The Directors: Damien O'Donnell

Damien O’Donnell made his breakthrough with the highly acclaimed and hugely successful Film Four feature East is East, starring Jimi Mistry and Linda Bassett. This won the Prix Media at Cannes and won a BAFTA for Best British Film.

Damien brings his features experience and skill in casting and working with actors to his commercials work, developing a strong comedic style along the way.

Name: DAMO 2.1

Location: Neurology Outpatients Dept., Beaumont Hospital, Dublin.

Repped by/in: HUNKY DORY

Awards: I’ll have any you’re not using

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

Damien> The element of a script that gets me excited is usually the font. A lot of thought will have gone into the choice of font and much of the script's subtext can be found there. Once you pick the right font, the script basically writes itself.

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

Damien> When asked to do a treatment for a commercial the first thing I do is cry. And then I ask the production company to get someone else to do all the work. When I look at the treatment they do, I cry again and I usually lie down. When I eventually get back up, check my emails and answer missed calls, the treatment has been sent into the agency and I don't have to worry about it anymore. 

If I get the job I make a point of never referring to the treatment ever  again. If anyone from the agency mentions the treatment in a meeting  I quickly change the subject by praising the nice wallpaper in their  offices. That’s a bit trickier since the advent of Zoom meetings, as a lot  of people’s wallpaper isn’t real wallpaper and has led to some  awkward moments.

What I love about Zoom meetings is that when things get awkward I  can pretend there is a Deliveroo guy at my door, jump out of my chair  and then stand just out of view of the camera until the meeting  naturally winds down. That was hard to do in real life meetings. In real  life meetings I would have to get a real Deliveroo guy to come to the  agency’s offices with real food. I would then take him somewhere  private, swap clothes with him and leave the building dressed as the  Deliveroo guy while the Deliveroo guy would sit in for the rest of the  meeting. To be fair the Deliveroo guys always had great ideas about  the scripts which agencies usually took on board. 

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?

Damien> I have a natural affinity with all brands. I respect their efforts to be seen. In a way we all want to be seen, don’t we? And so brands are a metaphor for all of us. We are all an Adidas shoe, or a DFS Sofa, or a Kentucky Fried Chicken: we all want to run, to sit, to be eaten. We are humans, just like them. Well maybe not the fried chicken, but certainly the people who fried the chicken.

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

Damien> The quality of my work is directly related to the quality of the catering on a shoot. So the most important relationship I have is with the caterer. Bad shoot catering was ruining many of my jobs until I discovered Deliveroo. Now I know a good meal is only minutes away and my work is so much better as a result. 

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?

Damien> No

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

Damien> Do you remember as a kid, when your mates connected a piece of string between two empty baked bean cans, and pretended they were talking on the telephone? Agencies often tell me that I am that piece of string, connecting the creatives to the actors. That is simply not true. For those two bean cans to work as a telephone there has to be tension in the string and I don’t like tension of any kind on set or in the finished work. I like to take the string entirely out of the equation and put the two cans together so I normally let the agency creatives take turns sitting in the director’s chair, talk directly to the actors and crew, and if any key decisions need to be made I will point to whoever I think is the most important person on set and say the magic words - “What he said.”

LBB> Have you ever worked with a cost consultant and if so how have your experiences been?

Damien> I have seen many consultants and they have all been very costly. The ones who consult on things I know least about: my vintage cars, plumbing and social media, tend to be the most costly. For instance the PR consultant who is over-seeing my responses in this interview is charging a fortune but she is confident the publicity I will get from it will be career changing.

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

Decisive nodding after anyone speaks is a great way to appear collaborative. For any particularly difficult moments, I find slapping my hands together and shouting 'Anyone for a Deliveroo?' defuses the situation quickly. 

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?

Damien> Like a lot of things in the world talent is a spectrum and I am on the spectrum. I would happily see other people on the spectrum joining the industry so long as they are further down the spectrum than I am, ideally on the invisible part of the spectrum, as then I won’t have to compete with them for work.

I am open to mentoring and apprenticeships on-set as I can always do with the help. But whoever is mentoring needs to be really good at their job - so it would need to be someone like Steven Spielberg or Ridley Scott or Jonathan Glazer. Someone good like that.

(Actually don’t put down Jonathan Glazer.)

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

Damien> The pandemic was great because when the Lockdown happened it meant that none of the other directors were working either, and I found that very relaxing.

During the Lockdown I couldn’t go to my favourite restaurants which made me very sad. Luckily Deliveroo were allowed to bring food from these restaurants directly to my house which turned out to be a nicer experience than sitting in a room full of strangers. The food always arrived promptly and at a perfect temperature and the Deliveroo guy was always courteous and good humoured no matter how bad the weather. Five out of Five. Would definitely recommend.

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)?

Damien> I’m so delighted to see my work presented at all that I really don’t quibble about the format. Most brands often stop showing my work abruptly and revive an old campaign to replace it. I seem to be working in the ‘Blink and You’ll Miss It’ corner of TV commercial advertising. I also feel uncomfortable at how my name got bandied about a lot when a TV campaign cost a particular supermarket brand almost half its market share. I did so little in that whole process I don’t know how the problem could have been all mine?

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)?

Damien> I embrace every new technology from the ground breaking Sinclair ZX Spectrum all the way up to the Deliveroo app on my phone. The ZX Spectrum gave me endless hours of stay at home entertainment with a miniscule 48 kilobytes of memory. Similarly, the Deliveroo app gives me delicious food from my favourite restaurants straight to me door.  

From hectic pre-production all the way to bad tempered client presentations, the Deliveroo app always delivers great food.

LBB> Which pieces of work do you feel really show off what you do best – and why?

Damien> My producer feels any films I show here might mislead your readers as to the quality of work I am capable of doing but he asked me to say that I can deliver this job even on the original budget you mentioned.

(*This article features paid product placement)