TWiN: Doubling Up

The directing spotlight can be a lonely place. With Josh and Jonathan Baker though, Isobel Roberts discovers, having a family member by your side not only doubles confidence in your ability, it’s twice the fun at work too.

The ad and movie world is littered with filmmaking families, but when it comes to sibling ties Josh and Jonathan Baker’s connection runs deeper than just a shared love of cinema; just in case you couldn’t tell from their image, the pair also happen to be identical twins.

Australian born, but now based in New York, the 33-year-old directors go by the rather apt directing moniker TWiN – a name that the brothers first coined as a tongue-in-cheek reference. “We were asked to speak at an international creative conference and put our work together into a reel to show people and there were all these great companies… and then we were just ‘Jonathan and Josh Baker’,” says Josh. “They all had cool names and logos and we felt like the odd ones out, so quite quickly when we were asked to do it a second time we decided we needed a brand.” Jonathan chimes in: “It was almost as a joke we said ‘why don’t we just call ourselves TWiN?’. It’s singular, as well as plural at the same time, and we came up with a neat little logo, and from then on it totally stuck and we were known as TWiN whenever we did collective stuff, which we began to get frequent requests for.”

Starting out solo

Despite always appearing as a double act these days, the brothers did, in fact, start out their directing careers individually. Growing up with an appetite for illustration and animation, the pair had taken the same design course before finding their way into motion graphics in Sydney and working on animation and film and show titles at separate post houses. “After a while we both started dealing with live-action shoots here and there.” explains Josh. “It would come up more and more for TV title work or commercials, and often if a director wasn’t attached we would just do it ourselves. So we started to figure out pretty quickly that we could handle it and that we actually liked it, and that, in fact, we liked it way better than designing.”

Hopping in with Rabbit

Attracted by the storytelling angle of the process, in 2004, after building up their individual reels, the duo quit their day jobs within six months of each other to focus on directing full time. Several collaborations came within that time – as well as several competitive pitches for the same jobs – but it wasn’t until Josh and Jonathan decided to leave Sydney behind and relocate to New York in 2007 that they cemented the TWiN partnership and signed to Rabbit Content in NYC as a pair.

“The guys at Rabbit were among a number of production companies we were looking to join up with, and Douglas (Howell, founder and executive producer) was great,” recalls Jonathan. “The company was brand new at the time and we thought it would be good to start at a place where there weren’t massive names over our heads, where we could potentially grow with the company and become a name for it.”

And grow with Rabbit they have. While some spots show off their talent for motion graphics, such as their AT&T Spring commercial through BBDO New York, where swathes of flowers bloom across cities in the US, the twins have broken out of the VFX realm and showcased their skill for visual storytelling as well as comedy.

“When we first got to the States we had a lot of visual effects on our reel and became known as VFX guys,” comments Jonathan, “and we would look at each other and say ‘the style of a spot can only really drive us for so long’. You can only see so many ads with a transforming house or room or car, because it’s style over substance in the end.”

“Visual effects is a great box to be in and we can’t really complain,” adds Josh. “It usually gives you slightly bigger budgets, an interesting visual angle to the spot, and we understand and enjoy the post process. But, after a while, I think doing just those type of spots lacks a bit of the heart that we like to put into our work. If something is emotional it’ll grab me more than something visual, and I think in spots that aren’t so effects-heavy, you can delve into that more easily.”

Together is where we’ll be

Now signed to Passion RAW in the UK, too, recent examples where TWiN have had that opportunity to flex their emotional muscle include an Olympics campaign for HP, again through BBDO New York, which came to life as a beautifully shot series of vignettes that featured human stories from across the globe. On the other end of the spectrum, they’ve also helmed some quirky comedy spots for brands, such as AT&T and gas station 76, and they’ve got their eye on bigger fish, too. Both signed to William Morris Endeavor for features, the duo are hoping to take their brotherly bond to the big screen as, in the case of TWiN, two heads are better than one.