Working as an agency creative director has given Luca Maroni an eye for detail and process he applied to recent spots for Breil and Fila.

The Italian native began directing commercials at the start of 1999. Prior to that, Maroni spent five years as creative director with Ammirati Puris Lintas in Milan. He is represented in the US by bicoastal Original Films, an arrangement that began in June after Maroni met Original managing director Carol Case at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes.

Since leaving the agency, all of Maroni's directing projects have been for European clients, most recently, a spot for Fiat filmed in Moscow and one for watchmaker Breil in New York. Maroni, who has also filmed spots for Mercedes Benz, speaks fondly of his work for Breil.

"The whole campaign is about revenges women take (upon) men who steal their watches," says Maroni. "The latest spot is of a couple in New York City at dawn in a limousine, taking each other's clothes off. I cut between her unbuttoning his shirt and seeing it fly out the window. He's doing something with her dress and you see it fly out, then he goes for the watch and you see him fly out the window."

Maroni says his work fuses artful imagery with comedic punches.

"My aim was, and is, to make things that are understandable, that are funny, but also that are stylized and look good," says Maroni. "In Italy, there is a lot of comedy that looks very bad or very stylized work that doesn't make any sense. My objective is to put those two things together."

Maroni adds that careful casting and attention to small details are key to producing quality work.

"My experience is that if you cast good actors, it becomes much easier," says Maroni. "Also, I think it is good to tell stories with details, visions that are very far away or very macro, things that are not your ordinary points of view."

Having worked as a creative director, Maroni feels he is well acquainted with the process of making commercials. "My experience with directors when I was a creative director was they wanted to do their film and they didn't really understand what goes into the final cut," explains Maroni. "I think I have a more practical vision of what gets wasted and what is important to do for the storyboard, instead of doing something just because I want it in my show reel."

Based in Milan, Maroni is represented in Italy by FilmMaster, and in the rest of Europe, through his wife Daniella Cattaneo's company, Harold.