Their shock not yet subsided over Allan Van Rijn’s sudden death in his sleep on Dec. 19 (SHOOT, 1/5, p. 1), friends and colleagues paused to reflect on the life and work of the 52-year-old director, who had been with bicoastal RSA USA since 1996.
Emerging from the remembrances was an act of heroism just a few months ago, while Van Rijn was in Queensland, Australia, for a Toyota shoot. His cinematographer on that job—and on numerous other assignments during the past three-plus years—was John Stanier. "We were driving during a rainstorm and saw a terrible accident unfold right in front of us—the car up ahead flipped over and fell upside down into a river," recalled Stanier. "Allan was the first one to jump into the river. He grabbed the driver—a woman—and held her head above the water as we scrambled to pull her kids out of the back of the car."
Stanier, who knew Van Rijn for some 17 years, described the director as "a complicated and very talented man. At times he didn’t seem content, but his work’s end product was always stunning. He was very impassioned about what he did."
John Cigarini introduced Van Rijn—who was already well established in Europe as a spotmaker—to the American market in ’92 via the now defunct U.S. operation of BFCS. Cigarini, a principal in BFCS and since retired from the production industry, knew Van Rijn for 25 years, "first as a client [when Van Rijn was head of production at J. Walter Thompson, Amsterdam], then as a friend, and then as a director in my company."
Now living in London, Cigarini said of Van Rijn: "My memory of him is as a tremendous talent, but also as a warm, sincere and genuine person. He could simultaneously make you laugh and tear your hair out, but underneath it all, he was a very sweet guy."
David Frankel, senior VP/associate director of television production at BBDO New York, first met and worked with Van Rijn on a BFCS-produced Campbell’s Soup commercial, some eight years ago. "I sort of immediately liked Allan," recollected Frankel.
"He did a great job on the spot, was well versed in his craft, and had definite ideas and opinions."
Frankel and Van Rijn, however, didn’t collaborate again for several years; by this time, Van Rijn was at RSA USA. The project was a huge Visa Checkcard job starring Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. Shortly thereafter, Frankel and Van Rijn worked on a spot introducing the Gillette Mach III razor. Both jobs were logistically complex and entailed visually challenging shots. The Mach III commercial, for example, involved a pilot in the cockpit of a plane. Shot on stage, a great deal of CGI work was involved, showing the speed of the plane peeling layers away—first the pilot’s helmet, then his clothes and then the plane’s exterior itself, until viewers were transported to another world of shaving.
"Seeing him work in the highly technical, while making [acting] talent—like a Pierce Brosnan, for instance—feel comfortable doing a commercial, gave evidence of Allan’s range of abilities," observed Frankel. "Allan was ultimately confident in his talents and decision-making. Yet there was also a part of him that was introspective, and at times he questioned his abilities, as we all do. He was not a one-dimensional man by any means."
But most telling about Van Rijn, Frankel said, was a simple act of kindness. " A close friend of mine had a death in her family," related Frankel. "Allan, who didn’t know her, went out of his way to be of some comfort. He talked to her about a similar situation in his family. It was a really nice, caring gesture. I believe in my heart that that was the kind of guy he was."
Producer John Burger of Bozell, New York, met and teamed with Van Rijn two years ago on a Milk/PEP Dairy Management spot, part of a "Got Milk?" tie-in campaign. The combo live action/animation job kept Burger in the Los Angeles area for about three months, during which he got to better know Van Rijn, having dinner with him a few times. "He was proud of being Dutch, and I remember him giving me a memento—a book on Vincent Van Gogh—that he inscribed," said Burger. "We had some great conversations about art."
Van Rijn and Burger later worked together on a Datek Online spot. Assessing Van Rijn as a director, Burger found him "a complete joy to work with, very creative. Allan had been on the agency side, he knew where I was coming from—he knew what issues we at the agency deal with."
Jules Daly, managing director of RSA USA, said of Van Rijn, "It’s still such a shock that he’s gone." Prior to taking the reins of RSA USA last summer, Daly had line produced numerous jobs for Van Rijn over the years, and had come to know him well. "This is a loss we’ll feel for a long time in many ways," she related. "He was a friend and an extraordinary talent who will never be replaced."
