Greg Gray: The Way I See It

One day, a young Greg Gray walked out of his chemistry class onto a film set and he hasn’t looked back. The South African director’s gift for narrative, humour and pathos has resulted in a remarkable and diverse body of commercials, from emotional films such as The Reader for Bell’s Whisky to hilarious spots like Virgin Atlantic’s Love Story. Shyly admitting that the many awards he’s won – the Lions, Loeries, Clios and more – do matter, he talks candidly to Carol Cooper about his life and work, the South African scene and what he’s learnt from his brush with death

I was born in Johannesburg in 1966.

My earliest memory is from when I was three years old. I wandered off at the Top Star drive-in [open-air cinema] and mistakenly climbed into another couple’s car. My parents didn’t know I was gone until the couple returned me to them. Now that I think about it, I don’t know what this says about my parents. Perhaps it says more about the time we lived in then. Parents didn’t fret as much as they seem to these days.

My parents met at art school in the early 60’s. They soon discovered that as young students with two children, their bohemian existence wasn’t putting food on the table, and they left the creative world for the corporate fields of IT and accounting.

Thinking about whether or not I had a happy childhood, I suppose I might have thought so at the time, but looking back on it, I had a pretty turbulent upbringing, with my parents separating when I was still quite young.

I don’t think I had any nicknames when I was a child. None that anybody chose to share with me anyway. When I first started directing, however, the crew I worked with used to call me Double-day Gray, because a booking with me meant lots of overtime for them. 

I wasn’t really a very good student at school. I was not very driven, and was more motivated by my social life than gaining academic accolades or achievements.

Although I initially wanted to be an artist, I love what I do now and find it very fulfilling. I think that I’m well suited to being a director. If commercials were no longer an option for me, I would probably pursue a career directing long-form film or I would be a photographer. Although I do have my pilots licence and was an avid flyer. I love aeronautics and would have loved to have been a helicopter pilot.

I suppose I was artistic as a child and I naturally sort of gravitated towards that sort of stuff from an early age. However, I can’t recall being actively encouraged other than winning a couple of school prizes for art and drama and my school friends asking me to draw the outlines of pictures in their art books for them to colour in.

I ended up trying my hand at both law and medicine, until finally giving in to my affinity for the arts. I literally walked out of a chemistry class, onto a film set the next day.

My first job was sweeping floors as a PA in the film industry. I was working for Gavin Furlonger, an iconic South African photographer/director. He’s still one of my closest friends.

I then ended up working as an assistant director. At the time, in the late 80s, the industry was small and undeveloped compared to the rest of the world, there was a huge demand for AD’s. Giaco Angelini [director, cinematographer and head of South African production company The Vision Corporation], took me under his wing with the intention to develop me into his jack-of-all-trades location scout/production manager/AD.

Giaco was one of my mentors. Working as his assistant gave me an invaluable education in many aspects of the industry, as I was involved in the production process from beginning to end.

Another mentor was Keith Rose [Velocity Films’ founding partner and director]. I got into directing commercials through being his assistant for many years. He was very generous in encouraging me to do my own thing and I built up a lot of relationships in the top agencies locally and abroad. TBWAHuntLascaris offered me a commercial for Tiger Tastic Rice [My Motha, 2001] on the condition that Keith would DP it for me. It was a very successful collaboration, and the beginning of my directing career. Keith continues to be a mentor and friend today.

When I began working in advertising, during the late 80s and 90s, the industry was driven first and foremost by creativity. Clients saw huge value in that and were brave and took risks. Idea was king; clients relied heavily on agencies and the process was very collaborative with directors and creatives being given a lot of freedom. The trend of global advertising hadn’t hit South Africa yet, and with very few directors around, the work certainly felt a lot more prolific. Also, commercial advertising focused on brand building with very little time afforded to retail.

Today, there seems to be a lot more involvement and control from clients in the creative process. This may be the result of tighter budgets and people wanting more for their money, or it could be a result of pressure on marketing departments, but there is a danger of procurement and process strangling creativity.

In the early days of my career I was a bit of a control freak. I still am but not in the same way. I’ve learned to be a little less overbearing and more collaborative and trusting of the process and the people I work with. But I’d say my greatest weakness is that I can be obsessive – stubbornly so – in fact if I could change one thing about myself it would probably be the fact that I am a perfectionist, which as good as it may seem can be a real Achilles’ heel.

In terms of the best advertising work I’ve ever seen, I don’t know if it’s ‘the best’ but I still love the Guinness work Swimblack from 1998 and Surfer from 1999, as well as the Stella Artois work done [the ‘Reassuringly expensive’ campaign] at the same time.

I’m not sure what is my favourite among my own work. The ad campaigns I have done since the beginning of my career vary quite a bit in style, from emotive to humorous, and from stylised to looser, more slice-of-life pieces. Whatever I do I try to make it engaging. At the moment I am prepping two jobs, one is an international project which is an emotional father-and-son story, while the second is something completely ridiculous, hilarious and totally fresh.

I would hate to think I’ve done the best piece I will ever make so I’ll be optimistic by saying that hopefully my best piece of advertising is the next one.

I don’t think there are any brands or products I am dying to work on. I don’t choose work that way. For me the idea and the potential to expand it is more important than what the product is. Having said that success for the brand is paramount. Personal artistic fulfilment can be gained in your own time, at your own expense.

My creativity is stimulated by photography. I find it very evocative and inspiring. I also like to travel and am inspired by new places – new visuals, cultures, smells, food. And I love French films. I find them very real and uncontrived, bordering on effortless. Jacques Audiard directed two of my favourite films, A Prophet [2009] and Rust and Bones [2012]. I also have a healthy appetite for Korean movies for similar reasons.

My creativity is sapped by conflict and negativity.

Thinking about how I like to use humour in my work, I don’t think that exploring the dark side in advertising moves products. Often with comedy, there’s a fine line between humour and darkness and the trick is to get close to the line but not to cross it. If I was directing features, though, I think that I would gravitate towards more serious subject matter and would display a darker sense of humour.

I would love to be involved in directing a TV series. There is such great writing happening in television today. I would really like to tell feature-length stories in film or TV drama. It’s all a question of timing, I do hope my time will come sooner rather than later!

I love working with actors. I have been very fortunate to have worked with amazing performers, including two Oscar winners. [Jamie Foxx in the 2011 spot To The Masters, for Oudemeester, and Louis Gossett Jr in the Windhoek Lager ‘keep it real’ TV campaign].

At the risk of stating the obvious, for me the most important thing as a director is finding an actor who really feels like they fit the role. In advertising we don’t always get to work with A-grade actors so selecting the right performer for the character he or she is playing is crucial.

I have done a bit of acting myself, but luckily for you, nothing you’ll find on YouTube.

When I was making The Reader [for Brandhouse Beverage’s Bell’s Whisky, through King James] I found that Brandhouse’s approach was to work from the heart, rather than ‘from the book’. I think it’s essential that you relate or connect with a script if you are going to immerse yourself in it for a month or two of your life. I have always selected my projects based on that self-fulfilment. It would be difficult for me to work on a project and give it my total commitment if I don’t resonate with it.

Music and sound design is as important to me as the picture. It really sets or compliments a mood or tone often even more so than the visuals. I haven’t ever worked on a music video, but I would be very interested in trying to enhance a great track with evocative visuals.

I’d really like to say that awards don’t matter to me, but I always get a nice feeling inside when I win something, so I suppose they do.

I’m afraid I have Googled myself. I do care what people think about me – I wish I could say I didn’t but I’d be lying.

One of the best pieces of career advice I’ve been given was from Keith Rose. When I first started out, I was approached with a number of scripts and he advised me to be very selective. “Start at the top and then work your way up,” he said.

Similarly, I would advise a young person wishing to be a director, don’t just do anything for the sake of doing something. Choose carefully. Do as much of your homework yourself as possible. Nothing beats throwing oneself into every aspect of a production from the word go. This way you see things early enough to implement and include them in the process.

I think the worst day of my career was when I was shooting a Shield deodorant commercial, where we recreated an Indian bus journey over the Himalayas. We had 30 people strapped onto the outside of the bus which then had to navigate down a steep mountain pass. The brakes of the bus failed on the first take, but miraculously our precision bus driver brought it to a standstill a kilometre down the road. It was the most gut-wrenching moment I have ever experienced; the end of that day couldn’t have come sooner.

If I could time travel I would like to take a walk back down memory lane to the 70s. I was very young at the time but I have a great affinity with 70s-style design and music.

My ideal dinner companion is my wife. We met through work eighteen years ago.

It’s difficult to manage a balance between work and family life. It’s so easy to succumb to the all-consuming nature of our industry and there was a time I used to work long days, most days of the month – it was hard to see anything beyond that. But it can become counter-productive to the work you’re doing, and it comes to the point where it’s no longer conducive to creativity. Now it’s very important to me that I make time for myself, my family and friends, and I try to be disciplined about setting time aside for this.

I have a love/hate relationship with Cape Town. It is a gentle place to live and has a rich natural beauty which makes it very comfortable, however it lacks the edge and fast-changing nature of some of the bigger cities of the world. You have to work harder at being less complacent, at being part of the world.

I guess I came as close to death as humanly possible. I was hit by a taxi while on my scooter and spent a month in a coma. The physical, mental, emotional trauma of the experience was huge, but it also put me in touch with my own vulnerability and fragility, and I took stock of my life. I guess it could very easily have had the reverse effect, but it gave me more perspective on my life, and what was really important. I think I am stronger and better for it.

I cry a lot. Soppy movies make me cry. Sentimental ads make me cry. Homeless people make me cry. I am easily moved to tears.

The best day of my personal life was when my son was born. My worst day was one I’d rather not talk about. That’s how bad it was.

I always used to see myself as an extrovert, but feel less so as I grow older.

My main hobby is taking photographs. Being a great food lover, I also like to cook. It’s relaxing and creative and gratifying. I also go diving, fishing and walking.

My hero is my son, Ethan, who is studying to be a doctor at the University of Cape Town. He is an amazing young man who has taught me so much about kindness and compassion.

The thing that makes me most angry is unkindness.

Religion is both the greatest and the worst of human inventions. 

If I was President of South Africa for one day, I would resign.

I always feel awkward when someone asks me how I would like to be remembered after I am gone, because regardless of what the answer is, it usually sounds pompous. At the end of it all, we’re just matter in a universe too huge to comprehend, and when life passes though us, we disappear back into nothingness.

At the end of the day, what really matters is love, friends and family. It sounds clichéd but really – that’s all that counts.