The Work That Made Me: Perry Bradley
Perry Bradley has shot commercials worldwide and won dozens of craft awards. An expert storyteller, his directing skills stretch from heart-piercing drama, to precisely timed comedy, to special effects. He’s a breeze to work with from the first brief to the final output. A collaborative and highly creative director. His love for the craft is infectious.
Perry loves making ads, and brings all his years of experience to everything he works on. Trained as a film director at The NZ National Film Unit, shooting documentary, drama, and spectacular tourism films. After a stint at TVNZ, he joined Airdate Films, and then established Film Construction with producer Peter Hewitt.
Twenty-Five years later, he loves the cut and thrust of film-for-advertising as much as ever.
LBB> The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…
Perry> Being the youngest in my family meant that my bedtime was always earlier than everyone else's. After saying good night, I'd head to my bedroom and then sneak back out again into the hallway. We had glass doors into the lounge, and I discovered that if I left them at just the right angle, I could watch the TV's reflection from the hallway. I managed to watch all sorts of shows that I otherwise would have missed.
One that I particularly loved was Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner. That iconic and terrifying huge white ball chasing him down the beach both freaked and fascinated me.
LBB> The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…
Perry> I was born in Canada to New Zealand parents and grew up watching TV shows like Dark Shadows, a gothic daytime soap opera with werewolves and vampires. What was my mother thinking?
I always loved the TV ads. They were vintage Madmen stuff. I remember a Betty Crocker commercial where the Angel food cake was so light, it floated around the kitchen bench.
It puzzled and intrigued my six-year-old brain.
Then, as a teenager, I read Ogilvy on Advertising and was hooked.
LBB> The creative work (film/album/game/ad/album/book/poem etc) that I keep revisiting…
Perry> “Cinema Paradiso” never gets old. I love the romance of cinema and the sense of a community that has faded and changed. Watch it with a chianti.
John Coltrane's “My Favourite Things”. It takes a cheesy sing-along from “The Sound of Music” and turns it into something rich with pathos and charm. Break out a single malt.
LBB> My first professional project…
Perry> In my late teens, I worked on slideshows and corporate videos for my two older brothers’ marketing company. It was my first proper industry job. At some point, I must have written, photographed, directed, produced, and programmed an entire show, though I can't remember who it was for. Anyway, I managed to piece together enough work to land a job as a director at the National Film Unit, a government-owned enterprise in Wellington.
I remember my first NFU directors’ and producers' meeting. It was a smoke-filled room full of grey-bearded industry veterans. I was just 24. I spoke up and asked what my first project would be. One old guy rolled a fresh cigarette and said, “Dunno. What do you want to make?”
That’s when it hit me: in this industry, you have to make your own path.
LBB> The piece of work (ad/music video/ platform…) that still makes me jealous…
Perry> I've pitched on so many jobs and have obviously had a few screamers slip through my fingers. And with prominent work, it’s normally on high rotation, taunting you every night on the tele…well, when TV was king, that is. Then, to make things worse, it turns up at award shows and cleans up. There’s been a few like that, so it’s hard to pinpoint the most annoying “wish I’d made that” of them all.
When I pitch a project, a little cinema projector begins to run in my head—the tone, mood, rhythm, colour, and style all start to form vividly.
The cruel part of this industry is that we put our heart and soul into every pitch and every treatment. But we don’t always get to realise those visions.
LBB> The creative project that changed my career…
Perry> I pitched a charity project idea to a prominent TV producer at a major agency. When we left, I told my producer that I thought the meeting had gone well. "No," he said firmly, "he hated that."
Looking back, it was a pretty dumb, ill-conceived concept. But somehow, something worked, and that agency decided to give me a chance at directing a different ad. It turned into a long-standing, repeat relationship.
LBB> I was involved in this and it makes me cringe…
Perry> I wrote and performed some sketches for a youth TV show when I was a teenager. My friend and I rocked up to the TV studio, hung out in the green room, and ate the free biscuits.
We were thrust onto the set, the floor manager said, "Go," and we delivered our lines. When I finally saw it on air, it was just awful and embarrassing. It taught me that control and preparation are incredibly important. I became obsessive about preproduction. I've learned that strong prep is crucial because I'm not smart enough to make it up on the day. Maybe that’s why advertising has worked so well for me—it's all about the prep and the communication.
LBB> The recent project I was involved in that excited me the most…
Perry> It’s been highly awarded, so perhaps it comes as no surprise, but the New Zealand Blood project was a true example of what’s great in advertising. It involved inventive thinking from the agency, terrific creative writing, and great strategy. Thankfully, we pulled off great execution.
We call filmmaking the ultimate team game for a reason.
