Fresh Meat Director on Comedy, Commercials & Combusting CK Pants

If Google's new Chabuddy G-fronted campaign, Search Like a G, gave you a chuckle last week, you'll be pleased to learn that it's just the start of director Jamie Jay Johnson's journey into the commercial world.

The newest kid on the roster at Rattling Stick, Johnson is best known for his TV credits - Fresh Meat and Karl Pilkington: An Idiot Abroad - but he's also directed a slew of documentaries for Channel 4 and short films, which have bagged him nominations for BAFTAs, National Television Award, RTS, British Comedy Award, Grierson Documentary Award, Broadcast Award and BIFA Award.

shots caught up with the comedy maestro to talk about his route into the business, his favourite rib-tickling commercials and why he joined the Rattling Stick family.  

You studied at Central St Martins and started off making films with friends in your bedroom – tell us a bit more about your route into directing. What was your big break?

As a kid I drew a lot and did flick book animations, then Super 8 and 16mm scratching-straight-onto-film-loops for club-night visuals as a teenager. At St Martins I borrowed video cameras and got mates to help shooting stupid art projects like setting fire to my pants whilst wearing them outside Calvin Klein on Bond Street, raving in a giant papier mache pigeon in Trafalgar Square and trying to sell people portraits of their cars at the Great West Road traffic lights. 

I met a producer at a party which led to some very homemade, middle-of-the-night docs for Channel 4 (about wooing Swedish princesses, breakfast cereal and a Holiday Around My Bedroom, which was nominated for both BAFTA and Broadcast Awards for Best New Director and Best New Director Factual (but didn’t win either)). 

I then went to film school from which I made a feature doc which was cinematically released. Steve Merchant saw that and I was hired for a couple of series of An Idiot Abroad. My first proper scripted break was two series of Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain’s Fresh Meat staring Jack Whitehall, which was a lot of fun.

Above: the cast of Fresh Meat

You’ve made a name for yourself as a comedy director. How would you describe your directing style? How do you go about drawing out the humour in a situation and how do you adapt your approach depending on whether it’s a documentary, a short film or a TV series?

I’d hope my directing style might be described as comic, inventive and warm. I’ve done a lot of work about ‘lovable losers’ and innocence, and without sounding too cheesy, I’d hope that there’s been some touching moments and heart in there, too.  

"For each discipline, you’re just gathering the material to best tell the story in the edit."

My approach is probably similar for all things in that I’m looking for something comic which is universal enough for an audience to connect with. The main difference between docs/shorts/TV series might be the size of the crew and how many people you need to explain your take/interpretation to. For each discipline, I kind of see it as being the same, in that you’re just gathering the material to best tell the story in the edit.

You’ve worked with Jack Whitehall on Fresh Meat and Karl Pilkington on An Idiot Abroad, are there any other comedians/comedy actors you’d like to work with?   

Yes… lots… I go to stand up nights quite often and there are loads of inspiring comics around. I love Daniel Simonsen, also Arnab Chanda, Tash & Ellie, Mawaan Rizwan, Roisin & Chiara, Katy Wix. I just saw a young Australian comic called Sam Campbell who I was pretty blown away by. 

I got to work with some of the guys from People Just Do Nothing recently too, which was a lot of fun. Their improvising skills were amazing, which was something I really enjoyed from working with Karl Pilkington.  

You’ve also made a feature film, Sounds Like Teen Spirit, are feature films something you’re keen to return to?

The endurance to develop, find funding, shoot, edit and release a feature is pretty hardcore and takes several years, so you need to insanely believe in that project to see it through. Film festivals are fun and it’s great to see your movie play to audiences from all over the world and see what get laughs where. I would like to return to it and am working on something at the moment.

What would be your top three funniest commercials?

At the time I remember really liking the simplicity of this Food Standards agency ad, which is a single take of sausages not being cooked properly on a barbecue with When Will I See you Again playing over it. Whopper Freak Out felt pretty inspired at the time. More recently, I really enjoyed Gabe Turner’s Apple ad with James Corden and also Jeff Low’s Weiner Stampede. Danny Kleinman’s work going back to his Peter Kay ads still feel comically pretty perfect. Sorry, that was more than three... 

What made Rattling Stick the right home for you as a director?

The mix of comedy and heart in Rattling Stick’s output made me feel like I could fit in there. Also Danny Kleinman, Ringan [Ledwidge]’s and Andy McLeod’s work I’ve known and been a massive fan of for years so very honoured to be in their and the rest of the brilliant roster’s company. The team there are also really lovely and are very committed to me a very forward-looking way of working and thinking. Plus they’re all very funny, smart and straight talking.  

How are you planning to parlay your TV/feature/documentary experience into commercial/branded content? Have you done any commercial work before?

Until a couple of weeks ago, I’d only done a few charity shorts for C4 and 4Creative and then a little bit of animation for Mother where I did a stint as a creative after St Martins with my then-creative partner, Kim Gehrig…  I’m hoping I can marry off the playfulness and imagination of my early work with the bigger production experience I’ve had on TV series. 
 
I’ve just finished four shorts for Google’s 20 year anniversary starring People Just Do Nothing's Chabuddy G and Steve which has been great. For that, I drew on a mix of my doc experience, plus Karl Pilkington-style improvising, which made the shoot really fun. The agency and client all got fully behind it, too. 

And finally, what do you have in the pipeline?

I’ve got a mock-doc comedy feature in development for Film4 but I know development can be a long haul, so I’m looking forward to doing some short-form alongside.