Say Hey, # 24. Feb. 24 and March 24—a pair of dates which doesn’t seem all that significant. But each, in its own way, underscores the strides that commercialmaking has made in recent years, in terms of gaining much-deserved recognition from the Hollywood establishment as an art form.
On Feb. 24, the Directors Guild of America (DGA) will hold a reception to honor the five Guild nominees for best commercial director of ’99 (see page one story). Last year, a small-scale gathering, organized at the 11th hour, took place. This time around, the DGA hopes to generate significant attendance for the event, which for the first time will include a screening of all the nominated spots at the DGA Building’s theater in Los Angeles.
Jon Larson, special assignments executive for the DGA, related that the screening and reception are being held to bring more attention to spot achievements. Separate from the March 11th DGA Awards ceremony, the February event is more on par with similar proceedings held to honor feature nominees. Fittingly, this is also the first year that the DGA has credited first and second ADs as well as unit production managers in spot category nominations. Crediting these support members of the directorial team has been the norm in the feature, documentary and TV program categories.
The DGA would like to make the pre-awards screening and reception an annual event, in order to pay tribute to commercial artisans who represent a significant segment of the Guild’s total membership. Larson noted that the DGA is committed to serving this segment which skews younger than its longform counterparts. Larson added that members of the ad agency community, as well as signatory commercial houses are being invited to the event, which is designed to honor the overall spot industry.
As for March 24, that is the first entry deadline for the primetime Emmy Awards. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ deadline applies to those entries that debuted nationally from June 1, ’99 to March 24. (A second deadline covers submissions that will premiere from March 25 through May 31.) Entry forms are available on the Academy Web site, www. Emmys.org.
This marks the fourth year that a primetime Emmy will be be-stowed upon a TV commercial. The winner will be announced and honored during the Creative Arts Awards ceremony on Aug. 26 in Pasadena. Last year, the winning spot was snap.com’s "New Friend," directed by Ray Dillman of bicoastal Gartner for NBC On-Air Promotions, Burbank, Calif. In ’98, the primetime Emmy recipient was Apple Computer’s "Think Different," which was directed, produced and art directed by Jennifer Golub of TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles and San Francisco. And in ’97, the first commercial to garner a primetime Emmy was HBO’s "Chimps," directed by Joe Pytka of PYTKA, Venice, Calif., for BBDO New York.
In an interview after accepting the Emmy for "Chimps," Pytka described the award as being "huge for the [commercialmaking] industry. … It’s wonderful to be recognized for our contributions to television. I’m very grateful to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for letting us [the commercial community] in. It was a big thing when the Directors Guild let us in about twenty years ago [with a spot category]."
Just a couple of weeks prior to that ’97 Creative Arts Emmy ceremony, I talked to Sheila Manning, who heads Sheila Manning Casting, Los Angeles, and is senior governor of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ Commercial Branch. She characterized the establishment of a primetime spot Emmy as "a victory for commercials. … The Emmy confirms that creative filmmaking can be thirty seconds, thirty minutes or three hours long."
