New Duo On Making Partnerships & IKEA Spots

ACNE founder and director, Tomas Skoging [above left] and former Forsman & Bodenfors ECD, Filip Nilsson [above right], have teamed up to form a directing duo called Tompa and Rondo. 

Their first film, for IKEA [below], has just been released, a sumptuous, historical epic which also comments on our current need to share everything online. Below, Skoging and Nilsson discuss their fledgling partnership, why they formed it and how they approached their inaugural commercial. 

Where did the initial spark for the idea for this campaign come from?

Skoging: Most of the IKEA advertising is produced locally by the marketing department in each country. However, they also do a couple of centrally produced brand campaigns each year that run globally. This is one of those campaigns and the focus is their kitchen range. 

IKEA developed an inspiring creative brief together with ACNE in Stockholm early this year. They wanted to highlight the fact that our kitchens sometimes turn into a scene where we feel that we need to perform rather than a place where we can just relax and socialize. Our obsession with food pictures in social media is one example.

As soon as the creative brief was signed off we worked closely together with the creative team at ACNE, Johan Holmgren (CD) Cecilia Dufilis and Markus Bjurman. Cecilia and Markus came up with the idea of recreating social media in the 18th century and we immediately fell in love with the absurdity of that thought. So did the IKEA team and the development of the final script was a very collaborative process.

You worked direct-to-client on this project, how was that process and is it something you’ve done before? 

Skoging: Using integrated teams with directors and creatives working together is a cornerstone in ACNE’s philosophy. With some clients, like IKEA, the client’s creative team is also involved at an early stage. To us, the process in this project felt close to the ideal way of working. Little conflict, high engagement and a lot of respect for our vision and our work as directors. 

This is the first time you’ve worked as a directing duo; why did you decide this is the best way to work together?

Nilsson: I spent 24 years at Forsman & Bodenfors trying to create and refine a pretty radical and collective way of working. Tomas created ACNE with a similar vision, so for us this is just the normal way of working.

Skoging: We had been talking about directing together for a while and now we've finally done it. IKEA is our first major project and we think it gives a pretty good idea about where we want to go as a team. I’ve been a director for 14 years, Filip has been a creative director for ages and that’s a good mix if you want to work with idea-based storytelling.

How does the partnership work in terms of decision-making; do you divide ownership of certain areas or is everything a combined decision?

Nilsson: When we work we just work. We write and we shoot together, never mind what we’ve been up to earlier in our lives. And the good news is that we love working together. We didn’t know that a year ago.     

Filip, you were previously on the agency side, what made you want to work as a director?

Nilsson: Film has always been a big part of my work and I’ve always been thinking about directing. And sometimes I did, but it was usually in conflict with my role at the agency. You have to choose.  Now I can go all-in and focus on film craft and I love that. I also enjoy the feeling of being in the beginning of a journey and not knowing where it will take us.

The set design and costumes for the film are amazing; how much work went into researching, sourcing and art directing that element of it?

Skoging: We shot the film in Budapest and a major reason for that was the skills when it comes to historical filmmaking. We spent a lot of time there a couple of weeks before the shoot just to get the details right. It’s an amazing experience to discuss a wig with somebody who has spent a lifetime studying historical hair styles. It makes you humble and it makes you feel that you have the most interesting job in the world.

What was the most difficult part of the production process?

Nilsson: Probably to create a visual entity out of so many different locations. We knew exactly what we wanted but it wasn’t easy to find. In the end we had a real patchwork and logistics were tricky, to say the least.

And the most rewarding?

Skoging: The first morning of the shoot when we were preparing to film the historical family around the dinner table. We looked at the monitor and then looked at each other and it was like, “Shit, it works. We’re in the 18th century!”

Will you continue to work together as a directing duo and, if so, what are you working on next?

Nilsson: Absolutely. The launch of this campaign is also the kick-off for our collaboration. We’ll work together from now on and we look forward to seeing a lot of amazing scripts. Tompa & Rondo, as we call our team, is a long term project.