Director Johan Renck directed the latest Gap campaign through his US production home HSI Productions for Boston's Modernista! and Gap's in-house creative shop. The eight feel-good spots feature a number of stylish and sassy faces and forms across the pop-cultural palette, all getting down to different mixes of Handel's Messiah (some contributing artists include vocalist Nina of The Cardigans, De La Soul, Tricky, Ziggy Marley and the Thievery Corporation).

Boards spoke with Renck about the latest spring campaign and his own thoughts on the state of the international advertising nation.

Boards: So what's new with you?

Renck: I moved to America about six months ago and I've been doing a lot of commercials since I came here. I've been dealing with good creatives and doing good stuff. In Sweden, somehow you tend to look at US advertising as having a certain kind of comedy quality but still always really clever. A lot of European comedy ads are on the underground tip, super ironic or super niche. But I kind of like the American humor; it's broad but still clever without underestimating the viewer. It's based on copywriting whereas in Northern Europe, the art director is stronger than the writer. I like when it's derived from writing.

Boards: So what about the Gap campaign?

Renck: Gap is different from most; you can't help but respect Gap's advertising. I like the space they own. From the first second you feel it's Gap.

Boards: How did the campaign initially come together?

Renck: They were really good, these creatives [Gary Koepke and Lance Jensen]. They had a definite game plan but at the same time they were winging it. They had this idea and had a couple of names to work with and our main intention was to do one or two spots from four original ideas. I wanted to simplify one that I liked, I was feeling the keep-it-simple-stupid thing, that is, do them as one take and try to make the lights and the actions of the characters work towards the idea.

Boards: Besides the star power of actors like Laura Prepon, who are the rest of this crop of Gapsters?

Renck: Well, we did casting and even used our choreographer, Fatima [Robinson, who also directs via HSI]. For "Four Boys," we did casting and took four guys at the time and just had them do something to show what they are made of in casting. These guys did this act that we used later. We played "Messiah" and they did this weird, ugly dance but it was charming. The idea was also, what are boys like in spring? They want to show themselves off and get attention from girls, so we wanted to show that.

Boards: The spots seemed fairly simple; what were the technicalities of the shoot, especially with regards to the depth of the scene?

Renck: My DP [Gosta Reiland] and I were pulling focus and we had a light situation that changed over time, but we didn't want to overdo it and make it seem like it was changing too much. It was coming from cool and dark to something warm and light, like how we define spring. With a good camera scope you can keep depth of field deep and we used fairly wide lenses to exaggerate the perspective. We experimented a lot with light. We had one pre-light day and we experimented with color temperature and how to capture the light and do the transition from A to B that made sense without being gaudy or tacky, but should be subtle or cute.

Boards: What would you say about the flavor of the various spots in the campaign?

Renck: We decided to make all spots individual, based on every new person. When they stepped into the arena, I talked to them and felt them out and tried to bring out their personalities rather than having any plans. We tried different versions until it grew into something that felt not staged but that this is really this person doing what they do. It might feel like we were over-dramatizing what we were doing but it was a cool way of working to improvise and bring out these people as much as we could.

Boards: What was it like working with Modernista!?

Renck: Gary and Lance are great. They listen to what you say and have a lot of cool ideas themselves, the way it should be when advertising is fun to work with. They are trying to reinvent a concept that is built on white space; it's a fucking challenge. You could so easily think we must go somewhere else or think of something new, but it's good to be contrived or contained by a formula and be creative within that.

Boards: So how do you like living in LA?

Renck: LA is weird. It's very different from anything I've seen. Every day there's an interesting moment, that's how that works. I'm used to a straightforward approach: if I don't like something, I say so. Here there is a veil over what people have to say. The other thing is this is like a village, and I am used to city life. Everyone knows each other here. I like the stress and traffic and noise of a city, whereas this is more like living in the countryside.

Credits:

Ad Agency: Modernista!, Boston, MA

Creative Director: Gary Koepke

Producers: Leigh Donaldson, Tiffany Richter

Copywriter: Lance Jensen

Production Company: HSI, Venice, CA

Director: Johan Renck

DP: Gosta Reiland

Post Supervisor: Tiffany Richter

Executive Producer: Tracy Norfleet

Producer: Skot Bradford

Visual Effects: 525 Studios, Santa Monica, CA

Visual Effects Artist/Creative Director: Geoff McAuliffe

Visual Effects Artists: Patrick Poulatian, Mandy Sorenson

Visual Effects Producer: Gina Fiore

Editorial Company: Rock Paper Scissors, West Hollywood, CA

Editor: Bee Ottinger

Audio: Eleven, Venice, CA