When Bill Clinton asked photographer/director Neil Slavin what tie he would wear if he were posing for the first official presidential family Christmas portrait, Slavin didn’t hesitate. He pointed to the Frosty the Snowman tie.

Clinton slipped it on and Slavin took two sets of shots in the White House. All was well until someone in the archives division decided it wouldn’t look good 20 years from now to see the president sporting a Frosty tie. Last year’s picture officially shows him wearing a maroon-colored tie, airbrushed in for the sake of decorum.

An internationally acclaimed photographer based in the u.s., Slavin has been directing commercials for five years. He signed on with a Canadian production house, Toronto-based Imported Artists Film Company, for representation in Canada for the first time this fall.

Slavin has spent most of his life building a reputation as a ‘people’ artist. His name regularly appears under photographs in Life, Esquire, and the New York Times Magazine, to name a few. As a commercial director for the past five years, his credits include spots for Pacific Bell, Turner Broadcasting, Water Park, and a Gold Lion at Cannes for a campaign for New York Lottery out of DDB Needham.

There is no great mystery as to why he’s chosen now to sign with a Canadian house, says Slavin. It’s simply good timing as he and partner Perry Schaffer expand their company, New York-based Slavin/ Schaffer Films, which they started three years ago. They’re looking at Europe and Japan as other potential markets.

Slavin admits he knows very little about the Canadian commercial production market. To solicit work outside your territory, it’s imperative to have someone that lives in the area looking at boards for you, he says.

‘I wouldn’t know where to begin to describe the Canadian market. I don’t know what I’m looking for up there, so I have to rely on (Imported Artists president and executive producer) Christina’s (Ford) perception of what could be good work for me there.’

With more than 25 years experience taking pictures of people, Slavin says getting the best from your subjects in either stills or live-action photography depends on the director’s ability to inspire trust in the talent.

‘The director is there to help the actor feel free enough that anything inside can come out. I need to listen to what he’s saying, and then I need to use my third eye and see what the actor is not saying. Then I combine all that and reach out – I’m not trying to wax poetic here – it’s necessary.’

An atmosphere of trust is developed through words, body language, demeanor, what you promise or don’t promise, and an air of vulnerability, says Slavin. Many parts of the body communicate, and the more you recognize that as a director, the more control you have over the project.

It’s not as Zen-like as it sounds, he continues. But a director needs to know what the actors have to offer and what he wants them to do.

‘It’s not a free-for-all. You want specific things from them. But you can’t just go over and say, `Say it this way.’ You need to create an environment, have your antenna so far out there. You have to both send and receive at the same time to get what you want from people.’