Commercial directors spill on their careers, accomplishments and the ideas that propel them to new advertising heights. This month we check in with…

Avion Films director Derek Horn burst onto the commercial scene in late ’99, making headlines with a provocative little ad for Nearly Naked Lingerie that closed with the implication of gay sex in the back of a van during a bank heist. Horn, seemingly unafraid of little controversy, is challenging conservative viewers once again with a quartet of twisted spots for Nintendo’s Game Boy Advanced out of the London, Eng. office of Leo Burnett and currently airing in Europe.

A native of Winnipeg, Horn got his start as a music video director. A series of clips for Age of Electric, including one for the band’s single Ugly, which peaked in the top 10 on the MuchMusic video chart, led to Horn signing as a director at Avion’s then-video, now-commercial sister company, Hoodoo Films. His work for Hoodoo led two years ago to a spot on Avion’s powerful roster of Canadian directing talent, which includes Tim Hamilton and Martin Granger.

Despite concerns in some corners post Sept. 11 that comedic spots will be toned down in response to the new sensitivities of viewers, Horn says he is not worried about losing work. He says although he enjoys doing work that appeals to his sicker side, if there is any sort of laugh in a script, he will bring it out.

‘I think in all actuality people need to laugh more now than ever,’ says Horn. ‘There seems to be a lot of escapist mentality. Traditionally, when stuff like this [the terrorist attacks] has happened in the past, comedy gets more popular. I think people want to laugh and just get away from it. It’s human nature. People need to laugh.

‘I don’t necessarily try to stick to one kind of comedy,’ he says. ‘A light laugh is still a laugh to me. Subtle comedy still can be funny; you just have to find a way to do it. The stuff that has really worked out for me has been a bit more extreme; I think it is closer to my personality. But I still find a lot of different types of comedy funny.’

The extreme side of his personality certainly shines through in the Nintendo ads, with creative from the Leo Burnett team of art directors Rob Nielson and Rob Spicer and writers Jack Stephens and Adam Griffin.

Shot in Toronto over three brutally hot days last summer, the ads depict four seniors competing against each other on their Game Boy Advanced consoles. As the game progresses, they become increasingly malicious in their attempts to one-up their opponents.

In one spot, a man releases the brake of his combatant’s wheelchair, sending the player backward onto the road where he is hit and carried away by a speeding truck. In another, a man uses the sun and the magnifying power of his eyewear to set fire to the crotch of a competitor’s trousers.

The results are big, guilty laughs from viewers and, for Horn, his first campaign on the illustrious Shots reel.

The tag line – ‘Four players, no rules’ – is ‘really simple and we drew our inspiration from that,’ says Horn. ‘I took that as when these people do these evil things to each other it’s just part of the game, essentially.

While there was some concern about the violence in the spots, he says it is so completely over-the-top he isn’t worried about a backlash.

‘We wanted to push it that far because otherwise it would be unsettling,’ says Horn, who used dummies for the difficult stunt shots. ‘It does look completely phony. What I didn’t want to have happen was for the man in the wheelchair to be sitting in the frame at the end [after being hit by the truck]. I wanted the truck to carry him right out. It was very much Bugs Bunny, cartoon-esque sort of violence.’

-www.avionfilms.com

-www.leoburnett.com