As one of an ongoing series of events this year commemorating its 75th anniversary, the Directors Guild of America hosted “30 Seconds To Impact,” a panel discussion featuring five luminary commercial directors and moderated by Jeff Goodby, co-founder/co-chairman of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. The event was held on Monday, June 6, at the DGA Theatre in New York, showcasing the work and insights of directors Bryan Buckley of Hungry Man, James Gartner of GARTNER, Bob Giraldi of Giraldi, Joe Pytka of PYTKA, and the retired George Gomes. A montage of classic TV commercials from these and other directors was also presented. The commercials were provided by SourceEcreative. Attendees from all segments of the commercial production community attended. Prior the event the DGA had extended a special invitation for members of the SHOOT Magazine/SHOOTonline community to attend.
Beyond the DGA’s 75th, another anniversary subtly underscored the proceedings as some 31 years ago the DGA Awards established a Commercials category. Four of the panelists have won the coveted DGA Award as Best Commercial Director of the Year. Pytka won three times for his work in 1982 (Henry Weinhard Beer’s “Future” and “Gallup,” Bud Light’s “Baseball” and “Basketball”), ’86 (Henry Weinhard’s “Chuck Wagon,” John Hancock’s “Brothers,” Pepsi’s “Floats”), and ’91 (Nike’s “The Bo Show,” Hallmark’s “Dance Card”). Gartner won for his entries in ’88 (Church World Services’ “Journal,” LDS Church’s “Braces & Glasses,” Major League Baseball’s “Interesting Friends”) and ’93 (FedEx’s “Golden Package” and “Applause,” AT&T’s “Baseball & Piroshki”). Buckley won in ’99 (Monster.com’s “When I Grow Up,” E*Trade’s “TriMount Studios” and “Broker,” OnHealth.com’s “Friends”). And Gomes was honored as the Best Commercial Director of 1980, just the second year that the DGA Awards had a Commercials category. Gomes earned the kudo on the strength of Sara Lee’s “Red Dye,” Bell System’s “Joey Called” and A&W’s “Dancing.”
It was fitting that Goodby, a noted agency creative who has done his fair share of directing over the years, moderated “30 Seconds to Impact” in that four of the director panelists were agency creatives prior to making the transition to the director’s chair: Buckley, Gartner, Gomes and Giraldi, the latter described by some as one of the original Mad Men. Giraldi was a creative director at Young & Rubicam in the midst of the early advertising creative revolution, earning him the distinction of being named as one of “101 Stars Behind 100 Years of Advertising.”
Of the five panelists, only Pytka does not have an agency pedigree, having broke in as a jack-of-all-trades guerrilla filmmaker who scrounged to slap together documentaries and various programs for the fledging PBS in the 1960s and ’70s. He later diversified into commercials and went on to win the DGA Award in that discipline three times and to be nominated for the honor 15 times–both record all-time highs in the DGA spot competition.
The panel discussion provided backstory and insight into a great many past top commercials that each of the directors had been involved in, including several humorous antidotes regarding working with celebrities. At one point Giraldi jokingly called out to see if his attorney was present to ask if he could discuss a particular incident. The attorney was present and laughingly called back, yes the statute of limitations had passed. Adding to the good-natured sharing of tales was Gomes’ very funny telling of working with Wells Rich Greene on the Alka-Seltzer spots with the now-famous lines, “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” and “Try it, you’ll like it”.
Introducing the panel was DGA sixth VP Vincent Misiano.
Curating the “30 Seconds To Impact” event was director Laura Belsey who’s active in long-form and commercials. A DGA alternate board member, Belsey maintains her own Shadow Pictures and is repped for spots via exec producer Jack Cohn’s C-Entertainment. Belsey has also nurtured the careers of numerous up-and-coming directors as teacher of the commercial directing class at the Graduate Film School of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Providing some backstory for “30 Seconds To Impact,” Belsey shared, “I consulted many directors when I was putting this event together and what was extraordinary was how certain spots and directors were always mentioned. I also asked the panelists for their input on what spots they considered game changing and there was a lot of overlap and repetition there too. Another thing that was striking was how the work has really endured…the point we wanted to make was that innovations in commercials–both technical and aesthetic–have had a huge impact on film, television and our culture. Many would agree that NYPD Blue would not have had the style it had if it weren’t for Leslie Dektor’s influential use of long lenses and movement. Twenty years after Ed Bianchi broke classic composition rules with his bold use of negative space, the same framing devices were used in The King’s Speech (which went on to win the Academy Award). Our panelists aren’t just ‘commercial directors’–they are great filmmakers. And funny storytellers to boot.”
SUPERLATIVE Signs Director Claudia Abend For Spots and Branded Content
Latin American director/editor and documentary filmmaker Claudia Abend has joined SUPERLATIVE for her first U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content.
Abend's empathetic docu-style POV has garnered several international awards for the documentary films Hit (2008) and The Flower of Life (2018). Her spotmaking credits include such brands as Procter & Gamble, Nestle and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. SUPERLATIVE has already worked with Abend, together producing a new ad campaign for digital agency Tinuiti and The Honest Company, a consumer goods corporation featuring eco-minded products.
“We found Claudia through her poignant documentaries on the festival circuit,” said SUPERLATIVE creative manager Stefan Dezil. “We are excited about her textured narratives, emotional storytelling, and her powerhouse long-form storytelling abilities, currently on her third feature film. As SUPERLATIVE continues to build our brand after premiering our latest films at Sundance and SXSW, Claudia is the kind of multidimensional artist we are excited to partner with on branded content and beyond. Fluent in English and Spanish, her reel shows real prowess with infants, food and skin products, families both young and old. Great visual storytelling and inspirational doc work.”
Abend began her career in her native Uruguay, studying film and editing in college. “My dad would show me films like Citizen Kane,” she said. “I love cinema and became an editor. It was here that I learned all about communicating human emotion.”
From the get-go, Abend hit it big as a documentary director, teaming with Adrianna Loeff on Hit, a movie chronicling pop artists of Uruguayan music. Abend took home a Best Editing... Read More