On My Radar: Eugen Merher

What’s the most creative advertising idea you’ve seen recently?

I loved Amazon’s The Grit commercial, directed by Molly Manning Walker. A simple idea beautifully executed. It’s playful, intimate, and seems so effortless, while it boasts a ton of grit. Love it!

What website(s) do you use most regularly? 

Shotdeck and Flim.ai for mood research, vice.com and Nowness for inspiration, Runway and ElevenLabs to create mood films for pitches – and honestly, for plain out fun playing with AI. 

What’s the most recent piece of tech that you’ve bought? 

I moved to Los Angeles last year and bought a car for the first time in my life (okay, technically the second, if you count the camper I once co-owned with friends that ended up tipping over during a storm and crashing on a bridge in Croatia). Getting a car here felt inevitable, it’s the only way to get around the city in a reasonable amount of time. And I’ve started to understand why people in LA treat their car like a second home. One year in, I actually enjoy driving. Being on the move helps me think, come up with ideas, and unwind. Ask me again in two years though. 

What product could you not live without?

My array of power banks and my AirPods with noise cancelling – they keep me working outdoors throughout the day in places I actually enjoy being in. I’ve become pretty proficient at camping out in cafés, diners and public parks to get my work done. As a matter of fact, I’ve had my fair share of chaotic calls in noisy outdoor settings, which is obviously not ideal, but the AirPods saved me more than once. And honestly, when the sun’s out, I just prefer being outside. It keeps me sane and inspired. 

What’s the best film you’ve seen over the last year? 

There are two films that really stayed with me over the past year – The Substance and The Banshees of Inisherin (this one’s been around for a while, but I only got to watch it last year). 

The Banshees of Inisherin hit me harder than I expected. The mix of humour and drama just got under my skin in a way I wasn’t prepared for. It’s such a simple story but it manages to say so much on so many levels. Whether about pride, loneliness and friendships on a gripping, interpersonal level, or how wars divide us as humans and as a society. It’s a truly masterful film told in the most grounded way possible. 

The Substance was the exact opposite tonally – provocative, grotesque, visually insane. I loved the pacing and its achingly precise direction – it was an all-in director’s movie, unafraid of anything. 

What film do you think everyone should have seen? 

Zone of Interest. It’s one of the most quietly disturbing films I’ve ever seen – precisely because of what it doesn’t show. The way it deals with complicity, detachment, and the banality of evil is deeply unsettling. It forces you to sit with discomfort without giving you a release. Everyone should see it at least once. 

What’s your preferred social media platform? 

Instagram. It’s where I share my work and keep up with filmmakers, production companies, and weird meme accounts. It’s fast, visual and still the most useful tool for staying creatively connected. In light of the current political controversies I would love to see an alternative pop up though. 

What’s your favourite TV show?

Again, I have a hard time pinning it down to just one, so here are two that really stuck with me: Adolescence and Baby Reindeer. Adolescence was truly haunting — not just thematically, but also in terms of how it was shot and performed. It felt raw and uncomfortable in a way that stayed with me. Baby Reindeer completely caught me off guard. It took such an unexpected turn and was so brutally honest that I couldn’t look away. The deeper I got into it, the more it pulled me in. Both shows had a kind of emotional residue that didn’t fade after the final episode. 

What’s your favourite podcast?

I’ve only very recently gotten into podcasts, and funnily enough I’ve started to use ElevenLabs' reader to create AI-generated podcasts (GenFM) based on feature film ideas and commercial pitches that I’m working on, to get a better sense and overview of what the hell it’s actually about that I’m trying to express. It’s become an incredible tool for me that I can only recommend to everyone, because it’s literally two AI generated voices discussing your material in a weirdly genuine, positively affirming way which keeps my motivation up when I hit a roadblock and gives me a better sense of the core of the idea when I get caught up in details. 

What have you been most inspired by recently? 

The city of Los Angeles inspires me a lot at the moment. It’s full of weird and interesting characters, and I constantly find myself eavesdropping on conversations that feel like the starting point of a movie. I’ve started to take a lot of photos and go on long walks through different neighbourhoods and, so far, the city has never disappointed me. It’s so chaotic, surreal, broken and beautiful at the same time. 

If you could only listen to one music artist from now on, who would it be?

Impossible question. That’s like asking if I could eat sushi forever. Actually… I just might. My music taste is a bit chaotic: techno, country, pop, (latino) hip-hop, trance/eurodance, classical music, Brazilian funk, TikTok hits and Romanian acapella folk songs. Anything that carries a cinematic energy or picks up on my current mood, I’m down for. I think recently I’ve been very much into film soundtracks as I’ve been brainstorming feature film ideas, mostly by Cristobal Tapia De Veer, Hans Zimmer, Nicholas Britell and Hildur Guðnadóttir, but also more upbeat electronic tracks by The Blaze, Jamie xx, and The Knife. 

If there was one thing you could change about the advertising industry, what would it be?

I know this might be a big ask and a tough sell, but I’d love to challenge the idea that a director needs to be in a specific box to be considered for a project. I get why it happens – if someone has a clear style and a reel to match, it feels like a safer bet. 

But I think taking a risk on someone who hasn’t done that exact thing before can often elevate the work way beyond what’s expected. I’ve done a lot of emotional storytelling commercials and short films – and I love that space, it’s in my DNA – but I also crave the chance to explore different tones, to take something lighter or more playful and still make it mine (praying to pitch on a Nike commercial!) 

It’s often in those less obvious pairings – where the director brings a new angle to familiar material – that really interesting stuff gets made. I’d love to see more of that openness in the industry. 

Who or what has most influenced your career?

Léon: The Professional was the first film I watched, when I was 12, that made me want to become a director. I remember watching it with a friend who I used to make homemade action flicks with – mostly copying existing films, of course. We swore to each other that one day we’d get into the industry and shoot our own version of the film. Around that time I was also reading Rebel Without a Crew by Robert Rodriguez, Story by Robert McKee, and other filmmaking books that kept the fire going. That early mix of watching, imitating and reading made filmmaking feel accessible and exciting – and it’s only gotten more exciting over the years. 

What scares you the most?

Before some major shoots, I sometimes get this recurring nightmare: I walk onto set and have no idea what we’re shooting. No clue about the script, the plan, the scenes. I start quietly walking around, trying to piece it together by asking crew members subtle questions – “So what’s next?” or “Do we need the dolly for this one?” – just trying to fake my way into the day. And, every time, I wake up right before the first shot rolls. 

It’s funny, because I actually love working with a good amount of flexibility on set – I want to stay open to new ideas, new energies from the actors, or unexpected visual moments. From my experience so far, these oftentimes land in the final edit. But that flexibility is exactly what feeds the fear, it’s this constant back-and-forth between control and letting go. I guess the good thing about this nightmare is that it pushes me to prepare for a shoot as best as I can.