Tal Zagreba’s curious case of creativity

“I never call myself a director, that’s something that other people call me,” muses Tal Zagreba. “I’m just a curious guy – I like playing with things and creating cool stuff with people.” 

Labels aside, with a string of global campaigns for brands such as Pringles, Samsung, Netflix, Muller and Volvo; a gold YDA and a Forbes 30 Under 30 nomination to his name, the UNIT9 USA director (who is repped by GREAT GUNS in the UK, EMEA, and Asia) is clearly adept at funnelling that curiosity – and playful spirit – into award-winning creative excellence.

I'm not a DP or editor and I don’t have [formal] film school training, I don't have restrictions; I just have ideas.

Having signed to UNIT9 last autumn, you might expect Zagreba to be in the throes of pitching or shooting, but when shots speaks to him over Zoom, he’s embracing life as an “enthusiastic tourist” in Thailand – his floppy sunhat and backpacker’s beard a stark contrast to his AI-generated self-portrait in military-punk guise, sporting an impressive platinum blond quiff. 

Zagreba's entry into filmmaking was by winning a film competition with his first short, Humor.

He had been due to return to Tel Aviv, where he’s normally based, last month – but with flights cancelled amidst the escalating Israel-Iran conflict, Zagreba’s island-hopping odyssey has been extended indefinitely. 

It’s lucky, then, that Zagreba takes change in his stride – something he attributes to a childhood spent in the shadow of the Gulf War, and early memories of sirens blaring. “When you're living in a place which is very unstable, you need to be dynamic.”

[AI is] the colossal brain of humanity.

Zagreba never set out to be a filmmaker; instead, he studied mathematics and physics at university before dropping out to get his skipper’s licence and sail around the Mediterranean. While working in a yacht workshop to pay the bills, he started writing short scripts and screenplays, submitted one to an Israeli short film competition and won. 

“I’d never directed anything before, but I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity,” he remembers. “I told them, hell yeah!” The result was his first short film, Humor, about a frustrated street performer with a contagious screaming facial expression that ends up plastered across the faces of passers-by. 

The title was ironic – just before shooting, Zagreba’s then-girlfriend dumped him over the phone – but this rookie effort went on to official selection at the New York Film Festival, and Zagreba found himself on the red carpet with Ethan Hawk and Richard Gere, “so I ended up feeling pretty happy about it.” 

Zagreba's amusing portraits of Star Wars figures in their dotage.

Off the back of his second short, Vows, winning a gold YDA at Cannes Lions, Zagreba’s career took off. Interweaving VFX, animation and live-action to create an imaginative and explosive visual vocabulary, he’s made his name with films that take viewers on unpredictable narrative journeys – starting off ostensibly normally, “before escalating into epic, whimsical, surprising places”. 

I realised that I needed to give it a little bit of randomness. That’s when the magic happens.

A case in point is his comically over-the-top spot for Samsung’s Add Wash technology, The Man Who Reached The Bottom of the Laundry Basket, starring a humble dad who achieves that seemingly impossible task and is catapulted to celebrity status, immortalised in bronze and papped on the red carpet (the spot ends, inevitably, with his daughter chucking in a dirty pair of socks). 

Or Muller’s The Magic Factory, a glorious flight of Alpine-inspired fancy which plays with scale and pokes fun at Teutonic tropes, for which Zagreba created an entire whimsical world peopled by dirndl-clad mädchen, blowing clouds of fruit mousse out of gigantic Alphorns and paddling boats around an enormous barrel of milk.  

This post-heavy Muller ad, took six months to make. 

From pre-production to “a very complicated three-day shoot” and extensive post, the Muller job took a gruelling six months to realise – but, says Zagreba, “creating these bombastic worlds and enchanted places is very easy for me. Because I'm not a DP or editor and I don’t have [formal] film school training, I don't have restrictions; I just have ideas.” 

What’s more difficult is narrowing down the sprawl of his seemingly boundless imagination. “Usually, my vision explodes on the first round and on the second and third rounds, I'm trying to be more focused and give those ideas shape.”

I thought it would be funny to see them all [Star Wars characters] in sweaters.

He challenged himself to keep it simple on Samsung’s Way Out, a series of stripped-back vignettes following the daily lives of Gen Z’ers. Shot on a Sony Alpha 7, the ad features real youngsters with real issues and is devoid of Zagreba’s signature CGI bells and whistles – feeling more relevant to its target audience as a result. 

“My idea was to shoot it almost like an amateur video – just running after the cool kids in their natural environment,” says Zagreba. “There’s something about that approach which is very raw and natural. It’s not my usual go-to – but then I’m not afraid of trying new things.” 

Zagreba's film Wine for Teperberg Family Winery served as a loophole for the company to advertise wine on TV in Israel, where alcohol commercials are banned. 

That willingness to experiment, coupled with an early adopter attitude, led Zagreba to his latest “new thing” – creating AI art. A year ago, he started experimenting with AI image generator Midjourney and posting the results to his Instagram (@tal.zagreba.art), which now houses more than 100 surreal images: an extraordinary reflection of Zagreba’s vivid imagination, uncorralled by budget – or the laws of space and time. 

Some creations are entirely original, like a peacock transmogrified into a barge; others – such as Batman contemplating a shiny red apple, or a Renaissance-style portrait of the Joker – reimagine iconic characters from pop culture, something Zagreba took to new heights with last year’s Star Worse. 

A year and a half ago, this sort of force majeure appeared [AI]. It's divine. It knows everything. You can ask it anything and it’ll answer you. It creates everything. 

Created to mark Star Wars Day (May 4), the AI art series portrays the reality of ageing on sci-fi icons including Yoda, Chewbacca, Darth Vader and Leia – 46 years after their first appearance on screen. The result is moving and feels surprisingly human. A fan of the franchise since boyhood, Zagreba says he didn’t approach the project with any grand plan – “I was just wondering what they would look like… I thought it would be funny to see them all in sweaters” – but it ended up being an interesting insight into how to get the best results from what he calls “the colossal brain of humanity”. 

“The first prompts were very cinematic - using the lens, using the lighting, using the set, like a filmmaker trying to duplicate his vision,” he explains, “and it was spitting out very boring images. Then I realised that I needed to give it a little bit of randomness. That’s when the magic happens.”

Zagreba used AI to create the artwork for Netta’s single, Everything.

In stark contrast to many creatives keen to characterise the tech as mechanical and soulless, Zagreba sees a genuinely magical – or even spiritual – aspect to AI. ““Think about it,” he says animatedly. “A year and a half ago, this sort of force majeure appeared. It's divine. It knows everything. You can ask it anything and it’ll answer you. It creates everything. It's totally abstract, it has no physical form. It's everywhere. And the most important thing is that it inspires you. It improves you, and improves your thinking. And it allows you to achieve things that you couldn't before.”

You’re trying to define something new with old names, old words. It’s not accurate, and it's also offensive towards conventional artists.

That enthusiasm isn’t shared by many conventional artists, however, who see AI art as plagiarism, pure and simple. Where does Zagreba stand on that? For a start, counters Zagreba, all art is, to an extent, based on copying, under the fig leaf of ‘inspiration’. “Whether we are using Pinterest or looking at the Mona Lisa, we get inspired by other people’s work, and we borrow certain elements. It’s what humans do. They steal from each other and hope not to get caught.”

 [AI is] totally abstract, it has no physical form. It's everywhere. And the most important thing is that it inspires you.

He does agree there’s an element of plagiarism in generative AI – but points out that the problem actually lies in labelling these creations as ‘artworks’: “You’re trying to define something new with old names, old words. It’s not accurate, and it's also offensive towards conventional artists. I believe that [AI] is actually going to open a new field [of creativity]. And in this field, they won't call it art, so the way it’s regulated will be different.” 

In a couple of years’ time, he adds, AI will have become so much more sophisticated that it will be identify any obvious influences. “It will have mastered the art of camouflage – taking all these ideas and turning them into something much more unique and artistic.” 

Given the breakneck pace at which AI is evolving, it may happen even sooner. “In this field, six months ago feels like two decades,” says Zagreba, citing the cover artwork he created for Eurovision winner Netta’s new single, ‘Everything’, depicting the singer as a queen of a pastel dreamscape, framed by billowing clouds. The most-time consuming part was adding Netta’s features into the fantastical image (face swap technology being in its infancy), but mere months later, a dedicated face swap plugin for Midjourney has already been rolled out, making it the work of moments, not hours. 

Zegreba's career took off when his second short, Vows, won a gold YDA at Cannes Lions.

Given the breakneck pace at which AI is evolving, it may happen even sooner. “In this field, six months ago feels like two decades,” says Zagreba, citing the cover artwork he created for Eurovision winner Netta’s new single, ‘Everything’, depicting the singer as a queen of a pastel dreamscape, framed by billowing clouds. The most-time consuming part was adding Netta’s features into the fantastical image (face swap technology being in its infancy), but mere months later, a dedicated face swap plugin for Midjourney has already been rolled out, making it the work of moments, not hours. 

In the ‘old world’, you'd brainstorm [a storyboard or concept art] with another human being… just one person – one set of ideas. [with AI] it’s like brainstorming with everyone – including Pablo Picasso.”

As Zagreba describes the process of generating the image, it is, in some ways, reminiscent of a director guiding a crew on set: first inputting prompts for the colour palette, elements, lighting, textures, and camera details to create a dreamlike atmosphere, and then refining and improving the description after every new image to achieve his vision. 

When it comes to filmmaking, AI is undoubtably useful at the pre-production stage for creating storyboards or concept art, or as a source of creative inspiration. “Two years ago, in the ‘old world’, if you wanted to come up with a storyboard or concept art, you'd brainstorm with another human being. But that would be just one person – one set of ideas, one perspective. Now, it’s like brainstorming with everyone – including Pablo Picasso,” Zagreba points out. However, he points out, the uncontrollable nature of AI means that CG and conventional post-production tools still reign supreme at the other end: “you have to fake it a bit”.