In the eyes of pundits and an ever-growing PVR-happy populace, the traditional broadcast spot has been taking a beating. Thus, when a campaign such as TBWA Media Arts Lab's "Mac vs. PC" (officially launched as "Get a Mac"), pairing John Hodgson's goofy-yet-endearing PC with Justin Long's hoodied hipster Mac, blows up as it has, it's a validation of sorts. When done well, people still give a damn about the :30 spot. It's the "doing it well" that's the challenge, and in the case of the Apple campaign, the choice of Epoch Films' Phil Morrison as director is an inspired one. Having taken a nine-month leave of absence from spot-making to direct his first feature (2005's critically-lauded Junebug), the 38-year-old Winston-Salem, NC native returned to the fold with a splash in '06, first with Crispin, Porter + Bogusky's distinctly jarring Volkswagen Safe Happens campaign ("Like" and "Movie"), and then the deceptively simple Apple work. And with new spots continuing to be made featuring the Abbott and Costello of the '00s, as well as a film project in development with Brad Pitt's Plan B production company (Vetville), Morrison looks set to enjoy an equally productive year ahead, with the biggest potential hurdle being juggling film work with spots. Hmmm...anyone for a "Mac vs. PC" feature?

So let's start with the Apple work - any idea it would be as big as it is?
You know whenever you see an idea that seems so self-evident but it hasn't been done? It's like a pop song - when you hear the hook and you can't believe no one has written it already. So when I saw the idea - "one guy's a Mac, the other's a PC, and they can do [comedy] bits about the difference" - I knew it was appealing to me, and that was all I needed to know. But also what I really liked about their notion is that they wanted them to be friends and not enemies.

With this campaign, a lot depends on performance and inherently, the casting. How did you bring John Hodgson and Justin Long into the mix?
We approached the casting in different ways - we did traditional casting and brought a lot of people in to read, and we thought about some people who didn't necessarily audition but might be worth considering making an offer to. There was more time and focus that we were able to put into it than you typically have. With this, it was decided they [Media Arts Lab and Apple] weren't going to do this until and unless they found the right people. What we had going for us more than anything was that they were patient.

The VW spots were also extremely effective. Are there any threads that connect those with the Apple work in terms of your approach?
It doesn't always work but I really like it in a movie or a book when whether it's a comedy or a drama isn't exactly clear, or even consistent. It's tougher in a TV commercial because it's only 30 seconds long, but I think that's a really interesting place to be. With the Volkswagen commercials, the way the guys at Crispin conceived them, I thought they were both kind of funny and tragic at the same time.

But nobody really gets hurt...
Well, no one gets seriously injured, but they have burns on their faces from the air bags, they have cuts and bruises. For obvious legal and creative reasons, the amount of hurt was meticulously calculated in terms of the speed of the crash, where the car would be hit, and all of that stuff.

If you really enjoy blurring the lines in your spots, then would you rather not be tied to a genre?
I totally accept the categories of commercials - they're there for a reason and I get that. So I'm happy with the "dialogue" category. I like doing comedy commercials, but I also like doing things that don't have to have the burden of being funny.

Let's talk about entering the feature world - were you adequately prepared when you went into it through your commercials experience, and coming back, having been away for nine months, did you think it might be hard getting back into the swing of things?
It felt to me like I'd been away forever. It was definitely scary because I never had the feeling that I wanted to stop doing commercials. When you're away for that long you see all these new commercials from people you've never heard of and they're really good!

Besides the new film, are there any burning ambitions for the year ahead?
I'm crossing my fingers about finding a balance between doing spots and every so often making a movie. I don't have any strategy, but I'm hoping that step by step I'll figure it out.

INFORMATION
Production affiliations: Repped by Epoch (bicoastal) and Blink Pictures for Canada.

Education: Graduated from the film program at NYU.

How he got started: Fresh out of college, Morrison got a gig working for Robert De Niro, "doing whatever he wanted". Fellow North Carolinian Stacy Wall, at the time a copywriter at Deutsch, approached Morrison about directing a small job for the NBA's Hoops basketball cards, which led to more work through Deutsch. "It's really 100% on account of Stacy that I'm doing this." He signed on with Epoch for music videos in 1994, moving to their commercial roster in 1996.

Epoch Films http://www.epochfilms.com