Ian Pons Jewell's pearls of wisdom

Why did you want to become a director?

I don’t see it as wanting to ‘become a director’ so much as finding film to be the most powerful medium and the one I connected to on a deep level. I had done drama, photography, illustration, I was interested in media studies too. I had an amazing teacher who taught us all about propaganda techniques, then got us to make an ad for any fictional or real brand.

There were various things percolating as I grew up, but film was the thing.

So, there were various things percolating as I grew up, but film was the thing that knocked me for six. It is truly due to my friend Timur Karamola, who told me I should apply to do a film production degree. I had no idea there was such a thing but I managed to get in by showing them a few media studies essays, a fake Pot Noodle commercial, and a VHS recording of a stage adaption of [TV series] The Young Ones I put on, in which I also played Rick Mayall’s character (I lost the tape).

Above: ProdCo founder and director Ian Pons Jewell. 

On the course I got put into a group as a writer. During the shoot, I was telling the actors what to do, where the camera should go, with the actor constantly asking me if I was the director. I told him I wasn’t, but I just knew how everything needed to be shot and blocked. It was only after this I realised I had been ‘directing’.

I was telling the actors what to do, where the camera should go, with the actor constantly asking me if I was the director. I told him I wasn’t, but I just knew how everything needed to be shot. It was only after this I realised I had been ‘directing’.

On the next project, I asked to be placed as a director, and we made a stop-frame animation mixed with live-action. It went down a storm, people really connected with it. It was a favourite in that module and it was with that encouragement and support that I felt my life path appear – I knew I would be making films till I die.

I should also mention I loved watching films. My parents were amazing and let me watch anything. They recorded all kinds of films, let me rent whatever. That was certainly the bedrock from which my love of film all sprung.

Above: One of Pons Jewell's early videos from 2013, for Naught Boy.

You spent a long time working in music videos before directing a commercial; what lessons did promos teach you that you took into the commercial world?

I made over 40 videos before doing a commercial. It was around seven years of promos. The on-set experience was huge, so when I finally got my first commercial, it was a luxury. I remember one of the first calls with the amazing producers at Anorak and them mentioning how tight the budget of 400K was for what we were wanting to do. 

In promos, you have an idea and then go to war making it, on whatever usually minuscule budget you get from the label.

Hearing that was bizarre after all the tiny music video budgets. In promos, you have an idea and then go to war making it, on whatever usually minuscule budget you get from the label. It is absolutely the most creative problem-solving category of film. You have all the demands and pressures of a commercial, the same timelines, but with a fraction of the money, but totally free creative (in my experience, if and when they select your treatment). Your mind is in constant overdrive thinking of solutions, how to achieve something that should really be impossible. It is a magical school of filmmaking.

I also feel lucky to have been in the music video scene when I was. There was such a strong community, I made a lot of great friends, we would all be waiting for and cheering on each other’s music video drops. It felt like its own golden era. Masterpieces would drop on a weekly basis whenever I think back. Works by Canada, Isaiah Seret, Young Replicant (Alex Takacs), Tobias Stretch, DANIELS, Matilda Finn... too many to name, would just blow my mind. It was a period that inspired me as I went into advertising.

Above: The Otelo spot, directed by Pons Jewell, which helped establish him in the commercials industry.

What was the biggest challenge in transitioning from promos to commercials? 

I can honestly say there wasn’t one. After working with GBP500 to bring a story to life, commercials are a luxurious walk in the park. I did also have a clear body of work as I went into ads, so I was being asked to do ‘my thing’ in them. Then you have to learn all about pushing ideas, how to get them through, when to compromise, etc.

You’ve said in other interviews that you’d reached a point where you didn’t think commercials were something you’d break into; what do you think changed for the commercials world to then come calling?

There was a clear moment when I just gave up thinking about it. I decided I would just continue making music videos, with the occasional ‘money job’. 

After working with GBP500 to bring a story to life, commercials are a luxurious walk in the park.

I would sometimes get content stuff that would get me enough money to live – on a very low budget – for the rest of the year. I calculated I needed about two of those sorts of projects. But, right after this, I got sent the Otelo project by Anorak and won the pitch.

Above: And early example of the work of Pons Jewell and long-time collaborator, DP Mauro Chiarello. 

A selection of your work combines perfect craft and amazing production design with brilliant, often surreal comedic moments. But humorous spots often rely on the comedy, less on the style; why do you give equal weight to both?

There is – or was – definitely a type of comedy advertising that had very stripped back filmmaking. I love that work also but for me, at the time, advertising was a space where I would try new things and continue honing the craft. I think I just instinctively wanted to push the form and had also been limited in what I could do in music videos technically.

I wouldn’t say it was a conscious decision to avoid the pigeon hole, but just a natural journey, wanting to do things differently.

Suddenly I had budgets allowing me to experiment and try equipment I could have never afforded before. But in general, it’s always connected to the creative. I can see it play out in my mind as I write, so the storyboards are instinctual, then it’s about working out the way of executing it once I’ve visualised it.

Despite loads of great comedy spots, you also direct more dramatic and thematic work [The Diamond Journey/This Watch Tells Time]; have you worked hard to avoid being pigeon-holed as a director?

I have a long and wonderful collaboration with DP Mauro Chiarello, and because of this, we would always want to do something different from the last spot we had done. That was definitely a part of it, finding something new - a different feeling to things. 

It could be as obvious as not having as much movement, or as subtle as a grade and texture. I wouldn’t say it was a conscious decision to avoid the pigeon hole, but just a natural journey, wanting to do things differently. I don’t see myself doing much film work that is like the ‘comedy’ stuff I’ve done, so it was important for me to be doing work like The Diamond Journey [for the Diamond Producers Association].

Above: The Diamond Journey, which has a more dramatic directorial style and is a campaign of which Pons Jewell is particularly proud. 

You started ProdCo in 2023, why did you want to start your own company and has it changed the way you approach the business? 

I had always had thoughts about forming a company, even before I had joined Academy, but the timing wasn’t right, and most importantly, I hadn’t met Zico [Judge, Co-Founder of ProdCo]. But I had a little list of names for the roster in mind, adding to it now and then. 

All our directors have a path ahead of them and I am so curious and excited to see what they will do, not just advertising, but in all manner of other formats.

The motivation was very much the roster. The directors are all truly inspiring to me, many I have a longstanding friendship with, others I have met along the way while forming this company, but all of them are directors that I just knew should be doing a level of work, that for whatever reason, they weren’t seeing or getting yet.

I can’t list each one, but in that golden era I mentioned, I would be blown away by so many directors, one of whom was Alex Takacs (AKA Young Replicant). I was in Georgia producing a music video for him and while there on set, I was able to watch Alex working, and it really hit me how crazy this journey is; there we were producing a music video for one of the most inspiring directors in promos in my opinion.

All our directors have a path ahead of them and I am so curious and excited to see what they will do, not just advertising, but in all manner of other formats.

Above: Pons Jewell was "blown away" by the work of many contemporaries, including Alex Takacs (AKA Young Replicant), who directed this 2015 promo for Flying Lotus. 

Do you think the advertising industry – be that via brands, agencies or others – is as creatively brave now as it has been in the past? 

It’s a tough question. I have a feeling that it is not. But then a project comes along that very much is. I do think we are at a crossroads though, with the onset of AI. What is very clear is the vast chasm between the USA and the UK.

The UK ad process has a much closer-to-the- director’s-vision process than the USA. So, judging the global advertising industry pattern is hard when you operate in both of these territories. One can feel the work is brave just by doing a UK commercial after an American one. But that’s also just part of the way some ads are made in the US, but not all, of course.

I do think we are at a crossroads, with the onset of AI.

There’s incredible work being written in the USA. I think the US agencies just need the production company and director much more for protecting the creative against client pushback. Whereas in the UK, agencies themselves are able to protect their creative much more due to how the politics are within the system.

One of my favourite jobs of late was for GoDaddy, with the American agency Quality Meats. They were incredibly protective of the creative, really fighting for it and constantly re-selling the ideas back up the chain any time the client had a wobble. They’re a real benchmark for US ad agencies as they’re relatively small and the founders are involved in everything.

Above: One of Pons Jewell's favourite jobs recently was the campaign he did for GoDady, with actor Walton Goggins, through Quality Meats. 

What is your view on artificial intelligence: Friend? Foe? A bit of both? 

Absolutely both. Like any technology, it’s a cliché, but it can be used for good, or bad. What I will say though, is we are at a crossroads where the advertising industry either embraces the bolder and more auteur-directed commercial path, or sleepwalks towards its own funeral, which will be fully designed and written by the ad agencies themselves.

Before AI, we were already seeing lots of very generic ads, and with AI that generic style is now written by ChatGPT. The only protection ad agencies and the industry as a whole has is to make bold and visionary work. The sort of film where you can feel the fingerprints of the director, rather than a well crafted ‘solid’ ad where you don’t really feel their personality coming through.

If agencies continue writing generic work, or allowing great work to become generic via a destructive post process, they will see themselves replaced by AI, which will have a trickle down effect us all. 

AI can do legitimate looking audio-visual that doesn’t make you feel emotion. I recently made what I, and others I work with, feel is the best commercial I’ve made to date, but the official version is entirely forgettable and has no soul. The director’s cut was even blocked by the client. If agencies continue writing generic work, or allowing great work to become generic via a destructive post process, they will see themselves replaced by AI, which will have a trickle down effect us all. If agencies can’t get bolder work out the door in the creative board stage, they can at least embrace the bolder treatment of that brief by the director... as so much can be brought to the table from the execution and director’s vision.

I’ve had wonderful experiences doing this, when the agency and production company partner up and sneak back in original creative ideas or general boldness that the client killed in the agency only stage. We, as directors and production companies, can help agencies bring back the juice that may have been lost or never allowed in the writing and pitch stage.

But I don’t see AI-generated films replacing human-shot work, because of the fact anyone can prompt AI work. There is incredible AI- infused work out there that I love, but when you get a brand trying it, it is the bottom of the barrel. There’s that atrocious Coca-Cola ad [Unexpected Santa], which I cannot believe got published, showing just how soulless you can get with AI. There was also a horrible Toys ‘R’ Us ad, which I think was them just trying to make the ‘first’ AI commercial.

Above: Pons Jewell's recent spot for Revolut is, he says, something AI could have generated, but which wouldn't have been as good if it had. 

But there are also some people ‘testing’ AI and posting stuff that has a look and feel of cinematic ad work, but has no soul and feels like a lazy dopamine hit. Film, like all great art, is process driven, with the result being from that journey. 

A lot of AI-generated work, not all, but the ones I am talking about, are results driven. There’s a sense of a film being ‘shot’ and posted to Instagram for some reactions. I feel a lot of it is this temptation of having ‘shot’ something without getting off a chair.

Real filmmaking will continue to flourish because it is a craft that lives within and reflects life itself. It is the energy shared between a crew of artists problem solving and collaborating. With a good film, you often get that feeling of a kind of homesickness when you wrap, a loss of that shared energy.

Real filmmaking will continue to flourish because it is a craft that lives within and reflects life itself. 

There is so much I can talk about as to why AI can’t replace human-shot film, but to give an example, my spot for Revolut [Money Possibilities, above] could be thought of as something that AI could generate. But Ana, who we cast, has this wonderful, slightly clumsy feel to her movements, which make the character all that more special. All the blocking of the camera was done with a phone and another actor, with us playing around and trying angles. There is no way I would have made those choices of framing, moving, edit, without the time we spent blocking in person.

Another example is a project I did that had this incredible actor from Brazil, who added so much with improv we forgot about the script. Due to her performance, the camera was adjusted, the script was dropped, the edit was adapted. These are things that would never, ever have been achieved typing prompts into AI video generators.

The mistakes, coincidences and changes, all end up infused into the film. That can’t be replaced.