Lance Acord


Lance Acord is an American cinematographer and film director. He is best known for his work on the films, Buffalo '66, Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Lost in Translation.

Early life

Acord studied photography and filmmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute.

Career

Cinematographer

Acord began his career with photographer/filmmaker Bruce Weber, which whom he made documentaries, commercials and music videos. His breakthrough came after he shot the music video for Björk's "Big Time Sensuality", directed by Stéphane Sednaoui. Acord continued to work extensively in commercials and music videos through the 1990s. He earned the MTV Video Music Award for Best Cinematography for his work on the Fatboy Slim music video for "Weapon of Choice", which featured Christopher Walken and was directed by Spike Jonze. He also worked with R.E.M. on a regular basis.
Acord made his first foray into narrative feature filmmaking as the cinematographer of Vincent Gallo's Buffalo '66. He shot Spike Jonze's films Being John Malkovich '', Adaptation, and Where the Wild Things Are, Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette, and her short film Lick the Star, as well as Peter Care's The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys .''

Commercial director

In the late 1990s, Acord began to transition to commercial directing and in 1998, together with his business partner Jackie Kelman Bisbee, he founded the commercial production company Park Pictures. He received 35 Cannes Lions for his work with clients such as Nike, Apple, HP, Volkswagen, P&G, Subaru. He was nominated for Best Commercial Director by the DGA in 2003, 2011, 2012, and 2017. In 2011, his Super Bowl spot for Volkswagen, "The Force", was named the best ad of 2011 by AdWeek, Creativity, and YouTube and consistently ranks on lists of the greatest Super Bowl commercials of all time. His Apple film "Misunderstood" won the 2014 Emmy Award for Outstanding Commercial. In 2019, he won his second Emmy award for the Nike commercial "Dream Crazy," starring Colin Kaepernick.
In 2019, directed the short film commercial for Xfinity, A Holiday Reunion, based on the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and starring Henry Thomas, who reprises his role as Elliott.

Filmography

Director of photography

Short film
YearTitleDirectorNotes
1992Billy NayerCory McAbee
1995Gentle GiantsBruce Weber
1997How They Get ThereSpike Jonze
1998Amarillo by MorningSpike JonzeDocumentary short
1998Lick the StarSofia Coppola
2000Eventual WifeBryan Bantry
Dave Diamond
2012Ed Ruscha, Woody and the World's Hottest PepperHimself
2013Apple MisunderstoodHimself
2019E.T.: A Holiday ReunionHimselfTV special

Feature film
YearTitleDirector
1998Buffalo '66Vincent Gallo
1999Being John MalkovichSpike Jonze
2001SouthlanderSteve Hanft
2002The Dangerous Lives of Altar BoysPeter Care
2002AdaptationSpike Jonze
2003Lost in TranslationSofia Coppola
2006Marie AntoinetteSofia Coppola
2009Where the Wild Things AreSpike Jonze
2014God's PocketJohn Slattery

Documentary film
YearTitleDirectorNotes
1998Free TibetSarah Pirozek
2001Chop SueyBruce WeberWith James D. Cooper and Jim Fealy
2012Wild in the StreetsPeter BaxterWith Peter Baxter, Terrence Hayes, Laurent Malaquais and Mark Williams
2018Nice Girls Don't Stay for BreakfastBruce Weber

Music videos
YearArtistTitleDirectorNotes
1993The Smashing Pumpkins"Cherub Rock"Kevin Kerslake
1993Björk"Big Time Sensuality"Stéphane Sednaoui
1994Youssou N'Dour and Neneh Cherry"7 Seconds"Stéphane Sednaoui
1994MC Solaar"Nouveau Western"Stéphane Sednaoui
1994G. Love & Special Sauce"Cold Beverage"Mark Romanek
1994Sonic Youth"Superstar"Dave Markey
1995R.E.M."Crush with Eyeliner"Spike Jonze
1995Ween"Freedom of '76"Spike Jonze
1995Waterlillies"Never Get Enough"Christina Wayne
1995Method Man featuring Mary J. Blige"I'll Be There for You/You're All I Need to Get By"Diane Martel
1995Method Man & Redman"How High"Diane Martel
1995Björk"It's Oh So Quiet"Spike Jonze
1995Elastica"Car Song"Spike Jonze
1997Daft Punk"Da Funk"Spike Jonze
1997Pond"Spokes"Mike Mills
1997The Chemical Brothers"Elektrobank"Spike Jonze
1997Björk"Bachelorette"Michel Gondry
1997The Notorious B.I.G."Sky's the Limit"Spike Jonze
1998R.E.M."Lotus"Stéphane Sednaoui
1998Fatboy Slim"Praise You"Spike JonzeWith Lance Bangs
1999The Chemical Brothers"Let Forever Be"Michel Gondry
1999Tricky"For Real"Stéphane Sednaoui
2001Fatboy Slim"Weapon of Choice"Spike Jonze
2001Dave Matthews Band"Everyday"Chuck McBride
2003The White Stripes"I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself"Sofia Coppola
2004Yeah Yeah Yeahs"Y Control"Spike Jonze
2005Björk"Triumph of a Heart"Spike Jonze

Producer

  • Robot & Frank
  • God's Pocket
Executive producer
  • The New Tenants
  • Cop Car
  • Other People
  • The Rehearsal
  • The Hero
  • An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn
  • The Sentence
  • Hearts Beat Loud
  • Lazy Susan
  • Farewell Amor
  • The Last Shift
  • The Truffle Hunters
  • The Heart Still Hums
  • Born to Play
  • Another Hayride
  • Long Weekend
  • There There
  • Aisha
  • Broadway Rising
  • The Independent
  • Earth Mama
  • Late Bloomers
  • ''Flipside''