Late last month, Angel Films’ Sarah Ker-Hornell added Aubrey Singer to her roster of three other Canadian commercial directors. With the agreement, Singer, who has worked in advertising for 10 years including a stint as an associate creative director with TBWA Chiat/Day, has stepped full-force into the commercial directing business.

‘It’s amazing to me how many creative people who become directors suddenly forget where they came from,’ Singer says. ‘They forget the idea. They forget the page. They suddenly become obsessed with swings and tilts and hotheads and goofy shit that has nothing to do with what’s on the paper. You have to respect the team that did the work and the process they had to go through to sell it.’

Singer believes it’s his relationship to the written word and the ‘story’ that will give him an edge in his new career path. As such, he continues to write commercials on a freelance basis.

‘I haven’t really left [the creative game]. I still write and I think that’s a key thing. I keep my chops up that way,’ says Singer.

Now, with his first representation on a director’s roster, Singer is pleased that he has ‘the validity of being with a company that’s going to support you.’

The youthful looking director with the calm, honest eyes worked hard to build a reel, helming in-house spots for Chiat/Day when there was no budget for a director. Here, he was able to hone his skills. Also, Ker-Hornell acted as producer on many of these spots and got to experience Singer in action.

Says Ker-Hornell: ‘Whenever Aubrey wanted to do something in-house, he would phone me and say, ‘Would you be my house producer on the spot?’ And I would say, ‘Of course.’ So we have a friendship as well as a respect for each other.’

Singer confirms the respect is mutual, saying, ‘I couldn’t be more excited. It’s great to have the resources of someone like Sarah. I love what she’s done with her directors. I love what she’s done with her career. It’s phenomenal. I keep telling her to do a spread in Life magazine or something.’

Singer, a Toronto boy, currently splits his time between here and l.a., where he is also pursuing a long-form writing career. ‘I just had a screenplay optioned out there,’ he says.

Spending so much time in l.a., Singer has had plenty of opportunity to watch American advertising. According to him, the majority of the spots down south make us Canucks look good.

‘As much as Canadian guys bitch and moan that their work is not that good, go to the States and see what’s on television. We just don’t champion [our own stuff] because we’re Canadian,’ the new director laments.

Ker-Hornell is excited about the excellent fit Singer provides for her roster. ‘A lot of our directors do long-form work. They all have those other points of view in terms of the story. So when they come to the table on a piece of advertising, the story is first and foremost to every one of these people,’ she says.

Having just taken the new director under her white, angel’s wing, Ker-Hornell is already out there putting Singer’s reel in the hands of specifically targeted creative teams, trying to build relationships with good chemistry to facilitate repeat business.

The director, who says he likes input on the set, and believes in doing ‘a lot of homework’ and being ‘really buttoned down’ when going on a shoot, also wants to give the work he does an ‘edge’ so it will ‘break through.’ But above all, Singer sums up, ‘my directing style is really – do what the story dictates.’ *

-www.angelfilm.com