The Directors: CHAOS

CHAOS, named after the mathematical theory, is comprised of Julie Reali and Lesly Lynch. With a passion for high concept projects and influenced by their international roots, CHAOS creates highly engineered worlds, breaking the code of genre with sincere storytelling and edgy aesthetic.

Name: CHAOS

Location: New York     

Repped by/in: ByAssociation 

Awards: Oscars, several and some Lions 

LBB> What elements of a script sets one apart from the other and what sort of scripts get you excited to shoot them? 

CHAOS> We love scripts with a twist and a willingness to tell a different story. Scripts that have their own identity. We look forward to that special moment when we get to unveil the thought process behind it and discover what resonates with us. From that place the ideas begin to flourish as we collaboratively push the concept further. See the ideas flourishing to collaboratively push the concept further. Aesthetics also play a huge role for us, and we love scripts where there is room to create new unique visuals to reach the audience.

LBB> How do you approach creating a treatment for a spot?

CHAOS> It all starts with research about the brand, how they’ve been communicating, what their product is, who their target is. We want to know the history. It’s a very analytical phase for us as we let our brains be nurtured by this new world we’re discovering while our minds dissect what lives between the lines.

We then take a step back and let our minds wander as we collect ideas to inform our brainstorm. That’s when the magic happens. We share visuals, music, film, paintings and ideas allowing them to intertwine and inspire each other. It’s the part of the process where we just allow ourselves to play.

Now, time to focus on creating a strong concept, We like concepts that are short, impactful and precise. Ones that will stand out and resonate with the agency and the brand vision. The concept then becomes the glue that holds everything together; the compass we use to move into development. 

Once we head into development, we work with creatives from our studio, Space Cowboys to build a tailor-made treatment with strong aesthetics and visuals. It’s always exciting to connect with these creatives from all over the world as they offer new perspectives and help us push ideas even further.

LBB> If the script is for a brand that you're not familiar with/ don’t have a big affinity with, or a market you’re new to, how important is it for you to do research and understand that strategic and contextual side of the ad? If it’s important to you, how do you do it?

CHAOS> Research is so important for any brand we work with, familiar or not. It can take several shapes: testing the product out, diving into community feedback or doing some competitive analysis to get their positioning perfect. We always want to understand which step of development a brand is in, what their marketing funnels are and what they are trying to achieve.  And of course, we always need to know who the consumers are and what the targets are. Even if there are often overlaps between the two different approaches, we want to incorporate that into our development, so we are speaking the same language to the people we want to reach. Today it is so important to create community around a product or service. Brands are looking for engagement, authenticity and inclusivity that’s tailored specifically to their audience target.

LBB> For you, what is the most important working relationship for a director to have with another person in making an ad? And why?

CHAOS> Honestly, all of them, it’s why we love making film. We all have to come together to form a unified organism where communication flows soundly across the board, from client, to agency, to crew and production. We all have to hold the same vision and make sure we communicate with each part so that we are integrated in our approach.

In the beginning, we start with the agency and client ensuring that we are aligned on all details through the whole pre-production process.  By the time we reach the shoot, we want to make sure that the vision is clear as it gets passed down the pipeline, so that everybody at any given moment has access to all the information. It’s all about ensuring that communication is flowing consistently across all channels.

LBB> What type of work are you most passionate about - is there a particular genre or subject matter or style you are most drawn to?

CHAOS> We’re passionate about a lot of things! Science, arts, nature, technology, psychology… our brains are always seeking to understand new dynamics of the world we live in. Right now, we are digging a lot into what we call dispositif, which is a French word that’s hard to translate, but comes from the narrative world. It’s all about creating different techniques to build a new space in which you can tell your stories. Playing with movement, presence on screen, lights, different ways to capture emotion and action. Nourishing our brains with different mediums from art to social media. 

Part of this exploration is the introduction of CGI in our work and the infinite possibilities it offers to create new worlds.

LBB> What misconception about you or your work do you most often encounter and why is it wrong?

CHAOS> We’d love to think of ourselves as chameleons that can wander in any industry.  

We started our career in Fashion, working with Balenciaga, Ami, and other couture brands, but we’re also more than excited to do a good detergent commercial if there is strong storytelling, room for creativity and good brand values that resonate with us!

LBB> What’s the craziest problem you’ve come across in the course of a production – and how did you solve it?

CHAOS> There was a very fun one a bit more than a year ago! We were booked on a shoot for a Parisian high end fragrance brand with two days of shoots abroad. A very promising project that the brand articulated around two key ingredients, two flowers. We were excited about it, thinking of all ways to exalt their essences, their texture and have the audience feel them. Until we discovered that no one could find a way to source these specific flowers as it was off-season. So, we worked with the production design team to fake them and spent hours of research to find stock footage to bring them realistically to life. 

LBB> How do you strike the balance between being open/collaborative with the agency and brand client while also protecting the idea? 

CHAOS> Any idea that we present comes with an outline of our thought process and intention. We see it as a conversational starting point and fertile ground for our mind and creativity to meet and elaborate from. Throughout the process we remain open to feedback as we love being challenged. There is always something beautiful that comes out of creative interplay when you keep that collaborative mindset. 

LBB> What are your thoughts on opening up the production world to a more diverse pool of talent? Are you open to mentoring and apprenticeships on set?

CHAOS> We come from diversity. We are both queer, Franco Cameroonian and French. We’ve lived in China, South Korea, and travelled a lot through countries and communities. Our background makes us curious and open, and we believe in diversity as a creative trigger. This is why our creative studio, Space Cowboys is decentralized, to unleash communication globally and allow us to create with people with diverse perspectives and innovative minds. 

In the past year, we’ve both dedicated a lot of time to mentoring, from a remote cinema training in Burkina Faso, to advising Women in Media and the development of their career. It’s important to share the knowledge you’ve gathered with the people around you, helping to break down walls and let new creative minds in. 

LBB> How do you feel the pandemic is going to influence the way you work in the longer term? Have you picked up new habits that you feel will stick around for a long time? 

CHAOS> In a way the pandemic has helped with broadening networks and opening the door to work from anywhere in the world. It has changed the landscape of production especially with the acceleration of the CG world being built, which we are trying to embrace as much as we can. Production is going to be more and more decentralized with the growth of post-production and 3D scanning, so we see it as a first step toward this process and embracing it. 

LBB> Your work is now presented in so many different formats - to what extent do you keep each in mind while you're working (and, equally, to what degree is it possible to do so)? 

CHAOS> We always have the formats in mind when developing the concept and our framing, ensuring that we can deliver an impactful 16:9 while enabling the creation of several 9:16 for socials. 

LBB> What’s your relationship with new technology and, if at all, how do you incorporate future-facing tech into your work (e.g. virtual production, interactive storytelling, AI/data-driven visuals, etc)?

CHAOS> New technology is part of our DNA and part of our research to find new ways to tell a story. One of us comes from the tech world actually, but we are both nerds and tech savvy at our core. That's actually what brought us together in the first place when we were coding our studio website. Today we spent a large amount of time digging through new AI, finding new ways to create art as well as products that we can integrate in our creative processes.