This year’s Saatchi & Saatchi/Playback First Cut Award winner is Randy Diplock, who may still be considered a newcomer to the commercial directing racket, but is definitely not a newcomer to the advertising biz.

The Apple Box Productions director had spent a hefty 20 years on the agency side, reeling off 10 years as an art director, then 10 more as a copywriter before moving to directing. So, to say Diplock knows this business is an understatement and no one can argue his credentials. The clear winner in this year’s First Cut competition, Diplock racked up more than 50 more points than the next highest scoring finalist.

Diplock says he was bitten by the advertising bug while still a child.

‘I was eight years old and I was producing, directing and writing television commercials for Tide in my bathtub,’ Diplock admits. ‘It sounds like a joke, but I’m embarrassed to say it is true. It’s pretty creepy. My mom has told me that when there was a tv show on I didn’t pay attention to it, but when a commercial came on I was glued to the set.’

After working as an art director with a number of agencies throughout the years, Diplock took a liking to the idea of reinventing himself and keeping his professional life challenging. He says in retrospect, the choices he made in his career were good ones, but at the time seemed a tad scary, ‘especially when I switched to copywriting. It was a pretty big leap. I was considered a pretty decent art director and to all of a sudden wake up one day and throw it out the window – pretend it didn’t happen – and say, okay, now I’m a writer – it was pretty scary.’

Diplock’s move into commercial direction was not quite as abrupt. The opportunities to direct commercials basically fell in his lap while still living the agency life.

‘I had done a few commercials when I was still a writer, mainly out of necessity because we had really tiny budgets, so I drew the short straw,’ he says. ‘They turned out really well, so other people asked me about doing it full time and that is really when I began to think about it and wonder if I could do it.’

Incidentally, Diplock’s first directorial effort, while still writing with bbdo, was for Sony. The spots he helmed managed to land a Silver Campaign Bessie Award. Even after more than a year with Apple Box, Diplock has said he is still in an adjustment period, trying to figure out where he fits into the advertising picture.

‘I’m still finding it a little tricky because as any creative guy will tell you, for an art director or a writer, you are always that,’ he says. ‘You can’t all of a sudden not be a writer, so I find that part a little tricky because you want to dip your hand into the writing. Sometimes you can volunteer certain things and the creative team doesn’t mind. I’m very aware of that fact and I have to make sure I don’t cross the line. Most of them have been very secure within themselves about letting somebody add a few lines here or there or to look at things a little differently.’

Recognition for creative

Having been on the creative side for literally 10 times the amount of time he has spent directing, Diplock says he has never and will never lose sight of where the spots he directs come from.

‘Where I think my writing and art direction background is a benefit to me is sometimes when I used to work with certain directors it would almost be forgotten who came up with the idea,’ he says. ‘You [as a creative] would sweat over this concept for weeks, push it through the client, get it through focus groups, show up and shoot the thing, and you almost didn’t have a handle on it anymore – not that you were ignored, but it is so easily forgotten that these concepts and the genius comes out of the creative people. They are the ones that come up with the ideas and we just do justice to what they come up with. That has been very important to me [as a director].’

Having said that, however, as a director Diplock welcomes creative ideas from anyone on set who has one to offer.

‘I’ve seen so many times someone’s opinion not being listened to because they are a junior account person [for example] and I have never understood that,’ says Diplock. ‘It could be anyone! One of the grips might have a great idea for something. If you really want to do something justice, there is a reason God gave us two ears and a mouth.’

Diplock’s attitude toward his work and the business is undoubtedly part of the reason he won the 2000 First Cut Award. The other part is, of course, his work. Diplock is coming off of a very hot year, the likes of which some longtime Canadian directors have never seen. In addition to this award, Diplock helped Apple Box and Vancouver’s Palmer Jarvis ddb take home the Best of Show Bessie in the singles category for the ‘Meat Cutter’ psa for St. John Ambulance. The entire campaign for St. John was also recognized with a Campaign Gold. Diplock has said the St. John spots were especially rewarding because of the number of industry folk who were willing to donate time to get the commercials made.

‘Meat Cutter,’ which has garnered Diplock the most attention to date, is a very funny ad, as many of his spots are. But he is hoping in the coming year he will be given the opportunity to helm a different kind of commercial.

‘What I’d really love to do is some more emotive work, although humor is a pretty strong emotion,’ he says. ‘I would love to get into some more serious and deep stuff as well as humor. I think it took me about 17 minutes to get pigeonholed as a humor guy, and that is mainly my fault because I got a new sense of humor for my birthday.’

Before Diplock can get serious, though, he can bask in First Cut glory. Ironically, even after having won several awards for direction in a short period of time, Diplock says he doesn’t think much of advertising prizes in general.

‘I think awards are incredibly overrated. That doesn’t mean it isn’t nice to win them, but I think we all worry way too much about awards.’ *