Director Kathryn Bigelow on the set of The Hurt Locker in Amman, Jordan with actor Jeremy Renner (far right).

In advertising, the words "immersive" and "experiential" are relatively new terms. As consumers' eyes turn more toward the Internet, agencies are looking for new ways to marry technology with storytelling in order suck them deeper into branded "experiences".

Making film "experiential" is not a new concept for director Kathryn Bigelow. A veteran of the action genre, she's responsible for features such as K19: The Widowmaker and Strange Days and with her latest film The Hurt Locker, she parachutes viewers directly into the heart of the Iraq war.

Based on the experiences of journalist Mark Boal, who was embedded with the U.S. military while covering the Iraq conflict in 2004, the film is a suspense-filled drama about a group of bomb disposal experts working under highly unpredictable and chaotic conditions on the streets of Baghdad.

Bigelow has also directed spots for brands such as Pirelli, Budweiser and Hummer, but dropped off the commercial scene in 2005 to concentrate on The Hurt Locker. Now that the movie is in theaters, she's joined the roster at RSA Films (she was previously repped by Independent Media) and is once again looking to direct ads.

"She's got this extraordinary comfort with herself," says RSA president Jules Daly. "Some directors are kinda crazy - but she's very clear. It doesn't feel like there's insecurity about how she wants to do something. Some people thrive on that insecurity - it's not a bad thing. But she's very solid."

Boards recently caught up with Kathryn Bigelow in the midst of a publicity blitz for The Hurt Locker to chat about the film and her return to the commercial world.

Do you like to shoot a lot of commercials when you're between films?
I do, yes. What's exciting to me about it, as I'm sure to most filmmakers, it's an opportunity to work with extraordinary individuals, extraordinary cinematographers and sometimes various actors. I worked with Uma Thurman and [DP] Janusz Kaminski on the Pirelli spot. It's really a great opportunity to work with some extraordinary talent, especially in Janusz's case because he's predominantly working with Spielberg, so you're not often given the opportunity to do that.

When did development on The Hurt Locker begin?
It began in 2005 as a result of Mark Boal who is a journalist/screenwriter and one of the producers on The Hurt Locker. He was on a journalistic embed in 2004 with a bomb squad in Baghdad and when he came back, he really had some extraordinary stories about this embed and amazing first-hand observations on the day in the life of a bomb tech. Arguably this profession is the most dangerous in the world and yet it's a volunteer military so these are men who choose this occupation. It's a really interesting psychology, interesting character study and then we began to develop it a screenplay for a motion picture.

The ideas for your films are generally very topical. Do you take a lot of inspiration from things you read or see in the news?
I do think the opportunity to be topical and relevant is a very challenging perspective and perhaps a really productive application of the medium. You can enter the subconscious and you can combine entertainment and substance. As you're being dazzled and enthralled, you're injecting a kind of consciousness in there that can be very valuable.

Speaking as a member of the general public, the [Iraq] conflict has felt very abstract - perhaps because it's slightly under-reported. It's a very unusual and unique engagement specific to this particular insurgency whose weapon of choice is the bomb. So suddenly, the Explosive Ordinance Disposal team is at the epicenter of a conflict and it's a conflict that doesn't have a front or rear and it takes place in a congested urban environment and it's incredibly insidious. These lethal devices are disarmed on a daily basis. Unpacking that and making it less abstract was an opportunity to work with material that's very topical and relevant. I've had many people come out of the theater and tell me, ‘I had no idea what it was like', and EOD techs thanking me for providing an opportunity for people to understand what they do. I think that is an extremely gratifying use of the medium.

You chose to cast celebrity actors in supporting roles and lesser known talent in the lead roles. What was the thinking behind that decision?
The thinking behind that was approaching the production from multiple sides. Since the financing was raised independently, knowing full well I wanted to shoot in the Middle East - and that might've been more difficult if you wanted to approach this project in more conventional fashion. That allowed for complete creative control, final cut and the opportunity to basically cast it right. And in my opinion, working with emerging or breakout talent has been a kind of signature since my first film with Willem Dafoe. It's really an opportunity to work with extraordinary talent and individuals whose commitment and dedication are absolutely singular.

Definitely having an unfamiliar face underscores the tension and the suspense in the situation, in that if you have an actor that is a little bit more familiar or with whom the audience has a pre-history, they'll anticipate that character either making it to the end and surviving or having a heroic death in the third act. The minute you take that out of the equation, it heightens the tension and suspense of the piece.

Do you find that you have to make films independently in order to make those types of casting decisions?
Good question. I've only worked independently; even something on a scale of K19 began as an independently financed movie. I think that's certainly an environment in which I feel very comfortable because it does allow for a lot of creative autonomy.

One word you frequently use to describe The Hurt Locker in interviews is ‘experiential', which is also a buzzword right now in advertising. What do you mean when you call the film ‘experiential' and, aside from casting, what are some ways a director can make a film feel experiential?
It was both Mark's and my intention to keep [the film] very reportorial - and that means very presentational. Mark was in a Humvee experiencing these disarmaments 10, 12, 15 times a day with the bomb squad and so it was extremely immersive. It's a fairly harrowing, riveting experience for somebody to be brought along on a day in the life of a bomb tech it became very experiential for him so the question is how do you translate that an audience? I think by choosing [cinematographer] Barry Ackroyd, who has an incredible range, incredible dexterity, and by choosing a format that heightened and enabled further dexterity - Super 16, multiple cameras - and keeping the photography very alive and supple and dexterous.

I think what also keeps it very immersive is the fact that you're very oriented from a geographic standpoint. That was really necessary for the audience to understand the protocol of bomb disarmament. In other words, the ground troops contain the area in a 300-meter perimeter and then the bomb tech takes what's called in terminology ‘the lonely walk' toward the suspicious rubble pile. It's very important the audience has constant orientation and I think in keeping the geography very clear and clean, and yet humanizing and emotionalizing the event and oscillating between those two objectives, I think that contributed to that immersive, experiential appeal of the piece.

Do you think it's possible to create that kind of experience with an advertisement?
Yes, absolutely.

How so?
With Hurt Locker, we had the benefit of a very well-crafted screenplay. It comes from the creative. It's content-driven and then the form follows suit and amplifies and intensifies. But I think content and concept, just as in Hurt Locker, it's also character - it's finding the way to experience [a story] through character. If you have an emotional connection to the story and the character, you can create that kind of experiential effect, quite effortlessly in fact. You can do that in 15 seconds or in two hours.

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