“This never gets old. Getting nominated now is as exciting as the first time,” related director Craig Gillespie of MJZ who just picked up his fourth career nomination for the DGA Award in the commercials category on the strength of three spot entries from 2009.
Gillespie was first a nominee for his work in 2001, then in ’02 and he won the award as best commercial director of 2005.
“This is such a tough category to get voted into by your peers,” said Gillespie. “The competition is so strong. It’s always a thrill to be nominated and there so many people who have a hand in it–great agency creatives who provide the concepts and storyboards that make it possible, the crews, the production support, the sales people.”
Yet while he values his latest nomination as much as the prior ones, there is a difference this time around in terms of the nature of the work for which he is being recognized. The three entries which earned Gillespie his latest nomination are: Car.com’s “David Abernathy” for DDB Chicago; Guinness’ “Slide” out of BBDO New York; and Orbit’s “Dusty” for Energy BBDO Chicago.
“I tried to be show a bit of an expanded range beyond the comedy/dialogue work for which I’ve been nominated in the past,” noted Gillespie. While “David Abernathy” has a wry humor, it had quite a cinematic feel. The combination resonated when the spot debuted during the ’09 Super Bowl telecast.
Also stretching perceptions of Gillespie was “Slide,” which entailed adroit visual effects work showing a glass of Guinness making its way in Rube Goldberg-esque style along a winding path to an office building window ledge and eventually an office desk in front of–and as a libation for–an earnest worker who boldly asks his boss for a raise after less than a week on the job.
However, not departing from the comedy/dialogue genre for which Gillespie is known was “Dusty” which gives us an over-the-top depiction of Orbit chewing gum being the ultimate antidote for dry mouth. “I love continuing to be able to do comedy,” said Gillespie, “but it was nice to also showcase some different kinds of work for me as well.”
Kuntz
Gillespie’s colleague at MJZ, director Tom Kuntz, earned his third career DGA nomination on the basis of a diverse blend of comedy commercials: Skittles’ “Tailor” for TBWAChiatDay, New York, CareerBuilder’s “Tips” (an ’09 Super Bowl spot) and Old Spice’s “Scents For Gents,” both from Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore.; and Cadbury’s “Eyebrows” out of Fallon London.
The latter showed two children moving their eyebrows, sometimes frantically, to an inspired musical score, and proved to be a viral sensation.
At press time Kuntz was on a shoot in Australia and unavailable for comment. His prior DGA Award nominations came for best commercial director of ’06 and ’08.
Palmer
Chris Palmer of Gorgeous Enterprises, London (repped stateside by Anonymous Content), garnered his first career DGA nomination for Budweiser’s “Lyric” out of DDB London, and a pair of J20 fruit drink spots, “Riviera Truckstop” and “A Horse Called Cynthia” for BBH London.
SHOOT caught up with Palmer who at press time was on vacation in Thailand. He was just getting up to speed on the significance of receiving a DGA Award nomination.
“I knew very little about the whole process but gradually I’m becoming acclimated to what it means and I’m quite happy and deeply honored.”
Palmer described all three entries–which were selected for submission to the DGA by Gorgeous’ managing director Paul Rothwell–as being technically challenging and very much linked to coinciding properly with their respective soundtracks.
In “Lyric,” we hear a song that recites the alphabet and counting from one to 10 as we see corresponding visuals through the windows of a moving train. Palmer came up with the idea of a train passenger’s perspective in that there’s “something musical” about that POV, which worked with a slightly slower sing-songy pace.
Shot on a Chicago railway, the spot came together, said Palmer, thanks in large part to the coordinating prowess of first assistant director Cliff Lanning. “Cliff had to have balls of steel to pull this off,” quipped Palmer. “We only had so many takes. On cue we had to have forty people run into a scene as viewed through moving train windows. If you blow it, you don’t have too many opportunities to do it again. Juggling these logistics and dealing on the fly with suddenly, for example, not having clearance to shoot a certain rooftop made this an extremely complex project. It was like doing a constantly moving Rubik’s cube. Our goal, though, and I think we succeeded, was to make the commercial look like something that was thrown together for YouTube.”
Though distinctly different from “Lyric,” the J20 spots parallel the daunting logistics of that Budweiser commercial. “I wanted to make the J20 commercials look like found pieces of footage, each with two scenes playing to the wrong track,” related Palmer. “We literally took the audio of one and put it on the other scene.”
But even with the incongruous placement, the pacing and timing of the incorrect track (e.g., banter by a couple at a prim and proper garden party in “Riviera Truckstop”) had to correspond with the accompanying visuals (a cowboy and his horse). Palmer worked closely with editor Paul Watts of The Quarry to painstakingly map this out, meaning there was little or no room for changes during the shoot. “The words down to every syllable had to fit, which was nightmarishly complicated. Ultimately,” affirmed Palmer, “it was gratifying to tackle the challenge and see the end results.”
Baca-Asay
Joaquin Baca-Asay of Park Pictures is a first-time nominee and has a deep appreciation for the DGA recognition. “It’s a real honor to be nominated by my peers, people whose opinion I care about. Beyond that, it’s nice to be on this list because Tom Kuntz and Chris Palmer are two of my favorite directors. I admire their work, and I used to shoot for Tom on occasion, loved working with him and like him a lot.”
Baca-Asay first established himself as a cinematographer but made the transition to director about three-and-a-half years ago. This DGA nomination punctuates the success of that transition, and the four spot entries which garnered the favor of Guild judges reflect a wide directorial range: CSX’s “Breathe” for Mullen, Winston, N.C.; Volvo’s “Switch” for Arnold, Boston; Bank of America’s “Doors” out of BBDO New York; and Lenscrafters’ “See What You Love” via Cutwater, San Francisco.
“Breathe” and “See What You Love” show Baca-Asay’s affinity for an approach that is simple and human in which he is physically close to his subjects in order to strike an emotional chord for viewers. “See What You Love,” for example, depicts people positioning their hands as if they were eyeglasses or mini-binoculars focusing in on the people and objects of their affection.
Meanwhile the B of A spot “Doors” is on a bigger scale yet doesn’t lose its humanity. “Sometimes you can run into the danger of people becoming props in something carefully designed but as we see different people going through different doors, we still feel them and their warmth,” related Baca-Asay. “That was important for me to capture on this job.”
And “Switch” takes on a whimsical storytelling dimension as two women in side-by-side parked Volvos switch roles, each eventually wearing the other’s clothes as their cars too swap appearances–one from top-down to top-up convertible and vice versa. Their male beaus return to drive off with the other’s gal in a spot which takes on the feel of a French farce.
Baca-Asay gives credit to the clients and agency creatives, particularly in today’s challenging financial times. “When the economy shrinks, people’s courage also sometimes shrinks, making it harder to get good storyboards. Getting creative of this quality is what makes a [DGA] nomination possible.”
The director also cited the contributions of his support crew, including Park Pictures executive producer Jacqueline Kelman Bisbee, his long-time producer Lalou Dammond and production designer Steve Rudy. Baca-Asay also works regularly with several first assistant directors, including David M. Backus (“Breathe,” “Doors,” “See What You Love”), Howell Caldwell (“See What You Love”) and John F. Lowe (“Switch).
Davis
Rounding out our field of five commercial honorees is Garth Davis of Anonymous Content who is also a first-time DGA nominee. Having first established himself in Australia (where he is repped by Exit Films), then in the U.K. (currently handled by Anonymous@Independent) and U.S., he feels the DGA nomination will help reinforce his brand stateside.
“You’re always playing against big names and established directors in the American market and this nomination helps bring my work to the attention of the industry,” said Davis. “Having your craft recognized by other directors is the ultimate honor.”
In this case, the recognition was earned on the strength of a single entry: U.S. Cellular’s “Shadow Puppets” out of Publicis & Hal Riney, San Francisco. This charming spot depicts a shadow puppet show–with two loving shadow bunnies as the protagonists–against a cityscape. The show brings people in this urban night setting together.
“The direction of the film is very honest. It’s a very pure film that tells a simple, engaging story,” said Davis who found himself grappling with the best way to capture that story, testing out both film and sophisticated digital cameras. All the while he was shooting little tests and stills via his Canon 5D Mark II, a hybrid HDSLR that lenses still work and HD video. “I realized that the stuff shot on the Canon looked beautiful and captured just what we wanted so the day before we shot the spot we moved the whole production to a Canon shoot.” The project deployed three primary Canon cameras with Ellen Kuras serving as the DP. Davis also operated one of the cameras.
Davis said “Shadow Puppets” is one of his favorite spots from ’09 but noted that the decision to enter it in the DGA competition was that of Dave Morrison, Anonymous Content’s head of commercials/executive producer.
The DGA Awards are in their 62nd year. The DGA opened the annual competition to commercial directors in 1980. This year’s DGA Award winners–spanning theatrical features (see separate story), TV, documentaries and commercials–will be announced and honored during a gala evening ceremony on Saturday, January 30, in Los Angeles.
