Whether it’s dealing with agency creatives, Method actors, or special effects technicians, Craig Gillespie is a collaborative kind of guy. And it has paid off. The director, who helms spots through bicoastal Morton Jankel Zander (MJZ), received his first nomination for the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award, for best commercial director of 2001.
Gillespie earned the nomination on the strength of Holiday Inn Express’ "KISS Reunion" and Citibank’s "College Tuition" and "Delivery Room," all out of Fallon Minneapolis; and Ameritech’s "Plumber" and SBC’s "Welcome Wagon," both out of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners (GS&P), San Francisco. (The DGA award went to Bob Kerstetter, co-founder/creative director at Black Rocket Euro RSCG, San Francisco, whose spot helming endeavors have been through bicoastal Tool of North America.)
"College Tuition" is typical of both Gillespie’s work and his approach. In a series of short scenes, we see a middle-aged man in a darkened, two-story house, performing odd tasks that disturb the sleep of his teenaged son. The dad hammers a nail, uses a hair dryer, bursts into the teen’s room with a vacuum cleaner, plays a stereo extra loud. The mystery deepens with each bizarre act, culminating with his release of a squirrel into the boy’s room. Is he crazy? No, and all is made clear with the punch line. The next morning Dad waves goodbye to his son, and wishes the sleep-deprived youth well on his college SAT exams. The tag: "Eighty percent of parents worry about paying for college. Maybe Citipro can help."
Gillespie was drawn to the spot partly because of its mysterious qualities. "I like the twisted nature of it," he observes. "I felt it was important to keep the mystery and not telegraph the ending. You keep saying, ‘What’s going on here? Is the guy off his medication?’ I like that kind of stuff."
Gillespie also enjoyed the collaborative approach employed on "College Tuition." He and the creatives came up with many more scenarios than those used, choosing only the best. "Some were broader than others," he explains. "We decided in the edit what we liked."
As is typical of his style, Gillespie worked closely with the actors, encouraging them to improvise. "You want to keep the spontaneity and not just shoot what’s on the page," he explains. "If you do, it can end up being flat." The director says he always urges his performers to give the comedy an edge of believability and subtlety that reflects his own sensibilities. "I always find if I can relate to it in a real way, it’s funnier to me," he observes. "It’s refreshing that there are people who agree with that. I always lean to the darker, subtler side. I like it if there is layering to the acting. I like to sit and talk with the actor beforehand, to discuss what we’re trying to get out of the piece, so it’s not a one-dimensional performance. It may be only a thirty-second spot, but I do sit down with the actors and ask them what their motivation is. Besides the paycheck, that is."
Although he loves subtlety, Gillespie also feels it is important to use whatever techniques are necessary to make the point. "The biggest part of executing the ideas is giving the spot the right tone to execute the joke," he notes. Such thinking led him to employ a hand-held, documentary style for "KISS Reunion," about a supposed reunion of the rock band KISS (he studied documentaries on the band to capture the proper look for the ad’s concert and "behind-the-scenes" footage); to use a locked-off camera to communicate the intensity and trapped feeling of a dad hemmed in by financial woes in "Delivery Room"; to utilize a feel-good, soft-and-fuzzy Hallmark look for "Welcome Wagon"; and to employ an outrageous slapstick gimmick for "Plumber."
The latter, in fact, is Gillespie’s most atypical, yet in many ways typical, commercial. In it a man receives a phone call in which he is asked to change local phone carriers. "We switched our plumber once," he softly muses aloud, with a faraway look in his eye. Then there is an abrupt cut to a flashback of the man opening the door of his suburban home. The door explodes off its hinges and gallons of water come cascading out, sweeping him and a passerby onto the street. Cut back to the man on the phone: "You know, I think I’m happy with what I’ve got."
"Plumber" is outrageous, broad, and required battlefield-like planning. (Since all that water would demolish the front yard, the director had only one chance to get the shot.) But it was the subtle set-up, the hallmark of Gillespie’s style, which made the joke pay off.
Agency Roots
Gillespie started on the agency side of the fence. The future director moved to the U.S. from Sydney, Australia, when he was 19. After attending the School of Visual Arts, New York, he served an internship at J. Walter Thompson, New York, where he later began his career as an art director. Gillespie also worked in that capacity at BBDO and DMB&B, both in New York. After a 10-year run as an agency art director, Gillespie decided to change careers. He started funding his own spec commercials, and eventually signed with now defunct Fahrenheit Films.
When that shop shuttered, he shifted over to bicoastal Coppos Films. In 1998, Gillespie started making great strides in his career when his Kraft Miracle Whip spot "Man’s Best Friend," out of J. Walter Thompson, Chicago, was short-listed at the Cannes International Advertising Festival. In ’99, he hit that festival’s short list again, with his H & R Block campaign "Dad, Can I Have Some Money?" out of Young & Rubicam, Chicago. In April ’00, Gillespie signed with MJZ. Last year "Delivery Room" was honored in the talent/performance category at the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Show, while "Whassup! Language Tape!," which he helmed via DDB Chicago, garnered a Bronze Clio.
Gillespie is modest about his awards, and is pleased with the DGA nomination. "I was completely surprised," he says of the honor. "It wasn’t on my radar."
He firmly believes that the secret of his success lies in the fact that, in his commercials, the characters come first. "I really think the first thing you’ve got to capture are the characters and where they’re coming from," he states. "They have to be believable. Everything else is secondary."
