‘OzGirl’ Creator’s ‘Dangerously Sexy’ Lingerie Ad

One of the benefits of being out in Australia for a conference, means some face to face time with some of the best web creators down under. I caught up with OzGirl creator Nicholas Carlton who continues to make a name for himself in the Aussie creative scene.

Having just graduated film school, Carlton—now all of 20 years old—has ventured into the commercial directing world. But don’t think he took the easy way. He is very much still the crafty new media creator that was able to score international press and heaps of honors for his indie drama series OzGirl. Shoot first, figure out the rest later.

Instead of pitching his steamy concept for a lingerie ad to the Australian ad agencies, Carlton decided to bypass them all together and go straight to the brands. In this case it was the slew of Aussie lingerie retailers. Eventually he found one with Melbourne-based Smitten Kitten, who liked his $3,000 60-second spec commercial (below) which is now up on YouTube.

It was only about 6 weeks ago when I came up with the concept for this commercial after Shyam [Ediriweera] and I had talked about shooting spec commercials ever since making Transmission. We both share a similar vision and I believe we’re both afflicted with what I call cinematic ADD (look it up), so in dreaming of a concept for a spec commercial it had to be something that could really showcase our predisposition for hyperkinetic, contrasty and slick images. (Carlton)

Low budget spec ads

aren’t exactly anything new, with many aspiring directors knocking out at few for their reels. But what caught the eye of Australian ad industry trade Campaign Brief was the end-around Carlton pulled off in actually scoring the brand without an agency. Already there are 90 comments on that post, most of them bashing it and balking at the paltry $3,000 budget.

But Carlton shakes it off, admitting that this was still just a spec commercial as he builds his career as a director. “I had an absolute blast and am really honoured to have worked with such an amazing crew,” added Carlton. “It was a lot of fun converting a car park in Hawthorne into a New York police station and shooting 3 lingerie models in ‘lock up’.”

As for OzGirl, there’s a chance we’ll see another season in the not too distant future as there’s some strong interest from ‘a major media company’ to pick it up for fresh set of episodes.

Behind the scenes of “Dangerously Sexy”: