Production affiliations: Internationally - Quad (London, Germany, and LA)
Years Directing: 6
Shoot days in 2001: 25, plus three days on a short film.
Geography: French, based in Paris
Personal favorite spot: "XS" de Paco Rabanne

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Bruno Aveillan's smoothly blended artistic and effects palette is increasingly flavoring high profile US spots, most recently for Nissan Infiniti's "Anthem," which broke during the 2002 Academy Awards.

Set in the giddy fins and future-heavy world of a 1950s car show, "Anthem" succeeds in capturing the fanciful Atomic Age convention and confused excitement when the car of the future, the Infiniti, turns up and wows the crowd.

Aveillan first made his name in 1998 with spots for Perrier and Paco Rabanne's sexually charged fragrance "XS." By 2001, Aveillan was directing alongside Martin Scorsese, Wong Kar-Wai and Oliver Stone on the high-profile Orange spots for Euro RSCG BETC, Paris. To an American audience, Aveillan is best known for his epic Thermasilk spots for JWT New York and recent Nintendo Game Boy spot "Symphony" from Leo Burnett, Chicago.

Originally trained as a painter, his background becomes obvious in the fantasy worlds created for Thermasilk's "Tango" and "Dagger"; Greek mythology and Victorian gothic imagery are brought to life in these highly cinematic and effects-intensive spots.

For Paco Rabanne's "XS," a romantic scene of a couple in a swimming pool, Aveillan suggested starting with the underwater love scene and revealing the real setting only towards the end. Filmed in a cube devoid of bubbles and highlights, the couple seems to float in an other-wordly universe.

Aveillan's talent in devising whole universes is also apparent in Nintendo's "Symphony," in which a sculpture supporting the gallery of a baroque theater and an enormous crystal chandelier animate and attack the orchestra. The chandelier fragments into a million pieces, violin bows become flaming arrows and a cymbal beheads the animated statue.

Despite the options effects provide, Aveillan believes it is the coherence of details in decor that make a fantasy believable. Therefore his work is based on drawing and research. He strives to shoot as much as possible in camera and a maximum of direct interaction.

Aveillan's sensibilities as a painter manifest in a new Quezac mineral water spot for Ogilvy, Paris. Aveillan took inspirations from paintings by Breughel, researching the old master's color palette and deliberately reconstructing false perspectives.

Webfiles:
Quad> http://www.quad.fr