The Real Mad Men: Doug Pray on “Art & Copy”

“Art & Copy” director Doug Pray. Image courtesy of Sundance Film Festival

Please elaborate a bit on your approach to making the film…

My past films have revolved around more underground, edgy or street subcultures, like “Infamy” (about graffiti writers), “Scratch” and “Hype.” Even “Surfwise” and “Big Rig” (about truck drivers) are portraits of people who feel outside of society. This film presented quite a different community: men and women who were pioneers at the highest-end of the high-end ad business. Even the interview locations were a stunning change: gorgeous New York City penthouses and expansive, hip, west-coast ad agencies.

More importantly, the subjects were talking about art and society. So cinematographer Peter Nelson and I decided early on to scrap the whole “gritty, handheld” doc vibe, and aspire to a classier, more cinematic approach in our coverage. We shot in HD, used longer lenses, and spent lots more time shooting B-roll than normal. We wanted to create a film experience more like Koyaanisqatsi or Errol Morris’ “Fast Cheap and Out of Control” (one of my favorite docs for how he took 90 minutes of intellectual discourse and made it completely entertaining).

Otherwise, my approach was to stick to the emotions, the creative motivations, and overall general philosophies of the ad creatives, rather than bogging down in process or “war-stories.” I knew the film had to play out on a general level. It wasn’t going to be a “behind-the-scenes” of an ad campaign, it was - who ARE these people and what inspires them?

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in developing the project?

The biggest challenge came in trying to frame the film and it’s overall subject. People have such strong negative feelings about advertising. They may love their superbowl ads, and they may love “MadMen” on TV, but otherwise it’s a tough sell, to sell those who sell. So, instead of focusing on what’s bad about ads (that movie is so easy to make it’s not worth making), we focussed it on creativity. Treating the subjects as great artists and writers (which they are) and making a more inspirational movie about the power of creativity. I tried to make the interviews as personal as possible, and found that each of these individuals saw themselves as having an innate need to communicate from early on in their lives.  We explored how they were, in a way, rebels for how they challenged an industry full of cynics and bottom-line mentality, and still managed to get a personal message out to the masses, via someone else’s money and products.

What are some of your favorite films?

I love the work of Werner Herzog and Errol Morris. I got into filmmaking because a professor of mine forced me to watch a whole bunch of Fassbender films. But now that I’ve been making films for a decade or so, I find watching most movies to be anxiety-producing.

How do you define success as a filmmaker, and what are your personal goals as a filmmaker?

It’s rather obvious to say this, but I want the audience to be moved. If they aren’t, I’ve wasted 90 minutes of their time and a couple years of my life. I also want the subjects in my film to feel respected. I don’t mean whether or not I was nice to them—this isn’t a tribute film—I mean that the things they believe in and feel strongly about become the core experience of the film itself. That my directing doesn’t somehow reinterpret their voices, but that it amplifies and presents them in a way that audiences can relate to. I want my audiences to feel the enthusiasm and passion of the characters. And finally, I want the movie to express my own enthusiasm for whatever I’m documenting. I tend to get very excited when I meet interesting people, and think my best work is when that enthusiasm is being felt directly.

What are your future projects?

I’m going to take some time off of making documentaries and focus on new challenges, at least for the near future. I love making docs, but the last three or years I have been 100% non-stop shooting, editing, or having meetings about this film, and my other recent features, “Big Rig” and “Surfwise.”