Directing a feature is like writing a novel and television like tackling a short story, but for Zach Math, directing commercials is pure poetry.

Math explains the analogy saying that each spot needs its own rhythm, cadence and artful structure to tell a story and engage an audience in less than a minute.

For the second year in a row, Math’s work has won him recognition as one of the best new talents in the country. In the last year, Math’s style has matured and the scope of his skills has grown, enabling him to work on increasingly diverse spots.

When Zig Advertising art director Deborah Prenger chose Math to direct a Lipton spot ‘he didn’t have a lot on his reel,’ she says. ‘But the spots he did have were very well crafted and a bit unusual too.’

The decision was clinched after Prenger had a conversation with creatives Simon Tuplin and Geoffrey Roche of Roche Macaulay & Partners, who worked with Math on a Nestea spot. They told Prenger that Math worked well with creatives, had good production problem-solving skills and above all was extremely diligent.

Since completing the Lipton spot ‘Spoon,’ Zig has awarded Math another job, for Vaseline, which will take him on location to Cuba.

‘He’s really excited about advertising in the same way creative people are,’ says Prenger. ‘And he puts in a ton of work and effort – I don’t think that’s going to go away after he’s out of his junior years, I think that’s part of who he is.’

Math’s interest in film was sparked during his undergrad at Queens University in Kingston, ON, after which he moved to New York to study film at NYU, where he directed his short film Nerd Club, originally created as a spot for a dentist and made on a budget of only $5,000.

When Math returned to Toronto, he signed with Generator Films, where he stayed for two years before moving to his current home at Steam.

Math draws on an eclectic array of sources for inspiration. For example, the inspiration for the ‘sparrow’ that carries sweets between separated lovers in ‘Tiny Sparrow of Love,’ a spot he directed for Sugar Mountain Confectionery Co., came from Math’s memory of the owl in Clash of the Titans. (Both this spot and Nerd Club were among Playback’s 2001 Top Spots.)

‘When I’m working on a commercial everything else disappears, so it has to be inspiring,’ says Math. ‘I’m interested in filmmaking that is about people in the stories. In the end, a commercial is only a success if it communicates with the audience it was intended for.’