoming project for CREA, ‘Larger than Life’ from director Pep Bosch – that should be a big one!
Richard> Another one of our directors, Janssen Powers, has made a simple but beautiful film for Nutrafol which will be out soon. The agency wanted it to be black and white, so we shot it on super 16mm with this incredible texture, and it turned out really nice.
Luc> These projects are a reflection of the type of elevated and entertaining storytelling Revolver has always been known for in whatever genre we are working in.
LBB> Finally, what do you like most about working with each other?
Richard> Cool, calm and composed. Likes a pint and so do I.
Luc> Stubborn Scottish c**t, I love him!!!!
