Talented Dutch director Paul Geusebroek created this awesome commercial for the worldwide Nike Destroyer campaign in collaboration with one of Amsterdam’s freshest stores Precinct 5. Read an interview with Geusebroek after the jump.

Can you tell us who you are and what you do?
‘I’m Paul Geusebroek, 23 years old and I direct music videos and commercials.’

What is your background? How did you start working as a director?
‘I was born and raised in Amsterdam where I started making little films at the age of 11 with friends from my primary school. When I finished high school I thought working in film would be a great way to make a living, so I asked record labels if I could make videos for them. Since a little while I joined production company Cake Film, who represent me as a director now.’

What other projects are you currently working on?
‘I’m leaving for L.A. in a week to shoot a commercial for a clothing brand, which I’m really looking forward to. After that I got some fiction stuff planned.’

Can you name one project you’d like to work on if time or money weren’t an issue?
‘I’d really like to make a feature film, maybe something in the suspense genre. Think along the lines of Woody Allen’s Match Point or Curtis Hanson’s L.A. Confidential. But being realistic I guess I’d probably have to mature as a filmmaker some more before I do so.’

Can you tell us three things that are absolutely indispensable in your daily life?
‘Well, I’d have to say that except for my friends and my girl pretty much everything is dispensable.’

How did this collaboration between Nike, Precinct 5 and you start off?
‘Basically Gee, co-owner of Precinct 5, and personal friend of mine called me and asked if I wanted to do the film. Gee likes my work and I know everybody involved from the P5 running team, so that made this a natural collaboration I guess.’

What was the idea behind the video?
‘Well, the Destroyer campaign is an international one. A list of big cities made a film to represent their ‘Destroyer’ team. I wanted my film to make people want to live in Amsterdam, create an atmosphere that appeals to people who don’t live here.
The jacket itself reminded me of the film ‘The Warriors’ and I tried to integrate that feel into my film, for instance by shooting it on grainy 16mm film.
Also, like I said the people in the video are friends of mine, so I wanted to make use of that. I can be fairly invisible to them in contrast to an outsider, making the film more of a registration of my friends in a setting I somewhat controlled.’

What was your approach concerning this production? How did the process go?
‘I wanted to be really small in crew and equipment so I could be as dynamic as possible, making it easier for myself to document the group in a genuine setting. We shot 90% of the film in one night, which was really exhausting. Because I wanted to approach the film in a genuine matter, we bought everybody booze and let the group drink whilst shooting. At the end of the night everybody was pretty wasted but still had to run through the rain into the break of day, which was pretty unbearable.’

Did everything work out smoothly or did disasters happen?
‘Actually, seen in the uncontrolled context of it all, it went pretty smooth. We tempted fate by letting our cameraman stage dive with the camera strapped to his hand but luckily disaster did not strike us.’

What was the funniest moment of shooting day?
‘We had a lot of people with us while walking trough the Red Light District who were all pretty loud. A lady living there got sick of the noise and threw a big tile of water at us, which was actually pretty funny.’

How much time did you spent working on this commercial in total, including preparation, filming and editing?
‘Actual work took about three weeks, but there was a lot of waiting because of the track we used, before it was cleared with the record label two months passed.’