REEL DE ORO

The Argentinean filmmaker, Julián Montesano, has a very multifaceted profile. He is a live action director, a graphic designer, illustrator, animation and post-production director. He has worked in several renowned advertising agencies as an art director and creative director, founded an animation studio, a post-production company and a film production company. With al the projects he has won national and international awards, from Cannes, One Show, D&AD, London Festival, Cyclope, to Lápiz de Platino and Grandprix in FIAP.

He is also a creativity and art direction teacher in several schools in Buenos Aires and leads a group of art directors called “Art Direction Warriors”, as well as a semi-secret project: Buenos Aires Art Direction Secret Society.

1. How did you start directing?

When I studied film, I was already working as an art director at DDB. We had to do an exercise that consisted in shooting a commercial. We had to think up the script and each one of the students fulfilled a role, the one who wrote the script could not direct. I told the professor that I wanted to direct and also make the script because I was working in an agency and could even try to do it with a real client. He accepted. We shot it in super 16mm, the star was the receptionist of the school and the co-star was my dad who had nothing to do with theater, nor cinema or anything.
It turned out very well. Up to then, it was an exercise and nothing else, but when I showed it to Gaston (Bigio)–whom, at the time was junior, like me–he told me I had to show it to Rodrigo (Figueroa Reyes) who was DGC. I didn´t have the courage, but Gastón insisted. I finally did show it to him and he liked it. The client approved it and we ended up winning a Clio. That was the first commercial I directed. After, I turned to art direction, post-production, and animation and closed the parable returning to shooting commercials, now as a more complete director.

2. How do the art director and the film maker find nourishment?

The real engine or nourishment are ideas. I am not motivated by awards or pats on the back. For me the best thing are ideas. And we are surrounded by sparks that appear and disappear. There, inspiration is floating in the air. There is no key, no “little places” where we can check out references and copy them. Or there are, there are a lot, too many, and they are available for everyone. Everything is “googleable”. The only difference is each person´s gaze, the tools are the same for everyone.

3. What projects have you worked on recently?

As director in @castadivaba this year was very intense. I worked very hard for other countries and te last thing I did locally was a campaign for a new insurance company (Lunigo) that was a great deal of fun. And as art director we stole all the sweet and sour in @holahaus with Facu Romero and all the geniuses I was lucky to have as students.
4. If you could choose a brand to shoot a commercial for, which one would it be?

I could say Nike, but I am going to say Apple. Lately, they are having great storytelling, and always with interesting concepts and a solid aesthetic proposal. Actually, brands on their own are nothing. It depends on the agency´s courage and the marketing department´s permeability.

I would have wanted to shoot the Apple commercial Welcome Home, shot by Spike Jonze and Nothing Beats a Londoner by Megaforce. The best thing is that they last more than two minutes and everybody viralized them. That proves that we are not robots that lose people´s attention after five seconds, we are the same sensible little monkeys that like to be surprised and get excited since the Stone Age. And it also definitely reveals that digital pieces are not “little videos”. Big brands spend a lot on digital. Nowadays, everything is digital.
5. With all your experience, how do you see the future of advertising?

Brands need ideas, and ideas no longer need brands, that changed a paradigm upon which the advertising industry was built. And to solve it, an algorithm was created, which does understand the need for human expression and I don´t think it ever will.

I see that 20-year-olds are not interested in advertising. They don´t see it as something important. But they do need to feel things, that is why cinema continues to survive. I think that those who are worried about the future of advertising are all older than 30.

I think everything is going to continue moving and evolving. Heroes are going to come down and new standards are going to appear. As always. Then there is the topic of business and profits of the industry, but that is for the number people I put on earphones to go to the supermarket.

6. Where is Julián Montesano heading?

I am going to write and direct my own film