Last year’s On The Spot headline read ‘Downing on the upswing,’ announcing the selection of upstart Radke director Michael Downing as a runner-up in the First Cut Awards. We couldn’t have been more prescient if we’d rigged this year’s First Cut selections (which we didn’t, even if that’s what some of the losers are claiming).

Indeed, Downing has in a few short years proven himself to be one of the rising stars in the business, and it was thanks to a well-stocked reel full of broadcasted, quality commercials that put the 33-year-old director over the top as this year’s First Cut recipient.

As an almost perfect foil to runner-up Jonathon Hayes’ reel, which featured only a single short film, Downing’s 10-spot submission was bursting with material from well-known aired spots to a pair of quirky short films the director shot while attending the American Film Institute.

Downing broke in as a director when his first short, Clean-Rite Cowboy, screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2000.

Then, after Rogers Cable picked up and aired a spec spot titled ‘Vikings,’ Downing’s trajectory was established, setting him on course for a place on the Radke Films roster and as a runner-up for the 2002 First Cut.

‘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,’ Downing told OTS last year. ‘You have to create an atmosphere where those moments just happen.’

Indeed, Downing’s style – which includes lots of off-center framing and an emphasis on reactions, which enhances the comedic aspects of his spots – is very consistent for a director with less than two years under his belt. Downing’s latest spot, for Tim Horton’s, featuring a woman so enamored with her maple pecan Danish that she locks it in a kitchen cupboard so she can save it for later, was in heavy rotation through the late summer and early fall. Downing has also helmed spots for General Motors, Atlantic Lotto, Barnes and Noble and 3Web.

Judges appeared particularly impressed with a commercial for Rogers AT&T Wireless featuring a temperamental Bobble Head doll artist and his attempt to recreate Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Eric Hinske.

‘This is a very, very good reel, and the Bobble Head spot is positively inspired. Great spot,’ was one judge’s glowing review.

Said another judge: ‘Many things on this reel appealed to me. I really liked the talent performance in the Tim Hortons spot.’

The director is ‘obviously well versed,’ said yet another judge. ‘Great storytelling; smart, subtle humor; no unnecessary shots; simple… [a] very solid reel with a lot of work I recognized from air.’

‘Great shit,’ said another, still more to the point. As the 2003 First Cut winner, Downing will be flown to the 2004 Cannes Advertising Festival.

-www.radkefilms.com