With the First Cut Awards marking our annual celebration of the work of first- and second-year directors, OTS turned to Canadian agencies to ask: ‘What does a young director bring to a commercial production?’

Anthony Wolch,

Creative director,

Publicis, Toronto

Wolch worked with First Cut finalist Aubrey Singer on a campaign for Canada Reconnect and also gave last year’s First Cut winner, Matt Eastman, one of his first jobs, a Mothers Against Drunk Driving spot.

I have no reservations whatsoever about going with a young director. I find that young directors achieve a certain look that a lot of other guys don’t have. A lot of young directors tend to be more in touch with cool, modern composition. I find I can collaborate a lot more with a young director. The collaborative process is much greater and more important with them. To be honest, it’s also more fun because they want to party at the end of the shoot instead of going to a fancy dinner.

I think that more people should give young directors a chance, rather than trying to get a guy who’s going to cost $30,000 a day and flying him in from somewhere else. We’ve got a lot of great talent in Canada that people don’t take advantage of and it’s right in our backyard.

Marc Stoiber,

Creative director,

Grey Worldwide, Toronto

Stoiber gave Phil Kates his first chance with an E-Trade spot that never made it on air but helped the young director’s career.

I think it’s great to use young directors. The fact is that television commercials cost a ton of money and the more I have to spend on a television commercial the more nervous my client is going to get. I don’t have a lot of big budgets, and they’re getting smaller and smaller every day as more and more money gets sucked into the U.S., so my only opportunity to profile myself on TV is to do something for a very low budget – cheap and nasty.

To me it’s a very, very brutal sort of system; you roll the dice and take your chances. But it is a way to do work that’s uncorrupted.

For a business that prides itself on telling clients to take risks and be on the edge, we’re the most risk-averse people in the world. So I’m willing to take a risk on a young director. I will risk my pride and get embarrassed for them if it doesn’t hit me in the bottom line.

Dan Scherk,

Former creative director,

Bryant, Fulton & Shee, Vancouver

Scherk had the opportunity to work with young directors like 2002 First Cut winner Trevor Cornish.

I think for all beginning directors it’s hard to get a good opportunity because typically what happens when creative people look at reels is they have a hard time separating the script from the direction. So creatives may think someone’s a bad director, when really they’re a good director who hasn’t had good scripts.

There are plenty of advantages of going to a new director, one of which is that you’ll find the director is thinking about the spot they’re working on through the entire job as opposed to focusing on the one coming next. A lot of times when you work with more established directors, what you find is that as soon as lunch comes the director is off on the phone with his producer trying to secure the next job or doing prepro for the next job.

Marta Cutler,

Creative director,

MacLaren McCann, Toronto

Cutler helped launch the careers of two-time First Cut finalist Zach Math, Tim Godsall and 1996 First Cut winner Pete Henderson when he was a young director at Spy.

You have to use young directors where appropriate. On some of our huge GM monster-scale shoots, you definitely want to go for an experienced and seasoned director. But for some of the retail stuff we do, such as Rogers, you can often find wonderful talent among young directors and a surprising level of maturity sometimes. We’re always looking for people like that.

It’s great when you look at a reel and you know it’s really young but you think the director has real potential. The film companies are helpful because when they’ve got a young director that they know is up and coming, they surround that person with very seasoned talent.

Steve Emmens,

Producer,

Cossette Communications-Marketing, Toronto

Emmens says young directors need to learn to bring a definitive point of view to a project.

Unfortunately, part of the reason we end up using a lot of young directors is based on budget. To be quite honest about it, if you’ve got a lot of money, you don’t go there first. I think what we as advertisers need to start doing is giving young directors more opportunities to pitch.

The biggest frustration is that the young guys aren’t coming in with a point of view.

When young directors come in to do a pitch, all they want to do is get the job. But the last thing a creative team wants to hear is someone reiterating what’s already in the script. I think a lot of young directors are scared that if they don’t say the right thing, they’re going to lose the job.

On our part, we should be starting to support our own industry. I’m the first one to say that it’s the right guy for the job who gets it, but at least look in your backyard once and a while.