Few kids can predict their future careers, but the writing was literally on the wall of Stacy Wall’s childhood bedroom in Winston-Salem, N.C. Posters of The Muppet Show characters and basketball legend George "Iceman" Gervin (a hall-of-famer who played with, among others, the San Antonio Spurs and the Chicago Bulls), hung in his bedroom, and those figures later came to be real-life participants in his work.
"All you had to do was look at my room in fifth grade," relates Wall, who directs spots via bicoastal Epoch Films. "Someone could have come in and said, ‘You’ll probably end up in advertising and directing TV commercials.’ "
If some of Wall’s most memorable spots are any indication, those childhood posters proved prophetic. Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy star in "Muppets," one of a trio of new spots that Wall directed for United Parcel Service (UPS), out of The Martin Agency, Richmond, Va.; the other two are called "George Thorogood" and "Charlie Daniels." Gervin has appeared in more than one campaign for Nike, an account that Wall worked on as a creative director at Wieden+Kennedy (W+K). Wall was at the shop’s Portland, Ore., office for six years before coming to the East Coast to launch W+K’s New York branch. "I’ve been able to indulge some of my influences from when I was a kid, and it’s been a real fun experience so far," he says.
Perhaps Wall’s most memorable contribution from his W+K days is the Lil’ Penny campaign he oversaw as a creative for Nike, featuring the trash-talking puppet that bore a suspicious resemblance to former Orlando Magic star Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway—who now plays for the Phoenix Suns. From Kermit to Penny, puppets and other inanimate characters have always been something of a specialty for Wall, and that’s evident in upcoming work for Geico Direct, ESPN’s X Games coverage and the USA Network.
But now that Wall is a full-time director, he’s learning the technological tricks to execute the animation. "From a purely technical standpoint, I’m trying to learn," he states. "There’s so much I need to learn, and I will the more I work."
He is about to embark on a CGI-heavy project for Geico Direct, which will be a four-spot package, out of The Martin Agency. In the ads, the car insurance company’s mascot, a gecko with a dry sense of humor, will be called on once again for Roger Rabbit-style interaction with live-action people. Rhythm & Hues Studios, Los Angeles, will handle the CG aspects of the project, with puppet specialists M5 Industries, San Francisco, creating the gecko. Wall is familiar with the work of M5 artisans, since they were the puppeteers who created L’il Penny.
M5 designed marionettes for four spots—"Lounge Siren," "Lobby," "Snow Mobiling" and "Snow Boarding"—that Wall directed for the X Games and ESPN via the New York office of W+K. The puppets act out goofy scenarios, such as snowboard champion Jonny Moseley being seduced by an older woman at a ski lodge. For the X Games campaign, Wall collaborated closely with the creative team at W+K on the look of the spots. It’s one instance of his past agency experience proving helpful to his new career. "I think a lot of agencies are interested in what I have to say from a creative standpoint," he notes, "because they know I know that side of the business."
Switching Sides
Wall left the agency side of the business in 1999 to join bicoastal/ international hungry man, where for a year and a half he worked in development on TV shows. While there he began helming select spot projects, and found himself bitten by the directing bug.
One of his first spot projects at hungry man was a package of ads for FMC Corp.’s Capture pest control product, out of The Martin Agency. Directing has always been an interest of Wall’s, going back to his days at W+K, but he never felt the timing was right. "I just felt it would be a little bit selfish to direct something while still a creative director, because it would be a tough thing to pull off," he explains.
Wall shifted to Epoch last fall. Now a full-time helmer, he is thankful for his background on the agency side, but knows that the expertise he gained in that area isn’t necessary on every job. "There are times when you don’t want to overstep your bounds," observes Wall, "and you have to respect the writer and art director’s point of view."
While helming the UPS commercials, for instance, he realized that the best way he could contribute was by simply executing ideas that were already solid on paper. "My job as a director is not to get in the way or overcomplicate things," Wall points out. Kermit and Miss Piggy would agree. Working with his childhood heroes on their UPS spot, relates Wall, was "the highlight of my career thus far, an absolute dream come true."
