Michael Downing’s directing career took off when his first short film, Clean-Rite Cowboy, screened at the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival and secured him a scholarship at the American Film Institute in L.A., where he started studying in the fall of that year.

Just two years later, 32-year-old Downing, based in L.A., signed with Radke Films in Toronto and has already directed spots for clients including Star Choice, Barnes & Noble and a series of specs for Rogers Cable, all of which were picked up by the client and aired. But Downing still wishes things were moving along a little faster.

‘[Downing’s] career is developing at what I think is a very fast pace for a director who has only been on the scene for four or five months,’ says Jamie Phair, head of sales at Radke.

Downing’s background in live performance helped him develop a strong ability to direct talent and work with people, something he drew on in a recent campaign he directed for 3Web.

The spots were all shot on location at 3Web’s Toronto office in August and the ‘talent’ were actually employees of the company. ‘When I was working in theatre,’ says Downing, ‘I worked with people who did not have that much experience with acting, so it was not too hard working with [3Web’s] employees.’

The spots depict young employees adapting to extreme cost-saving measures, such as sharing tea bags to save money, and they accentuate Downing’s minimalist, naturalist style.

One of Downing’s most important goals as a director is remaining open to good ideas, whether they come from talent, creatives or someone else on set. While working on a recent spot for Star Choice, Downing’s art director noticed an interesting gesture from one of the actors and although they had already completed the shot, Downing went back and did it again, making greater use of the gesture to improve the quality of the take.

‘For me, [directing] is really a matter of zoning in on the most human moments possible and those are the ones that are the most revealing and interesting,’ says Downing. ‘You have to create an atmosphere where those moments just happen.’