The Bare Blog

The Bare blog is the best way to stay up to date with goings-on at the company.

  • Joanna Bailey nominated for 3 British Arrows! Posted February 20, 2012 at 11:53

    Joanna has done it again - the list of nominations for Britain's prestigious awards has it that Joanna has earned three nominations.

    Her moving work for the Cancer Research Charity has received two nominations and one other nomination for the cute as a button spot she did for Debenhams celebrating Mothers day- Go Joanna!

  • Pramface - Dan Zeff directs hotly-tipped comedy for BBC3! Posted February 15, 2012 at 16:20

    Dan Zeff has directed BBC3's hot new TV show "Pramface" .
    Laura, 18, and Jamie, 16, meet at a sixth form party after completing their respective A-Level and GCSE exams. But little can prepare them for the result of their brief, drunken hook-up!
    From the moment Laura discovers she is pregnant, the series follows the couple as they face the big moments and even bigger decisions about life and responsibility across those all important nine months with hilarious consequences- so tune in 23rd Feb 9pm BBC3 ! 

  • Bruno charms us all with his new brilliant Oreo ad Posted February 09, 2012 at 12:52

     

    Prepare to be dunked head-first (Oreo-style, as you’ll see) into the secret world of the Biscuit Whisperer. Button-cute, pin-sharp Pixie Davies knows just the to eat an Oreo and what’s going on in their crème-centred souls...but trust Dad not to understand. Director Bruno Chiches teases charming performances from Pixie, Dad and the cookies themselves. If this doesn’t raise a wry smile, consider your soul lost at sea.

    P.S Bruno's directors profile will be up soon! In the meantime for any enquiries regarding his or any other directors availabilities contact noor@barefilms.co.uk

  • Joanna's Cancer Research spot voted Top 5 of the year! Posted January 06, 2012 at 11:29

    Depending on how exciting your Christmas holiday was, you may have seen the ITV Ad of the Year programme. If you did, you will have seen that Joanna's spot for Cancer Research UK was nominated by the ITV audience as the 5th best of the year - beating out some rather punchy competion from Old Spice, Lynx and Hovis!

    If you didn't catch it and would like to see the best 20 of 2011 here is the link: 

    http://player.stv.tv/programmes/ad-of-2011/2011-12-28-2000/

  • Sam Leifer Directs"How Not To Live Your Life"Crimbo Special Posted December 22, 2011 at 10:13

    Once again Sam Leifer snaps the directorial reins to treat us to a seasonal installment of the show that warms your heart while giving you a terrible case of laugher's cramp . With a razor-sharp script and a fresh batch of ready-to-quote witticisms our perennially non-PC hero stumbles into a thousand scrapes and Christmas-cringeful situations with the usual double-helping of hilarity and smack-me-down cheek for good measure...Sam's done a wonderful job again; see for yourself with this exclusive sneak peek!

  • Joanna wins at at the Ciclope for Mothers Day viral Posted November 22, 2011 at 10:22

    Continuing with her Cannes success for this charming viral for Debenhams, Ciclope have also made it a winner in their low budget category.

  • SHOOT's article focuses on Joanna Bailey Posted October 31, 2011 at 16:46

    Ringing true, striking an emotional chord
    October 21, 2011, Robert Goldrich --- Though she hasn't helmed a documentary in a number of years, Joanna Bailey of     Bare Films, London, still has the observational skills essential to success in that discipline as evidenced by "Couples," her emotionally moving Cancer Research UK spot for AMV BBDO, London.

    A series of couples first talks about being told that a loved one—a wife, a mom, a grandfather, a daughter—has cancer. The couples—comprised of the husband and cancer stricken wife, the daughter and her diagnosed mom, the grandson and his granddad, a mother and her daughter—share how they felt upon hearing the news. Each couple is seated on its own couch in separate settings.

    Hearkening back to that difficult time is highly emotional for each couple. In one, the grandson and his granddad don't say a word, moved to tears, and underscoring how articulate silence can be.

    But each couple then happily notes in a continued montage fashion that thanks to Cancer Research UK, each patient has recovered. They affirm, though, that much more still needs to be done—at which point we see a woman sobbing, seated alone on a couch, having lost a loved one to cancer.
    "Couples" delivers a simple, direct, poignant message which rings true, even with the constraints of some copy that was scripted so that the couples collectively complete sentences as the camera take us from one to the next.

    Bailey and her colleague culled down from originally some 120 people to this handful of real-life couples who have faced the adversity of cancer.
    "There was a definite script but the agency allowed me to go off script, which helped to make the scripted material all the more impactful," related Bailey. "These weren't actors. It was important we let them articulate exactly how they felt...The agency gave me the flexibility to substitute for those lines what people said, a person's glance over to a family member, even the silence of the 11-year-old boy. When we interviewed him, he just said, "I don't remember. I don't remember." He was too young back when he heard of his grandfather's cancer to maybe fully understand, to put his feelings into words. He just started to cry on camera. He got in touch with how painful he felt back when he heard about his granddad. To us he was being immediate with his emotions yet at the same time trying hard to be brave when recollecting that difficult moment."

    Bailey observed that as a director she wanted to do justice to each couple while not exploiting their emotions. "It's a delicate balancing act—facing cancer is so emotional. And in the case of the woman at the end of the spot, her daughter had died just a year ago. The grief is so profound."
    Two years earlier, Bailey had directed her first Cancer Research UK spot featuring individuals. This time she gravitated towards couples, adding to the poignancy. The first successful go-around with the client and AMV BBDO—the productive working relationship they established—helped, she said, to nurture the realism and immediacy of emotion captured for "Couples." This latest spot offered another family coupling as well in that it was shot by DP Ben Smithard, BSC, who is Bailey's husband (and profiled in this issue's Cinematographers and Cameras Series).

    Conducive to capturing people being natural was "a tiny crew that went about in a van to meet the couples and film them," said Bailey. "We didn't want to stand out. We wanted to be small and nimble, hopefully getting people to forget they were on camera and just convey their emotions."

    Documentary roots
    A native of Ireland, Bailey moved to London in 1990, working as a researcher and then an assistant producer on documentaries. She started directing on her own in '95, helming projects for the     BBC and Britain's Channel 4. For the latter, she directed the well-received documentaries Geisha, Naked Nashville, and Blood and Money. The latter focuses on city boys in Brooklyn who engage in white-collar boxing.


    While interviews and the spoken word were key contributors to the success of all three documentaries, revealing yet understated camerawork and physical details help to shed light on the people involved. A stoic geisha through her physicality and slight gestures conveys innermost thoughts that she is trained to conceal.
    "I've felt in the U.K. that there's been a dumbing down of the TV documentary—with narration telling you what you're seeing, not giving credit to the observational powers of viewers," said Bailey. "It's what caused me to pull out of documentaries and focus more on commercials starting several years ago."

    Short-form segue via Nashville
    It was     Naked Nashville that proved to be a catalyst thrusting Bailey into shorter form fare. Pop singer George Michael saw Naked Nashville which prompted him to seek out Bailey to direct the music video for his remake of the Police hit "Roxanne." This clip got her a slot on the directorial roster of production house Serious Pictures, which brought her into the commercialmaking arena.


    She has since gone on to establish herself in the advertising marketplace, primarily in the U.K. with work for such clients as British newspaper     The Independent, the BBC, and the U.K.'s Central Office of Information. Some brief representation years back in the U.S. via an indie rep firm which had a relationship with Serious garnered Bailey some opportunities such as campaigns for Nike via Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore., and the New York City Board of Education for TBWA\Chiat\Day, New York. The latter coaxed believable performances from real educators and students in NYC's public school system.
    Meanwhile the Nike work was part of a "Dear Mexico" campaign, which included mini-profiles titled "Big Sister," "Kitchen," "Kick Boxing" and "Swimmer." The ads, which showed women engaged in different sports, targeted Mexico's female population. "Swimmer," for example, provided visually engaging images of a woman doing her pool laps with an all consuming intensity.


    Bailey said she would like to regain stateside representation so she could continue to explore and bring ad concepts to life for the American market. She added that she would even entertain stateside documentary opportunities under the right circumstance.


  • Dan Zeff receives a Scottish BAFTA for Case Histories Posted October 24, 2011 at 17:07

    Dan has won a Scottish BAFTA for his episodes of 'Case Histories' in the televsion drama category! He had also been nominated in the same category for 'Hattie'. Following on this good news Dan has also been commissioned for a second series of PramFace (been talked as the next Inbetweeners/Gavin & Stacy) before transmission of the first series - almost unheard of!

  • Delighted to announce that Andrew Steggall has joined BARE Posted October 18, 2011 at 18:27

    Coming from an extraordinary theatre and opera background, Andrew’s hallmark talents lie in capturing haunting performances with brave and exciting imagery.

    Andrew takes risks for creative endeavour: dropping behind enemy lines in Baghdad, Andrew cast Iraqi actors to appear alongside British actors and musicians in an adaptation of Stravinsky's “The Soldier's Tale”, which he opened at the Old Vic, co-produced by Kevin Spacey, to considerable acclaim.

    If you would like to see any of his award winning shorts in full length please do get in touch and we would be delighted to send you a copy! 

  • Campaign's Pick of the Week - Joanna's Cancer Research Spot Posted August 09, 2011 at 15:51

    We are delighted that Joanna got the nod for Campaign's Pick of the Week. Her emotive work is a follow up to the ongoing campaign for Cancer Research from AMV BBDO. Described as a 'heartfelt spot (that) does what it's intended to do and pulls on the heartstrings.' 

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