Wilfrid Brimo says he wants a nice comfortable director's chair, please. He's just realized that he spends most of his time standing on an upturned wooden box. So would his Parisian prodco Wanda fix it for him? They might want to think about it. At 38, Brimo's only been helming for three years, but he hit the ground running with a Gold Lion at Cannes in 2005 for his animated AIDS awareness spot for TBWA\Paris. This year, he's directed a new one that combines the safe-sex message with a funny/sad gay rites-of-passage fable of rare charm and authenticity. His eye for a strong board is developing just fine.

Born in Versailles, Brimo studied graphic arts at Penninghen in Paris then joined Paris-based broadcast design company Gedeon, as artistic director, where he worked on various global design projects. He arrived at Wanda in 2001 as creative director, working primarily on TV channel idents and promos, before he got his directing break on a music video for Shakedown ("Love Game") and his first spot: "Hauteur" for the World Athletics Championships (Louis XIV DDB, Paris). Today, he's also repped by boutique house Arden Sutherland-Dodd in the UK and Crossroads in LA.

A typical Brimo spot hurtles past like life, barely under control. His AIDS awareness commercials are flecked with humor and observations of human behavior that transcend CGI, while his spot for UK dating agency Meetic ("Love" from Ailleurs Exactement) affectionately explores the intricacies of relationships. Brimo has even personified wildlife as conscientious car lovers for Peugeot ("Sheep", "Pigeon" for BETC Euro RSCG).

Chilled after two weeks on a Spanish beach, he deserted the production suite just so we could give his English a workout.

It was very exciting when Wanda asked me to direct the first time. Suddenly I was shooting with a crew and a lot of people! As an art director on the TV accounts, I'd only worked with Flame in a very small room, usually alone. I felt far away from everything, and I did get bored. Now I was alongside creatives and they became friends. There is still a link between my background in graphic design and photography, because when I work with a DP, I can explain how I want to build the frame.

Two things attract me to a board. First, the relationship with the agency when I meet them for the first time. If I get a good feeling from the creatives, I'm very happy. Second, a good script that can be worked on and has a strong element of storytelling. There has to be something emotional. Of course it's more difficult to find something new every time, but that's why I love the job. There's nothing routine about it.

Ironically, when the first AIDS spot came up, I was back in a darkroom again,
but this time working together with a lot of people. That was great. We had more resources for the second one: about six months to develop the idea and the story; three months for production.

It was a little nightmarish in that so many people had creative input and there were long discussions with the agency and with the post-production company [Mikros Image]. Like a fight, sometimes you need a referee and with animation it's difficult: you have to imagine the story, the characters. Sometimes you're right or wrong. But that's why I love this kind of project.

Three minutes sounds like a long commercial compared with 30 seconds, which is frustratingly short, and I was happy to see such a long script. But even then we had so many ideas to get into so many scenes. That's why the cutting seems fast. Once we'd found the music ["Sugar Baby Love" by The Rubettes], I tried to work with that and to edit with the rhythm.

Some of the ideas came from our life experiences. You often see a very dramatic commercial for this type of subject and we wanted to do something that was funny, that would sensitize people. I went down to Le Marais [the hip Parisian gay district] to catch details. And I spent a lot of time showing the work to my gay friends who would point something out, then we'd go back and upgrade the project. Now that I've got some distance from the spot, I think we created something very modern and unique.

How did it feel to win a Cannes Gold Lion? I got goosebumps. When I had the Lion in my hands, all I could think of was my grandmother. It made her very happy. It was great to see all the people standing up and applauding, it just made me feel that everybody had understood the commercial and loved it.

At the moment I'm working on another piece of animation with a great story. But I would like to work with people as well. And with animals. I became a bit of a specialist on the Peugeot spots, which really were a nightmare. We did 50 takes for each shot, but the first one was always the best because the second time, the sheep and the pigeon knew what was coming and wouldn't do what I wanted. I had the creatives behind me saying, 'Yeah, we can do another shot,' but we always ended up using the first one in the editing suite because it was the freshest. It's the same with actors, I think.

Directing isn't a job for me, it's a passion. And I think I have a lot more commercials to make. Perhaps I'll do a feature one day, but it's such a long process. And although I seem to have done a lot of commercials, it's only three years' worth. I'm certainly not bored yet.

Wanda>http://www.wanda.fr
Arden Sutherland-Dodd> http://www.adslondon.com
Crossroads> http://www.xroadfilms.com