The Directors: Maca Rubio

Maca Rubio has shown her creative versatility working as a director of commercials, music videos, films, and as a photographer of various genres at a national and international scene. She creates hyperreal worlds characterised by the casting of strong characters, the design of aesthetic and familiar environments, and her work in editing, styling, and photography.

She has directed for Heinz, Nestlé, Sadaels, Entel, Dermaglos, Becker, among others. Her spot «Tip for Heinz» won a Bronze Lion at Cannes Lions. She has premiered films at BAFICI, at Paris Fashion Week, and at Aguilar Film Festival. A fervent traveller, Maca loves to observe people and their behaviour when she is abroad, and often uses her experiences as inspiration for her work.

Name: Macarena Rubio

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Awards: Bronze Cannes Lion - Heinz (2023) / Silver in The one club for creativity (2024) - Heinz / Diente bronze - Sprite (2022)

LBB> What are some upcoming projects that you're excited about? Tell us a bit about them?

Maca> I just finished a project which I am very excited to share since it represents an evolution in what I’ve been intending to do towards the elaboration of craft and the bold humour. We worked with Stink Films + Stink Studios with production services from argentinacine

So, yeah. Really excited to show that one soon!

LBB> What excites you in the advertising industry right now, as a director? Any trends or changes that open new opportunities?

Maca> I understand trends because they are a translation of an urgency of new types of communication, but I try always to stick to what I believe is best for the particular project and makes sense with my vision as a director.

I prefer to look towards the greatest directors and study why their films are so important and timeless rather than trying to achieve the latest camera movement or transition. I feel like it’s always in the end about the human connection, the storytelling and in my case, a little bit of humour - I find the combination of this the base of every story I want to tell.

The new opportunities appear when a client or an agency are eager to communicate in a new way, or take some risks. I am in the chain of production that evolves as a creative catalyser of those ideas, and I always like to propose new ideas and shake things a little bit to see how we can make the film grow.

In the end, If I won’t be able to add some vision and make it special and iconic, It shouldn’t be me.

LBB> What elements of a script sets one apart from the other and what sort of scripts get you excited to shoot them? What type of work are you most passionate about - is there a particular genre or subject matter or style you are most drawn to?

Maca> Many of them, luckily! I am very curious, so many scripts get me excited, with completely different tones and challenges. I could say I am probably obsessed with humour in a way I feel like it is the universal ultimate human connection and I have so much fun doing it.

But I am also obsessed with casual beauty, clumsy beauty, plastic beauty, rotten beauty, melancholic beauty.

Super obsessed with grandparents and little funny children - and definitely obsessed with super staged sets that allow me to create visually interesting scenarios with an intense production design.

In the end, I always like to read the script and feel it, if I understand it and think I can make it grow somehow, I will be most probably driven to do it.

LBB> How do you approach creating a treatment for a spot?

Maca> The treatment is the first approach to the client and the agency and what they have been dreaming for a long time. So I love to use that instance to connect with them and understand what is the story behind what they want to communicate so the treatment I work on afterwards, grows in an authentic way and I feel free to explore ideas which are aligned to those concepts.

I really enjoy that creative moment when everything is suddenly possible and things can evolve from one point to another.

LBB> If the script is for a brand that you're not familiar with/ don’t have a big affinity with or a market you're new to, how important is it for you to do research and understand that strategic and contextual side of the ad? If it’s important to you, how do you do it?

Maca> It’s always the first thing for me to understand the context and history of the market we are working for; as I usually work with humour - which of course has a universal language - achieving a local humour sometimes can be super hard. You don’t want to be absurd or over the top if that’s not what the commercial is looking for in that market.

But it’s part of my research observing what is the context - as it is the background of the brand and the history they have with their clients and how they’ve been communicating before.

For example when we did the Heinz commercial, I knew that they have been exploring the “eye’s god” POV before, but not in the humorous way I thought we could use it. So it was part already of something they felt related to, but taken to an updated version.

LBB> How do you strike the balance between being open/collaborative with the agency and brand client while also protecting the idea?

Maca> This is - from the beginning to the end - a collaborative process. I don’t believe it if anyone told me different from that. It’s about listening to ideas, make them grow together, understanding what is the best thing for the project and achieving together the best final result possible. I think the understanding is what makes you protect your ideas and theirs.

The constant dialogue with the agency, and the production team as the creative one, is what enforces the production and make things easy-going and possible - and ultimately special.

Let’s be honest, we don’t have the answers to everything, sometimes director’s are looked like certain creative heroes (for which we are extremely flattered!) but that’s not true at all. We are, for me, forces of human connections that enlighten and feel more complete when others in the same tuning are around. Too poetic? Sometimes, I’m sorry!

LBB> What misconception about you or your work do you most often encounter and why is it wrong?

Maca> Sometimes can happen that people interpret my work as super pop or super sensitive. I think there are many nuances between those worlds, or even that they can be merged too.

I don’t like to be taken too literal with the things I’ve shot before, because we are always evolving to new things and new ideas; so of course we can be guided for those previous films, but I don’t think we should be limited to them.

LBB> What’s the craziest problem you’ve come across in the course of a production – and how did you solve it?

Maca> No problems at all. Problems you say? Never. Nope. Well they can appear, but I try to focus on the result I get from them, sometimes they are necessary too, and the massive truth is we learn a lot from them.

LBB> What are your thoughts on opening up the production world to a more diverse pool of talent?

Maca> I think it’s fair and also necessary. Maybe we can call it justice for so many decades that a diverse pool of talent couldn’t make it to a pitch. The multiplicity of visions makes things wide and interesting, and as much voices are, more stories and perspectives we have of this world and the people we have in it.

LBB> Are you open to mentoring and apprenticeships on set?

Maca> Well, I consider myself an apprentice too, but of course I welcome anyone that feels that can grow with me in new experiences.

LBB> Your work is now presented in so many different formats - to what extent do you keep each in mind while you're working (and, equally, to what degree is it possible to do so)?

Maca> Nowadays we have campaigns that end in so many formats and screens that we have to be prepared to make it compatible. I think the best thing to achieve that is to have knowledge of that since the very beginning, so it is not an adaptation of something that you have to solve, but a search for making it work since the first idea.

I always try to suggest alternatives from the production side, since I was a producer before being a director, I collaborate from that aspect also so we can achieve better results.

For example, do we need to make this commercial adaptable or you rather have socials that respond to the demands of those specific platforms? From a production and creative perspective, we can bring solutions understanding the target and demands from the client.

LBB> What’s your relationship with new technology and, if at all, how do you incorporate future-facing tech into your work (e.g. virtual production, interactive storytelling, AI/data-driven visuals etc)?

Maca> I play around AI daily, I know we are facing tools that are no longer the future but the present, and we are all working now understanding where is this leading us. I use it mainly to explore ideas, but I love the material world.

I love to create sets and in times where AI turns the images so monotone, I enjoy going back to set and building things, making practical tricks as Michel Gondry would do, connect with actors, and watch live in set how the piece is turning out to be. I haven’t shot yet in a virtual production but since I am kind of a nerd, and watch many shockingly good results, I am excited to be shooting with that technology soon when the project requires it.

LBB> Which pieces of your work do you feel show what you do best – and why? 

Maca> Heinz:

Heinz and Mischief brought to the table this great idea of the god’s eye’s point of view and I immediately loved it because it represented a challenge in the way we were showing the different situations in the same framing. So much craft to explore, and actually very funny to show ugly ketchups, instead of beautiful and delicious one.

Mirena:

This one had a special insight as a woman and how I could express the feelings, pain and emotions we are going through every single month. I loved working carefully in the craft here since we wanted a curated world but hyperreal in terms of emotions.

Entel:

We co-directed this piece with Plastico, and we love the craft and the objects with background and history, so of course we are a little bit romantic of the past decades and it was so much fun to recreate them.

Sprite Bizarre + Dani Ribba and Lit Killah:

I liked the concept of this Sprite campaign since the beginning. It’s called “Chill sessions” and we collaborated with Bizarrap and Dani Ribba + Lit Killah to make a famous song to a chill version. I enjoyed this one specially because it felt like a branded music video, and visually we wanted to do something that was aligned with the brand and also with the aesthetic of the artists.