Agency Robert Boisen & Likeminded and production company Bacon are leaders of the Danish new school.

Bacon, Copenhagen is a recent addition to the Danish production community scene. As a director-led company, fat-free Bacon specializes in lean, idea-centric productions.

Named for Denmark's top export, Bacon CPH is owned by and represents directors Kaspar Wedendahl, Martin Werner and Joachim Back. Werner and Wedendahl left Copenhagen's Bullet and Back Easy Film to cook up their meaty new venture. Also on board is Bacon producer Lene Mejer, a veteran of Bullet and Young & Rubicam Copenhagen's in-house production shop Balls.

The company specializes in clever spots executed in a precise yet economical fashion. With a typical spot budget ranging from 700,000 to 1,000,000 kroners (or $80,000 to $115,000 US) the emphasis on many Danish spots falls on locations, talent and sets. Economy is a prerequisite for Danish commercials and the Bacon directors are exporting this thrifty aesthetic.

"We are shooting more and more on location and the work is about humor, acting and feeling more than special effects. You have to get in better ideas to tell the story rather than solving problems in post," says Mejer. "That's a development all over the world, not just Denmark."

A look at the Bacon reel drives home this point. Werner has worked extensively in Germany, through Bacon's Hamburg hookup, 539090 (which, in unrelated news, now reps Denmark's Niels Grabols for spots). Back has exported Bacon-directed spots to agencies in Copenhagen, Prague and Warsaw.

Most indicative of a Danish aesthetic are Wedendahl's latest campaigns for Interflora and Topdanmark Insurance campaign. The Topdanmark campaign for example, shows situations that narrowly avoid need of the clients' products. "Party" begins with a voyeur glance at a pumping house party, then cuts to a neighboring apartment. Here, a collection of ceramic knickknacks edge closer to a destructive fall with each bass boom; they are scarcely spared when the party is abruptly shut down.

For DDB Paris via Les Producers, Wedendahl directed VW Lupo's "Few Drops" and Tele2 "Frankie." Both campaigns make use of simple yet archetypical locations and dead-on casting.

His US work includes Washington State Lottery's "Armor Guy" for Publicis, Seattle, which features a man clad in full plate armor subjected to numerous unfortunate occurrences, and a Boca Burger spot for FCB, Chicago.

Ridiculous but effective, the US spots were produced through Bacon's stateside connection, Los Angeles' Piper Productions. Werner also recently shot his first US job through Piper, a 60-second NASDAQ spot for McKinney & Silver, Raleigh, filmed in South Africa.

The agency behind the Interflora and Topdanmark campaigns is Robert Boisen & Likeminded (RB&L), Copenhagen. Since launching in 1998, RB&L has become a force in Danish commercials; last year the agency picked up a Gold Lion and top honors at the 2001 Danish Advertising Film Awards ("the Arnolds") for the exceedingly simple Interflora TV, directed by Wedendahl.

Copywriter Kim Boisen and art director Michael Robert first came together in 1988 at DDB Denmark, where they created campaigns for Audi and Macdonald's; in 1995 they first schemed to start their own shop, but instead landed at Grey Copenhagen ("a place where you ended your career at that time," notes Robert), as joint creative directors, and, within a period of less than three years, greatly expanded the agency's creative profile.

However, the dream of independence lingered, and in 1998, the pair colluded with Grey to launch their own shop, drawing on the examples of Fallon, London's Richard Flintham and Amsterdam's 180 for inspiration. Today, Boisen and Robert own 50 per cent of RB&L and Grey the remaining half. The relationship allows RB&L access to network accounts and production resources, and affords the agency independence when it comes to creative and strategic work. Unlike Grey (and many Danish agencies), the 15-person shop does not use an in-house production company, instead producing spots in collaboration with production companies. Robert says RB&L generally seeks out production companies with "international qualities."

"The country is in a transition period now regarding directors; it's been too unprofessional and too Danish, that is, old-fashioned, typical and boring. But the new generation is getting a lot more input from around the world and is more focused on international ways of working," says Robert, noting that thanks to cable TV, Danish clients too have become more worldly and are demanding higher production values for their spots.

"BUDGETS ARE PEANUTS"

Robert says production budgets are incredibly small, rarely topping $150,000 US. Mariusz Skronski, executive producer and creative director of Locomotion, a Copenhagen production house, explains his take on Danish budgets. "Budgets are peanuts compared to North America," says Skronski. "We need to be working all of the time because margins are small. But this gives us an edge since we are used to working like this. Even compared to London, we work with half the money they normally do and somehow make good stuff. Directors are not temperamental and spoiled by huge crews. Here we think about it first and then spend the money, while in the US, they spend the money first and then start thinking."

Skronski had some thinking ahead to do on the latest Ikea campaign directed by Jens Mikkelson for RB&L. Locomotion's Mikkelson (whose credits include last year's Danish Ikea campaign as well as a Polish Ikea campaign for Leo Burnett, Warsaw and a sadly realistic Orange Campaign through Propaganda, Copenhagen) shot three stripped-down Ikea spots portraying rabid Ikea fans who horde the designer furniture and make Graceland-like pilgrimages to the Swedish furniture company's birthplace. Shot in a low key, realistic style, the spots contain no direct branding and star no professional performers, except one seasoned circus performer.

"I shot on 16mm and handheld to get a documentary feel, as I wanted this to look real so no one will think it's a commercial. We don't brand Ikea, or only in a subtle way. We don't say the furniture is great, there are no graphics or pac shots, it is almost like the Ikea stuff is worked in as a product placement," explains Mikkelson.

Webfiles:
Robert Boisen & Likeminded> http://www.rblm.dk
Bacon> http://www.baconcph.com
Locomotion> http://www.locomotion.dk