Nico & Martin: A Premier Pairing

Within just ten years, directing team Nico Perez Veiga and Martin Kalina have shot a heap of commercials for top clients such as Ford, Axe, Sony, MTV, T-Mobile and HSBC and set up their own production company Primo, recognised as one of South America’s finest. Joe Lancaster meets the talented duo to discover what makes them a dream team.

Despite the symbolism in the picture opposite, Argentinian directing duo Nico & Martin usually agree. In fact, ever since Nico Perez Veiga met Martin Kalina at film school in Buenos Aires more than a decade ago, they’ve been getting along like a house on fire. “We have strong personalities, but we don’t argue, we discuss and try to convince each other,” says Nico. “Otherwise it would be impossible to work,” adds his partner.

They discovered a mutual filmic style during their studies and after graduating approached Nico’s father, who owns local production company Awards Cine, for work. Both aged 21, they shot a no-budget beer commercial for a local agency in Nico’s mum’s backyard and although his dad’s reputation counted on it, the heat was off the youngsters. Nico explains: “It was more pressure for him than me. He was sure we could do it, but no one else was. He was the one taking the risk. Unfortunately the client didn’t like it, so it wasn’t aired,” he laughs. “It was a good experience to start [our careers] though.”

Funny fathers in pants

Nico senior’s faith paid off quickly and soon the duo were shooting commercials that did air – bucket loads of them. Ford, Axe, Sony, MTV, T-Mobile, HSBC… It’s hard to believe (and impossible not to be jealous) that they’ve only been in this game for 10 years having achieved so much already, including, in 2008, setting up what is now one of South America’s most respected production companies – Primo.

 “At Awards Cine we were just directors, but with Primo we can control what kind of films we want to do, which directors we want to work with, build a small brand and be in control of that. It’s a logical step,” says Martin.

It’s the route that many directors take in Argentina, with most production houses being owned by a ‘lead’ director. It’s hands-on work, too. Nico and Martin are instrumental in scouting and recruiting talent and they often attend their directors’ shoots. “In Argentina it’s very common if you’re running a production company to co-direct with other directors to help build their reels,” explains Martin, although he’s reluctant to call it training. “It’s sharing the project with them in order to see if we can add something.”

Running Primo doesn’t mean Nico and Martin have turned their backs on directing their own jobs though. They recently shot a brilliant spot for Andes beer through Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi (see page 14) and won a gold Film Lion this year for their Dads In Briefs spot for BGH air conditioners, through the same agency. The hilarious ad shows middle-aged men parading through the house, in front of visitors, in their briefs due to the warm weather. Shot in black and white and with a classical soundtrack, it was a hit with viewers. “When you receive a script like that, with such a strong insight and such a powerful idea, it burns in your hands. You think, we have something here,” remembers Nico fondly. “I think one of the things that the script had was that it was a very local thing, but it was so local that it was universal in a way. It was something that everyone could understand,” adds Martin.

While much of their work has been comedic, partly due to the Argentinian public’s penchant for funny ads, the duo are reluctant to be typecast, explains Nico. “We like to tell stories and make films. Comedy, drama, visual… Here comedy is more common, but we can also shoot a commercial like Andes, which is not comedy, it’s a love story with a comedic twist at the end. It’s more like classic cinematic storytelling. We’d like to stay as eclectic as possible.”

Feeling the Pulse in the UK

One way to escape the comedy shackles is to branch out and last year Primo opened its São Paulo office to work on the waves of scripts coming in from Brazilian agencies. So far, Primo has shot numerous jobs there, but Nico and Martin are waiting for the perfect one before they put their names to a film. In the meantime they’ve struck a deal with Pulse Films in London for UK representation and for Primo to house some Pulse directors. “We got a positive feeling from them. Pulse is a young, new production company with a different point of view. They don’t just think about doing TV commercials, but a little bit more integrated content,” enthuses Nico.

The duo will not be leaving the motherland any time soon though, says Martin. “We’re very glad to be working in Argentina because the creatives work very hard and they struggle with the clients in a way that we’ve never seen abroad. That’s very inspiring because we think, ‘if they’re trying so hard, we have to go all the way also,’.”

Ask around and people will tell you that Nico is the more intense, fiery character, while Martin is more laidback. A final question is for the guys to describe each other in one word. Both answering with a chuckle, Martin says, “crazy,” while Nico says, “cool”. True to form, once again they agree.