Josh Gordon with a...prop
Copywriter/creative director Chris Beresford-Hill recently left his job at Saatchi New York to join BBDO; CCO Gerry Graf is set to leave to start up his own venture. One of the pair's final creative acts at the agency was to create Devin and Glenn. The creatives, along with Saatchi senior producer John Doris and directors Speck/Gordon, created the short in efforts to help overturn California's anti-gay marriage proposition, Prop 8, aka the California Marriage Protection Act.
As the filmmaker's state on the film's Facebook page, "To the 44% of Californians who think homosexuals should not be allowed to marry. Why would you support Prop8 and spare them from a long, unforgiving, lifetime of wedded torment?"
Below, Beresford-Hill and directors Will Speck and Josh Gordon talk about the making of the film.
What was the origin of this project and of the specific idea for the story?
Chris Beresford-Hill: I was living in San Francisco when Prop8 passed; still can't believe that happened. I got engaged right around the same time, too. So... I can get married and my gay friends can't?
It's always struck me as odd, how society treats marriage as "the end of fun in your life." Watch any sitcom, look up "marriage quotes," listen to people excuse themselves from a bar when they have to head home to the wife ? everyone makes it sound so horrible. So, these people are fighting so hard to protect, what, this thing everyone makes fun of?
I had the idea in the back of my head for a while and shared it with Gerry Graf, who instantly sparked to it. We started working together on the script and brought in our producer John Doris, who immediately got things moving.
How did Speck/Gordon get involved?
CB-H: I'd done some pro-bono work for the Tronie foundation, an organization that Diane McArter (president of Furlined) is associated with. When the Prop8 script came together, we reached out to Di to see if Speck/Gordon would be interested. I'd never got to work with them before, but Gerry and I are both fans.
Right away Furlined saw the bigness of it. They understand content and pushing great work. I remember Diane saying "we have your back on this" and from that moment on, everyone at Furlined has been tireless creating this piece.
When we got on the phone with Josh and Will (Speck/Gordon) it only took a couple minutes before I knew they were going to make this so much better than I'd ever imagined. As soon as they came on board we trashed the original script, locked ourselves in a room and rewrote it together. By the time we were shooting this was their baby, we were just lucky enough to sit back and watch.
