Partners in crime

How did you get into advertising?

Dael: Moving away from art directing at Animal Logic, I found my style drew me to directing. I’ve worked on TVC campaigns for Zyrtec, Target and Sydney Water.

Matt: How did I get into advertising? Dael dragged me in!

How did you start working together?

Dael: We started working together back in 2001, and since then, have created many works together both commercially and personally.

Matt: We met on the job actually, creating a short film. It was a love job, so we were both there for personal development. The people that you meet on these jobs are in it for the fun rather than for any massive financial gain.

How do you approach the task of collaborating jointly?

Dael: Experimenting is the key to our collaboration. The chaos factor is a big part of our partnership, which is cool. We both obsess over composition – Matt is as passionate about this as I am, but in a completely different way. This dialogue is great and inspires our ideas.

Matt: It helps that we both have a different approach to a project at the beginning and as a result, it turns into an epic adventure and a creative rollercoaster.

Does the other person have any annoying habits?

Dael: I want as many environmental factors as possible to affect our work, anything can happen. It’s hard to find an annoying habit in Matt; he is seriously the nicest guy in the world.

Matt: Sometimes, we get to the eleventh hour and I am stitching the project together, then I get a call from Dael and he’s changed his mind, again! As a director, Dael can sometimes be relentless. If one idea is not working, we move straight on to the next one, it’s never ending. But, that is why I like working with him -- I always know that there is a risk.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Dael: We need boundaries and some rules in place to make sure we don’t go overboard.

Matt: Definitely time and too many ideas!

What frustrates you about working in advertising?

Dael: When I get a brief off an agency, I can sometimes sense an element of fatigue with the idea. The script has been through months of changes and passed through many different hands before I see it

Matt: Communication problems between production companies and agencies can get pretty interesting. There are always so many people to keep happy.

How do you stay sane?

Dael: By talking about other stuff…film, art, other projects we have in the pipe, you know like Julie Andrews being chased by Zombies. Normal stuff!

Matt: We will be way deep into a project, but we will always find the time to spend looking for other sources of inspiration.

Career Highlights?

Deal: Probably one of our personal collaborations which was our music clip ‘Cherry Tree’, which won us a Gold Award for most innovative music clip at the New York Festival, Best Music Video at the AEAF, and the Digital Arts Award of top five music videos of 2006.

Matt: I was pretty happy with that. That was a great project – I think the reason that it worked so well is because we had total creative control over the project.