The First Cut winners announced and celebrated this week must be making all the right moves. Talented, production savvy, politically salient and willing to take some chances, those who trained the wonder-young did a damn fine job.

But this is the beginning, the embryo stages of a pack of promising careers, and like Alanis says: ‘Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you when you think everything’s okay.’

With that in mind, Playback went to three long-established directors to find out about their best and worst career moves, a little pothole identification and the odd nugget of wisdom for those, at this point, just off the launch pad.

– Steve Chase, Jolly Roger Films

The best career move I ever made was never doing a job for money. Every job I take, I take because it can go on my reel, which was really easy in the beginning because I ultimately had nothing to lose. I was a successful art director and I knew I could always go back to that. In fact, I almost did after my first year directing.

Bill Durnan called and offered me the chance to work with him at MacLaren. It was a great job and we met about 10 times over this thing and I was really torn. I knew him well, and he used to quote his dad, who was a famous hockey player. He always told Bill, ‘Never quit until you’ve got everything you want out of something.’ I eventually threw it back at him. He said, ‘Oh man, my father didn’t mean that.’

I’ve been very careful, so it’s hard to pinpoint a worst career move. There hasn’t been anything fatal. When I first left Canada, I believed in the myth that you need to be in New York to go anywhere, so I moved there. God, I hated New York. There’s no rest there. New York is New York 24 hours a day. I lasted eight weeks.

I did one really bad spot early in my career for Mr. Juicy, a McCain product. It was awful. I must have been on drugs. I’m just joking. I don’t do drugs. I was blinded by work, at least temporarily. It hasn’t hurt me, but people who knew me then that I work with now still bug me about it. We’ll be sitting in a roomful of Pepsi people and my editor will say, ‘Hey Steve, tell ’em about the Mr. Juicy spot.’

I’ve only lived by one credo: Don’t do anything you’re not going to be proud of. A pile of shit shined up is really just a shiny pile of shit. It’s an easy way of micromanaging a career because the elimination process is simple. If the board isn’t good when it comes over the fax, it never gets any farther. You still get people who hope you’ll work miracles, but don’t sell out.

– George Morita, Avion Films

At this point, I’d have to say my best career move was getting together with Michael (Schwartz) and Stanley (Mestel) and starting Avion. But I suppose, back when I was functioning primarily as a director of photography, the first and best step I made was becoming a director/cameraman.

The business was changing and they wanted more direct involvement in the creative process from the production side.

My first spot as a director/cameraman was for Jell-O. I can’t say that I was comfortable in that role right away. My scariest moments were in trying to presell the concept – I was more used to the idea of setting up the creative and then shooting it, and I worried that the ideas I pitched in the board stages were actually achievable. I hated making promises in preproduction that I wasn’t 100% sure were achievable.

The process is such that you have to be positive going in, but if I make a promise, I have to be sure I can do it, and I do so with much more confidence now than I did those first pitches.

Still, there are times I admit I do have my fingers crossed. It’s a creative process and sometimes you don’t know until you’re in. You have props, children and the weather, and those things are unpredictable. At the beginning, I felt responsible for the weather, but then you learn to focus in on the things you can control.

I haven’t had any worst career moves. But there was one situation that comes to mind that I’d rather not have been part of.

I was working on a beauty shoot with an out-of-town art director who I had a hard time dealing with. I was setting up a shot with props and this lady kept coming up to say, ‘I don’t think the product is in the shot enough,’ so I’d change it, and then she’d say, ‘I don’t think these props are working for me,’ so I’d change them. It went on and on.

Finally, I said, ‘Look, I have no ego in this situation. You go in and make it exactly how you’d like it.’ She thought about it, started to walk, but then realized it was a trap. I still remember she said, ‘No, you set it up and I’ll tell you what’s wrong with it.’

That was 10 years ago, but sometimes you still have to grin and bear that mentality when people are negative but they can’t contribute. You have to keep perspective.

– Doug Moshoian, The Directors Film Company

Best career move? Leaving the advertising agency business after two-and-a-half years with MacLaren and seven with Young & Rubicam. I liked working that side of the business, but leaving was the best because I became independent. All of a sudden you’re in business for yourself.

I was absolutely scared most of the time. Who ever knows if anybody will give you a job? You had to pay the bills and there weren’t big houses around in those days like Partners’ where you could go if you were a young director and get started. But something in your tummy says it’s the right thing to do, and I figured seven years from now I’ll be 38, so it’s now or it’s not.

That fear really never goes away. Hell, you’re responsible for everything. There’s hundreds of thousands of dollars, agency people, 20 crew people staring at you, four cast waiting for instructions, and some guy asking you what kind of lighting you want. You can’t ask the agency because they’ll wonder if you know what you’re doing. You’re completely alone. For the first three years I threw up before every shoot. But if you’re not scared, your brain juices aren’t flowing. It goes with the territory.

I think for the young guys, the whole secret to success is getting the opportunity to do some high-profile commercials. If somebody young was directing the Bell spots right now, everybody would want to use him or her. It’s better when you’re just starting out to get the good stuff because it’s much easier to do. It’s the average or mediocre that is much harder to make look good. A good idea is easier to sail.