Highlights from the "Meet the Nominees: Commercials" Symposium
“Chuck McBride, the guy I’ve worked with for about four or five commercials now, sends me stuff in the very earliest stages before he’s even sold it to the agency. Then we talk about it together and brainstorm. That gives me a lot of freedom."
Spike Jonze on the creation of his DGA Award Nominated Adidas commercial “Hello Tomorrow” where a runner takes the shoes on a test drive through a dreamscape.
“The models were little and then we shot all the athletes with the same angle with the same lens. A lot of that job was about playing with scale and depth of field to take something very small and make it look like it’s forty feet wide. It was hard to get your head round going from small to giant in the same job, so it was a challenge.”
Rupert Sanders speaking about creating the look for his DGA Award nominated Adidas commercial “Made to Perfection” where toy models of basketball players come to life.
“We shot it on 16mm. I studied a lot of documentaries from the sixties and seventies of Papua, New Guinea. I wanted that look with the zoom lenses and lock-offs for and just how simple and staged it all was. It was all basic blocking and camera tricks. I just try to do what’s right for the spot.”
Craig Gillsepie on creating the faux documentary look for his DGA Award-winning Altoids commercial series “The Fable of the Fruit Bat” and “People of Pain.”
“I try to get involved as early as possible. There’s generally a conference call with the agency where you pitch your take and if they respond to it, you can mold the commercial to the direction you want to go in.”
Rocky Morton on how he works with agencies on his DGA Award nominated commercials.
