LOS ANGELES-Kinka Usher of Santa Monica-based House of Usher Films has been named Best Commercial Director of ’98 by the Directors Guild of America (DGA). He won the award on the strength of five entries: Sony’s "Egg" for Young & Rubicam, New York; a Mountain Dew spot entitled "Michael Johnson’s World" via BBDO New York; Miller Brewing Company’s "Cupid" for Fallon McElligott, Minneapolis; Nike’s "Undercover Ushers" for Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, Ore.; and
Hallmark’s "Neighbor Lady" from Leo Burnett Co., Chicago.
During this past Saturday’s (3/6) DGA Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, Usher was on hand to receive the honor. In brief acceptance remarks before a capacity audience of around 1,600 in the Century Plaza Hotel’s L.A. Ballroom, Usher thanked his agency collaborators, production crew, support people and Frank Stiefel, president of Stiefel & Company, Hollywood.
Shortly thereafter, SHOOT caught up with Usher backstage. Of the Stiefel acknowledgement, Usher noted that he had been with Stiefel & Company several years ago. "It was my first major shop affiliation and he [Stiefel] helped develop my career." Usher said he assumed that Stiefel was in the L.A. Ballroom audience since Stiefel & Company director Peter Darley Miller was also nominated for the DGA spot award.
Usher described the DGA honor as being "more important than Cannes Lions or Pencils or Clios because it is about directing. There is no greater award than one from directors on directing. And the group of people who have won this award in the past-guys like [Joe] Pytka and [Michael] Bay-have really dominated commercial directing. To have now won for the first time and to have been nominated three times makes me feel like I’m actually achieving something in my career."
Usher was earlier nominated for the coveted honor as top spot director of both ’95 and ’96. It’s conceivable that he could have been nominated for each of the past four years but a snafu at House of Usher caused him to miss the entry deadline for last year’s DGA Awards competition. While he recalled feeling confident both the first and second years he was nominated, Usher said the key to winning this time was "diversity" in his entries.
"I felt great about my chances [to win] the first year when I had the "Trix’ spot [for the California Fluid Milk Processors Advisory Board via Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco]," reflected Usher. "And the next year, I had the Nissan [including "Toys’ out of TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles] and Polaroid work [including "Architect’ for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners]. But this year, my entries showed a greater range. I think after a while, you learn how to enter the competition. I see who’s won in the past, how they’ve won and why they’ve won. And I think stragetically, having diversity in your work is very important … Hallmark was an emotional piece. And then to blend that with a mix of comedy that itself has a range, I think, helps in the competition. It all comes down to storytelling and I tend to find my work in humor strikes a responsive chord-it’s different because I don’t play the comedy too goofy or too straight. It’s a balance that seems to work."
The DGA win comes at an opportune time in that Usher recently took a hiatus from the business to make his feature directorial debut, Universal’s The Mystery Men starring Geoffrey Rush, Lena Olin, Ben Stiller, William H. Macy, Janeane Garofalo, Hank Azaria and Paul Reubens. Principal photography was wrapped on the film last month, freeing Usher to return to the spot arena. At press time, he had just finished filming the first half of a Diet Coke assignment from Wieden & Kennedy, Portland. The second part of the Diet Coke job is slated for lensing later this month.
"For me, it’s an amazing case of timing-to come off the movie and right into this award," said Usher. "I’ve been looking forward to getting back into commercials and renewing my relationship with agency creatives. I’ve been in touch with a lot of agency people already and I’m gearing up. I’ve lined up my post schedule [on the movie] so that I can drop in some ads."
Usher topped a field of DGA spot nominees that consisted of: Miller; Rocky Morton of Morton Jankel Zander, Hollywood; the team of Amy Hill and Chris Riess of Tony K., West Hollywood and London; and Tarsem of bicoastal/international radical. media. Of that group, Tarsem is a past DGA winner, having been honored as Best Spot Director of ’96. Miller, Morton and Hill and Riess were all first-time nominees. Hill and Riess made history in that they were the first co-directing duo ever nominated for the DGA commercial honor.
