Asymetric EP Jason van Bruggen poses atop a tank in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

Last year, German filmmaker Werner Herzog announced plans for a series of weekend-long seminars in Los Angeles aimed at filmmakers with non-traditional backgrounds. Called the Rogue Film School, the program had a decidedly anti-academic, anti-technical bent.

Students would learn "the athletic side of filmmaking", from lock-picking to "the exhilaration of being shot at unsuccessfully".

Jason van Bruggen might qualify for enrollment. At 37, the veteran producer has traveled to more than 100 countries as a line producer and fixer for commercial projects, an amateur photographer and a military contractor.

Driven by a fascination with what he calls "austere" locales – or countries gripped by war and political turmoil – van Bruggen’s wanderlust stems from a desire to explore countries where Western culture has not fully penetrated.

"It’s that really visceral sense of being part of something that is soon to be gone," he says. "I’ve found myself drawn to those types of places and continue to seek them out in my working life."

A native of Toronto, van Bruggen earned a master’s degree in history and political science from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. After graduation, he traveled the African continent, from Cairo to Cape Town, taking photos.

From 1998 to 2005, van Bruggen worked as an international line producer for American commercial productions, but eventually he tired of the job. "There weren’t any challenges left in producing commercials," he says.

So he left production and spent three years as a military contractor, designing and selling logistical programs – aircraft leasing, baggage handling, troop transport and forward operating base deployments – to military and NGO clients operating in war zones such as Iraq, Sudan and Afghanistan.

Though he declines to name his employers, citing sensitivity, part of van Bruggen’s work included organizing and filming corporate communications videos in Iraq.

Security was the primary concern and thus the job required meticulous research and planning on his part. Aircraft taking off and landing at the Baghdad airport, for example, must fly at a specific altitude to avoid mortar fire.

"If you don’t respect those boundaries there’s a high likelihood your aircraft will get shot and destroyed," he says. "There’s a constant preoccupation with safety and communicating those variables to every single person involved in the production."

Van Bruggen has also worked in less intimidating climes. One commercial job that posed a series of logistical challenges was a pair of Visa spots, "Hole" and "Lost Luggage", filmed in Cuba for Leo Burnett, Toronto with directors Kuntz & Maguire in 2003. Van Bruggen shut down a terminal in the Havana airport, rigged suitcases to fly through the air and blew up a cobblestone street in Havana’s Chinatown, causing a leak in a gas main.

The job required multiple layers of government approvals and van Bruggen says he was involved in every aspect.

"Learning to communicate with other cultures is a skill that is acquired," he says. "People get flustered, upset or angry – none of those things work. You have to maintain a level demeanor."

In 2008, van Bruggen returned to commercial production through Asymetric, a digital and branded content-focused offshoot of Toronto prodco Suneeva. His biggest job to date has been a multi-platform campaign for the Canadian Tourism Commission via DDB, Vancouver.

When asked if any hairy situations arose during the shoot, van Bruggen pauses and then casually recounts losing half a day when his boat stalled on a glacial river. "We were stranded and had to walk back a couple of hours with our gear and find someone with a satphone to call someone with a float plane to pick us up," he says. "Nothing truly hairy." Q

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