Treschow, a Dane, works through Moland in Scandinavia, Motion Blur in the US, Dog in France, Siblersee in Germany, and now, through Stink in the UK. A DP prior to moving into commercial direction, he has built an impressive reel of largely dialog free spots which manage to tap a subtle and realistic vein, relying on low-key acting and humorous twists to tell stories. Despite his deft touch for talent direction, he's never studied the craft.

"I basically just started from real life, there in front of the actors. If I want them to perform an idea, I tell them what to do and see the response, then see if there is something wrong in the way I'm telling them," he says of his technique.

"If you use a word that means something to you but something else to the actor, it's a problem. So, I go into detail, giving examples from life, something seen or read. Putting a lot of detail and work in the scene gives more precision. In the beginning, ten years ago, I didn't know the power of wording and what not to say, and also the whole mood brought to set: it's extremely important to the outcome of the commercial. It's no good fun to make comedy on a boring or depressed set. So, the director is responsible for the crew, is the link between the commercial, the client and the agency. The director is the host of the party."

And Treschow has partied across a host of well-crafted commercials. In a spot for Riberhus cheese through Bates Copenhagen, he created a mid-20th century tragedy involving cheese factory employees tearfully bidding adieu to one of their dairy derived offspring, scored to Bobby Vinton's "Take Good Care of My Baby." In a four-part package of 15-second Norelco spots for D'Arcy, New York, typical men are shown in everyday acts of familial heroism that make it clear they deserve a handsome electric razor. Award-winning spots for Poros chocolate show why the soft treat is appropriate for the tooth impaired. A true gem is a spot out of JBR McCann, Oslo for Norwegian paper Dagbladet. The spot shows a deaf couple engaged in a sign language argument over breakfast, with the actors' fervent gestures and body language communicating the oh-so familiar he said, she said situation.

"I loved that we were doing a commercial which would make sense for everybody, but for 4,000 people in Norway it would make a completely different sense because of the dialog. He asks why she is angry, she says she is not, just nervous and sad," he says, describing the late night billiards outing that earned the man his wife's ire. "The classic thing; the fight is out of love. She cares and he was doing the thing all guys do, having fun. When we cast, we had actors but we found this real deaf couple. They are amazing people and although they had never acted, amazing actors."

When not working with amateur actors, he often casts from London's deep talent pool, avoiding famous faces for their prohibitive fees and the distracting cultural currency they can lend a spot. This has worked well in Treschow's refined "real life with a twist" commercials and on the more cinematic spots he's crafted as of late. A campaign for supermarket Rema 1000 out of Virtual Garden, Oslo celebrates the cheaper, more stripped down service offered by the store in widescreen, cinematic style. "Toilet" has a nervous man making a trip to an opulent, white lavatory where an overly vigilant attendant inquires if he will be making poopoo or peepee before making a move to wipe the man's ass; the cutline asks, "want a little less service." "Temple" has a European explorer visiting a group of Asiatic monks, only to be confused by their too-elaborate philosophy.

More recent spots, such as a Coca-Cola spot for Publicis Copenhagen filmed on a surveillance camera also move beyond reality, but as Treschow says, are "fake in a way that people will not question." His description of the camera's role in tempering reality belies his cinematographer roots.

"I do a lot of stuff shot on a long lens at a distance to convey an actual event being captured. The long lens makes the same size picture but from a longer distance," he says. "A bit of foreground and some extras crossing make for an ongoing story and the people in the action don't recognize the camera. If you really go into the situation with a wide-angle lens you are part of the situation, much more, 'Hey we are doing a film here.' The feeling I want to convey is, we just took this camera and started filming and suddenly the actor did something amazing and now its a commercial. It just adds to the realism."

WEBFILES:

Stefan Treschow> http://www.treschow.com
Stink> http://www.stink.tv