Twenty-three-year-old director Carl Rinsch literally walked into RSA's Los Angeles office and handed over his reel. Financed by the creation of the FlexiCAM, a small camera designed to help plumbers see down pipes, Rinsch's reel landed him an interview with Ridley Scott and a position on the production company's directorial roster.

"My friend and I needed money for our short film when we were 18," says Rinsch, detailing the necessity that mothered his invention. "It was a 35mm film and we didn't know how to raise the money. The prices can just explode on you when you're not looking."

The friend's father manufactured sewer-cleaning equipment. When the pair of filmmakers approached him for fundraising ideas, he suggested they do something to assist him on the job.

"We cooked up this idea of doing a small video camera that goes into the sewer system," explains Rinsch. "It's a little video camera you put down the toilet to view what's going on in your pipe. We did the rough conceptual engineering and all the marketing for it. It ended up making a ton of money and our commission was large enough that it was able to pay for the film and the specs."

The director jokingly refers to his creation as the "shiza-cam." Its proceeds funded three specs: Pepsi's "The Wallet," CK1's "The Dream" and "Red" for Tampax.

"I think commercials are the art of wow. You have 30 seconds, 60 seconds if you're lucky, to make an impression that's indelible," says Rinsch. His spot for Tampax is anything but forgettable.

An ample-bosomed female wearing nothing but a pair of white briefs and goggles stands in front of a white canvas while two people dressed in industrial protective gear spray her with red paint.

"The experience of these people spraying with hoses is like a Jackson Pollock menstruation," explains the director. The idea behind the commercial is to demystify the female cycle in a way that is empowering to women.

"I don't think it's offensive at all because the female character isn't subjected to anything," maintains Rinsch. "She is in control of this situation without saying or doing anything."

"What it came down to for me was this last little shot where she takes off the goggles looks down [sees that her briefs are spotless] and smiles in approval. It's as though she's the dominant force in the context and that was a tricky little ballet to play."

DP Eric Steelberg, Rinsch's childhood friend, shot "Red".

Reacting to the Tampax spot, RSA managing director Jules Daly says, "It's hysterical. I loved it. But my mind's a little screwed up because I work for the Scotts so I have to be."

Daly is confident that Rinsch is embarking on a successful career.

"It's wild because although he has just those three spots on his reel, I would be totally confident if he went and did a million-dollar Pepsi spot for his first commercial. I think he could handle it and with a lot of other directors you have to protect them and not go that fast," says Daly. "We could throw him right into some high-powered creatives from an agency."

One of the director's first cameras was a Hasselbladt, given to him by an elderly neighbor who had recently lost her husband.

"The widow came to my house and said, 'You have big feet,'" recalls Rinsch while doing his best rendition of the elderly woman's voice. "I had a size 12 foot as a13-year-old and she said, 'Would you like my husband's shoes; he had big feet too'".

Rinsch decided to take her up on the offer and received several pairs of orthopedic shoes in perfect condition.

"A size 12 orthopedic shoe is like a Frankenstein foot," comments Rinsch. "I mean you can't really wear them and when you're 12 or 13 you don't want to wear an orthopedic shoe in the first place."

Noticing that the child was not donning the new shoes, the woman later offered Rinsch a camera instead. "It was a Hasselbladt, a medium format box camera. It's a totally different experience from point and click. When you look through the viewfinder of a Hasselbladt, it's got strange perspective shifts and it was just an intoxicating experience shooting with this camera."

The director began setting up frames as if they were miniature films and he has been shooting ever since. At age 15, Rinsch had a film showcased at the New York Festival, despite receiving a C-plus for the project at a summer film course.

At age 18, the director had a second film shown at the festival in Berlin. Choosing academia over film school, he attended Brown University, from which he is a recent graduate.

Now living in London, the newly signed director is grateful for the Hasselblad he received as a child. Inside the camera, there was a roll of film that had been shot by the woman's late husband. "It is on my desk," says Rinsch, "and I will never expose it."

Contact:

http://www.rsausainc.com