remember that when he found out, Steve said he had ‘bought it so well that the hook was coming out of my butt.’ " That sense of playful humor, observed McBride, underscored Camitz’ love of life.
"Meat" depicted a boy using an inventive means to train for soccer. The youngster plops his soccer ball on the kitchen counter, takes a piece of meat out of the refrigerator and squeezes the prime cut’s juices all over the ball. He then goes out onto a dusty road, sets the ball down and waits—but not for long. Suddenly, a pack of hungry dogs—drawn to the scent of fresh meat—descends on the scene and begins chasing after the boy, whose ball-handling ability is put to an extreme test. The ad debuted during coverage of the World Cup soccer tournament, and humorously shows the harrowing lengths to which a dedicated kid will go in order to rigorously hone his soccer skills.
By sharp contrast, Camitz didn’t consciously prepare himself for a directorial career. He initially studied to become a lawyer, but left that pursuit to get into furniture design. To make a living, he began doing some offline editing, and got more into photography. His first professional ad assignment—a point-of-purchase piece which had him shooting behind-the-scenes coverage of a Levi’s print campaign for Stockholm agency Ronnberg McCann—generated some industry interest. But his big break into directing came, strangely enough, at the Stockholm wedding of his friend Tamander. Camitz had been assisting some directors at MOD:film, and Tamander was grooming him to become a director. In cahoots with Tamander’s sister and friends, Camitz surreptitiously directed and shot a short 16mm film of the then-bride-to-be’s bachelorette party.
Joakim Jonason, creative director of Paradiset DDB, Stockholm, and a guest at the wedding, was favorably impressed by the short. Tamander recollects that upon seeing the charming film at the wedding, Jonason simply observed, " ‘If he can do that with just one roll of film, he then must be able to do anything.’ "
Jonason then hired Camitz to direct a Diesel Jeans’ ad, "Magic 55," in ’93. Produced by MOD:film, the spoof of Japanese detergent commercials was a hit, marking Camitz’s spot helming debut. His career took off, and he directed 10 more Diesel ads and found himself very much in demand throughout Europe, landing international work for such accounts as Orangina, Virgin Cola and Volkswagen. He then caught the attention of the Spice Girls, who convinced him to direct their clip "Wannabe," which took best dance video honors at the ’97 MTV Video Music Awards. The same year, Camitz won a Bronze Clio for the Arla Milk spot "High Jump," produced by MOD:film for agency Forsman & Bodenfors in Goteborg, Sweden.
Sam Walsh, former general manager of Propaganda Films Commercial and Music Video Division—which includes the Satellite label—says that Camitz "was irreplaceable as a friend to the people here at Satellite." From a directorial perspective, Walsh, who has since entered into a multi-faceted production deal with Propaganda (SHOOT, 9/15, p. 1), describes Camitz as "a wry observer and an insatiable consumer of pop culture. He loved it. He lived it, and that’s reflected in his work, which had elements of quirkiness, yet was irreverent in a gentle, profound way. I’ve been trying to compare his sensibility as a filmmaker to others’—and the names that come into my mind are Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin. Jhoan was not a comedy director per se, even though there was humor in his work. But the humor had a profoundness because it was based on the human condition, like the feelings evoked in Chaplin’s work.
