Flying Fish Enjoys the View
The longest-running act on the New Zealand ad stage, the company has stayed fresh with a mix of new talent, solid management and business savvy.
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Flying Fish Enjoys the View
By Anthony Vagnoni
How’s business, I start off by asking. Moore responds that it’s good, all things considered. And in this global economy, this is no small accomplishment. Moreover, he’s seeing the fruits of the last few years’ labors, when his focus has been on making sure that Flying Fish maintains its pre-eminent position in the New Zealand commercials business. “We’re the longest established commercial production house here, since the demise of Silver Screen,” Moore says. “We’re coming up on our twenty-fifth year—our jubilee.” Flying Fish was essentially one of the founders of the TVC industry in New Zealand, says Moore, who’s been with the company for almost ten years. Founded by the legendary Brian Kassler—referred to universally as BK—in partnership with the director Lee Tamahori, the shop now has a sister company in Australia and has always enjoyed a strong global reputation. Moore says that Kassler’s mantra has always been to stay at the forefront of the industry, and that applies to a number of metrics. One, obviously, is creativity, which means that the company strives to make sure its director corps is on the cutting edge of what the industry needs.
Good times turn into a nightmare in Lee Tamahori's "Trapped" for NZTA.
But there are other ways this is measured, too. He cites an example from the good old days, before the internet changed everything. Back then, Kassler used to tote DVD players into agencies and hook them up to monitors to screen directors’ reels on disc, back when the rest of the industry was using bulky U-matic cassettes. (You younger readers might want to Google that to see what we’re talking about.) “After the screenings, we’d leave the DVD players,” he says. “It shows how we always worked to stay on top of things.” These days the shop has firmly embraced digital capture and HD, he adds, working frequently with RED and other digital formats, from production all the way through post. Staying current is an important discipline, for many reasons. Production companies can go through peaks and valleys of popularity as directors can, Moore says. When he joined Flying Fish, the shop’s international reputation was based on the strength of its production service work. It continues to work with some of the top production houses in the UK, Europe and the US—Smuggler, Bandits, Camp David, Radical, Therapy, Gorgeous and Stink are among them, he points out—but for the past five years, Moore has also been working hard to re-establish the company’s chops in New Zealand as well.
An industrious dad finds a way to get his kids in the surf in this Toyota spot from Gregor Nicholas.
Marty Collins, the recently departed Head of Television for Clemenger BBDO in Wellington, would agree. “I’ve been thinking as to why they’ve been in business this long,” he says about Flying Fish. “For one thing, they let the work speak for themselves. They aren’t a flash-forward company; they don’t try and impress people all the time, and they are a no-bullshit shop. In some respects they almost undersell themselves.” What appeals to Collins is that the company is firmly grounded and easy to work with for agency producers, who are under intense pressure. “Some production companies have the same mix of seasoned and young directors as they do, but they try and be really cool,” Collins says. “And by ‘cool’ I mean that you can have a conversation with them and you come away not sure if you understand anything they’ve just said. I’ve never really experienced Fish that way. I mean, Brian has forgotten more about this business than most producers know, and James is a great businessman and is full of enthusiasm. I find them to be very honest.” Moore’s enthusiasm might emanate from his career success, which makes him sound almost like an overnight sensation. Flying Fish was the first company he applied to fresh out of film school. “I was keen, eager and young,” he recalls, and knew someone who’d worked at Fish and had suggested he call. So he did, and somehow got on the phone with a director, who invited him to stop by and see if he could help out on a music video shoot. At the time Kassler had just returned from a trip to London and wanted to start a music video arm of the company similar to the separately branded divisions that companies in London and the US had. “The producers put my name forward,” Moore recounts, “and BK hired me on the spot to run New Zealand’s first dedicated music video company, which we called Fish ‘N Clips.” He’d managed to go from being a runner to an EP in less than six months.
Moore oversaw the production of literally hundreds of videos before moving into the commercials side of Flying Fish’s business about five years ago. He said it was part of a planned transition for Kassler and Tamahori, both of whom were ready to scale back their involvement in day to day activities. Kassler remains a partner, while Tamahori—who still directs TV spots in New Zealand through Fish—is focused on his feature career internationally.
A look at what happens when a car explodes makes a point about safety in this spot, also directed by Luke Savage.
The director roster at Flying Fish runs the gamut, Moore says, from top tier talents like Tamahori and Gregor Nicholas to younger up and comers like Gary John and Luke Savage, among others. Moore adds that the company has a reputation for breeding feature directors who rise out of the commercials ranks—while Tamahori is the best example, others, like Niki Caro, have also worked in long-format entertainment. In addition, the two offices—Sydney and Wellington—share some directors, while others are exclusive to one office or the other. While long known for its deft handling of comedy and performance scripts, the Flying Fish director roster is expanding into areas that Moore quips are known more for their “visual trickery”—things like animation and stop-motion, for example. What Collins says he likes most about working with the Fish director corps is not just their abilities as filmmakers, but their understanding of the process. “It makes our job easier as an agency to have directors that understand advertising,” he says. “I think that’s a really important thing; it isn’t about taking what you’ve seen on MTV and trying to find a script that you can shoehorn that into. I’ve worked with directors that do that, and I don’t like it. Our business today, more than anything else, is about finding creative business solutions—that’s what agencies are concerned with, whether it’s online, TV, outdoor, whatever.” The office in Auckland has recognized the importance of providing solutions to agencies and has taken steps to make itself a one-stop shop whenever possible. Moore says that they’ve long had their own post production capabilities, and that’s been recently enhanced with the capability of handling digital effects and Smoke work. 
The important things in life are the subject of this emotional spot for HBF directed by Niki Caro.
Its production service work has earned it friends in far off places as well. Michael Schlenker, a producer in the L.A. office of Psyop, has worked on several jobs with Flying Fish, among them its high-profile “Heist” spot for Coca-Cola. “They’re a great team to work with,” he says. “James puts together these teams of people who can handle everything from live action to visual effects, and they’ve all worked on quality projects. What I also like about them is that they don’t just throw budgets together—they really take the time to figure out what’s needed, so that you can get the most for your money.” Handling clients from abroad, whether via production service or producing jobs directly, is becoming more important as the global market for Flying Fish beckons. In Sydney, for example, Friedmann says they’re seeing interest not just from Asia but also from Eastern European markets and Russia. While the bulk of their work is still done locally, as it is with the New Zealand company, they’re looking beyond their own borders. They recently shot a job for the US market through the New Zealand office, while Moore is busy making sure that he can import top international directors when the demand arises. Going forward, Moore sees a positive outlook. “We’re starting to see realistic budgets again,” he quips. As for the impact of the web on the work they do, he says that shooting web content for advertisers is an increasingly important part of their mix, and while that presents challenges from budget standpoints, it’s all good. “I think it’s a positive development for everyone,” he says. “This is about advertising staying relevant. Even if you watch programming online, you’re still dealing with pre-rolls and things like that. You’re still watching commercials."
Published May 21, 2010. |
Flying Fish's EP James Moore --that's him on the left--has spent his entire professional career with the company.I’m on Skype with 
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