Fredrik Bond's protégé shines
| by: | Oct 1, 2007 |
If Swede Emil Moller's reel seems old beyond its young author's directing years - the 29-year-old's first broadcast directing job was just six months ago - blame his long time mentor Fredrik Bond. Moller was thrown in at the deep end over the three years he spent assisting the Sonny founder and directing heavyweight - the very deep end at times.
"I remember the big adidas shoot for the 'Gimme the Ball' campaign", he says. "Fredrik couldn't be there, but he called me and asked me to lead the whole thing, to take the whole fucking agency and the client through explaining every shot to them. I was so nervous, thinking, 'How the hell am I going to do this?' 180, Amsterdam and the whole adidas crew in 10 black Jeeps coming down to the wood and I was standing there saying, 'Okay everybody, for the first shot we were thinking of starting here.' Those kinds of things make you grow really quickly."
Hailing from a tiny fishing island off the coast of Sweden, population 1,000, he left after high school to nearby Gothenburg for film school. After brief stints at TV broadcasters, he was taken under Bond's wing.
Stylistically, that tutelage has paid dividends. His calling card to London representation was a spec spot featuring a young boy on the basketball court, battling a leaf monster opponent borne of his imagination. It took one-and-a-half years to beg, borrow and steal the 35mm stock and post time to complete it to his exacting standards. The keen aesthetic of the spot, matched with a great performance, quirkily engaging casting and an obsessive attention to production detail marked him out.
Courted by London's finest, he received a call from Bond, who was opening Sonny. He's since repaid Bond's belief with hugely assured spots for Transport For London, Sony Ericsson and Re:member (through his Scandinavian production company FLX, Stockholm), which match beautiful but understated live action with similarly low-key CG work to great effect.
His obsession and passion extends to his scrupulous script choices: "I've had this vision that I shouldn't take any job where I don't really believe I can turn it into a great, memorable spot. It takes such time away from my family, that it should be something that I'm really burning for, loving to do and that I care about."
