We're chuffed with this lovely article in Little Black Book LBBonline - Little Black Book thanks to A Running Commentary…

Anthony Atanasio and Valerie Martinez, the director duo recently signed by A.R.C, share their biggest production stories in this interview with LBB’s Zara Naseer.

​I’ll let Nicole Kidman introduce Atanasio + Martinez:

“They’re very unusual, the directors. They’re a husband and wife. They’re very artistic. They’re cinephiles. I’ve actually built a relationship with them now, and we’re looking for film projects together ‘cause I think they have a really unique eye.”

Anthony Atanasio and Valerie Martinez are certainly an exciting addition to A Running Commentary (A.R.C)’s roster. The director duo worked with the Australian-American actress not once, but twice for Etihad Airways, and she’s far from the only major celebrity to star in their reel. With cameos from Ken Watanabe for American Express and Liam Hemsworth for Diesel, it’s fair to say they’re no strangers to high-profile campaigns.

Photography: Jonathan Turner / Art direction: Garry Hunter for Fitzrovia Noir

It was love at first sight with Alex [Bedford] and Ben [Parkin], who now rep us exclusively for the UK. We just hit it off – they're both such lovely, smart guys and they really appreciated our reel. We’ve already been pitching with them on a handful of projects and hope to be shooting something together soon. What we also liked about A.R.C was the breadth of their interest in filmmaking. It wasn’t just commercials – they were into shorts and movies. Like us, they wanted to embrace it all. It didn’t matter if it was live-action, post, or animation – they were just ambitiously doing great work. They’ve even started organising dinners to meet other talents they work with, which is a great idea. We’d love to extend that to creatives too. Give one of them a call if you want to join the next one!

We shot, directed and produced this project for British solar tech company, Naked Energy, and their unique solar tube product called VIRTU. The concept was simple – capture the rigorous and sometimes violent tests that these products endure for certification (fire, rain, freezing, electricity, etc.), then in the copy, compare this endurance to sparing the planet. "Pushed to the limits, so the planet isn’t."

The budget was pinched but both us and the client wanted to maintain high production values. So we decided to discover how far we could push such challenged means. We started out by doing some tests and after a lot of research we made the decision to shoot on iPhones using various lenses and attachments.

The benefit of this was we afforded ourselves more time to experiment and managed to achieve most of the spot’s spectacular visuals in-camera, while shooting across a number of locations in the UK, Germany, and even the USA. There were also a couple of shots achieved using a GoPro because we needed to put a small enough camera inside the tubes, with a micro electric dolly, whilst the exterior was being bombarded with flames from a mechanical industrial flame thrower! It was like making a ‘Terminator’ movie.

The spot was edited and finalised professionally and the result looks pretty spectacular we think.

Editor and Sound Designer: Sam Jones @ The Quarry, London. Colour Grading Colourist: Dominic Phipps @ Company 3, London. Additional Sound Design and Audio Mixing: George Nicol @ Wave, London.

Loved shooting with Logan and reunited with Leo Burnett Chicago. Excellent experience through service company Solent Film in Sofia, Bulgaria. A poetic script bestows the virtues of getting a great night’s sleep thanks to Serta’s iComfort Eco. Although it looked innocent this script needed all the toys including motion control and techno cranes. Great to team up with old friends and also make some new ones. Tim Maurice-Jones is always a pal and our producer Jake Blasco made it all plain sailing. Having a historically great agency and a confident client set against the backdrop of Sofia made this a memorable shoot. Aardman Animations added a lovely touch to end logo with one of their sheep!

Atanasio + Martinez have directed a new campaign for H&R Block through Logan & Sons using locations in Downtown LA and Westlake Village. These charming spots feature a range of single characters and simple visual storytelling to reinforce the campaign concept that H&R Block do Taxes for ‘small’ businesses.

Agency CARMICHAEL LYNCH MINNEAPOLIS came up with these elegant and amusing boards and a great cast helped breathe magic into the stories.

The campaign will air in early 2022.

https://vimeo.com/atanasiomartinez/handrblock-smallbusinesses

Atanasio + Martinez have joined forces with Saatchi & Saatchi LA and directed the new campaign for the spectacular Mirai, Toyota’s new Hydrogen Powered prototype and the campaign titled Lead the Way. This spot marks the first project with their new US representation, Logan & Sons, and under executive producer Paul Abatemarco.

The concept was bold. Reverse the world, its going in the wrong direction. One car will lead the way. Not just any car. A revolutionary car. A hydrogen powered car. The Mirai from Toyota is that car.

Reversing the World... How did we do it? How do we make the world go in reverse and the Mirai be the only thing in that world going forwards?

Atanasio + Martinez proposed that the solution was to reverse the problem. We couldn’t get all the people and all the cars and all the birds and planes to choreograph themselves in reverse, but maybe just maybe, with the right driver we could get the Mirai to go in reverse and then reverse the whole sequence, effectively reversing the world with the Mirai now being the only thing traveling in the correct direction.

We needed the right driver for such a task and he came in the form of Hollywood stunt driving legend, Greg Tracy. Greg was wonderful to work with and he entertained our crazy toy-car reenactments to help design the choreography for a forwards/backwards ballad of people and cars in realtime. Not as obvious as it may seem! Thankfully Logan Post and Stephan Kosinski and his team helped immensely by crafting an incredibly precise Pre-viz based upon our storyboard and direction.

Our brilliant cast of talent did a sterling job of bringing this spot to life. Thank you to actors Bahia Gold and Justin Wade and the rest of the cast.

The Director’s Cut will be finalized in the near future. https://vimeo.com/710422272

Atanasio + Martinez have directed the new campaign for Maruti Suzuki Arena featuring Bollywood superstar, Varun Dhawan. The script from Dentsu Impact New Delhi was shot entirely on location in Raipur with Sitting Duck Productions. The spot uses a fast cutting musical approach and rhyming dialogue synced to a racy rhythmic track and a dynamic sense of timing. Varun leads us through whilst showing off the attributes of the new Maruti Suzuki Arena Showrooms. National Creative Director: Anupama Ramaswamy. Creative Team: Anupama Ramaswamy, Debanjan Basak, Nishit Shankar, Surinder Yadav. 
Chief Films Officer: Suprotim Day. Producer: Sanjay Bhattacharjee, Sushant Desai. DOP: Patrick Duroux.

Whirlpool has launched on April 8th #SensingYourWorld, an innovative new brand campaign in Italy that focuses on listening to consumers to promote the intuitive nature of its premium appliances. The #SensingYourWorld campaign will be launched with a new video advertisement directed by Anthony Atanasio and Valerie Martinez. http://www.whirlpoolcorp.com/whirlpool-launches-sensingyourworld-a-uniquecampaign-that-listens-and-learns/

Atanasio + Martinez have directed a new Virtual Reality film for Etihad Airlines starring Nicole Kidman. Etihad Airways will reveal an exclusive trailer of its virtual reality film starring Academy Award winning actress Nicole Kidman at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM), which will be held in Dubai from 25 April to 28 April. 

“We had a chance to make a very cinematic commercial,” says Hemsworth. “The directors, Anthony [Atanasio] and Valérie [Martinez], created a really powerful mood, not generic at all. They were very hands-on.”

Great time shooting for the second time with JWT in Ireland in less than eight months. Production company Movie Magic and service company Pull the Trigger do a marvellous job. Yet another unrepeatable experience.

Well almost. When we say shoot, we mean with a digital camera.

Great time 'shooting' for the first time in Ireland with Production company Movie Magic and service company Pull the Trigger.

M&C Saatchi and Etihad's Flying Reimagined Campaign featured in The Guardian. Commercial directed by Atanasio + Martinez

Anthony Atanasio + Valerie Martinez discus a scene with Hollywood star Liam Hemsworth for the New Diesel Campaign.

Going through the action with actor Liam Hemsworth in downtown LA

Etihad's Flying Reimagined is Ad of the Day in Campaign

Five Star review of Etihad's Flying Reimagined.

An intimate moment of discussion between director Anthony Atanasio and actress Nicole Kidman onboard an Etihad A380

The satisfactory end to another shoot day in Downtown LA for the New Diesel Campaign

On set in Barrandov Studios in Prague. Nicole was perhaps the most exceptional learning experience we've ever had.

Atanasio + Martinez review playback with Nicole Kidman in the shadow of an Etihad A380 Airbus.

Shits and giggles. Its not all so serious.

Its a laugh a minute, init.

Anthony Atanasio reviews slow-motion takes with Nicole Kidman.

Anthony operates the Phantom Flex 4k as Nicole falls onto the double bed in The Residence. No pressure then.