A specialist

in diversity

Sometimes, pigeonholing the director is not the thing to do. Tempting as it may be to slot the men and women calling the shots on set into narrowly defined specialties, in the case of David McNally, don’t give in to temptation.

McNally, who moved from The Directors Film Company to The Players Film Company in the middle of last month, has a slice of everything on a solid reel. Although his talent is evenly, often ingeniously, applied over products ranging from Nautilus Plus to feminine hygiene, no one style dominates.

His video-clip roots and editing/post experience bring musical flair, an all-put-together feel to his work, but the rock video touch isn’t always appropriate and so he sometimes leaves it on MuchMusic (where he says his videos do very well).

The sound design is integral to the success, almost part of the look, of the Nautilus Plus ‘Y’a pas de mal a se faire du bien’ 90-second cinema spot. In this little film, lithe, black-leotarded bodies heft weights in fire-rimmed workouts representing bodies aflame with the fitness credo. It’s a place where the cult appeal of working out is given full cinematic praise, where anything but a driving beat would be laughable. This spot picked up craft awards for art direction, cinematography and sound (shared) in Playback’s 1993 Top Spots competition.

But when you see the pair of Always feminine hygiene spots on the reel, it’s clear McNally’s range is wide. The misty look and chic feel of these two, with their classical sound, couldn’t be more different from Nautilus Plus. They don’t produce that nauseating ‘Oh, it’s one of those commercials’ feel because the product focus surprises at the end. Big sigh of relief, except that creatives insist on putting stylized dove-ish birds in these spots and no director has yet succeeded in getting rid of them.

Moving along to the psa for the ‘Think First’ campaign, done for the Think First Foundation to help prevent diving accidents, we see a complete stylistic departure. Centre-frame stand parallel stacks of tvs with one set straddling the columns on top. The monitors frame the head and various parts of a boy’s body as he talks to the camera, explaining that if you don’t check water depth before you do deep dives in unknown waters, you might literally give new meaning to the phrase ‘using your head.’ To reinforce this message for the tv generation, the sets gradually vanish from the screen.

The director says he wants to do a lot more dialogue, adding his background in very visual spots gives him ‘something to contribute.’

McNally moved from his first rep house, Champagne Pictures, five months after he started there when it went out of business. He then spent two years at Directors, where he did many of the spots on his reel, including a trio for Black Label.

He’s gone to Players because of a long music video and spot association with Players founder Philip Mellows and because Players is ‘young and aggressive and that’s how I like to be perceived in the marketplace.’