New Shop does the rounds in T.O.

Now please welcome little-known directors into the fray.

The call comes from Tony Sasso, executive producer of Roundhouse Films, a commercial production house newly opened in Toronto.

Sasso, formerly of Dalton Films, has surrounded himself with little-known faces at his new venture. Most are u.s. directors, either up-and-comers or experienced hands, whose reels are not widely circulated in this country.

Sasso knows pushing little-known faces at agencies represents a risk in a competitive market. Few creative directors these days take flyers on directors they hardly know.

But Roundhouse is gambling that once Toronto agencies recognize its newly discovered talent, big jobs will come its way.

Examples: Ken Thurlbeck is Canadian-born but now based in Los Angeles. His specialty is tabletop and food commercials, and he has done his best advertising work for Burger King and Quaker Oats.

Pittelli

Sasso is also looking to launch storytelling and dialogue director Patrick Pittelli in this country. Also based in l.a., Pittelli’s reel includes spots done for Denny’s, Ryder Trucks and Ameritech.

Aside from u.s. talent, Roundhouse is also representing Western Canadian directors now looking to make their mark in Toronto.

The way Sasso tells it, Roundhouse is a thirtysomething company, and unashamedly so. He argues too many Toronto commercial houses are staffed by directors from the 1970s generation.

New ideas

‘We want to bring out younger blood, showing reels that have not been overexposed in the market. That should bring new, better creative ideas forward,’ he says.

Roundhouse is committed at first to carving out a niche doing low-budget commercials for smaller agencies. But low-budget commercials for larger agencies are its ultimate aim.

One lure here is Roundhouse doing commercials with a markup of only 10%, against a current industry average of 20%.

Sasso adds agencies will never incur travel costs – airfare, hotels, food – when bringing u.s. directors up to Canada for commercial shoots. Instead, Roundhouse will take the hit. No travel costs will be pushed below the line, either.

The new venture is also being modelled on The Players Film Company and Revolver Films, commercial houses that have their roots in music videos but which have crossed over into the ad world.

Star talent here is Los Angeles-based Stuart Kusher. Besides having done big-budget music videos in the u.s., his advertising clients in the fashion field have included Cavaricci, Zodiac Shoes and Introspect.

Including commercials on Kusher’s reel should make him more appealing in Toronto, says Sasso. ‘Many music video directors have a hard time cracking the market here. In the u.s., the artist level in music videos is higher and more is spent on them.’

The result is music video directors south of the border generate more impressive reels which are then flogged to agencies.

Sasso is teaming up with Garner Kinmond as sales/producer at Roundhouse.