Yonder’s director, and new father, on the art of working with kids and blending ‘timeless childhood nostalgia’ with contemporary family life, writes LBB’s Ben Conway.
“Every kids spot I’ve shot, whether for the US, Canada, Western Europe, or South East Asia, has the same feeling of timeless childhood nostalgia. I think that’s really why I get hired, to capture the warm feelings one gets when we recall our fondest childhood memories and milestones.”
Stash Capar is a director at Yonder, and someone who has won and directed a number of ads that work with, and speak to, children and families, forging something of a specialism in this area. After recently becoming a father, he discusses the art of ‘the kids spot’ with LBB’s Ben Conway — revealing his directorial approach with children on set, what makes ‘bad’ kids advertising, and applying his own learnings to his new journey into fatherhood.
When pitching to agencies for a children’s spot, Stash calls his approach ‘reality +1’ or ‘cinematic realism.’ He says, “It’s a more beautiful and cinematic version of reality where morning light is always peeking into a warm, lived-in kitchen, and little bits of cute, colorful kids’ clutter are sprinkled around.” The core of this approach, he explains, is to allow the children to get lost in their own worlds — “not ‘acting’ as much as they are just there” — and capturing a more organic “special moment” as a result…
