RSA Amsterdam signs director Ayse Altinok

Multi award-winning director, over 10 years as a senior creative at Wieden+Kennedy and currently writing two film scripts; RSA Amsterdam is delighted to bring director Ayse Altinok onto its Director Roster. Here's a glimpse into her drives and passions.

I tend to gravitate towards things that are challenging, willingly or unwillingly. Directing and now writing, therefore always seemed so fulfilling to me. I knew it was going to be lonely, very hard, yet extremely satisfying at the end. Directors are multitaskers: You need to sometimes be sensitive, while other times very attentive and precise. That suits my personality, it gives me freedom as well as an exquisite structure for my creativity. 

I grew up in a culture of “criticism”; At home we always talked about “making things” “sales”, “aesthetics” and we did that by criticising, dissecting, and comparing subject matter. Contrarily, growing up in Istanbul, “criticism” especially towards women made life at times very claustrophobic for me. You had to be strong & opinionated or you risked getting lost in the conservative culture. So I had to stand up. Directing my own, or other people’s stories was liberating for that reason. The moment you realise your point of view is worth sharing and you are worth being heard it is truly empowering. 

My biggest inspiration is my son, with his playful innocence and his expectations from life. I feel that every project I work on has one goal only: to make the future generation proud. I want to tell the best and most interesting stories from unique perspectives. Create intellectual content, and connect that to the right products and people. I want each project to serve humanity in some way. Our children are so ON, we can’t fool them. So my inspiration is always “truth”…true performances, true need for service to culture and to industry. This is necessary both in advertising and entertainment, which cross over a lot at the moment.