Although 2001 was largely unspectacular in the commercial production industry, with cutbacks to advertising budgets and general slowness, it certainly appeared to be a plum time for spot shops to do a little recruiting abroad.

As fax machines transmitted fewer boards, production companies around these parts seemed to fill their time by seeking out directors and director rosters from around world in an effort to make their lineups more eye-catching to creatives looking to work with top talent.

From The Players Film Company forming a relationship with Venice, CA-based Coma Industries in February, to Imported Artists signing an exclusive Canadian representation deal with @Radical Media of L.A. in November, many companies signed international talent representation agreements last year.

With the globalization of the industry it is becoming increasingly important to have an international component to a commercial roster.

Industry Films president Tina Petridis, who just signed L.A.-based Rock Fight’s roster to an exclusive repping agreement (see Revolving Doors, above), says securing international commercial directors is an important ingredient in nurturing a successful production company in this country. She says directors coming on board with a new company tend to want to know which other directors the shop represents and who is at the wheel. Directors naturally like to be where their most respected countrymen have already found success.

‘These directors are pretty savvy about knowing who the players are in Canada just by nature of who you are affiliated with already,’ says Petridis. ‘With every company, the kind of financial structure of the deal you make is very different. That becomes a secondary thing after people decide to come on board.’

Petridis says international affiliations are probably more important in the current state of the production industry than ever before.

‘I think in any industry, any sector of trade, it is shortsighted to only look inside the box,’ she says. ‘Everything is global and I don’t think it helps us as an industry to stay in a bubble.’

There are those who lament the signing of international talent, saying that putting a company’s sales force behind foreign directors, and getting them boards, can only take work out of the hands of Canadian directors. Petridis dismisses this, despite her respect for the local scene, saying pushing homegrown helmers may be improvident in light of how the ad universe is expanding.

‘It doesn’t put us in a good place on a global level of representing ourselves as an advertising industry, because what it says to the world is that we are excluding and not including,’ says Petridis. ‘I’ve heard the arguments about why we shouldn’t bring in American directors when we have our own here that can do the same kind of work. I figure if we do have directors here that can do that kind of work, then they aren’t missing any opportunities and they should be bidding on the same kind of projects and they should be able to hold their own.’

NewNew Films’ Teri Walderman says she can sympathize with Canadian directors, because while many can hold their own against competitive reels from the U.S. or Europe, creative teams often favor the imports.

‘It’s very hard to manage and build Canadian directors’ careers when they have many people from different places taking the jobs, when in fact they could do them,’ says Walderman. ‘Because [a director] is from the U.S. or England, the agency just thinks they are better.’

Walderman is in favor, however, of bringing in internationally based talent, as reflected in the NewNew roster, and says she understands why agencies like to use the imports.

‘Getting as much talent as you can to present to an agency is beneficial to everybody,’ she says.

Apple Box Productions executive producer J.J. Lyons doesn’t have a problem finding work for his Canadian directors. Names like Randy Diplock, Fred Frame and Mitch Gabourie, all repped by ABP, are regularly being scribbled on clapboards. Lyons says that despite the successes he has enjoyed with Apple Box’s Canadian talent, international relationships are an important part of the business.

‘It rounds out everything,’ he says, adding one ABP representative is going abroad in January to solidify some new affiliations. ‘With the world getting small because of the Internet and everything else, it augments what we already have.’

You certainly do not have to school Filmblanc’s Neomi Weis on the importance of internationally minded work. With a roster that on paper is comparable to a UN meeting delegates list, Weis says the backbone of her business is finding international directors to shoot in Canada under the Filmblanc banner. What is interesting about Weis is that she takes Canadians abroad to shoot as well.

‘As much as we want to call ourselves filmmakers, at the end of the day the commercials have to sell,’ says Weis. ‘If we can add a creative input seen by a different talent that works in Europe or South America, that has worked with international clients, suddenly that storyboard could take a different twist. The creative has more impact when you see it on TV.’

Weis opened a second Filmblanc location in Helsinki, Finland in mid-2001 as a way to better service the Scandinavian market. She says she hopes to use it to promote Canadian talent there while promoting foreign talent here, with the goal of matchmaking and being part of some very interesting commercial shoots.

‘We believe that the talent here can help in other markets,’ says Weis. ‘Our philosophy is that there shouldn’t be any frontiers when you are talking about creativity. A storyboard is a storyboard, a product is a product, and you have to sell no matter where you are.’

-www.playersfilm.com

-www.industryfilms.com

-www.appleboxproductions.com