Christophe Caubel:

Christophe Caubel, artistic director of Enjoy, has applied his expansive creative approach to the task of directing ads. "It is very exciting to touch on different possible media for a campaign, to use not only commercials and print ads, but also publishing, events and exhibitions," says Caubel. For Enjoy client Visual, an optician's chain whose account he has worked on for eight years, Caubel has created books about the subject of vision itself with a humorous collection of anecdotal photographs. In addition, beyond just a place to buy glasses, the Visual stores were transformed into exhibition spaces for a wide range of vision-related accessories.

Caubel directed the spots "Le Baiser," "Le Tirage," and "Le Crachat" for Visual, each of which illustrates mishaps that occur because of impaired vision. They have a deliberate "unsanitized," non-glossy look. In "Le Baiser," for instance, a man and a woman kiss passionately in a dance club - all sweat and tongues - until the woman declares: "I love you, Frank." Unfortunately, the man replies: "Oh no, I am Jean-Pierre." Unsurprisingly, Caubel cites Monty Python, Chaplin, Keaton, and Tati as his influences.

Working as an agency creative for 10 years, Caubel became more interested in directing. "When you write the story yourself, you have an immediate connection to it and know, what you are aiming for," he says. His first films were for the legendary "Grumly" campaign, which were filmed like home videos and feature a toy bear that grumbles once pushed on its stomach. Caubel also directed the commercials for the toy "Luminou" for the same client.

Caubel says that new technologies help his global approach because they democratize the process. But he cautions: "You can't pretend to be a professional from one day to the next. But on the other hand - free of some professional reflexes - I know how to appreciate imperfections, and sometimes can turn them into qualities."

Geneviève Gauckler:

In the 10 years since graphic designer Geneviève Gauckler left Art Déco in Paris, she has covered a lot of design territory. Gauckler began designing album covers for the House Music label F Communications, and was the art director for the French-Japanese trend magazine "Minimix." In 1997, she started working with directors Olivier Kuntzel and Florence Deygas on animated music videos for Dimitri from Paris and on a commercial for Yves Saint Laurent's perfume, Live Jazz, for which she created a digital fantasy universe.

Spending a year in London, she expanded into interactive Web design and worked for start-up boo.com. Back in Paris, she took on several Web projects for Milk, the Web division of Première Heure, where she is currently represented. She designed the Web site for "Grumly," part of the campaign by Enjoy, and the site for "Monsieur Leneuf," part of a campaign by Ogilvy & Mather for 9 Telecom.

Together with Estelle Saint-Bris, Gauckler also co-directed the whole visual promo - album cover for CD and Vinyl, music video and the Web site, kekeland.net - for the new album Kékéland by French Singer Brigitte Fontaine (Virgin). For the video, Gauckler created a colorful, pop-baroque, fairy tale metropolis, of which Fontaine, filmed in live action, is the queen.

"The common denominator in my work has been music, starting with the album covers for Fcom," says Gauckler about her multiple endeavors. Most recently - still for Milk and Virgin - Gauckler directed the commercial "Le Jeu" for the singer Alain Souchon, this time relying on live action.

On the technical side, her progressive evolution from graphic design to animation has kept pace with the developments in Mac software and tools. "The developments on the Web have been equally helpful to try out animation, because the medium is easy to use. The Internet with its constant innovations in motion graphics also serves as a great source of inspiration."

Benoît Le Mauff:

Benoît Le Mauff was still studying at Penninghen when he was discovered by Patrice Haddad of Paris production company Première Heure last June.

Le Mauff's final thesis for Penninghen intrigued Haddad, who was a judge at the finals. It was a study on the color black. Le Mauff had selected literary texts of classical and contemporary poets that refer to the color and created a book; a black-on-black typographic masterpiece. "The goal was to find a definition of the color black. I'm fascinated by it," says Le Mauff. Coincidentally, Haddad knew that the department store Printemps was organizing an exhibition about the color, "Ultra Noir," which opened in September. Haddad contacted Enjoy, Printemps' agency, to suggest a film about the subject. Though no film had been planned, Printemps agreed and Le Mauff set out to shoot his first commercial.

The result is an abstract, elegant 45-second commercial: Black fashion accessories and other objects - a handbag, a shoe, but also a chair, a scarabaeid beetle, and a car - emerge from total darkness, make a complete turn in front of the camera, before they vanish back into obscurity. With their outlines lit in front of the black background, they are represented as mysterious sculptures, an impression underlined by the eerie soundtrack.

Though the chain of events was a surprise for Le Mauff, he doesn't view directing as a big transition from graphic work. "To me there aren't any borders between graphic design, directing and art direction; the challenge is the same. The work concerning the composition of an image, lighting, contrast is very similar," he says.

Le Mauff currently works as an art director and director for Première Heure.