Finally, a sense of satisfaction
By Robert Goldrich
Nicolai Fuglsig of bicoastal/international MJZ sets the bar high for himself. When he was profiled in our Directors Series in 2006, a year during which the Sony Bravia “Balls” spot he directed for Fallon, London, had picked up the last of some three dozen industry awards, Fuglsig felt he didn’t deserve to be written up in SHOOT in that he hadn’t yet progressed as much as he had hoped to in the American ad market.
Then this past January when he received his first Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award nomination for best commercial director of the year, Fuglsig was most of all “surprised.” The director noted that he didn’t even select the spots that were submitted to the DGA for consideration by competition judges. “I wasn’t as busy in commercials [in ’07, the year the latest DGA Award was based on] due to the ongoing writing and development of my feature film. In fact I had no idea that my work was submitted [to the DGA] until [MJZ president] David Zander told me.”
Well Zander did some fine picking and choosing as the three spots he entered on behalf of the director–Guinness’ “Tipping Point” and Motorola’s “Journey,” both for Abbott Mead Vickers/BBDO, London, and JCPenney’s “It’s Magic” out of Saatchi & Saatchi, New York–earned Fuglsig the DGA Award as best commercial director of ’07, which in turn attained for the director that elusive feeling of satisfaction.
“I was surprised to get nominated and twice as surprised to actually win,” he relates. “But I have to admit that winning this high an honor feels great and is quite satisfying. The DGA Award is a filmmaker’s award, not an advertising award. It’s an award with no politics. It seeks pure craft, storytelling and filmmaking and is judged by filmmakers, many of whom I look up to. I feel energized, like I have a carrot in front of me that I want to strive even harder to get.”
Not being easily satisfied and continuing to set high standards for himself that he often feels he isn’t fully meeting may, though, be the very dynamic that helped Fuglsig attain an honor as coveted as the DGA Award.
“I tend to be a bit negative about myself, a bit pissed off with my own abilities,” he relates. “I have creative ants in my pants. I always think I can do better. Once I finish one job, my head is already into the next movie. I’m constantly looking for what’s next, something better and more challenging.”
Indeed the ad beat goes on for Fuglsig. Shortly after winning the DGA accolade, two high profile jobs he directed have debuted on air: Monster.com’s “Daybreak” for BBDO New York, a recent SHOOT Top Spot; and Coca-Cola’s “It’s Mine” from Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore., which premiered during the Super Bowl to rave reviews and also earned SHOOT “Top Spot” status.
In the latter, a Charlie Brown balloon at Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade comes out of nowhere to grab a Coca-Cola bottle balloon that Underdog and Stewie balloons were vying for in the stratosphere over Manhattan. In some respects, “It’s Mine” shares a common bond with one of Fuglsig’s DGA Award-winning commercials, JCPenney’s “It’s Magic.” Both represented a bit of a stretch for the director.
“‘It’s Mine’ was like ‘It’s Magic,” Fuglsig observes, in that they are whimsical, something for which I’m not known for. I got my first chance to show my whimsical feminine side in the JCPenney spot. Up until then, I was known much more for work that’s a bit darker and more quirky.”
Asked to reflect on the other two spots which helped him win the DGA Award, Fuglsig first says that “Tipping Point,” a logistically complex tour de force that would make Rube Goldberg proud, entailed “intense preparation while there was very little time to shoot the piece. Most of my energy went into the prep to make sure that our shoot time was well spent. We also had to live up to Guinness’ strong tradition for great creative.”
Meanwhile Motorola’s “Journey” was just that. “It’s very cinematic, has extensive action and interesting performances,” notes the director. “On a smaller budget, we achieved quite a lot, all of it in camera. I enjoyed the work in that it was like doing eight different movie genres within a commercial–I was shooting a western, a bank robber movie, a romance and so on.”
“Journey” was particularly appealing because it represented varied genres. “I very much love to avoid being pigeonholed. You want to defy being categorized,” he affirms.
So what’s next? For the moment, a relatively brief respite from commercials.
“For the first time in seven years, I’m taking three months off.” But this isn’t vacation time. Instead, Fuglsig is collaborating with a writer to make progress on that alluded to feature. And while the director isn’t yet at liberty to publicly discuss the project in detail, it’s safe to say it isn’t a showcase of his lighthearted whimsical side.
“It’s a violent drama that takes place in America and Brazil,” says Fuglsig. “I think the short time away from commercials will help me come back even stronger and then go after that carrot I see in front of me ever since [winning] the DGA Award.”
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More