Bicoastal/international Partizan has signed mono-monikered director Jaume for exclusive commercial representation in the U.S. and internationally except for Spain, where he continues to be handled by Group Films, Barcelona and Madrid.
The Los Angeles-based Jaume, a native of Barcelona, had previously been repped in the U.S. by bicoastal The End for the past four years. Among his notable credits is "Smoking Drill," an anti-smoking PSA for the Arizona Department of Health Services via Riester-Robb, Phoenix, which was showcased in SHOOT’s "Best Work You May Never See" gallery (3/3). The hard-hitting :60, which Jaume also edited, shows teenagers proceeding along a macabre assembly line marked by frightening imagery of the gruesome consequences of smoking (such as decayed lungs and tracheotomies).
Other Jaume credits include "Mermaid" and "Motor Home" for 7UP via BBDO Toronto; "Dueling Drips," "Not In My Car" and "Voodoo" for Carl’s Jr. via Mendelsohn|Zien, Los Angeles; "Slow Lean" for Fanta via Cliff Freeman and Partners, New York; and "Airplane" for Labatt’s via Ammirati Puris Lintas, Toronto. The latter Canadian-market spot was produced through Toronto-based The Partners Film Co.; Jaume said that he and Partizan have not yet decided whether he will maintain that association.
Partizan president/executive producer Steve Dickstein commented that Jaume’s level of talent is "incredible," especially given his young age of 26. Dickstein added that Jaume reminds him of directors such as David Fincher (now at bicoastal Anonymous) and Michael Bay (bicoastal/international Propaganda Films). During his former tenure at Propaganda, Dickstein worked with both Fincher and Bay.
"Those guys had [a love of film] deep within them; it wasn’t something they came on casually," said Dickstein. "[And] Jaume has that same sort of humility about his work that the great directors that I’ve worked with have had-where they’re never satisfied with their contribution or the outcome. Rather than see what they’ve done well, they see what they haven’t done well, so there’s a lot of self-editing, which is typical of artists who are very hard on themselves."
Relating he had been interested in working with Jaume for years, Dickstein said he’d seen bits of the director’s work but was unaware of the breadth of material he had done. "He’s so skilled as a craftsman," said Dickstein, adding that Jaume understands the technical elements of filmmaking and is adept at achieving a variety of film looks. "The key thing for us is that we know he’s a really, really smart guy who understands storytelling, narrative and what it takes to create an advertising message. We want to be bringing him more boards and scripts that are driven by the idea, rather than the execution."
Jaume affirmed that he’d been seeking a production company more associated with conceptual work. "Even though the commercials I have done have been really interesting, I was looking for something even more groundbreaking," he said. "That’s what attracted me to Partizan since they have directors like Traktor and Michel Gondry, which I love. It’s obvious that these people know how to manage these directors’ careers; these are directors who only care about the idea and making award-winning commercials. That’s what I want to be."
His regard for Dickstein and Partizan CEO Georges Bermann, said Jaume, also strengthened his belief that Partizan was a good fit. He assessed Dickstein as being very well-connected and knowledgeable about the industry. "But more than that, what impressed me about [Dickstein] is that he is very creative," said Jaume. "He knows how to talk to directors and he’s a great link between the agency and the director; he knows how to put things in perspective in creative terms."
In addition, related Jaume, he discovered Partizan had much of what he wanted, namely, strong European roots vis vis offices in London and Paris, as well as in-house sales representation provided domestically by New York-based Lauri Aloi and Los Angeles-based Michael di Girolamo. Partizan’s London and Paris offices manage international sales.
"In-house reps fit my philosophy of how the business should work," said Jaume. "There needs to be a strong relationship between the director and the rep; they are the ones out there selling you, and they need to understand you. For me, it was important to meet the reps before I signed."
While also attending Hollywood-based Columbia College (from which he graduated with a B.A. in film in ’96), Jaume spent a year and a half as an editor at Los Angeles-based post house Nonlinear. After seeing the work of numerous directors, Jaume said, he concluded that many didn’t know what they were doing. "I thought if I saved all my money and did something, someone would sign me," said Jaume. That opportunity arrived when he directed a music video-"Don’t Be Long," for the band The Tories-and was signed by The End on the strength of that clip.
At The End, Jaume started out directing several music videos and, seeking to expand his horizons, helmed the spec spot "Apartment" for AOL. The highly stylized piece depicts a man in a hot apartment who, faced with only two electrical outlets, alternately plugs in a fan, an overhead light and a record player. Keeping in time to the increasingly frenzied tempo of classical music, the man feverishly plugs and unplugs the three devices. The music stops and the tag, "America Online: Plug into the Future," appears.
"That spec spot really set the tone for my line of work, in my career," said Jaume. "From then on, almost all of my commercials have been very character-based with emotion, where the product is there but it’s not [the typical] product shot. It’s interacting with the characters; it’s reality [presented] in a cinematic way."
The cinematic look, combined with a darkly humorous bent, is evidenced in many of Jaume’s spots. In the aforementioned 7UP spot, "Motor Home," a fire breaks out in a man’s motor home. As the flames grow higher, rather than douse them with the beverage, the man instead races his burning motor home to a car wash to extinguish the flames. "Motor Home" was also featured in SHOOT’s "The Best Work You May Never See" gallery (3/26/99).
"It’s our charge to have his opportunities meet his talent," said Dickstein, who added that Partizan is now bidding Jaume on several jobs for undisclosed clients.
