William Shatner reportedly earned millions of dollars in stock options for starring in a series of Priceline.com commercials via Hill Holliday, New York. Was Phil Morrison, who directed the package that features Shatner crooning tunes such as "Age of Aquarius" and "Two Tickets to Paradise," compensated in a similar fashion? "I was paid the old-fashioned way. Stock options didn’t come up, but maybe that’s because I’m too naove to think of those kinds of things," he laughs.
The opportunity to work with the Star Trek legend was more than enough payment for Morrison, who is represented by bicoastal Epoch Films. The 10-spot campaign has Shatner and his backup band performing renditions of classic songs, with Shatner weaving in plugs for Priceline.com, an Internet site on which you can bid on everything from airline tickets to groceries. (This isn’t unfamiliar territory for Shatner, who had recorded several cover tunes in the past.)
"We wanted it to seem like these were just taken out of an hour-long VH-1 Storytellers," says Morrison. To add to the realism, Morrison cast a backup band made up of real musicians, including Sleater-Kinney guitarist Carrie Brownstein and Helium singer/guitarist Mary Timony. Morrison notes that the choice of backup band was crucial. "We didn’t want the band to be session-cat kind of people with bad jackets. We thought it would be nice for them to be good, real, interesting musicians, but at the same time making sure it didn’t become a joke. We didn’t want, ‘Oh, isn’t that funny that he’s got an eighteen-year-old guy with green hair playing with him?’"
Of all the songs performed, Morrison says that "Convoy" offered the most challenges. "I think ‘Convoy’ was the toughest to get through simply because it offered a lot of possibilities [for lyrical interpretation] for some reason. As I recall, we shot ‘Convoy’ more than some of the others."
Throughout the two-day shoot, Shatner was the consummate pro. "He was committed. He really knew the songs, and he definitely had a point of view about what he wanted to be like," says Morrison.
Starstruck
Morrison is used to working with celebrities. Upon graduation from New York University, where he majored in film, Morrison worked as an assistant to Robert De Niro for two years. "I would do whatever he needed. He decides that because he wants to record people talking in order to learn their accents that he wants the best field recorder, so I go figure it out and buy it," he recalls. "Or he and [director] Bernardo Bertolucci ate dinner in a restaurant in northern Italy fifteen years ago. Bertolucci is in Africa. See if you can track him down and find out the name of the restaurant."
De Niro gave Morrison two days off to shoot his first spot job: an ad for Deutsch, New York, promoting NBA Hoop Cards. Morrison has since become a high-profile commercial director, working with all sorts of big name stars-both real and imagined. Fallon McElligott, Minneapolis, hired Morrison to direct famed advertising icon Buddy Lee in several Lee jeans commercials, including "Actress," which had Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar discussing what it’s like to work with Buddy Lee; and "Fans," in which Japanese admirers reach a Beatle-like frenzy when Buddy Lee comes into view.
On his collaboration with Buddy Lee, Morrison says, "He is sweet as can be, and serious about what he’s doing. He comes in, he does the work, and he doesn’t have a lot of demands." Conversely, L’il Penny was more demanding. Morrison worked with the star while shooting a Nike campaign featuring basketball player Penny Hardaway-and L’il Penny, his puppet alter ego-for Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore. "He needs a lot of attention. He’s not like Buddy Lee. He’s not as quiet. No offense to Buddy Lee, but L’il Penny went to Wake Forest University, and so he’s an educated man, and he’s not naove," says Morrison, tongue firmly in cheek. "He knows what to ask for."
sing-along
Morrison also works on non-celebrity-oriented fare. Leagas Delaney, San Francisco, recently called on him to helm three spots for adidas, all of which ended with the tagline "Long Live Sport." "Mascots" finds two football team mascots getting into a rumble; "Dog" depicts a boy scrambling over a fence to fetch a lost ball, only to encounter the neighbor’s dog; and "Shaved" shows a female swimmer shaving off her hair-even her eyebrows-before a big swim meet.
Morrison also helmed three Volkswagen spots for Arnold Communications, Boston. In "Crazy Guy," a man sits in his car in an empty parking lot, and appears to be talking to himself. When his friend approaches the car and opens the door, the Styx song "Mr. Roboto" blasts out of the car’s stereo. Turns out the "crazy guy" wasn’t talking to himself; he was singing along with the tune. His buddy joins in as they drive away.
The agency had chosen four or five potential songs, including "Rock Me Amadeus." "During auditions, we were casting actors, but we were also testing the songs to see which worked best," he says.
Morrison enjoys being involved in the creative process, but notes that lately most of the work he receives is thoroughly scripted. A few years ago, when the "mockumentary" was in vogue, Morrison (who has directed many episodes of Comedy Central’s Upright Citizens Brigade) was doing more improvisational work. For example, "Sightings" for Energizer, via TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles, follows a group of guys seemingly hunting for a UFO. At the end of the spot, though, the kicker is revealed-it wasn’t E.T. they were after; it was the elusive Energizer bunny.
With all of the humor-driven work on his reel, it isn’t surprising to find that Morrison has been labeled a comedy director. "Not too long ago, I might have tried to say, ‘Oh no,’ but I feel OK about that now." He admits it’s hard to avoid being categorized, but is confident that he will branch out into other areas.
Morrison’s only real fear is that he’ll wind up in SHOOT’s "Flashback" column. "I always say to the people at Epoch, ‘You better hope my name never turns up in the five-or especially ten-years ago thing in SHOOT, because man, once it does, I might have a breakdown!’ "c
