Signing director/cameraman Robert Maya would be sweet for any ambitious commercial production house, but it’s particularly so for Derek Van Lint and Associates’ Miami office. Only a year old this month, this branch of the world-renowned spot shop has stacked an enviable roster of directing talent and made short work of establishing itself as a legitimate player in the u.s. and Latin American markets.

Case in point: Maya (the most recent addition) was virtually ripped out of the clutches of high-end production houses in New York and California which were wooing the hot young director with fine dinners and employment offers.

Other evidence: jobs. Headed by industry veteran Lorna Lambert, the house at 1056 17th Street, Miami Beach, has seen little of the growing pains a startup company expects. Interest in directorial talent from Latin America and the u.s. led to spots for Visa, Tang, Bally’s health club, and a top-secret product launch for Procter and Gamble out of Leo Burnett, Chicago, among others last year.

The Florida market, long a facilities mecca, continues to see increased advertising traffic from agencies and clients servicing the Latin American market. Sensing a growth in the market in 1993, director and dvla founder Derek Vanlint headed up a project to be the first international commercial production company with a permanent base in Miami, opening its doors in January 1994.

Becoming part of the scene and not just a service operation has much to do with dvla’s shining down south, says Lambert who as president and executive producer is credited with driving the company.

She scoffs to hear herself described as an industry legend, but with 23 years of advertising production experience, including a decade as an agency producer with Ogilvy and Mather, Toronto, head of three commercial production houses, and a stint with The Partners’ Film Company, the label sticks.

Lambert was responsible for forging relationships with the Latin advertising community that helped bring projects for Visa, Unilever and General Foods aimed at the Latin American market in-house in ’94. She is also directly responsible for bringing Maya, one of South Florida’s premier directing talents, under dvla’s roof late last year.

Maya spent the early months of ’94 directing his first documentary, a history of the Ford Modeling Agency. At the end of the summer, he began looking for a commercial production house to represent him internationally. South Beach bettered Manhattan and l.a. for two reasons, he says.

First, the personal touch. There was no fear of being another ‘a’ director on a roster of dozens, and dvla could represent him through production houses in Toronto and New York, as well as Miami, and also has agents in Chicago and l.a.

But more important was having Lambert onside.

Says Maya: ‘She understands my work perfectly. To find someone who really understands you is rare.’

Cuban-born and Brooklyn-raised, Maya’s reel is testament to his dvla bio, which aptly describes his work as fluid and sensual. His footage is sometimes sexual, with strong images of nature in motion, especially water, and a beautiful eye on the body.

‘People want to label me `the guy who does the body parts,’ ‘ Maya grins. His treatment of strong bodies on film is grounded in his photography and sports background, a mix of art and athletics, he says. He spent his late teens playing third base in the minor league for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Maya came into commercial direction about two years ago after working as an assistant to photography icon Bruce Weber. Weber continues to influence Maya’s style.

‘Bruce is very much his work. He taught me, `As long as you love it, go with that,’ so my work comes from the gut and I go with what inspires me. I have to explain it to the client, of course,’ Maya says.

Other influences include director Leni Riefenstahl, the first to work with high-speed black-and-white photography, still his first love over 24-frame color.

In the last three months, Maya has directed spots out of such Chicago agencies as Leo Burnett, Grant Jacoby and Hal Riney and Partners. This year, he’s hoping to add some Canadian agencies to the list and work with Canadian creative, which he finds ‘tasteful and gutsy.’

For Lambert, the year ahead will be more of the same, selling the likes of Chris Sanderson, William J. Teale, Michael Buckley, Stephen Yates, Maya and Vanlint, internationally.

With a focus on Latin America and the u.s. markets, it helps to have multilingual directors in-house, says Lambert. Sanderson speaks Spanish and French, Teale likewise, plus Italian, and Maya, Spanish. It’s not considered essential to speak Spanish to work in Latin America, but there’s no question it makes a difference.

‘To communicate, which is primarily our business it helps to speak the language of the client you’re dealing with. To think otherwise would be naive. Even in Canada, I would be reluctant to sell an anglophone in the francophone market. There is a definite culture that’s different – not better or worse, but different.’