No one said it would be easy becoming a commercial director in the year 2000. Especially in Canada. Gone are the days where a kid fresh out of school with a fabulous eye for visuals and unlimited ambition could walk into a production company and say, ‘Hi, here is what I can do for you’, and get signed on to a roster.

Perhaps it was never that easy, but now, even novice spot directors with a lot of experience in various types of filmmaking and advertising are having a tough time getting started in the commercial biz when the attitude from some in the industry seems to be, ‘Well, that’s a nice short film you got there, Tiger, but who cares?’

LTB Productions owner and executive producer Wayne Fenske says while it is has never been easy to get a new director started in this market, it’s never been more difficult than now. Fenske, who is credited with launching many spot-making careers, including that of Bruce Dowad and more recently Clinton Ashton, says in today’s commercial marketplace, he is no longer sure if there is a right way to go about launching new talent.

‘These days I don’t know any more,’ says Fenske. ‘I used to know. I still talk to every [new director] who phones me and I have to paint a pretty bleak picture because the agencies and the clients won’t let us start new people. There is too much at stake all the time. Even with the little jobs.’

Fenske says it’s a catch-22: many agency creatives and clients are reluctant to give a new director work because they are unproven, but they can’t prove themselves until someone takes a chance on them.

‘No client wants to put any of their money behind anybody,’ says Fenske. ‘All the young creative guys want to work with the big stars, and if that is not the case, clients want some satisfaction that they’ve got somebody big.’

To demonstrate how frustrating the process can be, Fenske recalls a situation involving ltb’s Ashton. Ashton, he says, works a few times a year as a director, but fills many of his days with a solid career as a stills photographer.

‘[Ashton] did a psa for an agency a while ago and did a really fabulous job,’ says Fenske. ‘In the bad old days, the next project coming out of that agency he would at least have gotten a chance to bid on. [In this case], it was another nice-sized spot for a major client and they wouldn’t even consider him. They wanted to go for all the stars.

‘It used to be you would have some good repeat business from agencies you relied on for your work, and when they had a psa they’d come and offer it to a new director, considering it a favor.’

Avion Films partner and executive producer Paola Lazzeri says the background of a new director is very important these days. It isn’t enough to be hungry. A director must have spots on a reel to show agencies, and a familiar name doesn’t hurt either.

‘It all depends largely on the director’s background in terms of how you have to get them known in the industry,’ says Lazzeri. ‘In Jana [Peck]’s case, she came from the agency side so there is already a knowledge of the person Jana is and her capabilities. It becomes a little more difficult when we’re building a director who is a complete unknown.’

Lazzeri uses the example of Peck because not only is the director Avion’s most recently signed talent, but she has also benefited from her reputation as a respected ad agency copywriter. She admits, however, that without a reputation of any sort to help a career on its way, getting the attention of the right people is incredibly hard.

‘There are a lot of new directors out there at any given time, so how does an agency judge if this new director versus that new director is worthy of their time enough to sit in a room and listen to them? That decision is a difficult decision,’ says Lazzeri.

Navigator Films executive producer Yvonne Buckingham is another who has a reputation for successfully launching directorial talent in the Canadian ad market. She has a much more upbeat and grassroots kind of perspective on how to get a new director off the ground.

‘You have to get them exposure,’ she says, quite simply. ‘It’s knocking on the doors, making the calls, getting the screenings, hopefully getting the director here and dragging them around and meeting the people and that sort of stuff. Then you have to talk people into using the director. That’s usually very easy, because most of the industry here has a good eye and they like talent. They like to see new talent.’

She says in her experience as a producer, Canadian creatives have been more than receptive to new talent and usually are not disappointed when giving a director his or her break.

‘Canadians are pretty good at giving people a chance,’ says Buckingham. ‘A lot of people say they are not, but that’s not true. They are. But to get them on the conference call, to get their foot in the door…’

And we arrive back to where we began.

Lazzeri, like Fenske, says she fields a lot of calls from would-be directors looking for a break. She says all a producer can really do for these people is give them some encouraging advice and leave it up to them to piece together a spec reel and develop an ability to pitch. Another issue, she says, is the surplus of directors already working and competing for work in Canada. It is difficult to find a place for a director, even with a reel full of spec spots or music videos or short films, when there seems to be ‘more directors than waiters right now,’ she says.

‘When directors call us and they do have some work we usually make time to see it, unless we really don’t have room available [on our roster],’ says Lazzeri. ‘We always have somebody that we are building and we try to be very careful not to take on more than one or two builds at once. Somebody has to be well on their way before we are ready to take on another one because we want to devote some time to that person. It’s not fair to either director if you have two on your roster sitting there waiting to be built.’

Fenske says even some of the most practical thinking novice directors have trouble getting their names and reels out to the marketplace. He uses the example of a young director who, instead of coming to ltb with a tape of an exotic short film, showed up with a reel full of spec spots he had put together on his own featuring everyday products.

‘I figured this guy is really smart,’ says Fenske. ‘He’s gone out and got a bunch of stuff on his reel and it isn’t some short film or an art film. He went out and shot a bunch of packaged goods commercials. I couldn’t get anyone interested in them. I don’t know what to say to people.’

The answer, it would seem, for a new director looking to break into the commercial market is a conundrum: you have to have the work to make it, but you can’t make it without the work. Although frustrated somewhat by the industry’s unwelcoming attitude toward new talent, Fenske stands by the advice he has always given young directors who want to start a career making commercials, although he can’t offer it as confidently as he once did.

‘The best advise is to get six commercials on a reel. How do you do that? I don’t know any more.’ *