Nicolai Fuglsig of bicoastal/international MJZ won the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award as the Best Commercial Director of 2007 during a gala ceremony on January 26 in Los Angeles. The first-time nominee earned the award on the strength of three spots: Guinness’ “Tipping Point” and Motorola’s “Journey” for Abbot Mead Vickers/BBDO London, and JC Penney’s “It’s Magic” out of Saatchi & Saatchi New York.
In his brief acceptance remarks before an awards show gathering at the Westin Century Plaza Hotel, Fuglsig simply said, “Wow” and then thanked MJZ, his crew and agency collaborators.
This marks the third straight year that an MJZ director has won the DGA honor—Dante Ariola was named the best spot helmer of ’06 and Craig Gillespie garnered that same distinction for his work in ’05.
This time around Fuglsig topped a field of nominees consisting of Ariola; Fredrik Bond, also of MJZ; Frank Budgen of Gorgeous Enterprises, London, and bicoastal Anonymous Content; and Noam Murro of Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles.
As for the strategy behind which of his commercials were entered into the competition, Fuglsig recently told SHOOT, “I didn’t pick the spots to submit to the DGA. I wasn’t as busy in commercials this past year due to the ongoing writing and development of my feature film. In fact I had no idea that my work was submitted [to the DGA] until [MJZ president] David Zander told me.
Reflecting on the three spots that Zander selected on his behalf, Fuglsig related to SHOOT that “Tipping Point,” a logistically complex tour de force that would make Rube Goldberg proud, entailed “intense preparation while there was very little time in which to shoot the piece. Most of my energy went into the prep to make sure that our shoot time was well spent. We had to live up to Guinness’ strong tradition for great creative.”
JC Penney’s “It’s Magic” was a bit of a stretch for the director. “I did something which I’m not known for, which is not really me. This was a whimsical spot that seems to appeal a lot to women,” Fuglsig observed. “I got the chance to show my whimsical, feminine side when I’m known much more for work that’s a bit darker and quirky. This was also for an agency [Saatchi New York] that has done so much great work with other directors in recent years including Dante [Ariola] and Fredrik [Bond].” (Bond’s DGA nomination this year was earned on the basis of two spots, including JCPenney’s “The Aviator” for Saatchi.)
While “It’s Magic” took Fuglsig on a new path, Motorola’s “Journey” had him traversing ground that he said is “more my ball game. It’s very cinematic, has extensive action and interesting performances. On a smaller budget, we achieved quite a lot, all of it in camera. I enjoyed the work in that it was like doing eight different movie genres within a commercial–I was shooting a western, a bank robber movie, a romance and so on.”
No Country For Old Men
The DGA competition’s coveted feature honor went to Ethan and Joel Coen, a.k.a. the Coen Brothers, for No Country For Old Men. The Coens are no strangers to commercialmaking, having helmed select ads over the years while being repped through now defunct GMS Productions and later via the ongoing Villains. Today they continue to be repped for spots via Company, Los Angeles.
The DGA ceremony had a celebratory mood not just for the awards themselves but because of the Guild’s recent agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) on a three-year contract.
In his remarks that opened the awards ceremony, DGA president Michael Apted, talked about the deal, the mention of which drew an ovation from the audience. Apted (who is repped for commercials by Independent Media, Santa Monica) noted that going into the negotiations with the AMPTP, the DGA stuck with “two basic principles”: jurisdiction because without jurisdiction, discussion of compensation is meaningless; and the conviction that the Internet is not free. “We have to be paid for the use and reuse of our work on the Internet,” he affirmed.
