Though director Frank Budgen must seem like the busiest man in commercials, truth is he only takes on four to five jobs a year. It's just that each of the four jobs he shot last year landed the London-based director a mighty mittful of trophies.

Directing through London's Gorgeous since 1997 (where he is also co-owner with founder/director Chris Palmer and managing director Paul Rothwell), 10-year directing veteran Budgen is easily the most decorated director in our 2002 Boards Best of Year tally.

His work on Nike's "Tag" from Wieden + Kennedy, Portland snagged him the Cannes Grand Prix, while it and companion spot "Shade Runner" won countless awards at nearly all the year's shows. His Levi's "Twist" from BBH, London received a D&AD Gold, and the NSPCC PSA "Cartoon" from Saatchi, London, received Cannes Gold and D&AD Silver - among other awards of course.

Given the hardware this man has, you'd expect a certain degree of pomposity. Yet, there's none - only a focused idea of what his job as director is and some well-thought words on the industry.

"When I take on a job, the script is always the priority. There are very few scripts that are great and I don't take anything on unless I can put myself into it 100%," says Budgen. "Tag" was one of them. "That one, I was keen to do."

Others, as in the case of "Cartoon", don't reveal their potential to Budgen until a little later. He almost turned down this award-winning script - a thought that prompts him to blurt, "Now I think, 'Why, you idiot'?"

However, turning down jobs is something that Budgen is familiar with. "Quality of work is more important than quantity," he says, explaining his working methods. "Unfortunately, the vast majority of the work you get is pretty bad."

As for his own work, he doesn't identify what he does as particularly award-winning. "When I finish a job, I don't really know what I think of it. It's like when you repeat a word, it loses its meaning. It's only in the following weeks when I hear good things about it that I really think about it. Not very often do I think 'this is
very good'.

"Sometimes you get frustrated because you think something should win, but honestly, I can't remember which of my ads have won which awards," he
continues. "Over a period of time you have a number of awards and they all add up to something."

Asked what he thinks about advertising, Budgen just laughs and quips: "How long have you got?

"I suppose I must like it in a masochistic way," he says. "The enjoyment comes when the job is finished and I start to get feedback."

But he does wish the director-client relationship was different. "I wish the clients were involved more up-front. The way it is now, weeks of pre-pro can be canned because the client doesn't like something," he says, using the casting process as
an example.

"Casting can be crucial. That's something that clients don't understand. If a client doesn't like a person, they'll say there are thousands of people out there. But they don't realize, that by this point, you've already seen thousands of people. Often, if you'd known this type of thing might come up in the beginning, you may not have done that job.

"Clients see us as guns for hire, but the truth is that you do everything to a standard. I'd like the chance to say to the client, 'This is the way I work, and this is what I want from this project'," he adds.

In the end, his view on his lot in life is down-to-earth. He likes his time away from advertising, focusing on photography and music, and he talks of someday doing a feature. He expresses that despite the award glitz and perceived glamor, directing is hard work: "Working is like a blue collar job. You get up at 6 am, put on your waterproof shoes and work untilmidnight." But with Gorgeous, he says, it's never a burden. "It's amazing how it seems like there isn't a business involved with Gorgeous. There is no pressure on us or our other directors: we do what we want to do, and we're fortunate to do good work."

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