Trans-Scando "intelligent" car director Jorn Haagen recently completed his first North American job, a Canadian campaign for the Pontiac Vibe out of McLaren McCann, Toronto.

The Vibe campaign, edited at Toronto's Relish, has five 15-second spots: "Bus," "Barber," "Construction," "Cafe" and "Dog." In each spot, people encountering the apparently funky vehicle find their movements synchronized by the car's omnipresent soundtrack. "Dog" is the simplest but the best: it shows a bobble head pooch on the dashboard nodding in time to the Vibe-rations.

Haagen holds Swedish, Norwegian and Dutch passports, and makes his home in London. Repped internationally by London's Academy, by Silverscreen in Stockholm and through Directors in Canada, Haagen shot the four-spot campaign in Miami in mid-January.

Although he got his start directing a wacky Lucozade campaign through O&M London, Haagen made his name directing visually elaborate car spots with the vehicle in question most often sharing the spotlight with witty scripts. Haagen directed VW "Comfort," Saab "Skydiver" and "Pass," Audi "Parking," Opel Speedstar "Drive and Drink," as well as non-automotive spots like "Walking" for Up & Go diapers through Forsman & Bodenfors, Stockholm, which won a 2001 Cannes Lion.

"I think I would have died creatively if I was asked to do straightforward car ads. I come from a character-based understanding of filmmaking," says Haagen. "In terms of character-based stuff, the idea is number one. The execution should come after you have sussed the idea. Many times you look at car spots and they are nice ideas, but they haven't come forward because they concentrated only on visual flair."

Haagen likens working through Academy with "going to the best film school imaginable," especially when it comes to improving treatments with regards to precision, length and creative bravery.

"Having Jonathan Glazer hanging around doesn't hurt either," jokes Haagen.

Attention to the finer details of casting, editing, shooting boards and cinematography are also key parts of Haagen's modus operandi. For example, he prefers street casting due to the realistic and un-staged performances "real people" offer. As for editing, Haagen says he lives for the process.

"I'm always take part in the initial pick of scenes, because I relate to things I've shot from a director's POV, which don't always present themselves as "obvious variations." I need to point out the direction, which is why I try to keep my mouth shut while we select takes. That way the editor and I will pick different takes, then we start putting my version together and the editor gets a clear idea of where I want to take it," says Haagen. "When we have a loose assembly I usually bugger off for a day to let the editor work on 'his' version. Then we meet again to compare notes and finalize the direction of the edit."

The mechanics of shooting cars demand of Haagen close interaction with his DP (he works with the likes of Ivan Bird, Piotr Sobochinksi and Philippe Piffeteau) and carefully crafted shooting boards.

"When it comes to shooting car footage, the goal is often to shoot the car from impossible angles, which means you will need to get the DP fired up. The director should be the brainchild behind the angles, while the DP makes them physically possible. That's why many times you have to 'trick' the DP into believing he invented the shot," says Haagen. "Some DP's I've worked with don't bother to read shooting boards, which is why I don't work with them any more! But if they do take the time to go through it, they'll be able to relate to the ad."

His next project, a spot for the new Audi A6 Quattro through Bates Oslo will take Haagen to the mountains of Slovakia. The POV of the spot follows the A6 driving along a snowy mountainous road, but eventually, the pursuer can no longer keep up with the slick Audi, and seemingly, the following car crashes. This script alludes in some ways to one of Haagen's racier real-life experiences, shooting "Drive and Drink" for Opel.

"To show the car going too fast we had to shoot it that way as well. We all knew it was risky as we were shooting on a mountain road going twice the normal Spanish speed limit, and had hired a very confident Formula 3000 driver in his mid-twenties. The car is very much like a go-cart and when you lose control there was very little you could do when the car hit the mountain wall a few times before making a 360 and parking itself nicely through the only tree on this stretch, miraculously saving the driver but totaling the car," recalls Haagen. "I called up a good psychologist friend of mine and was told to let him get a bit of breathing space but get him back in the car ASAP! 15 minutes later he was behind the wheel again going just as hard and finished the remaining two days. We 'naturally' ended up using the shot where he crashes in the ad, using it up until the moment he loses control. We all laughed hysterically the next day as both of the HoverCam helicopters we had gotten down from London crashed into a Spanish hill. Again we used the footage until just before it crashes."