Director Ian Gabriel of Notorious LA directed this spot for South African client Nedgroup Investments featuring pilot Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger who became a national hero when he successfully ditched a passenger plane into the Hudson River off Manhattan in January 2009, saving the lives of all 155 passengers and crew. Sully’s plane was disabled during its initial climb after striking a flock of geese after take off from La Guardia.
Gabriel wanted to capture the lack of drama, the calm and skill Sully brought to the situation, reinforcing the concept of the spot that in these uncertain economic times investors need to find experienced, capable “Safe Hands for their investments.
The spot was shot in New York at the actual site of the landing to make every frame of the story real. Sully’s recollection of the event is interspersed with ordinary people going about their business on a seemingly routine New York day, oblivious to any risk.
Ad agency was Brandlab, Cape Town.
DGA Spot Nominees: Lance Acord, Kim Gehrig, Tim Heidecker & Eric Wareheim, Andreas Nilsson, Ivan Zacharias
This year’s field of nominees for the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award recognizing Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials consists of a filmmaker who’s won the honor each of the last two years, another past winner, a five-time nominee, a helmer who’s just picked up his second career nod, and a duo garnering their very first Guild nomination. The latter is the directorial team of Tim Heidecker & Eric Wareheim of production house PRETTYBIRD. The director now going for her third consecutive DGA Award win is Kim Gehrig of Somesuch. The other past winner is Andreas Nilsson of Biscuit Filmworks. Nilsson won the honor in 2016 and now has three career nominations. Lance Acord of Park Pictures just earned his fifth career DGA Award nomination in the commercials category--his four prior nods coming in 2004, 2012, 2013 and 2017. And scoring his second career DGA nod is Ivan Zacharias of SMUGGLER who was previously nominated in 2023. The work Gehrig earned her third straight nomination on the strength of three entries: SiriusXM’s “A Life in Sound” for agency Uncommon; Nike’s “Am I A Bad Person?” for Wieden+Kennedy, and the Apple client-direct spot titled “Find Your Friends.” Nilsson’s latest nomination came for Hennessy’s “Board Game” out of Wieden+Kennedy London; Andrex’s “First Office Poo” for FCB London; the client-direct Apple spot “One More”; and Virgin Media’s “Whizzer” for VCCP London. Acord’s fifth career nod is for Volkswagen’s “An American Love Story” out of agency Johannes Leonardo. Zacharias’ second career nomination is for Apple’s “Flock” out of TBWAMedia Arts Lab. And the duo of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim nabbed their first... Read More