Director Eden Diebel, a U.K. native who is represented in the U.S. by bicoastal Headquarters, loves good storytelling. One of the reasons the director—who is known simply as Eden—joined Headquarters in January of this year was Tom Mooney, partner/head of sales at the company."[He’s] one of the few people who’s got more stories than I do," says Eden.
A focus on storytelling—with an emphasis on visual style—is evident on Eden’s reel. It includes a number of U.K. and European spots for such clients as Volkswagen, Toyota, Amev Insurance, and telecommunications company Orange, as well as more recent U.S. work: online brokerage firm Datek and the Mercedes-Benz dealers of South Florida.
A European spot for the Toyota Avensis, "Storm," via Lowe, Paris, offers a prime example. Its rather mystical storyline begins with the driver of a Toyota making a phone call at a roadside phone booth. Across the street is a young schoolboy, standing under a tree, waiting for a school bus. His call completed, the driver continues on down the road. Soon after it starts to rain, the driver passes a broken-down school bus getting towed, while the school children stand on the shoulder of the road. Cut back to the boy from the first scene, who continues to wait and is now getting soaked from the raging thunderstorm. When the boy hears ringing from the phone booth across the road from him, he starts walking toward the phone to answer it—just in time to escape the lightning strike that hits the tree that had been sheltering him. The mysterious caller? Cut to the Toyota driver, hanging up the phone at another phone booth. Having rescued the boy from danger, supered copy comes up: "The new Avensis. Always one step ahead."
Several recent U.S. spot jobs also highlight his emphasis on storytelling and visuals. For instance, "Under 40," for the Mercedes-Benz dealers of South Florida via Merkley Newman Harty|Partners, New York, shows scenes of people exhibiting extreme heat-related behavior: a barefoot family at a beach quickly high-stepping across hot sand, a little girl screaming when her ice cream melts and splatters her shoes, a teenager who can’t jump into the pool because it is entirely filled with people and a sunbathing guy sprawled on the lawn who moves his hand away from his burned torso, leaving behind a prominent white handprint. The spot illustrates that despite the unbearable heat of South Florida, there are some places where it dips below 40: the Mercedes C-Class family ML320, all starting under $40,000. A similarly themed ad, "Nude Beach," rounds out the package.
"Where we started and where we ended were quite different," notes Eden of the Mercedes spots. "[The agency and I] collaborated a lot, and I liked that. The boards were quite simple. They had some ideas and wanted new ideas. A lot of scenes in the final spot weren’t in the boards; for instance, they had a shot of the sunbathing guy—but we added him moving his hand to show the handprint."
European roots
Eden got his start in London editing film trailers, eventually opening his own editing/production company, the now closed True Pictures, in 1986, where he did editing as well as publicity and promotions for feature films. During that time, Eden also directed some low-budget music videos, which caught the eye of Limelight, London, where he was signed as a director in ’88.
After three years at Limelight, first in London and then in the now defunct Los Angeles office of the production house, Eden left to start building his commercial reel. He remained in Los Angeles for another year, freelance-directing music videos, and returned to London in ’93 to cut film trailers while he worked on spec spots. "They [spec spots] were my attempt to move into commercials," relates Eden says. "The visuals [in spots] are great and I liked working on storylines. I liked the story-based structure of commercials."
One spec piece for Aiwa Sound, "Headspace," drew the attention of bicoastal The Artists Company, which at the time had a London office. In ’95, the production house offered Eden the opportunity to helm a spec spot for Converse. The Converse spot, which the director considers his real launch, earned him a place on The Artists Company roster in ’96, and inclusion in the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase at the Cannes International Advertising in ’97. A producer from BBDO Amsterdam who’d attended the New Directors Showcase and had seen Eden’s work tapped the director to do an Amev Insurance spot, "Dare to Live."
The dialogue-free Amev spot shows ordinary people going about the business of life, and its sometimes unpleasant realities. In one scene, a bereaved young widow is at what is presumably her husband’s graveside, with copy reading: "Dare to carry on." Another scene at a Laundromat shows a tentative senior citizen carrying bags in both hands; he drops one heavy bag of laundry and hesitates near the doorway. A young man with a somewhat tough-looking outward appearance—pierced eyebrow, chain in pocket—gets up from his chair and heads in the direction of the older man, who is alarmed by the prospect. Tension builds until the young guy picks up the man’s dropped laundry bag and, with a smile, begins to carry it to the washers for him. The super then comes up: "Dare to trust."
The spot was subsequently shortlisted at Cannes. "It is a very evocative spot," recalls Eden. "Although it’s an old spot, it has remained on my reel. I think the British see it as very sentimental."
Eden stayed with The Artists Company until ’99, and during his time with the company, he amassed credits for such clients as "Health Farm" for Volkswagen Polo and "Big and Small" for Volkswagen Lupo, both via DDB Dusseldorf; a campaign for Dutch Rail via J. Walter Thompson, Amsterdam; and France Telecom’s "Novel," via CLM BBDO, Paris, which scored a Bronze Lion at Cannes in ’99. Later that year, Eden shifted his representation to bicoastal/international @radical.media, where he went on to do several American spots, in addition to European work.
Ultimately, Eden left @radical, which still represents him France, explaining that, "I felt that worldwide, one company representation was too big for me." He now has numerous affiliations in Europe, including Rose Hackney Barber, London in the U.K. His decision to join Headquarters was also prompted by his desire to ultimately move back to the U.S. "I’m intending to move back to L.A. soon," notes Eden. "I have friends there and the decision was really a life choice. I’m concentrating a lot more on stateside work."
Among his stateside work since joining Headquarters is "Salmon" and "Boxer" for Datek via Bozell, New York. In "Salmon," shot on location in Prague, a chef is seen frantically running up various staircases. When he reaches his destination, he opens the door to a massive dining hall, and screams "Don’t eat the salmon!" We then see the diners slowly look downward at their plates, which contain fish bones, as the diners have obviously finished the meal. "Are you getting your market information … a little late?" the voiceover asks.
Last year, Eden helmed the short film, Muffin which aired on Channel 4 in London, and has screened at film festivals. It is a day in the life of four people rather loosely connected by a muffin. "It’s really about the breakdown of their relationships," relates Eden, adding that he is working on developing a feature script with producers in London. But he has no intention of abandoning commercials. "I’m very happy doing what I’m doing."n
