Geoff Bailey is a creative director at Assembly, responsible for overseeing the studio鈥檚 creative output with a focus on commercial, episodic and film VFX.
With longstanding and notable creative relationships with brands such as ESPN, A&E, Showtime and Fox, Geoff has received numerous accolades for his work, from Gold Clios to PromaxBDA awards, and a Sports Emmy for his rebrands of ESPN鈥檚 College Football network.
Geoff's diverse creative style is rooted in his design background, he commented 鈥淚 love to blend a detailed photographic and cinematic style with highly-stylised design and art direction, creating works that feel both unique and surprising, but rooted in the real world. Because I work as both a designer and director, I really enjoy working with other directors and creatives to experiment and explore in the early process of look and concept development.鈥
Name: Geoff Bailey
Location: Brooklyn, NYC
Repped by/in: Assembly
Awards: Multiple BDA Gold/Silver/Bronze, Cannes Bronze Lion, Clio Bronze, and others
Geoff> There are two things that really get me excited about a script. The first is having something to say. I鈥檓 brand/market/genre agnostic, but I love when a script cares about what it is advocating or selling; when it鈥檚 honest and idiosyncratic. The same way you can tell when a director loves a project or an actor really connects with a script, I can tell when a writer or writers have found a real way to connect with what they鈥檙e saying or selling. It could be a solution to climate change or the selling the newest widget, but there鈥檚 an honesty that is contagious.
Second, I love a script that believes the old adage: show don鈥檛 tell. I love a script that knows and trusts its audience. This is especially true today, when audiences are so media savvy and react immediately when they are being talked down to or sold to.
Geoff> Go big or go home. The only way to do justice to a spot is to first really try to understand what the brand is trying to communicate and then give a very personal, unique approach to conveying that message. There are so many talented directors out there and viewers have become so media savvy, I think the only way to cut through and communicate is to create something truly personal and authentic.
I also try to balance and interweave the creative and the practical. An idea is only as good as its execution. I try to go through every detail of the shoot and post (since I do a lot of design and VFX-heavy work, the post process is very much part of my process). I鈥檓 known for long treatment.
Geoff> It鈥檚 hugely important for me to understand the brand. As a director you鈥檙e trying to communicate something and you can鈥檛 know the best way to do it unless you really understand what you are trying to say, to whom, and to what end. For that, you have to know the brand and market.
I鈥檒l go back and watch any ad I can find (print, broadcast, social, etc). I鈥檒l read up on the brand, its history, anything I can find to give me more information about who they are, where they are headed, and who they are talking to.
However, this doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean that you need an immediate affinity for that brand or market. I鈥檝e done quite a bit of sports work over my career; I know next to nothing about sports. When I went to pitches, I always insisted that someone come with me so that when the conversation inevitably turned to sports, they could explain things to me and I would have some idea of what everyone was talking about. But I think I was able to bring an outsider鈥檚 perspective about what sports means in our society (even to someone like myself who is very much a casual observer) and (hopefully) come up with some ideas that someone else, who lived and breathed the sports world, maybe wouldn鈥檛 have thought of. So you need an affinity, but you have to find your own connection to the work and it has to be real.
Geoff> A campaign is only as good as its weakest link. You need to have everyone working in tandem, from brand to agency through production and post. I love every aspect of production and I get as excited about sound and wardrobe and logistics as I do about lighting and camera and visual effects.
But ultimately for it all to work, I need to have a good working relationship with the client and/or agency creative. We can, and should, argue all the time, but we need to be headed in the same direction and trust one another. Otherwise it鈥檚 very hard to make a good spot.
I always remember one job I did: it was a very ambitious experiential project鈥攋ust a massive undertaking. We had a tight budget and a very aggressive schedule. The agency and I had lots of discussions about what we were going for and what we wanted the finished project to feel like. But when we did our first review, it was a leap of faith. There was so much VFX work that wasn鈥檛 yet in place. It was a rough edit and temp graphics, but on a massive scale, which only emphasised everything that wasn鈥檛 yet finished. I knew where we were in the process and what the finished product would look like, but it was so early and so rough, it was hard to imagine for anyone else but me. We ran the show for our client鈥 they took a moment after it finished and simply said: 鈥淜eep going. I鈥檓 looking forward to the next review.鈥 It was a moment of trust that we were both headed in the same direction. By the next review, we were further along and were able to talk about what was working and what wasn鈥檛 and start refining the piece, but having that kind of collaborative, trusting relationship is what makes it possible to push the boundaries of what鈥檚 possible. Because on any truly good project there is always that moment: a leap of faith.
Geoff> Because of my background as a designer and CG artist, I love projects that have a strong sense of design and utilise design and visual effects as part of the storytelling. Beyond that I鈥檓 agnostic. I love the industry partly because it has exposed me to so many things I would have never thought I would have been interested in.
Geoff> Because I鈥檓 a fairly technical director (working a lot with animation and visual effects), it鈥檚 sometimes assumed that I don鈥檛 like or are as proficient working with actors. But my favourite part of the job is working with performers (actors and dancers alike). I love the collaborative spontaneity that is so exciting compared with the countless iterations of CG and FX work. I鈥檝e had the pleasure of working with truly gifted actors over my career. It鈥檚 been one of the great pleasures of my job.
Geoff> I haven鈥檛. I work with amazingly talented producers and line producers who constantly keep us honest and creative at the same time.
Geoff> Where to start?! What to do with the dead cow in the middle of your set? Mud slides? Trained crows? Untrained cats? Snow storms on beaches? Production is nothing but problem-solving鈥攅very minute of every day.
But the moment I鈥檒l always remember is a shoot with a major, multi-Grammy-winning pop star. We had four hours to shoot with him. He was amazingly punctual, but on arriving, his manager let me know that she had a problem with the script: they wanted a different one. They weren鈥檛 going to shoot anything until they were happy with the revisions and the clock was ticking. My client and I discussed a game-plan and they stepped aside with the manager to rewrite the script on the spot. I had to keep the star from leaving, which he was very ready to do. He asked about the old theatre in Charleston where we were shooting and I proceeded to give him a full tour of the theatre, recounting its storied history, the artists who had played there, and some of the more lurid episodes that had taken place there. By the time we got back to the stage, a script was ready and we rolled cameras. Not a single word I told him was true. It was made on the spot. Sometimes the most important talent for a director is 鈥渁 gift for fiction.鈥
Geoff> I think it goes back to the pitch and treatment process. There has to be a deeper agreement about what we鈥檙e trying to say and how a particular approach I might have is serving that. There鈥檚 no point in being protective of an idea if, along the way, you discover it's not communicating what you thought it would. Then it鈥檚 time to pivot and come up with something new. On the other hand, having an agreement on what you are trying to say and how can help as the inevitable schedule and budget concerns begin creeping in and whittling away at your approach. There comes a point when you have to step back and say, 鈥渁re these changes taking away from what we鈥檙e trying to say.鈥 If the client or agency is on the same page and we have a good relationship, if we agree on what we鈥檙e trying to say, then either we can push back or find a creative solution.
Geoff> Diversity isn鈥檛 something that can only happen at one level in the industry. It can鈥檛 just be about more internships and not about getting every level of the industry to be more representative of our world. If we have more diverse interns, but the faces making the hiring decisions are all the same, nothing will change. I鈥檓 a huge advocate for more internship and mentoring programs on set, but there鈥檚 also plenty of diverse, amazing talent out there already. If we look around and everyone on our sets looks the same, it鈥檚 on us to go find those people (if we don鈥檛 already know them) and hire them.
Geoff> I think it remains to be seen. We鈥檝e all gotten used to doing really great work with a lot less travel and more remote conversations. But I, for one, am missing the in-person collaboration and brainstorming. I鈥檓 excited about more in-person sessions and planning. So, we鈥檒l see. The pendulum swung hard one way and I think it is starting to swing back in the other.
Geoff> I try to be very conscious. Social media isn鈥檛 just about different aspect ratios. It has a completely different viewing experience and very different narrative structures are successful on social media compared to broadcast (or experiential). That said, for most projects, budget and schedule still require that we create spots for multiple media from the same shoot and so you inevitably have to make compromises and try to think creatively.
Geoff> I鈥檓 a very tech-forward director. I love exploring new technology, but it鈥檚 just another tool. It has to be used well. Sometimes the hype gets the better of us. Virtual production is great, but it works much better for some types of material than others and you have to know the difference. Interactive story-telling is something I am following with a lot of interest, but I鈥檓 still not happy with the image resolution available for what I do. I use AI-driven image generation all the time as a compliment to reference imagery as I鈥檓 working in pre production. But as anyone who has tried to 鈥渁rt-direct鈥 AI knows, it can be extremely frustrating to get it to refine images. Sometimes it鈥檚 like working with a drunk concept artist in a language neither of you understand. But next year, my answer will probably be different.
Geoff>
All of these projects use visuals to tell a complex story. They have a mood and atmosphere that is hard to put into words, but I think is what grabs you. And for all of them, I can truly say they were a collaboration. I came with ideas, but the end result was something that no one person involved could have dreamed up.