‘You can get wicked perogies and Ukrainian food in Winnipeg,’ says producer Jeff Peeler, fresh from his new Winnipeg spot shop Critical Madness’ first commercial shoot, a 30-second spot for Red River College through agency Vida Loca/23 Below.

The spot, titled ‘Basketball,’ depicts a young man with a balance of professional, employment-ready looks and the ability to slam-dunk. In a shadowy gym, he shoots hoops while a voiceover talks about what it takes to ‘meet the demands of today’s economy.’ The spot closes with the young man picking up a briefcase and exiting the gym.

‘Finding a kid in Winnipeg to slam dunk isn’t as easy as you might think,’ says the spot’s director Guy Maddin. For Maddin, an established feature film director in Manitoba (Twilight of the Ice Nymphs), ‘Basketball’ marked his second time at the helm of a commercial. The first was a guilt-induced freebie job for the Red Cross.

‘I felt guilty that I didn’t sandbag during the flood of the century, here in Winnipeg. So I retroactively sandbagged,’ Maddin laughs.

Overall, Maddin found the one-day shoot very pleasant, although he points out, ‘I don’t know if it would serve as a central chapter in my memoirs.’

The shoot, which, according to Peeler ‘ran a little long,’ was a rare 35mm job in Manitoba. Generally, 16mm is the Winnipeg standard. Transfer was completed in Vancouver.

Written by agency creative director Randy Kohuch and art directed by Darryl Hartle, the spot was lensed by Mike Marshall. Editor Darren Wall completed post at Winnipeg’s Frantic Films and Vancouver’s Wave Productions handled the audio.

Working with Marshall was a bonus for Maddin. For the director, keeping his personal style out of the direction was key.

‘It looks very good and I defy you to find any of my dna on it,’ Maddin begins. ‘I’m proud of being able to make something to order. I’ve worked with Mike before on my own features and I’ve always sort of twisted his arm behind his back to make my movies look my way. But this time I just told him what the client wanted and he delivered it to the molecule.’

Marshall was not the only Mike on set, and apparently, this caused a few problems for the director, who had ’12 Mikes’ taking directions intended for the talent, Mike Banman.

Shot using a Jimmy Jib that Maddin refers to as the ‘Canadarm,’ the production allowed the director to sit back and consume ‘15,000 calories worth of doughnuts.’ At the same time, perogies and Vaseline played a large and strange role in the late-night shoot.

Peeler provided perogies for the set which, although tasty, ‘weren’t exactly Gatorade’ in terms of energizing the director at one in the morning. Also, Kohuch from the agency brought everyone bags of homemade perogies at the end of the shoot.

Says Maddin: ‘You know you’re working in Winnipeg when you’re paid in perogies.’

As for the petroleum jelly, the Winnipeg production community is always joking with the director about his favorite camera trick. ‘There’s a lot of Vaseline on set when you work with Guy Maddin,’ Peeler says.

Maddin describes how he makes sure he has the goo handy at all times. ‘It’s pretty hard to keep Vaseline away from me. I’ll sneak it in. There’s a lot of places to conceal Vaseline on your body. Sometimes, I let myself get caught with a whole tube, but meanwhile [when they think they’ve got me], I’ll just fill one of my ears with Vaseline, or something like that. So some did make its way onto the lens.’

The Manitoba director just completed shooting a prelude for the Toronto International Film Festival, which he hopes will boost his commercial reel. ‘It’s sort of like a cousin to a commercial,’ Maddin says of the tiff project.

From the sounds of things, the Red River spot got a little weird come four in the morning. Maddin explains: ‘Actually, we ran out of sour cream and we were dipping perogies in the Vaseline by the end of the night.’

The spot, which is black and white, will air across Manitoba on ctv and Global affiliates.