Rúnar Ingi Einarsson: Sarah Reinertsen

Ryan Watson meets Pegasus Pictures' young filmmaker who talks about the God-given stillness of Icelandic lakes and his recent Nike spot with Össur.

If you know anything about Nike, you’ll know that its Pegasus shoe is a staple in its history and has graced the top step of athletics awards podiums for the past 28 years. But at the end of 2011 the premium sports brand turned to another source with the same name – Icelandic production company Pegasus Pictures – to shoot a spot for its innovative Flex-Run with Nike Sole product, developed for disabled athletes.

Manufactured with orthopaedics brand Össur, the latter company was familiar with the work of Rúnar Ingi Einarsson and hired the young director for the job. “They didn’t want the commercial to look Icelandic but the locations here are pretty good, and I wanted to use somewhere that hadn’t been used before,” explains Einarsson, who is clearly proud of his heritage. “The crews are great here and Pegasus is a skilled production company. I’ve been waiting since October for it to premiere, and it’s one of those projects that you just know from the beginning is going to be fun.”

Shot just outside Reykjavik at various locations, including a lake that Einarsson regularly fishes at, the commercial features “badass” triathlete Sarah Reinertsen and offers a scenic scope of Iceland’s beautiful, tranquil landscapes. Following a training pattern with the unique slip-on traction device, which is applied to the foot of prosthetic legs, the film is also narrated by the athlete. Being driven and focused in their respective disciplines, Einarsson and Reinertsen kept things moving on the shoot, wrapping it in one 13-hour day.

“The most interesting location for me was shooting at the lake because there was a moment when I called action that the lake just went still with no wind,” recalls the director. “It created this beautiful light and scenery. I guess the movie gods were looking down, and I guess I should go fishing there more often now.” Despite this being his first directing gig, the Icelandic native is no stranger to the commercials world.

At the age of 18 he bagged a job as a PA and eventually worked his way up to line producer and assistant director on domestic and international jobs. Eventually directing his own spots was always on his agenda, and he’s been living the dream through Pegasus, having signed with the company a year ago. Having recently been nominated for the Icelandic Advertising Awards for his Let’s Lift the Spell PSA for shopworkers’ union VR, Einarsson says that he’d love to do more sports ads, but is interested in character-driven scripts that have a human element at their core.

“[Commercials are] just a language that I understand and feel comfortable with, and also enables working with different styles and places. It’s just something that’s fascinated me for a very long time.” While Einarsson continues to tread the first rung of the directing ladder with Pegasus – the production company – his ambition and organised creative thought is sure to see him soar out, like the winged horse the classic running shoe adopts its name from, in the years to come.