Kessler Irish Films’ David Wellington just finished another long day’s journey into a beer commercial on the shoot for Vickers and Benson’s three new Molson Dry tv spots.

Actually, it was five days of shooting, located at a couple of Toronto night spots, including The Joker, a spanking new multilevel club in an area of downtown Toronto where no danger exists of a high-concept dance bar shortage.

v&b executive creative director Philippe Garneau says the spots harken back to the days of old-fashioned beer advertising, with emphasis on relationships with and between characters instead of the stylized spots favored over the last decade.

The campaign is designed to capture the relationship between a group of guys on an evening out.

The final day of live-action shooting featured establishing shots of a dance floor full of extras (30 union, the rest not) in full club regalia maintaining their enthusiastic gyrations over numerous takes.

Considering it was midday and no beer was actually being consumed, the scene rang remarkably true; appropriately edgy tunes blasting, strobe lights pulsing, a throng of ethnically mixed revelers in various states of synthetic fiber dress executing their preferred form of personal mating ritual dance, waitresses spilling beer trying to navigate the chaos, wallflowers clutching bottles near the bar and beer-toting homeboys cruising the perimeter, looking to cut one out of the herd.

The groove is infectious, spreading to bystanding crew and to Wellington, shaking his proverbial bootie while surveying the scene from behind the camera and looking effortlessly hipper than the lot.

Garneau says Wellington (I Love A Man In Uniform) was chosen as a director who can tell a story, not just another pretty spot maker, and who also has an eye for casting.

Garneau says cast and extras were chosen as real types, those who would not have to reach too far back in their psyches for the whole dance club state of being.

Intelligence and character were necessary components of the hero of today’s spot, a compact, decidedly un-model-like, earnest-looking twentysomething with a razor stubble haircut and a lumberjack shirt. (His female counterpart was chosen for the same qualities, her rail-thin exotic looks surely incidental).

On set, Garneau advises extras not to wear sunglasses during shooting as shade-sporting, he explains, is a sure indicator of a ‘nefarious purpose,’ according to the crtc.

Wellington, just off the shoot for Long Day’s Journey Into Night, says the spots will have a ‘liquid look’ and the day’s spot will focus down from crowd scenes, taking elements away from the chaos and ultimately singling out the protagonists and their romantic exchange.

The spots, set to air the week of April 1, will reportedly feature a neato, never-been-done-before product shot and some post shenanigans, undertaken at Toronto’s Mad Dog Digital.

‘Tis the season

Spring, and awards ceremony anticipation/dread is building. The Bessies, May 2, will be at the Sheraton Center as per usual. Those desperate for inside information can test the tight lips of this year’s judges fresh from a bleary-eyed weekend of spot-watching; chair Tom Nelson of Ammirati & Puris/Lintas, Brad Riddoch of Bates Canada, Bev Cornish of Vickers and Benson, Kessler Irish’s Jane Kessler, Richard D’Alessio of Imported Artists, Chameleon Film-Video’s Andy Attalai, Jamie Way of BBDO Canada, Marta Cutler of MacLaren McCann and Steve MacKinnon of Rosnick-MacKinnon.

While it’s not an awards event, the National Advertising Benevolent Society’s Gala Event will play host to more than 500 industry types April 19 at the Inn on the Park.

Peter Elwood, president of Lever Canada, is this year’s honorary chairman for the annual event, which this year may see a more diverse mix than usual.

Some delegates to the World Federation of Advertisers, being held in Toronto by the Association of Canadian Advertisers, will celebrate the final night of the conference at the nabs auction.

More than $2 million worth of donated goods will be bid-on-able, including trips, sporting events, television sets and jewelry. If that’s not enough, the headline act is fiddlemeister Ashley MacIssac, who’s hit Sleepy Maggie, so beautifully directed on video by SPY Films Javier Aguilera, is top ‘o the charts.

People

Speaking of Kessler Irish, a bevy of new u.s. directors has been signed. New York-based Michael Schrom of Michael Schrom & Company and director Tom Ryan, who is based in Chicago but repped by Schrom & Company. Also new are the directors under the Curious Pictures shingle, Steve Oakes, Randy Akers and Mo Willems, plus the eclectic u.k.-based house, Tomato.

Vancouver-based director James Head is newly repped in Eastern Canada by Sparks Productions. Head, keeping busy of late directing several episodes of The Commish and working as second unit director of photography on 20 episodes of The X-Files, is still represented in Western Canada through Cactus Productions.

Imported Artists has signed a fresh face out of Pasadena. Twentysomething director Christina Hodnet was signed on the spot by Imported’s Christina Ford. Just out of school, Hodnet is reportedly primo with kids and dialogue and is selecting from a half-dozen suitors for u.s. representation.