After more than a decade of collaborating on Mercedes-Benz projects and commercials, the client requested that I go and direct the next production.

Naturally, I handled this praise and authority with tremendous professionalism and immediately told the crew I planned to become a full diva director. I wanted my own video village. A chair, monitors, snacks, a fan, the whole thing.

And, because they’re wonderful, they actually built it for me.

I barely sat there.

The production was simply too big, and there was too much happening at once. The goal wasn’t to capture one commercial or one storyline. We were building a library of Mercedes-Benz content that could tell different stories with different actors, vehicles, locations, and moments, all within the same idyllic New England world.

Our location was a sprawling coastal estate in Rhode Island that looked like the version of New England someone dreams up after watching too many movies. It was also a house I fully intend to buy immediately after winning the lottery.

For two days, directing mostly meant moving. Run outside to approve a shot. Back inside to check wardrobe. Across the property to another setup. Back outside for talent direction (Open the door, look rich). Back inside because the air conditioning had stopped working. Back outside again because apparently commercials refuse to direct themselves.

It was controlled chaos, but the good kind.

Productions like this are less about sitting behind a monitor and declaring things “beautiful.” They’re about keeping the larger story in your head while a hundred smaller decisions are happening around you. The wardrobe, performances, framing, locations, pacing, vehicles, weather, light, and dozens of people all have to feel like they belong to the same idea.

That was really the job: create enough variety to give Mercedes-Benz a flexible library of lifestyle content, while making sure every piece still felt unmistakably part of the same world.

It was fast, exhausting, ridiculous, and incredibly fun. And, the weather was absolutely perfect the entire time, because I worship The Creative Gods.

And somewhere on that property, I’m pretty sure my director’s chair is still waiting for me.