Rankin & Chris Cottam

How did you get into advertising?
Chris: I don't really feel like I'm in advertising.
Rankin: I was offered money to do something I would have done for free.

What is the magic of the medium you have chosen?
Chris: There's just something about film that I find totally hypnotic. For me, using images, music and dialogue to create make-believe is far more alluring than a book or a stage play. It's partly because I'm a sentimentalist, I think. I'm not a sort of crazy artiste who wants to create abstract images; I like to make stuff that has an immediate emotional impact on people.
Rankin: I got into photography because I can't write and I can't paint and when I was a student the idea of film seemed so complex. Remember that I'm from a working class background and the prospect of making a film seemed so other-worldly to me, whereas photography is very simple. You just pick up a camera and you create something and apart from anything else that seemed very achievable. Luckily I was good at it but it was instinct that got me started.

When was the first time you felt inspired?
Chris: I remember seeing The Deer Hunter when I was really young - about seven - and it absolutely blew me away. That scene with Christopher Walken at the end when they're playing Russian roulette just totally hooked me. Strangely enough I also loved Singin' in the Rain, which seems like quite a gay choice, but the scene where Gene Kelly takes Debbie Reynolds into the hanger and sings "You Were Meant For Me" is unbelievable.
Rankin: I don't remember the first photo that made an impression on me, but the first exhibition I went to was a collection of war photography by W. Eugene Smith. At the time I thought his work was incredible, but even more important was the emotional impact of seeing photographs on a gallery wall for the first time. They had so much more impact than photographs in a magazine . . . when you looked closely at them they took on another meaning. I remember thinking, "Wow, photographs are so much more than just a few seconds on a printed page."

What interests do you have outside your work?
Chris: I play the guitar in a band, which mostly involves me bouncing around being a pretentious prick, and I write quite a lot of music. But I also like to go hill walking in the north of England. I can't drive past a mountain without imagining what it would be like to try to scale it in the wind and driving rain.
Rankin: I have a son, Lyle, and a girlfriend so I tend to spend a lot of time with them. If you're totally obsessed with your work, as I am, you have to be careful to give a lot to your family as well. My first marriage broke up partly because of my work.

What is the worst thing that's ever happened to you?
Chris: The things that I have felt utterly broken by never seem so bad in hindsight. I heard a radio interview once in which a politician - I think it was Matthew Parris [a former Conservative MP] - said nothing is ever as good as it seems and nothing is ever as bad, and I think that's true. Most problems are surmountable in one form or another.
Rankin: My mother and father dying within three weeks of each other, two years ago. My mother had lung cancer but my father died first from a heart attack. It was pretty heavy because it was all so sudden. Looking back, I feel that I didn't give my dad enough attention because I was making a big effort with Mum because of her illness. I just missed the boat; I wish I had hugged him and been closer to him before he died.

Have you ever had therapy?
Chris: Everyone says I should. I've never lived with anyone or had a relationship for longer than a couple of years and Rankin always says, "You're 35, why are you not married?" Recently we were sitting around at dinner in LA with an agent and he said, "You should get therapy, man, you would find it so refreshing." But it seems to me to be really self-indulgent.
Rankin: I went to a marriage guidance therapist when I was splitting up with my first wife. It wasn't all positive but I think that therapy is never a bad thing.

Chris - you don't have children, either, do you?
Chris: No, I'm quite selfish in that respect. I'm determined that I'll only have them if I want them, rather than feeling that I have to give in to external pressures to conform.

Rankin - what did becoming a father mean to you?
Rankin: I found it really hard to begin with. It was incredibly time consuming and rather draining but it was also very rewarding so it was actually a good combination. I never had any doubt that my parents loved me and I try to give that to my son every day; I try never to be disapproving of him.

What is the best part of working in advertising?
Chris: For me, it's having the funds to aim at creating 30 seconds of perfection - both aesthetically and in terms of performance. Advertising provides that opportunity, not just because of the financial boost but because you're working with other people who are the best in the world.

And the worst?
Chris: The realisation that it boils down to selling stuff we don't necessarily need.

Rankin: A lot of the time people have very set ideas about what they want and you're just a conduit - the talent that they want to get something out of. Occasionally that can be very difficult because I'm being paid to be passionate about my beliefs, yet my ideas are being ignored because a client doesn't understand where I'm coming from creatively. But you can't start acting like a diva. At the end of the day it's not my money and you have to do what people want.

What do you regard as your best work?
Chris: I think we get better with each job. All the work we have done over the last year I'm really proud of.
Rankin: In all honesty, despite the mistakes, I really love the feature film [The Lives of the Saints] that we directed.