Wayne McClammy

One of the most lauded web films of the year, droga5's The Great Schlep deftly mixed comedy and politics to persuade young Jews to high-tail it to Florida to convince their grandparents to vote Obama. Directed by Wayne McClammy and shot in comedian Sarah Silverman's apartment, the spot has more in common with a comedy sketch than a commercial and was shot at very short notice over one weekend for no money.

"I pitched the concept in Sarah's living room, she and [writer] Dan Sterling sat down one night, pounded most of it out and we all got together two days later," McClammy says over the phone from Los Angeles.

Florida polled Democrat in last year's presidential campaign and Schlep has since gone on to pick up several industry accolades, including a Black Pencil at the 2009 D&AD Awards on Thursday for Writing in Viral.

McClammy moved around the US South while growing up, eventually settling in Austin, Texas in the mid nineties. The success of Texan filmmakers such as Richard Linklater and Robert Rodriguez had put Austin on Hollywood's radar and he found a supportive local film community in the city. He cut commercials for post house Match Frame and began directing comedic short films such Jesus vs. A High School Basketball Team, which screened before R-rated Hollywood fare incinemas in Austin and Houston.

"The shorts were filthy," he says. "Naked Jesus usually doesn't play well in front of a Pixar movie."

Mr. Show co-creator Bob Odenkirk liked the shorts and invited McClammy on a whirlwind tour of Los Angeles that included a visit to the set of late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! He immediately hit it off with Kimmel and began writing and directing comedy segments, including the Emmy-winning "I'm Fucking Matt Damon" , a musical prank Silverman (Kimmel's girlfriend) played on the talk show host for his birthday.

The clip drew eight million hits on ABC's website and led to a star-studded comic retaliation by Kimmel (also directed by McClammy) called "I'm Fucking Ben Affleck".

Opportunities in the commercial, television and feature worlds soon followed. The 35-year-old signed for commercial rep with Hungry Man and directed a Nike campaign for Wieden+Kennedy, Portland. He regularly directs The Sarah Silverman Show and is developing four features, including Cool School, about a group of ad execs that return to high school to learn to be cool, and PUMA'S, starring Jennifer Aniston.

To find out more about Wayne McClammy's comedic repertoire, Boards rang him up in Los Angeles to chat.

You shot The Great Schlep over a weekend in Sarah Silverman's apartment. How did that project come about?
Sarah called me after droga5 approached her with the idea of doing something for launch of this website. They basically pitched a concept and Sarah was definitely on board. She called me and [The Sarah Silverman Show EP] Dan Sterling and we pounded it out. We did it on our own in her apartment, gave it back to droga5 and it just took off. We were all excited to do something for Obama and it was a good opportunity to be part of this campaign, but at the same time, to do something smart and funny that wasn't hitting people over the head.

Was it difficult to balance the political message with the humor?
Politics and comedy are complicated. You don't want to come off as preachy but at the same time I think we did a really nice job of getting the message across. It's a funny piece to watch. Sarah's fantastic in it and yet she's passionate about the message. I think it inspired a lot of people. Rarely do you have that combination in a political ad where you are not only inspiring, but also genuinely making people laugh.

I liked the actress who played the Jewish nana in the track suit.
She's an actress from Los Angeles, isn't she great? Her reaction is priceless.

Is it easy to find actors you want to work with in LA?
You would think you have your pick of people... I tend to look for people that look real and at the same time are talented... Every day I find more and more people I'm excited to work with but it's not as easy as it seems. Everybody in the commercial world sees that as well. You go through these casting calls and you realize very quickly the ones that are really talented. The list is very small.

Sarah Silverman starred in droga5's The Great Schlep for the Jewish Council of Education and Research.

How did the idea for "I'm Fucking Matt Damon" come about?
I had done a short with Matt a few months prior, The Bourne Ultimatum trailer. Jimmy has a security guard on the show called Guillermo and we inserted him into the movie trailer for The Bourne Ultimatum in which Matt reveals that Jimmy has been trying to bump him from his own movie. They have this long-standing rivalry that has become a really fun part of the show.

So we'd had that prior relationship and we wanted to do something for Jimmy's birthday. Unfortunately it happened during the [SAG] strike so we didn't actually air "I'm Fucking Matt Damon" until February - we made it in October... We flew down to Miami in a tropical storm and shot it on Halloween day.

Did he know anything about the sketch?
Jimmy did not know about it. He saw it the first time that night. He fortunately had enough time to compose himself during the video, so by the time the camera came back to him he smartly played off his irritation with Sarah. During the piece he was thoroughly entertained. Jimmy has a really good sense of humor. Anybody that knows his style of comedy, he's a fan of pranks and roasts. So he thoroughly enjoyed it.

Was it difficult to recruit all those celebs for the response video, "I'm Fucking Ben Affleck"?
They were genuinely fans of the Matt Damon video. Once we had Harrison Ford, it made things a lot easier. That was a really fun day - I'm not sure I'll ever have a moment like that again in my career. It was very surreal sitting on that stage. We actually shot at Henson Recording Studios where they shot "We Are The World" and it was very surreal looking at those risers and seeing so many A-List celebrities. It was really, really fun. Seeing people passionately sing "he's fucking Ben Affleck" was pretty awesome.

Do you see a lot of commercial scripts that you want to direct?
I'm hoping to do a little bit of everything but comedy is definitely my route and it's what excites me. For people in the ad world to see me outside of the comedy world is a little difficult and I'm hoping to change that and open people's eyes to the depth that I can bring.

What's been the reaction from ad creatives to your sketch comedy work?
People don't understand how quickly these things come about. Take the Damon video, for instance: we broke that idea on a Friday afternoon. I pitched it to Matt Damon that Friday night, we hadn't written the song yet. We just had the concept and shot it the next Wednesday in Miami with a very, very small crew and no money. I'm thrilled with what we got out of that but on the same side, if we had more time obviously things could be better. But there's something about the organic purity that makes it great.

Do you think that spontaneity is what made it successful?
When it's fresh and everybody's excited about it - that usually results in something that you're proud of.

www.hungryman.com