International creative and directorial force Boris Damast has again found a Canadian conduit, signing on for representation here with Angel Films. Damast, who has not been represented in Canada since comm.bat films closed its doors several months ago, has most recently been working out of Bedford Falls, Santa Monica, California, on spots for clients including mci, Taco Bell, Sony and McDonald’s.

In a career which began with a stint as a production trainee at abc in Australia and has since spanned four continents, Damast gained recognition as an agency creative before opening Toronto production shop Damast Gordon in 1993. In his last agency incarnation, Damast was national creative director at BBDO Canada. He has accumulated over 200 awards throughout his agency career.

Damast cites ‘high standards’ and an ability to recognize quality as the deciding factor in joining Angel, and is very clear on the value of Canadian representation and the merit of made-in-Canada spots.

‘There are always commercials being produced and scripts being written here that are of a very high creative caliber,’ he says, pointing to the Mastercard ‘Performance’ spot he directed here out of comm.bat as a favorite on his reel.

With a full dance card in the u.s. and Europe, Damast says there is one thing keeping his talented fingers in the Canadian pie: good creative. ‘I see Canadian work when I’m here and on the reels of other directors,’ says Damast. ‘There are some great concepts. I wouldn’t be interested in keeping in touch with this market if that weren’t true.’

Damast has long been a proponent of the Canadian industry and of participation in international forums like the Cannes festival. ‘It’s there that work gets recognized and reputations are made,’ he says. Only recently has the Canadian industry taken a serious look at Cannes, he says, and it has already started to gain recognition there.

Damast decries the de-Canadianization of advertising as well as longer-form projects here, and says while there is no Canadian ‘look’ to the country’s ads, there should be. Creative could use an ‘infusion of Canadian-ness,’ he says. ‘Other nations – like the u.s. and Britain – have succeeded because they’ve made optimum use of their cultural quirks and the very marrow of their society. Why not use that?’

Creative risk taking, he says, would also add to solid Canadian work, and that’s something that happens only when a level of trust is established between client and creatives – the best of which Damast says are indeed motivated by the desire to produce ads which succeed for the client, not for the show judges.

*Auction action

Over 600 members of the Toronto commercial production industry gathered at The Joker night club on Tuesday, Oct. 21 to spend some money and support Bereaved Families of Ontario.

Chair of the auction committee Lesley Parrott, MacLaren McCann vp, director of creative and broadcast services, says the 10th annual event raised over $92,000 (and still counting), surpassing last year’s $80,000-plus to make this Big Night Out a huge success.

Jazz musicians Molly Johnson and Doug Riley filled the venue with some funky sounds while silent auction enthusiasts browsed the tables of items, placing their bids on everything from kitchen wares, restaurant vouchers and hockey tickets to original art. The live auction included a one-year lease on a Pontiac Sunfire, a Las Vegas trip for two, antiques and a pair of diamond earrings.

*Pick a perfect post pro

It’s time again to remember that person who has dazzled all who behold with vast post know-how; who possesses the soul of an artist, the hand of a surgeon and an analyst’s benevolent insight into human nature. Yes, it’s Bob Mann Award nomination time, where all industry types are encouraged to single out a very special post practitioner who has demonstrated an outstanding level of professional and personal brio in their career dealings.

The award, now in its sixth year, was named for editor Bob Mann and is presented at the annual Bessies commercial awards gala in the spring.

Nominations may come from the gamut of post fields of endeavor including offline editing, online, digital effects, cg design and animation, colorist, audio, engineering and opticals. 1998 award judges include Brant Lambermont from the editing field, Steve Robinson representing the video side, audio representative Robert Armes, Jeanine Sinopoli from the animation world and agency producer Andy Williamson.

Nominations are due Nov. 5 and the winner will be selected Nov. 12.

For more info, contact Lisa Weinrib at TOPIX Computer Graphics and Animation or Jennifer Fabrizio at tvb for details.

*Avion

By the time this issue goes to press the annual Avion Films fall fiesta will just be getting underway, and no doubt several of the shop’s denizens will be in an extra celebratory mood.

In the mouse-that-roared-you-don’t-need-millions-to-be-creative category, the little nba spot created and shot in hours by Avion’s Martin Granger keeps getting critically bigger. The spot, created as a spec, recently won gold at the Houston Film Festival and has now been published as part of London’s Design and Art Directors tome and will be included on the next Shots reel.

Granger just finished Shrink, a short he cowrote with Avion’s Tim Hamilton. Other Avion types going long: director John Fawcett is on his third episode of the Alliance/John Woo series To Catch a Thief and Jean-Marc Piche recently shot a feature in Montreal with scary yet compelling Nordic iceman Dolph Lundgren and dop Barry Parrell.

*Jolly good move

A change of venue is in the works for Jolly Roger, which will move from its Wellington Street digs to 360 Adelaide West in the new year.

*New faces

Imported Artists has added actor/ writer/director Christopher Guest to its roster.

Guest appeared as part of the cast of Saturday Night Live in the early ’80s, wrote and starred in the cult ‘mockumentary’ This Is Spinal Tap along with Rob Reiner, and now will be concentrating on directing comedic commercials.

Director David O’Brien, formerly of Kessler Irish Films, has joined Revolver.

And Mike McConnell, formerly of Metro Films and director of sales at Mag North, has joined Revolver as sales rep.

*Taking the plunge

New York-based Lovinger/Cohn & Associates director Laura Belsey (repped here by Susi Patterson) suited up in scuba gear and plunged into the water for the first time to shoot an underwater spot for Zantac heartburn relief medication through J. Walter Thompson. Joining her beneath the waves was veteran to the genre, dop Peter Hartmann.

Although the original plan was to shoot the spot in a lake, nippy fall weather led them to a public pool in Toronto’s Beaches area, which Chameleon editor Leo Zaharatos blacked out in post to give the illusion of a dark lake.

The 30-second black-and-white spot shows an older woman (not the typical body-type for tv commercials), backdropped by the Scarborough Bluffs, diving into the water followed by two young girls and then takes us beneath the surface.

According to the director, the visuals before the dive, like the jagged bluffs, are a metaphor for the pain of heartburn while the underwater portion represents relief.

Belsey says she saw the whole thing as a film rather than a commercial and was trying to capture the ‘inner journey’ of pain relief. ‘I was going for a certain kind of emotion that was real and maybe a little on the subtle side.’

*New Spy

Spy Films has been handling the care and feeding of video and budding commercial directors through a new music video arm called, for now, Spy Music. Managing its existing roster as well as bringing up new talent through the video ranks and launching them into commercials was a handful for one management unit, hence the spin-off.

The new division is run by Carlo Trulli and William Cranor, with a producer to handle most of the video work. The roster includes Spy’s video and commercial directors Javier and George Vale, with a number of others set to sign on including Carl Armstrong and Wade Sherman.

Trulli calls the arm a greenhouse for new talent and says it has made grooming talent more manageable while adding flexibility for future growth.

*London calling

This year’s London International Advertising Awards, taking place Nov. 17 at that city’s Royal Lancaster Hotel, will feature a new event, the Creative Workshop. The workshop promises to be a lively affair for creators and producers alike, with participants including O&M South Africa chairman Robyn Putter discussing brand mismanagement and Advertising Age columnist Bob Garfield on ‘Advertrocities,’ a review of the worst of the worst from the past 12 years.

Among the jury for this year’s awards: BBDO’s Larry Tolpin and Joe Pytka.