A Brazilian Director Takes a New Look at “Birds On Wires”

Taking Flight with Jarbas Agnelli

By Anthony Vagnoni

A simple glance out a window has helped bring global attention to the work of a Brazilian director named Jarbas Agnelli.

“Reading a newspaper, I saw a picture of birds sitting on electrical wires,” he explains, as he has in dozens of newspaper articles and web postings since September.  “They looked like notes on a sheet of music, and I was simply curious to hear what melody they were creating.”

So he copied the photograph, transposed the placement of the birds on the wires to musical notes, and used them as the basis for a composition. It’s a sweetly haunting tune, one that might feel at home in a European art film.  The resulting short film is titled “Birds On Wires,” and it went up on Agnelli’s Vimeo web site about two months ago (you can see it here.)
 
One thing that might have made helped motivate Agnelli to wonder what kind of music the birds were creating has to do with his background: In addition to being one of Brazil’s busiest commercial directors, he’s also an accomplished musician.  So when he found that the melody of the bird was perfectly harmonious, he decided to make a short video about the process of creation. 

Agnelli’s commercial work, which often includes a whimsical combination of live action and animation (a good example is his “Jinxed” spot for Kleenex via JWT/Sao Paulo) is often accompanied by his own compositions, a fact that’s well known in Brazil but is only now beginning to be discovered by agencies and clients in the US, where he’s represented by New York-based Belladonna Commercials, which also reps him in Europe.  In Brazil he works through his own production company, AD Studio. 

Shortly after posting “Birds On Wire” on Vimeo it started to show up everywhere.  The film quickly went viral and within days was seen by millions of viewers on hundreds of sites and in most corners of the world, drawing close to a million views on the Vimeo site alone.  Agnelli says that enthusiastic and emotional feedback came pouring in from China, Nepal, France, Mexico, the US and many other countries.  “The film had struck a chord,” he says.  It’s been covered by everything from CNET.com to The Guardian in the UK. The web site Big Interview also did a lengthy Q&A with Agnelli about the film in which he discussed his creative approach to filmmaking and his influences for the film.

“We’re thrilled about the exposure that Jarbas’ work was getting in this totally unexpected way,” says Belladonna Executive Producer René Bastian.  “Jarbas encompasses the rare combination of great artist, great technician, great advertising mind and great human being. People feel that in his work and they respond to it.” 

Agnelli began his career as art director at the legendary creative agency W in Sao Paulo, where he worked on campaigns for clients such as Fnac and Epoca which garnered him several Gold and Silver Lions, as well as a Clio Grand Prix.  Parallel to that, he juggled a musical career with his band AD, which had a record deal. 

“I’ve always had a holistic vision of my work,” Agnelli explains.  “I wanted to create ideas, execute them on film and write the music for them.”  His dream began to become a reality when he directed his first music video for AD.  He immediately got nominated for the Brazilian MTV Music Awards.  Many more clips followed, and within four years he’d received 16 MTV nominations and won four times, including Best Director in 2002. 

That was the launching pad for him to focus on his career as a director and all-around content creator.  “I quit the agency and finally started to build my dream with a bunch of awards in a cardboard box and a gang of very talented friends,” he explains, going on to found AD Studio in Sao Paulo.  “We were a small team, but capable of going from idea to final film with a level of quality, speed and efficiency,” he adds.  “It’s a way of working that we feel the industry is increasingly in need of.”  His commercials reel includes work for Itau, Nokia, Coke, Visa, Skol and Panasonic, along with other South American and global brands.  (To screen his current Belladonna reel, click here.)

AD Studio has since grown into a major player in Brazil, encompassing full production and post facilities, 3D animation, CGI and music.  Agnelli continues to collaborate with his AD Studio team on work that comes through his relationship with Belladonna.

“Jarbas and AD Studio are a prime example for the type of directors, the type of work and the type of attitude we’re introducing to the US market,” says Bastian.  Adds Belladonna partner Fabiana Lutti, “Jarbas is more than just another talented director.  For both the agency and the client, he’s a strong creative collaborator who sees his job as not just executing a campaign, but elevating it.  As a former agency art director, he understands and respects the process and the strategic needs of a client. He has no ego, but does have strong ideas.” 

If a project can shoot in his home court of Brazil, Belladonna, via AD Studio, is capable of executing projects from top to bottom at a level of quality and price that’s hard to beat, says Bastian.  “We’re convinced that Brazil is going to be an increasingly important production hub for the US, comparable to what South Africa is for Europe:  same time zone, lower cost, but the highest level of talent and production,” he says.  “That’s the business trend Belladonna will be capturing with AD.”

“We set out to bring extraordinary commercial talent from abroad to the US,” continues Lutti, a native of Brazil.  “The unifying characteristics of our directors are that they’re all well-rounded creatives who are largely unknown in the US, and they’re really nice people.  What agencies and clients will need in this changing world are companies that can help them find creative solutions to execute campaigns at the highest level, but for a price. We see arbitrage in a vast international talent pool that wants to work in the US.” 

Agnelli is joined on the Belladonna directorial roster by Andreas Link from Germany, Luzian Schlatter from Switzerland, Marieli Froehlich from Austria and Michael Toft from Denmark.  The company is also about to launch the US branch of the extraordinary French VFX house Digital District in New York. It’s represented here by Michael Sitzer.

Published Nov. 18, 2009