On March 1, the Directors Guild of America (DGA), during its annual awards ceremony, named Baker Smith of Harvest, Santa Monica, the best commercial director of 2002. This was the second consecutive year Smith was nominated, and the first time he won the honor. His fellow nominees were Noam Murro of Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles; Dante Ariola and Craig Gillespie of bicoastal/international Morton Jankel Zander (MJZ); and Leslie Dektor of Dektor Film, Hollywood.
The directors were nominated on the strength of their talents, but their job is inherently collaborative—working with agencies, production company personnel and crew members who make their shoots a success. Then there are the editors, who help make concept a reality. For this week’s Special Report, SHOOT talks to five of the editors who contributed to the entry cards of this year’s DGA nominees.
Gavin Cutler
Founder/editor Gavin Cutler of MacKenzie Cutler, New York, cut two of the spots for which Smith received the DGA Award: "Lightning" and "Wind" for FOX Sports out of Cliff Freeman and Partners, New York. Smith’s win was additionally based on BMW Mini Cooper’s "Clown," out of Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B), Miami, cut by Paul Kelly of 89 Editorial, New York; and Canal+’s "Blackbands" and "Visigoths," out of BETC Euro RSCG, Paris, edited by Paris-based freelancer Herve Schneid.
The FOX Sports spots are exercises in physical humor—not a word of dialogue is uttered in either ad. "Lightning" shows four guys foolishly playing golf with a threatening thunderstorm looming overhead. Inside the golf course’s pro shop, a guy wearing a Philadelphia 76ers shirt sees the reckless golfers and frowns in disapproval. One of the golfers is about to putt when zap!—lightning shatters the shop’s window and knocks the 76ers fan to the ground. Superimposed text appears: "God is a Celtics fan," followed by the start time of a Celtics/76ers match-up on the FOX Sports network.
"We needed the pace to be as slow as possible," says Cutler, who wanted to create a quiet mood right up until the lightning strikes. "As much time as we could put in front of that moment was imperative to create the stillness, then we fractured the moment with lightning."
"Wind" opens on a crowded city street. Unlike everyone around him, a guy wearing a New York Knicks sweatshirt is inexplicably battling a fierce windstorm. Eventually, he’s blown into the air and comes crashing down on a car’s windshield. The same tag follows, this time with information on a Celtics/Knicks game.
"[‘Wind’] was technically a trickier spot to edit because it was shot in layers," says Cutler. "The guy who’s getting blown around [was shot] alone, then there’s the whole crowd scene in separate layers. They had to work off each other. Because it was so cartoony in nature, the key with that story was just keeping it as low-key and subtle as possible in the performances."
Cutler, who has worked with Smith many times over the last five years, says the director is opinionated, but open to ideas. "[Smith] has a strong point of view," says Cutler, "but he listens to the talent he surrounds himself with." Cutler’s recent work includes three spots for Mike’s Hard Lemonade out of Cliff Freeman and Partners, directed by Rocky Morton of MJZ; and a trio of ads for Axe Deodorant Spray via Bartle Bogle Hegarty, New York, helmed by the directing collective Traktor of bicoastal/international Partizan.
When asked if he thought Smith had a good shot at winning the DGA Award, Cutler says, "Definitely." It’s an opinion that proved to be prophetic.
Katz
"When you work with Dante, you’d better not be [scared] because he is going to take you places, and you have to follow," says the mono-monikered Katz, who cuts spots out of bicoastal Cosmo Street Editorial. Katz cut Bank of America’s "Butcher," one of the commercials that earned director Dante Ariola of MJZ a DGA nomination. The ad was done via Bozell, New York. Ariola’s DGA entry card also comprised Sony PlayStation’s "Signs," out of TBWA/ Chiat/Day, Los Angeles, edited by Angus Wall of Rock Paper Scissors, Los Angeles; and Lee Jeans’ "Cheese," out of Fallon Minneapolis, cut by Andrea MacArthur of Peep Show Post, London, who cut the spot out of Cosmo Street. (MacArthur and Peep Show are repped on the West Coast by Cosmo Street.)
"Butcher" opens in a creepy-looking meat shop, where a customer is waiting for an order. As he waits, he catches the eye of the butcher, who looks like a character out of a slasher flick. The customer takes his package and hightails it out of the shop, but the butcher, clutching his meat cleaver, follows the guy, who desperately tries to lose him, horror-film style. Eventually, the butcher catches up, and just when bloodshed should ensue, the butcher hands the customer his Bank of America debit card, which was accidentally left behind at the shop.
Katz says that both Ariola and the team at Bozell wanted to make an entertaining commercial, one that wouldn’t play like a typical bank spot. He says that putting together scratch music in order to time his cuts was the key to editing "Butcher." "When I knew what music I was going to work with, then it was easy," says Katz. "I cut the music first without even cutting one frame so I could imagine, listening to the music, what the [ad] would be like. I timed the story musically, and then it was just a matter of putting the images to the music." "Butcher" uses a track composed by Alexander Desplat.
When asked if Ariola has a good chance of winning the DGA award, Katz said, "I think he’s extremely talented. He’s fantastic to work with and he deserves to win, but I love Craig [Gillespie, one of Ariola’s fellow nominees] in a different genre. I work with him a lot, and I also support him. [Ariola] brings something that is surprising and wonderful [to every project, though]. In that regard, he deserves it because he’s always questioning himself and trying to reinvent. He’s very courageous."
Katz is currently cutting an Ariola-directed Nintendo job out of Leo Burnett USA, Chicago.
Avi Oron
Director Noam Murro of Biscuit Filmworks received his first DGA nomination this year. Editor Avi Oron of Bikini Edit, New York, who has collaborated with Murro for 13 years, edited two of the spots on the director’s entry reel: Saturn’s "Sheet Metal," and eBay’s "Do It eBay," both through Goodby, Silverstein & Partners (GS&P), San Francisco. Murro’s DGA entries also included "Pick" and "Pitch" for E*Trade, also out of GS&P, which were cut by Jim Hutchins of Nomad Editing Company, Santa Monica.
The very funny "Do It eBay" sends up musicals. The ad opens quietly on a short, bald man pecking away at his computer keyboard. He turns to the camera and begins to sing a parody of Frank Sinatra’s "My Way," before the :60 explodes into a full-blown musical production. Backed by a large cast, the middle-aged dynamo dances and sings his way through a variety of scenarios.
It was important "not to have too many cuts," says Oron of the eBay spot. "I think we managed to focus on the performance, because the performance was everything." The key to making the spot work was "finding the subtle humor and fun built into the concept and the execution," he added.
"Sheet Metal" features striking images of people traveling (or resting) as if they were in cars—except there are no cars. For example, an overhead shot captures masses of people walking on freeways; another shot shows a man walking backwards down his driveway, as though he were backing out with a car; other images include people standing in parking spaces and kids standing in a straight line, as though on a school bus. A voiceover says, "When we design our cars we don’t see sheet metal. We see the people who may one day drive them. It’s different in a Saturn."
"It was tricky because you don’t see people in day-to-day life in these situations," says Oron. "The challenge was to try and keep the people human and not go to a place where they feel like robots. My job was to find a way to set up a tone for the spot, [which meant] finding the right piece of music. Then cutting the visuals was fairly easy." The score for "Sheet Metal" is "Sonatine Disparue" by Polish composer Gregory Czerkinsky; Oron created the spot’s sound design.
The editor recently worked on two spots for the director—one for the Oakland Athletics, and one for Goodyear; both out of GS&P.
Keith Salmon
It’s no surprise that Keith Salmon of Hyena Editorial, Santa Monica, cut two of the spots that led to director Leslie Dektor’s 13th nomination for a DGA award. The pair has collaborated for many years, and Salmon was the editor on one of the spots that led to Dektor’s winning the DGA honor in 2000. (He also won the award in ’92.) "We are very much in tune with each other, even though sometimes we’re not in the same room," says Salmon. "That just comes from doing it for quite a while."
Salmon cut Verizon’s "Lady Liberty" via McGarry Bowen, New York; and an Ad Council PSA, "Rent or Food," for America’s Second Harvest, out of Euro RSCG Tatham Partners, Chicago. A third spot that led to Dektor’s nomination, American Express’ "Crazy Love," out of Ogilvy & Mather, New York, was edited by Billy Williams at Moondog, New York.
"Rent or Food" depicts a grim scene where a landlord is trying to collect rent from an impoverished mother who has to make a choice between paying her rent and buying food for her three kids. The PSA closes with the question, "Rent or Food? One in five kids in America faces hunger because of decisions like this."
"Leslie found some great mo-ments, and the casting was right on," relates Salmon of "Rent or Food." "I would say that scene found itself. In a dramatic scene like that, we didn’t rely on a lot of editorial technique. It was as honest of a film edit as we could make it."
"Lady Liberty," a spot for Verizon that aired on the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, features black-and-white footage of children and adults visiting the Statue of Liberty. "The Prayer," performed by Josh Groban, accompanies the spot. At the end, we see the text, "In tribute to those we lost. In gratitude to those who served," followed by an image of Liberty Island and the Verizon logo.
"We had a beautiful song and we had beautiful images of these children looking into their future," says Salmon. The challenge of "Lady Liberty" was "how to make them connect and feel as if they’re all of the same voice," according to the editor. "That one could have gone different ways, but we worked together, and we worked with the agency to make it feel right."
Salmon and Dektor continue to collaborate on projects. The editor recently cut spots in the "Be Ready" campaign for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, directed by Dektor via the Ad Council and The Martin Agency, Richmond, Va.; as well as a Verizon spot, "I Will," through McGarry Bowen.
Eric Zumbrunnen
"The main challenge was that there was so much good stuff to fit into thirty seconds," says Eric Zumbrunnen of Spot Welders, Venice, Calif. He’s talking about editing Holiday Inn Express’ "Snake Bite," directed by Craig Gillespie of MJZ via Fallon Minneapolis. It was one of four spots that garnered Gillespie a nomination for best commercial director of the year. Gillespie was also nominated on the strength of Citibank’s "Treadmill," out of Fallon, cut by Bob Spector of Bob ‘n’ Sheila’s Edit World, San Francisco; EDS’ "Suki" also via Fallon, cut by Jonathan Del Gatto of Terminal, Santa Monica; Chevrolet’s "Cops" out of Campbell-Ewald, Warren, Mich., edited by Gordon Carey of FilmCore, Santa Monica and San Francisco; and "Coffee Machine" for SBC via GS&P, cut by Tom Scherma who was then with the New York office of Mad River Post. (He has since joined Cosmo Street.)
The humorous "Snake Bite" opens on a trio of hikers in the middle of nowhere. One has been bitten by a snake, and the others are huddled around him, trying to figure out what to do. Suddenly, a cowboy on horseback appears, and asks in a Clint Eastwood manner, "What happened?" The cowboy then takes command of the situation, ordering one hiker to suck the venom out of the bitten man’s leg. Suddenly, a member of a film crew appears in the distance and tells the cowboy he’s needed on set. One of the hikers asks, "Wait, you’re not a real cowboy?" to which the cowboy answers, "No, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night." A voiceover follows: "Stay smart. Stay at a Holiday Inn Express."
"Craig wanted it to feel like an old spaghetti western," says Zumbrunnen, who notes that the ad’s flat lighting helped give "Snake Bite" the right look. "In terms of the casting and the performances he got from the actors, everything was fantastic. The actor who played the cowboy was great. It was the perfect combination of him being an extremely handsome and rugged Marlboro man-[like] guy in an over-the-top way, and his performances being right on. I tried to cut [the ad] like a scene from a movie so that you’re drawn into the moment. When the [production assistant] comes over the hill, you’re yanked out of it."
Zumbrunnen says Gillespie brings his experience as a former agency creative to his spot endeavors. "Because he’s worked on the agency side of things, he understands when the agency comes in," the editor notes. "He doesn’t try to keep them out, he wants to work with them."
The editor is currently working on a Citibank campaign directed by Gillespie through Fallon Minneapolis. Other recent jobs include Ikea’s "Lamp," directed by Spike Jonze of MJZ through CP+B, and three new American Legacy Foundation "Truth" anti-smoking spots, directed by Dayton/Faris—Jonathan and Valerie, respectively—of bicoastal Bob Industries via CP+B, and Arnold Worldwide, Boston.
