The internet has changed a lot of things. For the advertising industry, the lack of time constraints means video ads have become increasingly cinematic and rich in narrative. This is the world of fashion film; a concept Karl Lagerfeld made famous with the help of Cara Delevingne and Pharrell Williams, and a notion co-directors Jessie Oldfield and Adam Murfet cultivate through their production company, C-KOL (Certain Kind of Light).
SPOOK: Tell me a little bit about your backgrounds in filmmaking.
Jessie Oldfield: I studied film straight out of school and while studying got lucky because I got my foot in the door at a production house. I worked my way up through as a creative and producer for a few different places, over about eight years. I always wanted to direct but I loved learning, and being a part of the industry in different roles is a really great way of understanding the film world, so I could really observe and develop my own style. Then Adam and I, we met on a VCA set. Adam was beginning a second career, he was studying film at the VCA; I was working on the set as a producer and we got chatting and our friendship started to blossom from there pretty rapidly. We have very different backgrounds, but share many similar interests. We talked a lot about fashion and film. That was about three years ago now and we’ve never looked back. It’s been a really exciting ride.
It seems like the trend of fashion film has really exploded recently, why is that?
Adam Murfet: The Internet’s a huge part of it. Having the flexibility with time is the main thing. In the traditional advertising realms of TV and radio, you’re generally locked into either 30 or 60-second blocks. But the power of the Internet, it’s essentially the Wild West: you make the rules. That just gave brands freedom to do things that were really daring and expressive. You have a whole generation of young artists, filmmakers and musicians who’ve been given the power of the Internet, who, all of a sudden, were pitching ideas to brands and the brands were like, “OK, we’re after something different, our audiences may not be engaging with television, radio, print or press any more as much as we’d like so we’d like to explore different things.
Jessie: It was also a story that hadn’t been told, it’s an incredible industry that’s been around for such a long time and it’s been selling itself the same way for many years, so with the Internet, it allows for this story behind the scenes to be back dropped and inspire these pieces.
Adam: It’s also natural that the fashion industry had led this change. It could’ve been another industry that picked up this kind of filmmaking, but it was the fashion industry because the fashion industry has always been the industry that pushes the boundaries.
It must help then, with creating a real sense of brand identity and personality.
Adam: Yeah, the films that we’ve made for Country Road are a complete reflection of the brand. When we create these films, we try and integrate the brand values in every aspect. The main aspects you could say are the performance of the talent, the performance of the characters, their background, their values, the location, the light, and the script. Everything is considered and we try to create a complete personification of the brand.
Jessie: Whether the audience is directly aware of that or not, they subconsciously feel it.
Gemma Ward had been off the scene for quite a while before she re-emerged in this campaign for Country Road, how did it come about?
Jessie: We’d done the piece with Isabelle Lucas, Life Through Wool, and loved the idea of working with Australian talent. Obviously it makes so much sense to Country Road as a brand, they’re Australian and they really hero that. We talked a lot about who this next girl could be.
Adam: We’d actually created the idea for Country Road before Gemma Came along. So Country Road had given us a brief: they wanted to make a summer film. Jessie and I wrote this story about a girl returning to her beach home, that annual tradition. Half way through, preproduction, we got information that Gemma might be making a comeback, or at least thinking about it, so we asked Country Road to make some enquiries and they were really excited about the project of having Gemma back and we went through negotiations and Gemma agreed to do the campaign.
Jessie: Gemma had said she’d seen the Isabelle Lucas film and really fell in love with the way Isabelle was presented and how honest that performance was. Gemma loves filmmaking, so it was a really exciting offer for her to come back with a film and also with her family, she felt really comfortable with Naia [her daughter], she’s really grown as a person and she feels like she’s really becoming a mum, so it was a really nice way to welcome her and share with the world who she is