For Big Film Company director/dop Rhett Morita, it’s hard to tell whether being behind a camera is the result of nature or nurture, as the second-generation shooter pretty much grew up around cameras.

Toronto-based Morita (son of veteran commercial director/dop George Morita) got his filmmaking feet wet at the age of 10 by fooling around with animated movies starring plasticine characters, GI Joe and any other odd figure in the toy box he could lay his hands on and move frame-by-frame to create animated drama.

His early live-action works feature the adventurous tales of Zap Man, a superhero with the power to appear and disappear, a feat which allowed the director to make use of his favorite childhood film gag, the jump cut.

After a series of films starring Zap, brothers, cousins and neighborhood kids, Morita put his directing career on hold and didn’t return to it until late high school, at which time his movies took on a completely different shape, representing the deeper teenage filmmaker – and sans Zap Man.

‘I was into existential films,’ says Morita. ‘I was thinking of people dying and then flashing back on their lives and realizing they were still dying. Those are the kind of movies I made. Do I really exist or am I dreaming that I exist?’

A York University Film School grad, Morita has been part of the commercial scene for almost a decade. Starting out as a dop, he began to focus on directing a couple of years ago. Being both a cameraman and director, he says, makes for a more efficient shoot.

‘There is no lack of communication, generally it is more efficient and there is a little more fluidity. If there needs to be a spontaneous change, I can integrate it all as the process goes on.’

Morita’s early credits include the b movies Legend of Wolf Lodge, Blood Relations and Prom Night 3. Some recent projects are Freefall, an action-packed mow for Life Network, starring Charlie’s Angels Jackie Smith and Bruce Boxleitner, and a cbs drama called Ghostwriter.

On the commercial front, Morita recently completed dop duties on a black-and-white, fashion-oriented shoot for Yorkdale Shopping Centre and was director/cameraman on a spot for Open Dialogue funeral home arrangements.

Although he says mows have helped him to hone his skills, when it comes to job satisfaction, Morita claims to have the most fun directing commercials, which he plans to refocus on in the coming months.