The Queen Is “Really Trying to Get into More Oddball Comedy”
Daniel Lumb and Crinan Campbell decided to join forces in 2016. They crowned themselves ‘The Queen’, and have been working as a directorial partnership ever since.
Daniel and Crinan have a distinctive photographic style that allows for convincing performances and idea-led techniques to take the reins.
Together they have created award-winning short films, and have gained success in the advertising industry over the past few years through their work with clients such as Samsung, Adidas, Amazon, Yeti, and Starbucks.
The Queen’s ability to blend nuanced performances with fluid camera techniques have led them to Infinity Squared, who will represent them within Australia.
LBB> What sort of scripts tend to get you excited?
Dan> If it's got that rare sweet spot of fun visual technique (or the option to add that) with a sprinkling of funny or weird!
Crinan> When you’re reading it and it starts playing out in front of you in fun, unexpected ways – it could be a visual idea we’ve wanted to try for a while, or a unique take on it that clicks as we start to digest it.
In our Starbucks ‘Reusables’ spot, loads of ideas immediately came to mind that we’d been experimenting with but were waiting for the right project - rigs and funny places to put the camera.
LBB> How do you approach creating a treatment for a spot?
Dan> Generally we’ll start by putting the kettle on, then sharing lots of references and getting quite excited. Then reality thinking kicks in. How do we hook the audience in in the first few frames? How do we make this different? How can we tell this story in a more efficient or eye-catching way - or can we do that crazy shot that weve always wanted to do in a ridiculously tight schedule?
Crinan> Our shooting style is quite meticulous, with the camera doing a lot of the storytelling so the jigsaw puzzle needs to be worked out in a very systematic way - dissecting the narrative and looking at each beat from all the possible ways, then deciding which one fits the best. Once we’ve figured the sequence of events out using our own voice, everything else falls into place.
LBB> How important is it for you to do research and understand that strategic side of an ad? How do you approach this research?
Dan> We’ll definitely look up all the past ads and see what the previous tone is or was - but we don’t let that influence where we go too much. If it's a good idea or the genesis of a good idea then we’ll see how far we can push it - no matter the brand or market.
Crinan> Even in a 60 second commercial, the memorable information that people are left with is rarely more than one core message. Understanding the brand, product, and audience is part and parcel of it, but our main thing is to make sure that we’ve always got our compass pointed at that core message so it strikes a chord and stays in people’s heads.
LBB> What is the most important working relationship for a director to have with another person in making an ad? And why?
Dan> Trust is everything, and generally that trust is earned through experience. We have a unique short hand dialogue between us that allows the ego side of things to be put to one side in service of the film. There’s quite a few people that we lean on once we’re confident in the vision - there’s a handful of DPs that we work with on a fairly continuous rotation that we’ve leant on a fair bit to help us develop and execute ideas, and of course the producers that help us know when to push and when to back off!
Crinan> Obviously with us being a duo, our creative relationship is the most important to the work, but we’re just the drummers in the band. On each job we develop a new relationship with the creatives at the agency, and it needs to be a good one. It’s important you can throw in ideas - however crap they are - and get genuine feedback. The agency knows the brand and the client far better than us, so they know if we’re pushing anything in the wrong direction. Also if there’s an idea that needs to be sold to the client and we’re not in the room, that shared conviction is essential!
LBB> What type of work are you most passionate about?
Dan> We’ve evolved a little bit over time, currently still in love with the more in-camera swooshy transition stuff, but we're really trying to get more oddball comedy and performance into that kind of work - so I guess it's kind of evolving a bit...
LBB> What misconception about you or your work do you most often encounter and why is it wrong?
Dan> Luckily, I think it's become clearer in the last couple of years what we’re about. We definitely used to struggle with that more, we used to be the guys that did loads of in-camera practical effects but with a bit of small crew documentary style thrown in - which was a slightly hard to grasp combo but we always loved that stuff (and still do!). We’ve reigned that into a more concise style now, creating a world that we are comfortable playing in.
Crinan> I think people used to assume that we did a lot more CG and motion control than we actually did. We kind of like to keep up that mirage - it’s much more alluring than peeping through the curtain at all the cogs and gaffer tape. There was a stopframe job we did for Samsung that people would always ask if it was CG. In actual fact, we prefer to shoot as much in-camera as possible - saving that stuff for when it’s only really necessary. You’re much more likely to get a truly convincing finish and often for cheaper too. Also motion control is a fantastic tool to achieve precise, unusual, repeatable moves, but is a time gobbler. If the shot allows it, then we much prefer building a grip solution – dropping the camera on bungees or spinning it around on improvised rigs.
LBB> What is a problem you remember encountering and how did you solve it?
Dan> We once had a motion control rig break down halfway through a huge Rube Goldberg-style studio build in Mexico. We ended up solving it with a large spanner and some fishing wire.
Crinan> Where to start?! Trying to achieve stuff in-camera obviously comes with constant hurdles. There was a bit in our Starbucks ‘It Starts With You’ spot - when the POV changes from that of the barista to the customer - spinning the camera 180° around a cup. We wanted to step in and out of it in POV, then look into the new person’s reflection in a coffee machine. Easy right? We tried a bunch of solutions ahead of time - it would have wasted too much time figuring it out on the shoot - and the fantastic grip team pulled off an amazing choreographed feat. The next problem was lighting it! There were actually a bunch of mind-bending challenges on that one – a spinning table with people attached, a single shot where a guy effortlessly turns almonds into milk, and a couple more POV changes. It was a really fun one to work out.
LBB> How do you strike the balance between being open and collaborative with the agency and brand client while also protecting the idea?
Dan> I think it's knowing when to push, I still feel like it's our job to reinvigorate ideas that might have been one of 20 that have been bought by the client. You have to take them along for the ride. The open dialogue works so well for explaining ideas that are hard to grasp - way beyond the storyboards. It definitely helps to build that client confidence and more importantly, trust.
Crinan> Those things aren’t opposing. The big idea belongs to the agency and our execution should work to serve that to its full potential. It’s a collaborative process. That being said there will always be opposing views on the execution, and the clearer we can be in pre-production, the more greased the wheels are on the shoot.
We're very big on testing and pre-production. When we're developing the storyboards, we most often shoot a very low-fi version of the advert on our phones, with us acting it out. It makes the whole thing a lot more collaborative, and means we can try a bunch of ideas out - eliminating a lot of wasted time on the shoot. It's kinda cheating, but it really helps!
LBB> What’s your relationship with new technology?
Dan> It’s an exciting, if not slightly daunting, time for filmmakers. The tools we have at our disposal are mind blowing and evolving at an alarming rate. AI is definitely the biggest talking point right now - quite frankly it’s incredible! The possibilities are endless, it’s just knowing when and how to use it. Cameras have been getting smaller, better and cheaper for years. We try to keep on top of all of that stuff - there's an amazing range of tools right now - but none of them are any good to us without a good idea.This is where the buck stops.
LBB> Which pieces of work do you feel really show off what you do best – and why?
Dan> It's a couple of years old now, but the Starbucks ‘Reusables’ piece we did seemed to be that perfect combo of elements that came together at the right time. A really good, trusting agency and a totally open minded client that let us go wild with a simple idea.
Crinan> I was really pleased with the Kayak ‘Go See For Yourself’ spot we shot recently. It’s quite simple and low budget, but we were able to take our weird-lens and story-telling camera-move stuff into quite a still, everyday environment which accentuated everything in quite a funny way. I laughed anyway…
