By Christine Champagne

Looking back on his recent Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award nomination for best commercial director of 2005 (his third career nomination, by the way), Rocky Morton muses that he was “in good company” with a laugh. One can certainly understand why he would see it that way. Three of the five other nominees–Craig Gillespie, Spike Jonze and Rupert Sanders–are represented by bicoastal/international MJZ, the production company that Morton co-founded 16 years ago. So as long as one of them won (and one of them, Gillespie, did), Morton would at the very least share in the victory.
    Adding to the win was the fact that MJZ set a DGA Award record of sorts–this year marked the first time ever that four directors from one outfit were nominated for best commercial director. (The only non-MJZ director up for the award this year was Noam Murro of Los Angeles-based Biscuit Filmworks.)
    Talk about dominance.
    While his company is one of the most successful in the commercial production business these days, Morton has been at the top of the spot-directing field for years, directing memorably humorous fare inhabited by unique characters ranging from the Taco Bell Chihuahua to Burger King’s Subservient Chicken.
    Morton is passionate when it comes to creating characters. “Creating characters is something I love to do,” Morton says, going back to the 1980s to point out one of his most significant successes, the iconic Max Headroom.
    More recently, Morton collaborated with Miami’s Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B) to bring us the Fast character seen in a campaign, including the recent SHOOT Top Spot “Hair,” promoting the Volkswagen GTI. A modernized version of the old VW Rabbit, the Fast is a short, squat, rabbit-like creature with no moveable parts. “That one presented a big challenge because it was inanimate,” Morton says of the character, noting, “The only thing I could do was use lighting to bring him to life.”
    And he did so with great effect.
    In the case of the “Hair” spot, for example, which finds the Fast sitting on the front seat of a GTI in between a man and a woman as they speed down a highway with the windows rolled down, Morton constructed an elaborate rig, a turntable actually, on which he placed the interior of the car. He then lit the scene, put some glycerin in the Fast’s eyes and spun the turntable, causing shadow and light to fall upon the character, giving him a dynamism he might have otherwise lacked.
    While Morton had to come up with an ingenious technical solution to give life to the Fast, he relied on old-fashioned acting to create a strangely sexy Subservient Chicken in Burger King spots including one titled “Pencil,” also out of CP+B, which finds a girl ordering her Subservient Chicken to bend over and pick up a pencil for her. “I didn’t want to create a character that was just a guy in a chicken suit,” he explains. “I wanted to give him a weirdness.”
    Morton actually created a backstory for the Subservient Chicken to foster the achievement of that goal. “In my mind, he was found in grandma’s closet, and she was part of some odd, surrealist theater group in the twenties,” Morton shares. “Then the kids found the chicken costume, pulled it out and dressed their friends up in it.”
    Unfortunately, this imaginative backstory did not help inspire the actor Morton cast to play the role of the Subservient Chicken. “The first actor that I cast for it, we got him on the set, and he just couldn’t do it. I wasn’t happy at all, and I was kind of stuck,” Morton says.
    Not for long. Making use of the resources at hand, Morton called upon a costume maker from Stan Winston Studios in Van Nuys, Calif., who actually built the costume to don it and perform the role. The guy was a natural actor, giving the Subservient Chicken the idiosyncratic moves and attitude that Morton wanted.
    For Morton, the Burger King job underscores the importance of casting. “Casting is my burden really,” Morton says. “It is the thing that excites me the most, but it’s the biggest burden because trying to find new talent and trying to get great performances out of them is the most difficult part of the job.”
    Finding good scripts is also a challenge. Morton culls through everything sent his way, searching for that great idea. According to the director, solid concepts serve as the foundation of every spot he chooses to direct, including the work that got him nominated for the DGA Award this year. Among those commercials: two spectacularly staged BellSouth spots out of WestWayne, Atlanta, titled “Kung Fu Clowns” and “Dance Fight Plumbers.” In “Kung Fu Clowns,” circus clowns act out a Kung Fu movie; in “Dance Fight Plumbers,” plumbers engage in a dance battle reminiscent of West Side Story, their weapons being plungers and wrenches.
    Then there was the grittier, lower-budget “Take Me Home,” a promo out of The Martin Agency in Richmond, Va., for the CBS series CSI that showcases a scriptwriter for the crime show who takes a cadaver home to serve as inspiration.
    And, rounding out the mix: the Cheese Nips spot “Office.” Created by J. Walter Thompson, Chicago, the spot has a long-winded office worker barging into the office of a fellow employee to tell him the story of how he got his gallbladder out. But before the windbag can delve too far into the details, he sits on a bag of Cheese Nips, which explodes, filling the office with bright orange cheese dust.
    The spot is hilarious, with a surprise pay-off. Ironically, though, Morton came close to passing on it. “When Cheese Nips came in, I thought, ‘Cheese Nips?’ This is going to be bad!’ ” he recalls. “I started to read it, ready to toss it in the bin, but it made me laugh, and I thought, ‘For a product like Cheese Nips, this is very bold and great advertising.’ “
    “I don’t care where [an idea for a spot] comes from or what the spot is advertising,” Morton notes, thankful that he actually took the time to read the entire Cheese Nips script. “I am just looking for a great script.”

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