Uncommon range, common ground
By Robert Goldrich
The 2008 Gunn Report ranked Simon McQuoid the third most awarded commercial director of the year, citing such work as his lauded pair of films for the launch of Halo 3 for Microsoft’s Xbox out of McCann Erickson and TAG, San Francisco.
While that work is notable in and of itself as the Film Grand Prix honor at Cannes, a D&AD Gold Pencil, and several One Show Gold Pencils would attest, it’s all the more impressive when put in the context of McQuoid’s other projects, a prime example being Holiday Inn Express’ “Rapper” out of Fallon Minneapolis.
A SHOOT Top Spot in November, “Rapper” opens on a Manhattan street corner where a mild mannered businessman is challenged to a freestyle rap battle by a group of hipsters. To our surprise–and theirs–the square dude is more than up to the challenge, launching into a street rhyme sprinkled with references to strategic plans and Power Point presentations. He wraps the wrap with, “I betcha y’all wonder why my rhyme is so tight. I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.”
The commercial debuted right after the opening monologue for Saturday Night Live. And until Holiday Inn Express was mentioned, it was reported that many viewers thought “Rapper” was an SNL skit. Al Kelly, executive creative director at Fallon, told SHOOT he regarded that bit of viewer confusion as “a huge compliment.”
Juxtapose this comedy with the Halo 3 fare–in which video game advertising/marketing is taken to a new plateau, with moving documentary portraits of battlefield vets sharing tales of war–and you have a vast directorial range atypical in a business known for pigeon-holing talent.
McQuoid is grateful for the scope of his project opportunities and has heard the comments about his range. Yet paradoxically he observed that this range comes from a relatively narrow focus. “I’m searching for things that can have a moving, powerful result–whether it be comedy, serious or a mixture of both,” said McQuoid. “I’m not necessarily aiming for one or the other. That’s irrelevant to me. I’m drawn to the smart idea first and if the idea happens to be funny, then I’m doing comedy. I will say that I lean towards smart comedy. Dumb comedy can be funny but I’m not sure it’s right for me. I’m also looking to bring a visual strength to the idea, a power and visceral quality when I can.”
The idea also comes first in terms of McQuoid’s approach. “My execution comes out of what I feel is right for the idea. I don’t necessarily arrive at each job and try to impart my thumb print onto it. Instead I try to draw out the qualities that are there.”
Common ground
Just as McQuoid sees his varied work sharing a common bond in the form of his valuing “the idea at the heart of the script,” it was common ground that prompted him to start a new chapter in his career as he recently left GO Film (which produced the Halo 3 and Holiday Inn projects) to join Imperial Woodpecker, the house just launched by director Stacy Wall and producer Doug Halbert.
McQuoid feels simpatico with Wall. They both come from agency creative backgrounds and have similar sensibilities. “The way Stacy approaches ideas is similar to the way I go about it,” related McQuoid. “Stacy and I go back some time. When I was at TBWAChiatDay, I gave him one of his first jobs to direct [for Cadbury Canada]. We formed a really good relationship as a result of that. I guess from that point on, there was a connection. But then you drift apart here and there over the years. I’ve very much enjoyed watching Stacy’s career progress during this time. I respect Stacy and I like what he and Doug are setting up, a company that values quality over quantity. They want to keep things simple and small, not a giant list of directors. We have the opportunity to collaborate with each other here. Once I met Doug, I felt a similar connection to him. And just the opportunity to be in on the ground floor of a new company is exciting.”
McQuoid came to directing in much the same manner as Wall, breaking into the biz on the agency creative side, albeit in a different hemisphere. After studying graphic design in Perth, Australia, McQuoid served as an art director at several Aussie ad agencies, including AdLink, FCB Shorter and Clemenger BBDO before moving to the U.S. in 1995. As an art director at Clarity Coverdale Fury, Minneapolis, Hill Holliday, Boston, and then as a creative director at TBWAChiatDay, N.Y., McQuoid worked for clients such as Absolut, Nextel and Samsonite.
In 2003, McQuoid transitioned to directing and in this capacity has turned out work for assorted clients, including Lexus, HBO, Sony Blu-ray and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. For the latter, McQuoid helmed “The Talk,” which earned a 2006 AICP Show honor and with it a place in the New York Museum of Modern Art’s permanent film archives. Among McQuoid’s latest work is an LG spot promotionally tied into the feature film The Day The Earth Stood Still out of Young & Rubicam, New York.
Representation on planet earth isn’t standing still, though, for McQuoid. Besides landing at Imperial Woodpecker for the American ad market, McQuoid has joined Revolver for representation in Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More