César García and Rodrigo Cortés discuss the challenge of combining cinematic creativity with advertising.
César García, creative director and partner at Sra. Rushmore, interviewed Rodrigo Cortés, director, producer, screenwriter, and writer, about how collaboration between creatives is essential for achieving successful advertising projects.
“Why did you decide to get into advertising?” was the question García started the conversation with. Cortés stated that he enjoys the narrative approach of advertising, particularly the immediacy and working under pressure. “The fact that something can go from zero to one hundred in three weeks is very exciting.”
In response to García’s assertion that cinema offers more creative freedom than advertising, Cortés argued that the difference is that some ideas are only possible in cinema, and only if ideas are not restricted. “A movie inside a box is a good idea after it’s shot, not before shooting,” he said, referring to his film Buried.
On a related note, the director of the recently released Escape defended that advertising these days “lacks more risk and challenge; it needs to challenge the client much more when shooting.” For him, the format of advertising is very fun and allows other forms of expression, but it’s essential to be clear about what you’re doing, as the content in a film is different from that of a commercial. In advertising, he said, one must read that ‘proto-script’ and find not what you want to do, but what it is truly saying. That’s why he only gets involved in projects that have a narrative behind them that stimulate him.
When asked about his involvement in advertising, the filmmaker praised Mª Jesús Horcajuelo for helping him enter the field and emphasized that “in advertising, you can be as good as the idea, you have to start with strong creativity that closes something, because otherwise it will be unimpactful.
Rodrigo Cortés concluded by saying that he has always felt he had a large degree of control over everything he does and has never had pressure from other creatives when creating and ideating spots and campaigns. In the director’s words, seeing people enjoy and watch an idea grow makes him feel like he is doing “a great professional job and building a deep connection.
