Blink Pictures’ Sam Welch is a Canadian director, living in a Canadian city, doing Canadian jobs. In a marketplace of open borders and hot international directors, he is making his stand for The Great White North through an innovative style and great working relationships.

Playback caught up with Welch at Blink’s raw warehouse loft in Toronto’s entertainment district. If the studio’s notoriously finicky elevator allows, you can slide back one of their hip, glass doors into modern, bright and airy offices.

Welch, whose three 30-second spots for Rogers vip program are currently on air, has just completed a set of commercials for Rogers At Home.

Although Welch believes telling ‘war stories’ about production is just to the left of lame on the loser scale, he concedes there were several funny incidents on the vip shoot, which took place on location in Toronto.

One location, a Toronto diner called The Lansdowne, had just the atmosphere Welch desired: ‘It’s owned by this 90-year-old guy. It doesn’t even serve food anymore. People come there and nobody eats.’ The vip diner spot involves a comedic exchange between a customer looking for a deal and the short-order chef.

The vip spots, through agency MacLaren McCann, were written by Peter Ignazzi and art directed by Carlos Moreno. Angy Loftus was the agency producer. For Blink, Jane Kessler executive produced and Shelley Hopkins line produced. dop was Sean Valentini and Brian Williams cut at Panic & Bob.

Welch gives top kudos to his assistant director on the project, Mike Metcalfe. ‘He’s the best guy in the city,’ Welch begins. ‘I’m not one of those directors who needs an ad there to kick my ass. I’m pretty efficient. I like a buddy more than anything else and he’s that. Also, he’s assertive without being aggressive. It’s just a great, great tone on set. I don’t thrive on people yelling at each other. So we just set the tone to make it fun to go to work.’

The vip spots were such a success that Rogers gave Welch the At Home job. He’s pleased he’s carving a reputation with the Canadian mega-corp. ‘I’ve recently shot the majority of it [Rogers’ work]. But they’ve had a few directors. They have a huge brand campaign that they got a u.s. guy to shoot.’

It is this trend to using u.s. commercial directors that provides the speed bump on Welch’s highway to steady Canadian spot work, but the young director isn’t about to slow down.

‘This is a great place to live. I’d prefer to base my business out of Toronto. It would be nice to make a living here.

‘It’s probably the toughest time to be a Canadian director,’ Welch continues. ‘The borders have totally opened up and everybody is coming up to shoot. People who wouldn’t consider directing in Canada before are now coming up to shoot. In a way, it’s really pushed the Canadian director out.’

An immovable object, Welch keeps his heels grounded in the snow. ‘How I continue to do work is by trying to be innovative, letting the reel speak for itself, and constantly building relationships that build trust from project to project.’

This modus operandi applies to his relationship with the Canadian cable giant.

‘I did get another Rogers job [At Home] based primarily on vip. I had to pitch and do all that stuff. But it’s your track record, and the more you shoot here, the more you win people’s confidence.’

Welch describes how he solidifies the relationships he has in the business: ‘The key is that it’s collaborative. It’s definitely not a dictatorship. When they’re at the level of talking to me with a board, they’ve gone through months and months of work to get to that level. And for me to come and say ‘This is wrong,’ that’s a little arrogant. You have to bring everyone on board because unless we – client, agency, all of us – pull together we’re never going to make Canadian advertising any better.’

There’s no question Welch loves his job. ‘I think one of the reasons I’m so happy doing this is that I love advertising as a medium. To begin with, I’m not some guy who wants to shoot Ben Hur. I love the medium itself. I love the ability to communicate, to motivate.’