There's always something to see in New York. Minutes before meeting with Boards to discuss his busy year as both an in-demand commercials director and the founder of new prodco O Positive, Jim Jenkins sits at a booth in a café observing a dust-up amongst the wait staff. Perhaps the interaction will inform a subsequent spot, perhaps not, but it was at the very least entertaining.

As a director, Jenkins has helmed his fair share of entertaining work, previously via Hungry Man's New York office and now through his own company. His six years at Hungry Man yielded comedic commercial gold, including work that nabbed him a DGA award nomination in 2005 (Nextel "Dance Party"; Discovery Channel "Antlers" and "Milk Truck", and TBS "Strange Fruit"). Spots for FedEx, Coke, BMW and an American Express ad featuring Martin Scorsese cemented his rep as one of the most consistent comedy directors in the US. But in March 2007, Jenkins decided it was time for a change, and broke away from Hungry Man with executive producer Ralph Laucella to form O Positive. Since then, he's helmed more strong work for FedEx focusing on inventive slacker employees ("Assistant", "Conference Call"), a colorful Comcast campaign featuring characters that seem to hallucinate in HD ("Parrots", "Fishies", "Tree Frog") and another collaboration with Scorsese, this time for AT&T, which showcases the director as an over-the-top auteur interfering with an innocuous phone call.

When you announced setting up O Positive you were talking about having to evolve - why was it necessary to make that move?
Well, number one, I was at a place that was great but was known primarily for doing visual comedy and I wanted to branch out from that. And two, it can be hard at a bigger company with a lot of directors. I wanted to have more control of my reel and how it was judged, and who I was attached to. So part of it was about taking the work in a different direction, and part of it was about a life choice of who you want to be around. I thought I was going to do this alone for a couple of years, but then David [Shane] came over and we're going to announce another director coming on board. It's never going to be big...

You've said that a collaborative spirit is important. Is it easier to have that within a smaller company environment?
In general it seems that directors are kind of kept apart from each other. It's as if you don't want someone to know what the other guy's bidding on. But I think it's open and helpful to throw ideas around. It seems like a very obvious way to work. I think for a company to work that way, though, the person at the core of it has to be a director. It'll help other directors to have another director looking out for their careers.

Over the course of the year, has there been anything that's a highlight? I'd imagine the Scorsese thing was a biggie. How was it working with him again?
One of the strangest things that happened was before we shot the last commercial, we were in the trailer and talking about the last thing we did, the American Express spot, and he said more people yell out lines at him from that than from his movies. My first thought was, 'Wow, that's cool', and my next thought was, 'Wait, that's sad.' That spot has more cultural significance than Goodfellas? But he's a very good sport.

Is it at all intimidating to direct him?

People ask me that, but the only intimidating thing about working with him is worrying about how the spot is going to turn out, and the expectations. This time, I thought he was a little more mellow than the last time we worked together - I found myself actually badgering him over takes.

What about any other spots over the course of the year - is there anything you look at and say, 'Yeah, I nailed it?' Or do you ever feel that way?
I'm one of the directors who never feels that way. There are always ideas that you think of later and say to yourself, 'I should've done that'. I love what I do, but I've been told I have to enjoy the process a little bit more (laughs). I mean, who ever feels that way? You'd have to suck to feel that way!

What do you look for in a board? You seem to be able to score some great scripts...
I've talked with David about this - there's an inverse relationship between the length of the script and its quality. The shorter the script and the less they give you, the better the idea. It might be just a sentence or two. There's no reason to hide it.

How would you like to branch out next?
I'll probably always get comedy and performance stuff, which is fine. But it's also nice to tell a story with a camera. I did some of that before I left the company and I've done some of it since. It's nice to not be known for something. You look at Kleinman and he can do any board.

What about any feature aspirations?
I really like my life. I like living in New York. And I remember hearing what one agency creative said after the experience of working [in LA] on a script: "The biggest jerk in advertising would be the nicest guy in Hollywood." Unless you can do what Dayton/Faris did... there's no real reason to go over there and shoot Nutty Professor 3.

INFORMATION
Production affiliations: Founder of O Positive, with offices in New York, London and LA.

Inspiration: As a youngster, Jenkins was inseparable from his trusty 8-millimeter camera, prompting his mother to make him promise that, "I'd never go to LA and shoot movies." Making commercials was the route they both could live with.

O Positive http://www.opositivefilms.com