If you already have a highly successful career as a director of photography on spots and feature films, why turn to directing? Lance Acord, who directs commercials through his own production company, Park Pictures, New York, has worked as a DP with Spike Jonze of bicoastal/international Morton Jankel Zander on numerous spots—i.e. Levi’s "Crazy Legs," out of TBWA/ Chiat/Day, San Francisco, and Nike’s "Morning After," out of Wieden+Kennedy (W+K), Portland, Ore.—and feature films, including Being John Malkovich and the upcoming Adaptation. Acord was also the DP on Buffalo 66, directed by Vincent Gallo, and the Nike spots "Rucker Park" and "Roswell Rayguns," both directed by the Hughes Brothers—Allen and Albert—of Oil Factory Films, Hollywood, via W+K.
For Acord, the decision to start directing his own work could have something to do with the fact that he loves shooting, and wants to experience the celluloid world from every angle possible. "Being behind the camera you don’t often get to see your finished product," relates Acord, who continues to DP spots, working through Dattner Dispoto and Associates, Los Angeles. "Sometimes you don’t see your work again until after the spot is out."
As a director, Acord says he is able get a more fulfilling experience out of the shoot and can follow his babies through to the final step, edit and all. Witness Acord’s recent work on Nike’s "Before," out of W+K. The ad is a pulse-pounding composite of professional athletes, children, and people at the moment before they dig down and begin playing their chosen sport. There is no dialogue, no voiceover, and no text in the ad, just a soundtrack—the tunes of an orchestra warming up. (The track was composed by Jeff Elmassian, creative director/composer at Endless Noise, Los Angeles.) "Before" is a perfect meld of idea and music. The shots blend in a crescendo with the orchestra, working from the warming up, gearing up, and psyching up to the split second before an athlete attacks the track, court, pool or ice.
It’s all about the intensity of that moment, about being in that athlete’s head; it’s a moment you almost never think about or see. Carl Lewis staring down the track with his hands on his hips. The Arizona Diamondback’s Randy Johnson, crouching at the pitcher’s mound before firing off a pitch. The sigh of a swimmer as she prepares to dive into the water before the whistle. An archer cocking her bow. A small child steadying himself before a leap off the dock. The chalk floating off a shot-putter’s hand as he hefts the weight. Moments we might not associate with sport that Acord was able to capture.
W+K came to him with the basic idea of the spot in place, which in his directing experience is the format Acord prefers. "I like when the creatives come to you with an idea," he notes. "Otherwise you can spend a whole lot of time shooting and creating something that they might not like. Starting with an idea gives you some freedom and time to spend getting better shots, editing or working on the music."
To prepare for the shoot and get a feeling of what the creatives wanted, Acord, along with the ad’s editor, Adam Pertofsky of Rock Paper Scissors, Los Angeles, looked at hours of footage—some of which was used in "Before"—from the Nike Film & Video library, during which Acord realized something about athletes and shooting them: "Athletes aren’t actors. You can put them in front of a camera and direct them and they will do okay, but they don’t have the same intensity as when they’re actually doing what they do."
He took a small crew of his own and spent three weeks on the road filming athletes in motion at a variety of professional and amateur events. They filmed the New York Yankees in Florida, the WNBA, boxing matches, swim meets and track and field events. "I wanted to capture that authenticity, the real moment of intensity in an athlete’s eyes," says Acord.
Good Instincts
Working on a spot with archival footage is nothing new for Acord. Ever since his school days at the Art Institute of San Francisco, he has been fascinated by found films. As a student, he reveled in taking unrelated works, cutting them up, and finding ways to splice it all together into something new. Getting to dip into that passion "made working on this project that much more interesting," says Acord.
Talking to Acord, it’s hard to believe that this laid-back, well-mannered guy has directed spots with the frenetic energy of "Before," as well as another sport-themed spot, adidas’ "All Night/All Day," out of TBWA/180, San Francisco and "React" for the Winter X-Games on ESPN, out of W+K, New York.
"I don’t really do heavy dialogue or comedy spots," notes Acord. "A lot of the directors I work with are so great at making dialogue-heavy films work or using subtle humor and crafty, witty lines and that’s not really what I do [as a director].
Because of the visual nature of their jobs, DPs who make the switch to directing often find themselves categorized in arenas such as fashion or beauty products, something Acord hopes to avoid, which was why he launched Park Pictures in 1998 with executive producer Jackie Kelman Bisbee. "It was a chance to gather together the DPs out there with directing credits and give them a place to call home," he says of his production company, which also reps directors Alison McLean, Ramaa Mosley, Carter Smith, and the recently signed Lara Shapiro.
While Acord admits that "being a DP, on the road for maybe five or six weeks isn’t conducive to being able to direct a lot," but notes that he has no plans to give up on doing double duty. He’s recently completed a couple of short films, and firmly believes that his experience as a DP can only make his work as a spot director greater.
"A lot of times, agencies will think that because you DP on a feature film and are comfortable with that vision and that kind of longevity on a shoot, that you can’t successfully direct a spot," he says. On the contrary, Acord believes that being a DP means that you are used to looking at things more closely and pay more attention to detail: "You pick up on things other directors might not notice because they aren’t seeing it from your unique perspective through that lens. We’re really conscientious about detail."n
