The Directors Guild of America (DGA) has named its nominees for best commercial director of ’99: Bryan Buckley of bicoastal/international hungry man; the team of Adam Cameron and Simon Cole, a.k.a. Joe Public, of bicoastal Headquarters; Leslie Dektor of Dektor Film, Hollywood; Rocky Morton of Morton Jankel Zander, Los Angeles; and Dewey Nicks of bicoastal Epoch Films.
SHOOT learned of the nominees at press time, right after DGA judges’ ballots were tallied. Of the field, only Dektor is a past DGA winner, having been named best commercial director of ’92. This is Dektor’s 11th spot DGA Award nomination, second to Joe Pytka of Venice-based PYTKA, who has been nominated a dozen times.
Morton receives his second DGA spot director of the year nomination. He was first nominated last year.
The rest of this year’s field consists of first-time DGA nominees. Buckley was nominated on the strength of four spots: E*Trade’s "TriMount Studios" and "Broker" out of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco; Monster.com’s "When I Grow Up" via Mullen, Wenham, Mass; and OnHealth.com’s "Friends" from TBWA/Chiat/Day, San Francisco.
Joe Public received its nomination on the basis of six commercials: Cracker Jack’s "Sizes" and the Dreyer’s Ice Cream ad "Truck Driver," both for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners; Amazon.com’s "Two Minutes" out of Foote, Cone & Belding, San Francisco; Snapple’s "Sponsor" via Deutsch Inc., New York; adidas’ "El Duque Dance" for Leagas Delaney, San Francisco; and "Fire 2" for Church’s Chicken and Cliff Freeman and Partners, New York.
As a historical footnote, Joe Public becomes the second co-directing duo ever nominated for the DGA commercial honor. The first was last year’s nominee team of Amy Hill and Chris Riess, now with Los Angeles-based Palomar Pictures.
Nicks’ entry card contains: Ameritrade’s "Let’s Light This Candle," "I Just Want to Be Held" and "Square Dance" for OgilvyOne, New York; and Union Bay’s "Rocket Man" for Toth Design & Advertising, Concord, Mass. and New York.
Meanwhile, Morton copped his second consecutive DGA nomination for: Lexus’ "Fly" from Team One Advertising, El Segundo, Calif.; Homestead’s "Comb" and "Stick" out of Just Partners, New York; and "Promo" for the feature film Minus Man, via Cliff Freeman.
And Dektor’s DGA-recognized body of work consists of: Coca-Cola’s "Downhill Racer" for Edge Creative, Santa Monica; eSCORE.com’s "The Debate" for Saatchi & Saatchi, San Francisco; and Allstate’s "Anthem" via Leo Burnett Co., Chicago.
The DGA Award winners—spanning feature, TV, documentary and commercial categories—will be announced and honored during a gala ceremony in Los Angeles on March 11.
PRECEDENTS
Buckley, Joe Public and Nicks aren’t the only first-timers in this year’s DGA spot competition. The DGA itself has initiated a couple of precedents in the commercial category.
For one, this is the first year that the DGA spot nominations have credited the first and/or second assistant directors, as well as several unit production managers, on the honored work. For Buckley, Kevin Byrne was the first assistant director on Monster. com’s "When I Grow Up"; Todd Ynocencio was first AD on "Friends" for Onhealth.com; Pierre Caillarec was first AD on E*Trade’s "Broker"; and Bruce Pratt and Cole Campbell were first and second ADs, respectively, on E*Trade’s "TriMount Studios."
For Joe Public, first AD Scott Javine and second AD David Goldstein worked on Cracker Jack’s "Sizes" and Snapple’s "Sponsor." Javine was also first AD on Dreyer’s "Truck Driver." Thorny Harper served as second AD on Amazon.com’s "Two Minutes"; Peter Jackson and John Mattern were first and second ADs, respectively, on adidas’ "El Duque Dance"; and first AD Patton Howell Caldwell and second AD Randall Taylor contributed to "Fire 2" for Church’s Chicken.
Frank Glenn was first AD and Chris Berger was second AD on all three of Dektor’s nominated spots.
For Morton, David Jellison (who now directs via bicoastal Tool of North America) served as first AD on Lexus’ "Fly"; Mike Samson was first AD, Marc Garland was second AD and Diana Latham was production manager on Homestead’s "Comb" and "Stick"; and Samson was first AD/production manager and Garland was second AD on "Promo" for Minus Man.
And For Nicks, Caillarec served as first AD and Alan Berger was second AD on Ameritrade’s "Let’s Light This Candle" and "I Just Want to Be Held"; and Alan Breton was first AD while Julian Metter had second AD duties on Union Bay’s "Rocket Man" and Ameritrade’s "Square Dance."
The other alluded-to DGA precedent is a Guild event, during which the nominated commercials will be screened at the DGA Building’s theater in Los Angeles., followed by a reception honoring the nominees. The evening’s proceedings are slated for Feb. 24.
