Directing was something I never anticipated getting into," says Tim Abshire of bicoastal Shelter Films. While in college at Western Illinois University, McComb, Ill., he was set on becoming an Avid editor. "People in film usually want to be a director eventually, but I was happy just editing."
His sentiments have since changed. After just over a year at Shelter Films, his first commercial roost, Abshire has already wrapped about 25 commercials. He was also chosen as an up-and-coming helmer in SHOOT’s Spring ’98 Directors Issue. Directing spots now "feels like home," he says. His move into the commercial world began with a voicemail message he received in ’97 from Steve Shore, executive producer/owner of Shelter Films. Abshire recalls the message: "’Tim Abshire! Ever think about a career in commercials?’" Abshire returned the call, and the two kept in touch for a year and a half. Then in ’99, after six years of directing promos at MTV On-Air Promotions, New York, Abshire decided to sign on with Shelter Films. "I knew it was time to go. It just felt right," explains Abshire, adding that he was aware of Shore’s reputation for signing directors new to spotwork.
Abshire recently completed Skippy peanut butter’s "Jeter Jeter" via BBDO New York, which features Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter; and Chevrolet Monte Carlo’s "Introducing" via Campbell-Ewald Advertising, Warren, Mich., which integrates live-action elements with animated sequences of Looney Tunes’ famed Tasmanian Devil. He’s also helmed several commercials for video games, including Sony PlayStations’s "Crash Skates" and "Limo" via TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles; and FOX Interactive’s "Auditions" for the video game "Die Hard Trilogy 2," out of WongDoody, Los Angeles.
"Auditions" showcases Abshire’s comic side. The director says he enjoys humor, particularly when it’s touched with "painful reality." "Auditions" is set in a room where a director is holding a casting session for the next John McClane, the hero played by Bruce Willis in the Die Hard trilogy. It’s obvious that none of the candidates is fit for the role—one is a tall, skinny youth who cowers to the floor crying out in pain as tennis balls hit him; another is a man in his late 60s, who stands immobile on the stage, holding a cane.
In the actual casting sessions for the John McClane wanna-bes, Abshire began by holding open calls (though he did have specific body types and ages he wanted to feature in the spot). During the sessions, Abshire pretended to be the director in "Auditions," and had the people step on stage without a clue as to what they were supposed to be doing. "I was just like, ‘You’re John McClane—go,’" he recalls. "I tried to confuse them to get a very natural reaction."
Abshire cites Michel Gondry of bicoastal/international Partizan, and Spike Jonze of bicoastal/international Satellite, as inspirations. Abshire is crazy about the quirky, award-winning Sprite "Sun Fizz" ad directed by Jonze for Lowe & Partners (now Lowe Lintas & Partners), New York. He admires Jonze’s spots because "they tackle a lot of different subjects, but always have the same attitude."
I Want My MTV
Before his days of Skippy and FOX Interactive, Abshire was all about Marilyn Manson, the Wu-Tang Clan and the MTV Video Music Awards. Joining MTV On-Air Promotions in ’92, originally as an intern, Abshire’s first promos were for shows such as MTV Spring Break and Beavis & Butthead. In his later years as a senior producer at that division, he shot higher-profile promos for the annual video music awards. The awards promos were a series of vignettes which showed the emcees—Chris Rock in ’97, Ben Stiller in ’98—cavorting with the music artists and bands set to appear on the show.
As with his spotmaking, Abshire most enjoys making actors do natural and unexpected things. In the ’98 promo "Wu-Tang Camp," Stiller shows up at a hotel and is told that there are no more rooms available. After persistent pestering by Stiller, the attendant does offer him a room, but he has to share it with the Wu-Tang Clan. In "Wu-Tang First Wives," four of the members—Method Man, U-God, Masta Killa and Ghostface Killah—are sitting in bed watching First Wives Club, while Stiller is putting on his jacket to go out. The camera cuts to Method Man telling Stiller he might consider co-hosting the awards show with Diane Keaton, one of the stars of First Wives Club. The "roommates" bickered as scripted; then Abshire let them go off on their own. "I like to let a scene play itself out," he says. "Sometimes it’s a re-direct, and sometimes it’s perfect [when I think] ‘Why would I want to change that?’"
Abshire says that he thinks of the MTV work as being a grander-scale version of the kind of video projects he did as a teenager growing up in Riverdale, Ill., for which he would brainstorm concepts, cast, direct, shoot and then oversee post.
With commercials, though, "it’s more about collaboration," Abshire says. "But now I’m here and still having fun."c
