‘I want to die on set,’ says the ever candid Players Film Company director/dop Henry Less on the subject of retirement. Less sees no point in ever stopping what he loves to do, and that is to direct and shoot film.

Less’ affair with moving pictures began in the early ’70s at the University of Manitoba when he used his father’s camera to shoot a film for an architecture class. Following university, he moved to Florida, where he became a still photographer and began to learn his craft.

‘Florida was really good to me,’ he says. ‘It can be a really rough place [when starting out] and some people never got out. But I came of age there.’

His first professional job as a filmmaker was an employee relations film for a chain of lumber stores. He says despite some rookie mistakes on the shoot, the payoff was such that he could clear all his debts in Florida and take the leftover cash on a 14-month road trip, which ended in Toronto. He hasn’t left.

Less set up shop in Toronto in 1977 under the name Henry Less and Associates, and over time produced 250 corporate films. It was important to Less to not only get the perspective of the company but also the candid views of its employees.

His corporate films were successful, so much so that prints of an anti-shoplifting video he made for Eaton’s were purchased by several law enforcement outfits in the u.s.

In the late ’70s, after producing the feature film Deadline, Henry Less and Associates filed for bankruptcy.

‘That was a big setback for me – emotionally and spiritually,’ he says. ‘I was not programmed for that. If I were a heroine addict I feel I would have recovered faster.’

A company that Less had made many films for purchased the assets of his company and put Less back in business.

He started his commercial directing career soon after at Rawi Sherman Films. In 1992, his first year with the shop, he won a Gold Bessie for his work on a Yokohama Tires ad (‘I was so nervous I didn’t even go on stage,’ he recalls).

Two years later, Players executive producer Philip Mellows came courting and Less joined the Players roster, which gave him an opportunity to do what he really wanted to do – shoot as well as direct.

‘Before joining Players I was working with other cinematographers,’ he says, ‘and I enjoyed it, but I felt an emptiness when I was looking at the rushes. To me, commercials were the cinematography and the art direction, and Philip was the one who said, ‘I want you to shoot.’ ‘

Less puts the exclamation point on this thought by adding: ‘I would rather shoot for another director than direct for another cinematographer.’

Less says he enjoys shooting ‘real people’ spots where he uses a digital camera to shoot people in real settings talking about the client’s product. He just completed filming on such a spot in Miami for Lime-Away. His long list of credits also includes Panasonic, Tim Horton’s, gm and Energizer, among many, many others.