third Floor Editing is losing primo editor Jon Hopp to the Golden State as of April 30.

The editor of choice for big-name directing talents including John Mastromonaco, Richard D’Alessio, Dale Heslip and Jeth Weinrich, Hopp is packing up the family and heading to l.a. to join Michael Romersa’s startup post house, JigSaw.

Hopp has been a fixture at Third Floor since Richard Unruh opened it in 1991. JigSaw, which has been up for about a year, made an offer he couldn’t refuse and he’ll start there in July. ‘As much as I don’t want to leave, it’s a chance for me to expand the dimensions of my reel and work on some different projects,’ says Hopp.

No decision yet whether Third Floor is looking for a replacement. There may be enough bench strength in-house already to compensate for the loss. l.a-bound or not, Hopp will still be attending the Bessies, a show that coughed up his name repeatedly in the editing credits last year.

Exit, stage left

cresting on three golds, two silvers and a bronze from the Marketing Awards, Jamie Way has left bbdo to join MacLaren McCann as vp, associate creative director.

Way, of Costa Rica Tourism and Polaroid Canada fame, says bbdo is an incredible place but it was time for a change and he was drawn to MacLaren McCann’s work of late, ‘really solid advertising,’ which he calls street smart and gritty. ‘Strategically, they’re on the case. There’s a really good feeling here. They’re not doing creative for the sake of creative.’

As for the big ms cluttering his mantle, Way says it’s just one of those years when you get lucky. While always having been skeptical of awards shows, ‘this year I’ve found them to be very insightful,’ he adds, laughing.

On the agenda is some work on the Molson and Miller beer campaigns and then possibly some General Motors later in the year, says Way, who emigrated from England in 1982 as a junior art director and has since worked with agencies including Lowe Harrod Spink and Chiat/Day.

MM2 (new MacLaren McCann identifier, slightly superior to the artist formerly known as Prince symbol), was on the lookout for a copywriter for Way, whom creative director Rick Davis calls ‘a remarkable talent, tremendously passionate about the business and a hell of a nice person,’ and last week landed taxi’s Troy McClure, who will start just after Easter.

Also sapped from bbdo is copywriter Jonathon Freir, who will work with art director Sean Davison. Art director Sherry Martin has too migrated to MM2, coming from bcp to work with copywriter Stephen Stahl.

Other agency-type meanderings include former y&r associate creative director Robin Heisey, who has joined Gee Jeffery and Partners Advertising as vp creative director and as a partner.

Bucking the odds

here’s a dream: your first spec commercial picked up and distributed by a national broadcaster. Okay, so the 30 didn’t make a cent (a loss, actually), but it’s a hell of a way for a mainly music video commercial production house to make a move into spot production.

Sean Buckley, beacon of the entrepreneurial spirit, wrote, produced and directed ‘Don’t gamble with drugs,’ a psa just launched nationwide by ytv. Buckley, head of Toronto-based Buck Productions, shot and cut the poignant half-minute at the beginning of the year with $800 and a little help from his friends.

To make it work, Buckley says he knew he had to have a subject general enough to appeal to a wide range of potential clients and a film good enough to be salable.

The spot was completely wrapped, with a two-second hold at the end of the film for sponsors to add their name or logo, before he made the proposition to would-be buyers, including Labatt, Molson, Concerned Children’s Advertisers, the Addiction Research Foundation, and the government.

The beer companies said no right away, not wanting to have their name associated with drugs. Other groups were genuinely interested, but it was ytv execs Ian Murray and Dale Taylor who gave immediate thumbs-up. The exchange – the spot for national airplay – was a straight barter but, says Buckley, ‘it’s a kind of extensive business card, playing national and not just sitting on my reel.’

With a couple of nfb shorts under his belt, music videos, and camera work for Clement Virgo’s Rude, Buckley wants to branch out into commercial work. ‘My hope is that after showing what we can do, the transition will be smoother.’

Key amongst those dedicating time, effort and facilities for free were dop Colin Hoult, Revolver’s Allan Weinrib, Jesse Shamata and Gerry Banning, Command Post & Transfer’s Terry Rose, and Cathy Ledrew at Ford Modeling Agency. BoomTang Sound Studios composed the original music.

Where there’s Sparks

so what’s happening at Sparks Productions? Seems there’s a bit of roster building going on with four new directors in three months plus a new sales rep, Corinna Lehr, and a new location.

Chicago-based director Dennis Manarchy is the newest addition to the Sparks crew, last on the new-arrivals list of Dale Fay, Beth Gordon, Tenney Fairchild and Lehr.

Manarchy started out as a stills photographer, building a stacked portfolio of work for campaigns like Nike, Harley-Davidson, Reebok and Gap, before moving into spot directing five years ago. His first Canadian work, a 30 for Anderson Advertising for Renova, just hit the airwaves.

Although executive producer Andrew Crosbie is playing down the company expansion, word is that there may be some news later in the spring.

Speaking of expanding, Apple Box Productions in Toronto is on the lookout for two local directors, one great dialogue talent and a director/cameraman.

Bessies predictions

post Marketing Awards and amidst the usual griping going on (‘silly,’ ‘Red Dog again?’ and ‘Everybody gets cynical when the chair’s agency shows up so often’) are predictions for the Bessies, coming up May 2.

MacLaren McCann’s campaign for gm, ‘Tried, tested and true,’ comes up repeatedly as do ‘the underwear commercials,’ i