One regret in DGA Award acceptance speech
By Robert Goldrich
It’s hard to have any regrets over winning a Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award. But Stacy Wall of production house Imperial Woodpecker does lament that he didn’t mention a certain icon in his acceptance speech.
“In the rush of the moment, I completely forgot to thank Joe Pytka. When I was an agency creative years ago, I worked with him a lot. Through osmosis, I learned what it is to be a professional director and to build an eclectic body of work.”
Asked for an example of what Pytka imparted to him, Wall related, “As much as his reputation precedes him, Joe continues to have a blue collar sense of the job. He treats the job like a job. He’s engaged, He pushes you as a writer to make the job better. He pursues what else is needed to make the work as good as it can be. At the same time, he isn’t fussy, often seeing that the simple way is the best way. Plus he runs his production company [PYTKA] in a way that made me as an agency person feel like I was being taken care of, and which went great lengths to make the production a well-oiled machine.
“Joe and I are a lot different in terms of personalities,” continued Wall. “Yet I continue to think a lot on the set about what Joe would do in this or that situation. I’m not saying I’m on his level. I don’t think I ever will be. He’s a legend in this business.”
While the legendary Pytka has a record high three DGA Award wins (for best commercial director of 1982, ’86 and ’91) and 15 nominations, Wall is nonetheless starting to stake his own claim in the directorial chair. Kicking off the new year with his first career DGA nomination, Wall went on to win the honor as best commercial director of 2010 on the strength of: Nike’s “Rise’ and “Handshake,” both out of Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore.; Microsoft’s “Really?” from Crispin Porter+Bogusky, Boulder, Colo.; and adidas’ “Slim Chin And D Rose” for 180LA. Wall topped a field of stellar DGA nominees: Frank Budgen of Gorgeous Enterprises, London, and Anonymous Content; Craig Gillespie of MJZ; Tim Godsall of Biscuit Filmworks; and Tom Kuntz of MJZ.
Though he forgot to mention Pytka, Wall in his acceptance speech was very mindful of his fellow nominees. Wall said he was “shocked” to have won given the high caliber of his competition in the category, “guys I consider the best in the business.” He described Budgen simply as being “the master.” Wall characterized himself as “a flash in the pan” when compared to Budgen’s longevity of excellence in filmmaking. Next Wall praised Snickers’ “Game” featuring Betty White–directed by Gillespie–as the best spot of the year. Then Wall paused as if to ponder, noting that perhaps Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”–directed by Kuntz–was the top commercial of 2010. And then with tongue firmly in cheek, Wall said he’s less enamored with nominee Godsall since he has lost work to him on numerous occasions.
Common bond However, all five nominees share a common bond–they started out as agency creatives. Wall was perhaps best known for his lengthy tenure (’91-’99) as a copywriter and then a creative director at Wieden+Kennedy. His prior roosts as a writer were Deutsch New York preceded by BBDO New York. Wall believes his agency experience has served him in good stead as a director.
“It’s helped me immensely. Whenever I talk to an agency, I know what they’re dealing with, what they have been dealing with in order to get to the point where they’re even talking to a director. This understanding makes it a delicate dance for a director. You’re being entrusted with bringing their idea to life. It’s not your idea. So you need to be as collaborative as you can be while still having a strong point of view.”
Wall added that he has also benefited from his experience with clients dating back to his agency days. “What you learn is that it’s counterproductive on the set or on location to set a tone of hierarchy where the agency or client feels that I can’t be ‘bothered.’ The fact is that I’m there to be ‘bothered.’ I’m thankful to be in the position to be ‘bothered.'”
Upon exiting the agency side in ’99, Wall landed at Hungry Man where he was involved in developing TV shows. Then he decided to pursue directing full time, signing with Epoch where he enjoyed a seven-year run.
“I respect what Epoch does. Yet you reach a point in this business where you ask, well, ‘What’s another way to grow and challenge myself?'” That “challenge” took the form of Imperial Woodpecker, which was launched in early ’09 with initial backing from Epoch and teaming Wall with former Epoch producer Doug Halbert who is managing partner of Imperial Woodpecker.
Wall wanted to form a production house for another reason which he doesn’t want to come off as sounding crass. “As a person who has written and directed a lot of commercials, Imperial Woodpecker is something I wanted to do to plan for my inevitable irrelevance. Despite aspiring for Joe’s [Pytka’s] career, the moment in the sun can be brief in this business. I want to make the best commercials I can for as long as I can but when no longer relevant, I want a company that will represent and support directors who still are. We’ve started to bring in some new [directing] talent such as Simon McQuoid.”
As for the meaning of the Imperial Woodpecker moniker, Wall explained, “Somehow Doug and I agreed to this crazy name which we have both grown to love. The Imperial Woodpecker was once the largest woodpecker before becoming extinct. We like the name because it conveys both a high and low opinion of ourselves–it has a sense of self importance while being quite self-deprecating.”
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More