Director of Craft: Ivan Zacharias

More used to directing behind the camera than directing a jury, Stink’s Ivan Zacharias rose from post-communist Prague to become this year’s Craft Jury president on the back of some truly iconic work, as Isobel Roberts discovers.

The first thing that ran through Ivan Zacharias’ head when he was asked to lead the Film Craft jury at this year’s Cannes was a sneaking doubt felt by some of his fellow jury presidents too: “I must be getting quite old to be asked to be president of the jury, I thought,” jokes the Czech director. “It’s getting serious now, maybe I should start doing something else.”

But as one of the most acclaimed commercials directors in the industry, Zacharias certainly has the right credentials to lead the 2012 Film Craft jury. Represented by Stink, he’s been recognised for his filmmaking skills at festivals across the globe, and won seven golds at Cannes itself for iconic spots such as Honda Impossible Dream, Nike I Feel Pretty and Stella Artois Doctor. Last year, Zacharias was also the first-ever commercials director to?be awarded the Fellowship Award by the British Arrow Awards (formerly the BTAAs). All in all, it’s a pretty impressive CV for the 41-year-old director leading the pack at the festival’s third Film Craft award, following in the footsteps of the previous two presidents – South African director and Velocity Films co-founder Keith Rose and @radical.media CEO Jon Kamen.

“It’s nice to be in charge of something like this,” comments Zacharias, “but, at the same time, I have been in charge of a few juries and it comes with a lot of responsibility. You have to be very careful and set limits as to what is acceptable, and what’s great and what’s not, and obviously it all depends on the rest of the jury – it depends on the whole team.”

Zacharias’ route into advertising came after he embarked on a course at the prestigious FAMU film academy in Prague with plans to become a cinematographer and documentary filmmaker. At the same time, as communist rule collapsed in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic formed, the international ad scene began to thrive in the city as Prague flourished as a popular shooting destination. Zacharias was still studying when he was offered the chance to step behind the camera on an advertising set.

Starting out at Stillking, Zacharias has?since developed into one of the most noted directors of his generation, and more recent campaigns include his award-winning spots for Magners through Red Brick Road, as well as a series of trailers for the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival that have featured the likes of Jude Law, John Malkovich and Harvey Keitel.

Recognising the role of craft

For Zacharias, in his role as head juror, the addition of the Film Craft Lions to the awards line-up in 2010 was a welcome move for the production community: “I think the category is really good for filmmakers, as they now have the chance to be better recognised,” he enthuses. “Originally it was always the agencies, so it’s great that all the departments within filmmaking can also get awards for what they do, because they deserve it. I never physically got a Lion until I stole one from the agency,” he adds, laughing. “It was more of a joke, but I wanted one for the editing room with Filip (Malasek, Zacharias’ long-time editor and collaborator), but it always ended up on the agency’s shelf – so I just took one. But, overall, I think the Film Craft category is a good thing; it’s encouraging, and I think it’s good for the agencies to realise that the filmmakers are important, and for the industry as a whole to realise the importance of craft.”

Designed to acknowledge the skill and quality of craft and technique that goes into making commercials, the significance of the Film Craft Lions is clear to Zacharias, but he’s also quick to acknowledge the challenge in distinguishing between the different categories within Film Craft – which include copywriting, cinematography, direction, editing, music, sound, visual effects and animation.

“It is difficult, because you never know what is the director’s input, or what is the agency’s input. Sometimes the director of photography is very strong and he fixes problems, or it’s the editor,” explains Zacharias. “It is very difficult to judge these things, and it is much easier to judge the commercial as a whole thing, but what’s important depends on what type of commercial it is. With dialogue, for example, then it’s how the actors are led by the director and how the rhythm and humour work. Obviously, for the directing category, I will be judging the whole thing, because the director is responsible for the ‘everything’, so that’s what I will focus on there, as that is obviously what I am trying to do as well.”

Having confessed to rarely watching television, Zacharias is also curious to see how the scripts that were passed before him – but that he didn’t direct – were brought to life. With economic woes affecting the quality of scripts over the past few years, Zacharias is more optimistic about what he’s seen in recent months, and while budgets might not be returning to their glory days, as a director he doesn’t believe budgetary constraints mean a lack of opportunity to create great work.

“The budgets are worse but if the idea is good, and it’s a simple idea, then you can still do it really well. You have to adjust and I think there is still the chance to make nice work even with smaller budgets, although it’s obviously not what it was, which is a shame. I think that we won’t see those epic spots with an eight-day shoot for a 60-second commercial anymore, but then the idea just has to adjust. The problem starts when someone wants to make a big epic commercial for half the money, then you end up in the middle where you are trying to do big things but you don’t have the money and so you end up with a compromise, which is much worse than if you had a simpler idea and made it really well.”

In search of the true original

And when it comes to this year’s crop of commercials, come mid-June when Zacharias and his team of eight jurors retire from the Cote d’Azur sun to a darkened viewing room deep within the Palais, he’ll be looking for work that keeps pushing the industry forward.

“I just want to vote for the best work,” he concludes, “and if there is none in a category then I would rather not give an award than award something I feel is average because the whole level of the industry, and the Cannes Festival, could go down. I am looking for something that I like and admire, and I would be happy if the winners were quite original and brave and different. I hope that I will see some good work that will inspire me to carry on doing what I’m doing.”