As Olivier Gondry recounts his career evolution - from computer programmer to VFX artist to music video helmer to spot director - he has to laugh at the mix of practical motivation and good old-fashioned fear that paved the path.

"I'm a bit scared to find ideas," he admits. "With commercials, you always have a script to start from but with videos, you start from a white sheet of paper. Because I'm Michel [Gondry]'s brother and he was so successful at videos, I am hard on myself. But [it's] for stupid reasons too: I bought a big house three years ago and I'm 'house-broke.' So each time I want to do a music video and there's a commercial on the side, I have to do the commercial."

After spending most of the '90s at post houses BUF, Paris and Method Studios in LA, the Versailles native started co-directing with his famous brother. For their 2002 Chemical Brothers promo "Star Guitar", he synched various elements in the scenery passing by on a train ride to appear in-time with the different sounds and beats, resulting in a subtle and eerily minimal video.

Signing to Partizan, solo videos for The Stills, Hot Hot Heat and OK Go followed, as well as spots for automakers Infiniti, Chevy and Hyundai. In 2007, Gondry directed three spots for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners' HP "Hands" campaign, which featured unlikely ad celebs, including brother Michel and designer Vera Wang, delivering FX-heavy monologues about inspiration.

He signed with Paranoid US early last year for North American spot and video rep (he's still with Partizan for the rest of the world) and helmed ads for Zune, Nike Latin America and Beringer. Back in Europe, the creatives at BBH, London saw his "You Gonna Want Me" video for Tiga, and asked him to apply a similar 3D time-lapse effect to the Audi R8 for the spot "Construction". As last year ended, Boards asked the 43-year-old to reflect on his past and the work that made 2007 one of his busiest years.

I used to play the trumpet. Even last night I dreamt about playing with [my] old bands - but not anymore. Just in my dreams.

I never wanted to be a director. I was not resistant, I just never thought about it. Some people say, "I always wanted to be a director" because they have plenty of things to say. Me, I'm a computer programmer who went into post-production. Then I started a company with Michel, and we did "Star Guitar". The video was Michel's idea, but because I did everything from shoot to delivery, Michel decided to say we co-directed it. Six months later, he came back with a tape of two songs and said, "We're going to co-direct the videos." He asked me to find ideas. I was used to working for other people, so I never did my own stuff. Michel wouldn't let me do bad ideas, so at first I was a bit surprised and scared, but now I like it. That was five years ago. I'm getting used to it and I see myself more as a director.

The highlights of the past year for me were the HP spots with my brother and Vera Wang, the Daft Punk video ("Harder Better Faster Stronger"), the Audi spot and the Beringer spot. Daft Punk are friends of mine, so they called me to do a concert video [in Brooklyn] with 200 cameras. They were supposed to shoot a concert in July, but they cancelled after they did some tests and were not happy. When you shoot a concert on film, sometimes it feels colder. Their show was very unique with all of the lights, so they were frustrated. Then they saw fans filming YouTube clips, and thought it was really great because you could see how people saw the show.

We contacted some people who already had tickets and asked them to come with cameras, but most of these people didn't come to see us. Maybe they were too harried to bring cameras? I don't know, but we didn't want to just give 200 cameras to people. We had 150 tickets and found friends of friends of friends, and they brought cameras. We had a booth at the stadium where people would come and pick a map [of a location] where they'd shoot. We'd give them very few instructions, we'd give them a tape and they gave the tape back. Even though the cut wasn't perfect, the video feels spontaneous, which is all part of it. If I had two months, the cut would've been a lot more mathematical, which would've been interesting. But you know, when you have no choice, you have no choice.

I do a lot of technical stuff, so I haven't dealt with many actors. When I do a music video, I'm not crazy about giving direction, especially if it's a performance video. I'm a bit shy with that... I count more on quantity sometimes. Directing Vera Wang was a bit intimidating, but she was very nice and we were short on time so I was trying to get some stuff without being too directive.

I try to do something special each time. When you do commercials, you don't have control over everything, so it's easy to let go and say the agency killed the job. But if you fight more, you get more, even if you don't get 100%. Now I know that I can get closer to what I want, even in commercials, which I didn't know how to do two years ago.

Paranoid US http://www.paranoidus.com
Partizan http://www.partizan.com