Epic Shoots and Movie Stars: The Meteoric Rise of Atanasio + Martinez
Photography: Jonathan Turner / Art direction: Garry Hunter for Fitzrovia Noir
I’ll let Nicole Kidman introduce Atanasio + Martinez:
“They’re very unusual, the directors. They’re a husband and wife. They’re very artistic. They’re cinephiles. I’ve actually built a relationship with them now, and we’re looking for film projects together ‘cause I think they have a really unique eye.”
Anthony Atanasio and Valerie Martinez are certainly an exciting addition to A Running Commentary (A.R.C)’s roster. The director duo worked with the Australian-American actress not once, but twice for Etihad Airways, and she’s far from the only major celebrity to star in their reel. With cameos from Ken Watanabe for American Express and Liam Hemsworth for Diesel, it’s fair to say they’re no strangers to high-profile campaigns.
For many years now, Atanasio + Martinez have been pushing the creative envelope as far as possible for big-name brands including Nintendo, Nike, Hermès, Levi’s, and Citroën. In recognition, they’ve picked up Directors Guild nominations, several Cannes shortlists, Clios, Addys, LIAs, and more, as well as coverage in major publications like The Guardian, Sunday Times, and New York Times.
As you can imagine, Atanasio + Martinez have also collected their fair share of impressive stories along the way. Hear their tales from a whirlwind international career so far, featuring movie stars, eureka moments, and glacier lagoons, in this interview with LBB’s Zara Naseer.
Above: Etihad Airways 'Flying Reimagined' starring Nicole Kidman
LBB> How did you make your start in filmmaking?
Anthony> We started out as short filmmakers and, following a string of successful shorts that began turning heads, we were soon winning awards. Some of those shorts were purchased by the likes of CANAL+ and ARTE, which was a real thrill at the time. Everything seemed to happen simultaneously, and it all cascaded. Our career really took off in Paris, quickly followed by the USA, and then simultaneously launched in the UK, having been headhunted by London-based production companies.
LBB> How did you break into advertising from there?
Valerie> Our short films built up a fan base in agencies and as a consequence we shot our first car commercial for Peugeot 206 in 2000 within nine months of turning professional, which is kind of nuts. (Fun fact – it was also the first spot to be aired in France for the new millennium). You could say it was a meteoric rise almost from one day to the next. Before we realised it, we were shooting for some of the biggest clients in France, including Gas de France, Eurovia, UGC and Club Med, amongst others.
Anthony> Our very first US spot was for JanSport through DDB Seattle, and it made good press – getting picked up by The New York Times. But the next spot, Nintendo’s ‘School’s Out’ out of Leo Burnett Chicago and shot in Hong Kong really changed everything for us. It won us two Clios for Best Directing and Best Cinematography and created quite a buzz. What followed was a flurry of work including spots for Audi (BBH), NIKE (Taxi), Hermes (Publicis EtNous), and eventually Levi’s (BBH).
LBB> What are your specialisms?
Valerie> Our specialisms at the time ranged from storytelling, cinematic visuals, and epic scale. That developed into performance and working with actors, which caught the attention of other agencies and clients. Soon we were working with the likes of Ken Watanabe for Amex, Liam Hemsworth for Diesel, and Nicole Kidman – twice for Etihad Airways. It was a great feeling to be sought after.
Above: Nintendo 'School's Out'
LBB> How have you ended up at A.R.C?
Valerie> It was love at first sight with Alex [Bedford] and Ben [Parkin], who now rep us exclusively for the UK. We just hit it off – they're both such lovely, smart guys and they really appreciated our reel. We’ve already been pitching with them on a handful of projects and hope to be shooting something together soon. What we also liked about A.R.C was the breadth of their interest in filmmaking. It wasn’t just commercials – they were into shorts and movies. Like us, they wanted to embrace it all. It didn’t matter if it was live-action, post, or animation – they were just ambitiously doing great work. They’ve even started organising dinners to meet other talents they work with, which is a great idea. We’d love to extend that to creatives too. Give one of them a call if you want to join the next one!
Anthony> That’s what directors like Valerie and I hope for from a production company: a love of filmmaking and the nurturing of great ideas. Alex and Ben are astute and very likeable, and in my experience, that ability to get it done is worth a lot. Their early days at Gorgeous & Independent prepared them to expect the unexpected. That’s a good match – and we’ll complement each other, no doubt.
LBB> What are some of the biggest production challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Anthony> We seem to have been considered ‘problem-solvers' and that really started with a unique spot for French client Eurovia, part of the VINCI group. Because Eurovia builds roads, among other things, the script from Euro RSCG BETC was all about seeing the world from the perspective of the road itself.
We needed to demonstrate scale, but rather than resorting to post-production, our solution was to build a road in glass and shoot from below. There were several locations, so we built sets upon our glass road and shot exterior plates to match – compositing the foreground and background plates with a lateral tracking move.
The glass (normally used for skyscrapers) was extremely heavy and had to be really tough to support the weight of cars, sets, and people, so we built a steel grid with cables suspended from the studio ceiling to hold everything. The only problem was that the grid would take weeks to paint out – and we had a tight schedule.
One afternoon, lying on a bed and staring at my finger while alternately opening and closing my left and right eyes, I had a eureka moment. If we used two cameras shooting simultaneously and offset them by about 1.5m on a diagonal, then because of the parallax, we’d have enough data to restore the image wherever a supporting steel grid was blocking the frame. It worked – and saved us weeks in post. We hit the impossible deadline bang on time. There’s a ‘Making Of’ here.
Valerie> Anthony’s stereoscopic technique using two cameras to help remove the grid was a pretty neat solution. Everyone was amazed at how well it worked. The spot turned out great and was the winner of the Strategies Grand Prix and it was selected for the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase in Cannes.
Above: Eurovia 'Sur La Route'
Anthony> Just before we signed with A.R.C, Valerie and I also shot, directed and produced a project for British solar tech company, Naked Energy, and their unique solar tube product, VIRTU. The concept was simple – capture the rigorous and sometimes violent tests that these products endure for certification (fire, rain, freezing, electricity, etc.), then in the copy, compare this endurance to sparing the planet. "Pushed to the limits, so the planet isn’t." Neat.
The budget was pinched but both us and the client wanted to maintain high production values. So we decided to discover how far we could push such challenged means. We started out by doing some tests and after a lot of research we made the decision to shoot on iPhones using various lenses and attachments.
The benefit of this was we afforded ourselves more time to experiment and managed to achieve most of the spot’s spectacular visuals in-camera, while shooting across a number of locations in the UK, Germany, and even the USA. There were also a couple of shots achieved using a GoPro because we needed to put a small enough camera inside the tubes, with a micro electric dolly, whilst the exterior was bombarded with flames from a machine! It was like making a ‘Terminator’ movie.
Valerie> The fact that we could craft all these shots meticulously with only a handful of crew made us agile and efficient. It’s a big change from the 14 articulated lorries we’re used to when shooting, say, an American car spot, or the 150 crew we have when shooting an Airbus A380. But it doesn’t matter if a project has a big budget or small; we get excited by a brilliant idea and challenging shoots.
When we’ve worked with the likes of Liam Hemsworth and Nicole Kidman, and their managers and agents are on set, every second counts. You have to focus, make the actors comfortable, and create the space they need to do their best work. It’s like spinning plates and juggling at the same time. But it seems like we got the balance right – the client came back twice. In Nicole’s case, after working together, she proposed finding a script to develop into a movie. That was a career highlight.
LBB> Your reel is like a catalogue of epic experiences – varied and broad, spanning countries and continents. Which were the wildest?
Anthony> For Chivas, we shot actors ice fishing in front of the Vatnajökull glacier in Iceland, in a lagoon full of icebergs (some black, from deep within the glacier). For Jacques Vabre Coffee we shot deep within the Amazon and in front of the Venezuelan Tepui near Angel falls. We travelled to Kyoto Japan for American Express and shot Ken Watanabe’s favourite locations there whilst also having a run-in with local Yakuza. And we rode at 29,000ft with Nicole Kidman for Etihad Airways!
Anthony> Our most complex production was probably Club Med. It took six months across prep, shoot, and post, spanned three continents and four countries. Locations included Tahiti, Whistler, Morocco, and the Caribbean. We used helicopters and gyroscopic mounts transported in 50 boxes. I spent so much time flying, I probably could’ve passed my pilot’s license!
Valerie> That was some spectacular project but fraught with danger. The edit and post was very involved as we seamlessly crafted facial forms into the landscapes from photographs and rendered them into earth or sand or architecture, before then tracking them in 3D. The result was beautiful and timeless. Anthony did a lot of the digital matte paintings himself and one of those featured faces was mine, so I’m kind of immortalised into a Club Med spot!
It’s a side note and a long story but Anthony got to meet the son of Marlon Brando, Teihotu, beneath the palm trees of Tetiaroa. I have to admit I was a bit jealous to hear about that cause I was stuck on the mainland that day.
Above: Club Med 'Faces'
LBB> What kind of projects are you keen to explore together in future?
Valerie> We’re looking for quintessentially British, advertising-genius scripts to sink our teeth into. We’re quite proud of our recent work including Hotpoint, ‘Cycle of Respect’ and ‘Baker’. We both love working with actors, and Anthony has wanted to move more towards comedy for a long time, which is why we enjoyed the subtle understated comedic charm of the four H&R Block spots we shot in LA. Our Nintendo School’s Out spot also had some great audience-appealing humour which he added.
Anthony> Generally, movies are of great interest with us and something we’re keen to dig into more. We’re currently working on a few projects with a view towards development. We’re also planning to shoot a standalone short with A.R.C intended as a springboard for a feature – a horror flick set around London.
Valerie> And we’re finishing another short we shot in Palm Springs, California – a place that’s close to our hearts. We both appear in it! It’s a performance piece and dare we say, it’s very different for us. It’s called ‘When the Wave Comes’. Stay tuned…
Above: Hotpoint 'Bakery'
