scout’s Honour: The Directing Duo on Keeping Sets Chill and the Rise of the Surreal
scout is the directing duo formed by Lindsay Sunada and Jensen Vinca.
They’re often inspired by wild places and the hodgepodge of Asian, Hawaiian, and Western environments that raised them. Their work thrives at the intersection of storytelling and surrealism, creating moments that remind us to look for the magic in everyday life.
Lindsay comes from a background in production design and art direction, and was previously the creative design lead at an award-winning production company. Jensen is a post production whizz and has cut and coloured commercial work for clients such as adidas, Patagonia, Smirnoff, Vans, and more.
Collectively, their directing work has been screened internationally, won awards, and garnered millions of impressions. More impressively though, Jensen once hiked around a mountain for 10 days, whereas Lindsay got ordained in an Uber and can officiate weddings.
Name: scout (Lindsay Sunada, Jensen Vinca)
Location: Los Angeles (Jensen) & Honolulu (Lindsay)
Repped by/in: Late Shift (USA), Drip Studio (Canada)
Awards: Berlin Commercial Awards 2024 Official Selection, Commercial Directors Diversity Program Fellows Class of 2024, SHOOT 2024 New Directors Showcase
LBB> What are some upcoming projects that you're excited about? Tell us a bit about them?
scout> Lindsay has been developing two feature film scripts and Jensen has also been workshopping some creative projects. We’re also brainstorming a choreographed creative project to shoot, hopefully in the next few months.
LBB> What excites you in the advertising industry right now, as a director? Any trends or changes that open new opportunities?
scout> We’re really excited about the shift toward surrealism! It’s always been a natural part of our directing style, so seeing brands embrace it has helped our work stand out even more.
Hopefully, this trend sticks around because it opens the door for some truly creative, unique ideas. Plus, we love the idea of giving people a little escape from the everyday – something unexpected that makes them stop and feel something different, even just for a moment.
LBB> What elements of a script sets one apart from the other and what sort of scripts get you excited to shoot them?
scout> Our ethos as directors is that people’s time is precious, and we don’t want to waste a second of it by being unintentional with any of our work. We’re extremely visual directors, but cool visuals are pointless if a piece doesn’t know what it wants to say.
We always strive to make people feel something, so we get excited about any script that has heart and room to create images that feel fresh and new.
LBB> How do you approach creating a treatment for a spot?
scout> Because we’re a duo, we always hop on a very long call to get aligned before jumping into the treatment process. Jensen comes from a technical background (cinematography and post production) and Lindsay got her start as a professional treatment designer and production designer. It’s always a fun process to talk about a concept while coming at it from two very different mindsets.
We also take turns wearing a ‘client’ or ‘agency’ hat while critiquing our own ideas. Lindsay uses her design background to pull together high-level mood boards that help us see the final project in a meaningful way, which usually makes the process go a lot smoother.
LBB> If the script is for a brand that you're not familiar with/don’t have a big affinity with or a market you're new to, how important is it for you to do research and understand that strategic and contextual side of the ad? If it’s important to you, how do you do it?
scout> It’s important for us to understand where the brand has been and where it’s trying to go before we can be the best collaborators possible.
It’s our job as directors to help the client and agency make a spot the best that it can be, and that can only be done with a really strong understanding of the brand, and how the client wants to be represented.
Social media stalking the brand’s IG and past work is always so helpful for this step in our process.
Finally, we always prioritise strong collaboration with our friends at the agency on every commercial project. Before we even step on set, we want to make sure everyone is aligned and feeling good about what we’re doing. That way, when last-minute bumps in the road arise (as they always do), we’re in lockstep with our creative problem solving.
LBB> For you, what is the most important working relationship for a director to have with another person in making an ad? And why?
scout> At the end of the day, we aim to have a strong working relationship with everyone involved in the filmmaking process. From the agency to the client to the storyboard artist to the crew, it all starts with respect – making sure every conversation feels collaborative and that we’re really listening before dismissing any ideas. We like to think of ourselves as easy to work with, always bringing good vibes to a project. Maybe it’s the Hawai‘i background, but we try to keep things chill while still pushing for the best creative outcome.
LBB> What type of work are you most passionate about – is there a particular genre, subject matter, or style you are most drawn to?
scout> What really excites us are projects that allow us to experiment with surrealist visuals, and create small world-building moments. As kids, we were both inspired by the escapism aspects of certain movies and books.
Even in advertising, we don’t see why we can’t create art that makes people believe in something bigger, even if it’s only for 15 seconds. We’ve found that a lot of boards in the alcohol, fashion, and tourism spaces are aligned with these visuals, but really we’re open to anything!
Even a seemingly “straightforward” script can be a fun challenge to create something memorable, if the team is open to it.
LBB> What misconception about you or your work do you most often encounter and why is it wrong?
scout> A common misconception about young directors in general is that they’re an uncertain choice to helm commercials. But this industry and its formats change so rapidlythat we feel younger directors often have an advantage! The things that industry veterans are learning to adapt to are inherent to our ways of thinking.
We also feel that if a brand is trying to market to young people, then the sincerest way to connect with them is hiring young people to tell those stories.
LBB> What’s the craziest problem you’ve come across in the course of a production – and how did you solve it?
scout> We’ve never actually shared the backstory behind our name, “scout” – and this is a great opportunity to do so!
A few years ago, fresh out of film school and working on our first project as a directing duo, we had a shoot near Angeles National Forest. We scouted the location beforehand and it was perfect – great light, great angles, everything we were looking for. But when we showed up on the day of the shoot…the place was packed.
We showed up on our first shoot day and unbeknownst to us, there was a massive Boy Scouts of America father/son event. The entire area was swarming with kids in uniforms and dads with baseball caps. Basically, our location was now unusable for the shots we had planned.
We decided it was best to pack up our stuff and move on to plan B. We jumped into action and considered what we had SCOUTed that could also work. We rallied the crew and, ultimately, saved the shoot.
Looking back, that shoot was a defining moment for us. It was chaotic, it was stressful, but we problem-solved our way through it and ended up with a project we’re still proud of. And in honour of the Boy Scouts unknowingly throwing us a massive curveball, we named our duo “scout”.
LBB> How do you strike the balance between being open/collaborative with the agency and brand client while also protecting the idea?
scout> We believe that the smoothest projects are always when the production company, agency, and client are all on the same team. A good director is able to take a note from a client and agency, and understands the end goal they’re trying to reach. So that if a debate arises, it’s all for the common goal of making a great project, rather than fulfilling a director’s ego.
As creative partners, we’re open to pivoting or changing our ideas if it will serve the larger story for the brand. What we won’t compromise on is the quality. Productions always throw unexpected things your way and it’s important to have multiple solutions to every problem that don’t compromise the ultimate vision. Our greatest goal, aside from creating a great spot, is to ensure that everyone on the team walks away feeling like their voices have been heard and that hopefully they had a bit of fun along the way.
LBB> What are your thoughts on opening up the production world to a more diverse pool of talent? Are you open to mentoring and apprenticeships on set?
scout> We’re all for it. Advertising benefits when there’s a wider range of experiences, cultures, and perspectives shaping the work – it makes for more authentic, resonant storytelling that’s better for both brands and consumers. We’ve been lucky to have great mentors ourselves (shoutout to Nick Lam), and we’d love to pay it forward by creating opportunities for new talent to learn and grow on set.
LBB> Your work is now presented in so many different formats – to what extent do you keep each in mind while you're working (and, equally, to what degree is it possible to do so)?
scout> Nowadays, the format is such a big part of the viewing experience. It feels like another element to consider, like production design or your wardrobe choices. We believe that directing isn’t just creating the work, but also thinking about how it will be experienced. So as much as we’d love for all our projects to only be screened in a theatre with surround sound, we know that realistically most people consume content on their phones these days.
In addition to shooting for various aspect ratios and bite-sized stories, we’re always looking for ways to push the visuals so even if someone doesn’t have service, a frozen thumbnail can draw their attention. We feel that we’re at an advantage since we’re from the generation that grew up with social media, so thinking about these things is pretty inherent to us.
LBB> What’s your relationship with new technology and, if at all, how do you incorporate future-facing tech into your work?
scout> We’re big believers in doing as much as possible practically and with real human talent, but we also recognise the value of emerging technologies.
We’re open to exploring tools when they can enhance our work and help us stay ahead creatively, but it’s very important to us that our work always feels very human and tactile. A practical example is how we’ve used it to really sell an idea with pre-visualisation.
That said, we see AI as just that – a tool, not a replacement for natural talent or a shortcut to save money. The heart of what we do will always come from real people and real ideas.
LBB> Which pieces of your work do you feel show what you do best – and why?
scout> Haku the label is one of our favourites. We feel it best represents our visual language and dreamy storytelling. We also loved being able to shoot in locations around Oahu, where Jensen grew up, and work with an amazing cast of local Hawai’i talent.
Calvin Klein is our most recent work. It was a really fun task to imbue a piece with a strong brand story and also elements of surrealism in under 30 seconds.
Fender is another favourite of ours, mainly because so much of it was done practically. People always ask us how we did the ‘frozen in time’ effect on Marilyn Monroe’s dress.
It looks like VFX, but it was actually all done practically with wire rigging and a lot of glue spray – with the help of a collaborator on the project. We’re big believers in doing things practically whenever possible, and this piece is a great example of how much you can achieve with just a little ingenuity.
