For Leslie Dektor of Hollywood-based Dektor Film, it is his 11th Directors Guild of America (DGA) nomination for best commercial director of the year. He won the coveted award as the top helmer of ’92. Still, the déjà vu of entering the select circle of annual nominees hasn’t been taken for granted by the veteran helmer. He shares the same excitement over the honor as his fellow nominees: Rocky Morton of Morton Jankel Zander, Los Angeles, who’s been nominated for the second consecutive year; and four directors who’ve earned their first career nominations, Bryan Buckley of bicoastal/international hungry man; the directing team of Adam Cameron and Simon Cole, a.k.a. Joe Public, of bicoastal Headquarters; and Dewey Nicks from bicoastal Epoch Films.
"This nomination feels as good as the first year I was nominated," related Dektor who at the same time noted that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Dektor was a DGA nominee for a remarkable 10 consecutive years, but until last week’s announcement of the DGA Awards finalists (SHOOT, 2/11, p. 1), the last had come for best commercial director of ’94. During the 10-year stretch of successive nominations, he noted that on about the fourth or fifth year, you feel as if "the nomination just happens." However, having been five years removed from his last nomination, Dektor feels gratified to be back in the DGA Awards fold.
One common thread running through the 11 nominations, said Dektor, has been his criterion for deciding what to enter for DGA judges’ consideration. "There’s never been a strategy on my part in terms of thinking what should I do that would appeal to the judges. I’ve submitted work that I felt close to; simply put, I must like the voice of the work that we enter [in the DGA competition]."
For Coca-Cola’s "Downhill Racer" out of Edge Creative, Santa Monica, Dektor found appealing the "optimism of the piece" as well as the "texture of the cinematography." He described Allstate’s "Anthem" for Leo Burnett Co., Chicago, as reflecting a voice and look that is "close to the way I feel as a documentarian and cinematographer." And his third-nominated spot, eSCORE.com’s "The Debate" out of Saatchi & Saatchi, San Francisco, was chosen by Dektor because he liked "the performances of and moments with the children" in the spot which translated into "a good laugh."
One departure, though, this year from Dektor’s earlier work is its optimistic tone. "At times, in years past, my work tended to be dark," observed Dektor. "Over the last year or two, I’ve tried to work with more optimistic material and that’s certainly reflected in this year’s nominated work."
BACK TO BACK
Morton said that the DGA nomination "means a great deal to me. It’s fabulous to be nominated by your peers—and to be nominated for the second year running. I’ve been working hard to try to stay at a high level."
Selecting which spots to enter, though, was a difficult proposition, he related. "You only have three minutes of material, so what I tried to do was pick work that showed a directorial point of view. I selected commercials that had a subtext going on and that showed off what I like to do—working with actors, creating characters and interesting stories that work on more than one level; simple ideas yet with a complexity to them."
For Morton, the common element in his four entries is simply "comedy with a twist—not on-the-nose comedy but something that’s a bit more intriguing." Morton earned the nomination on the strength of: Lexus’ "Fly" for Team One Advertising, El Segundo, Calif.; Homestead Guest Studios’ "Comb" and "Stick" out of Just Partners, New York; and "Promo" for Minus Man from Cliff Freeman and Partners, New York.
The script for the latter instantly appealed to Morton. "Cliff Freeman treated the movie [Minus Man] like a product as opposed to basically giving the plot away through voice-over and film clips," assessed Morton. "The promo makes the movie somewhat of an enigma and helps to generate curiosity. It’s more like advertising."
"FOCUS GROUPED"
Buckley described the DGA nomination as "a great honor … I’m kind of a goal-oriented person and one thing in life I wanted professionally was to get into that realm [of DGA nominees]. Just getting there is the accomplishment … To get to the final five is great."
However, the magnitude of the honor hasn’t dulled Buckley’s sense of humor. When asked how he decided which spots to enter into the DGA competition, Buckley, with tongue firmly in cheek, said, "We focus grouped this to 300 producers and whatever tested best is what we submitted."
In a more serious vein, Buckley noted that there was "definitely a rationale" behind the body of work he selected. "Obviously, people come to me for humor. I tried to submit a range that would show that the humor wasn’t a one trick pony. There was a spoof spot ["TriMount Studios" for E*Trade via Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco] and there was in a sense a more serious spot for the same advertiser ["Broker"] that in some respects was sad [about this loser stock broker], yet funny for those of us with twisted minds.
"The Monster.com spot ["When I Grow Up" for Mullen, Wenham, Mass] had a visual style that I worked very hard at," continued Buckley. "I wanted it to break out from other [’99] Super Bowl commercials, to make the spot feel big yet still retain a simple postcard feel. And the OnHealth.com spot ["Friends" out of TBWA/Chiat/ Day, San Francisco] was perhaps closest to a documentary style of filmmaking."
GOING PUBLIC
Joe Public had the most entries, six, in the DGA field of nominees—and the duo wouldn’t have it any other way. "We’ve always championed having an eclectic mix of spots on our show reel," related Cameron. "We wanted to show an array of styles. It’s easy to send in four commercials from the same agency. But that’s contrary to what we’re about."
That contrariness may have hurt the directing team early in its career. "We might have suffered in the past," said Cole, "because people were asking, ‘What is Joe Public? What is their style? But we maintained the course of choosing the right thing for the right job. We didn’t want to be pigeonholed. Getting famous for a campaign is a double-edged sword. We like having to reinvent ourselves from job to job. We don’t have a problem with that. And people are beginning to see us for what we do."
Cameron described adidas’ "El Duque Dance" for Leagas Delaney, San Francisco, as being "a full-on, speak-your-mind, no-frills documentary style approach, shooting sports stars from the hip—typically New York." By sharp contrast, Amazon.com’s "Two Minutes" for Foote, Cone & Belding, San Francisco, was shot on ’70s TV studio cameras, recreating the Mitch Miller sing-along feel.
Cole noted that Cracker Jack’s "Sizes" for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners was "definite Mad magazine … broader slapstick that’s close to farcical. We tend to be more dry with our humor so this experience was a wonderful change for us."
Then, continued Cole, there was Snapple’s "Sponsor" for Deutsch, New York, which "used the genre of beauty—sunny days, dreamy world—for its comedy. And for Dreyer’s Ice Cream ("Truck Driver" for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners), we used a real person, a real Dreyer’s truck driver. We used his own words and shot it as live and uncontrived as possible, even though the story was quite complicated." The directorial duo also cited the outlandish humor of "Fire 2" for Church’s Chicken via Cliff Freeman and Partners.
"We’re especially happy about the nomination because it recognized six different styles in comedy," said Cameron.
Cole added, "When you’re a director of commercials, you can win loads of awards. But this is one of the few awards for what you do—directing. We’re thrilled to be nominated for it."
FATHER’S DAY
Nicks said that he was "surprised and happy" upon hearing that he had been nominated. "The first thing I did was call my dad [George Nicks] to let him know. He was a creative director at Gardner Advertising, St. Louis, and used to direct in-house for that agency as well as write and produce. He won a Clio Award in 1969 as a commercial director. I simply told him about the [DGA] nomination and that he was inspirational to me. I remember as a kid seeing him on the set and thinking, ‘This is toyland. This would be great to do.’"
Citing the recognition of one’s peers that the DGA nomination represents, Nicks related, "A reel is very personal. I’ve been lucky to deal with a few clients that leave so much of the creative process to us. I have a lot of myself—my personality and sense of humor—invested in the work."
Nicks’ nominated spots were for two advertisers: "Let’s Light This Candle," "I Just Want to Be Held" and "Square Dance" for Ameritrade via OgilvyOne, New York; and "Rocket Man" for Union Bay from Toth Design & Advertising, Concord, Mass, and New York.
Nicks noted that as :60s, "Let’s Light This Candle" and "I Just Want to be Held" offered opportunities to develop characters. "The dialogue, casting and performance were especially important in these spots," said Nicks. " ‘Square Dance’ was a :30 that stemmed from my interest in the whole cadence of a square dance caller. I love the fashion of the people involved and the whole spectacle. It’s a piece of Americana that has an energy all its own. I pitched it to Ogilvy and they decided to try a :30 on this."
As for Union Bay’s "Rocket Man," that spot conveyed a sense of fun. "As a kid, I loved jet packs … I saw an ad that I clipped out—it said, ‘make any event fabulous, hire the rocketman.’ I had the clipping in my wallet for six months. And when I got the chance, it translated into this Union Bay spot with so much stuff in it. Kids, flying around a yard sale. It just conveys a sense of fun."
Perhaps the biggest honor for Nicks was when he found out "who the other nominees were and their spots. I look at that work and it’s all among my favorite work out there. To be in that company means a great deal to me."
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.
