Established commercial directors are the subject of this regular feature.

Each issue we will profile their careers, accomplishments and the ideas that

propel them to new advertising heights.

When Playback contacted Sparks Productions’ Andy Crosbie about an interview with David Popescu, it sounded as if Sparks’ office was under alien attack. Whatever H.G. Wellsian sound effect toy Crosbie was playing with that day, it provided the perfect entry point to the mind of Popescu. A mind Crosbie’s been known to call ‘The Alfred Hitchcock of Comedy.’

Popescu started out as an agency art director in 1990. Turned on by the directing game, Popescu began helming some of his ‘own stuff’ four years ago. He was ‘lucky enough to win a few awards,’ and was encouraged to pursue the director’s craft. At first, the art director wasn’t sure his path should change.

‘I didn’t really think about it. When you’re doing one thing, you don’t really think about switching. I don’t even know what prompted it. It was just, all of a sudden one day, ‘You know what? I want to do that.’ Then trying to figure out how to do it was a whole other thing.’

Continuing to practice directing spots, two years later Popescu hooked up with Crosbie and Sparks. ‘It went from there. I’ve been at Sparks full time as a director for over two years now,’ he says.

Popescu has directed ads for Labatt, Shoppers Drug Mart, Pop Tarts and Sunlight, to name a few. Currently, he is preparing to direct his second anti-tobacco campaign out of the u.s. Turns out the ads are being funded by the tobacco company settlements that were in the news last year.

Although Popescu still does a lot of Canadian jobs, the percentage of work he gets from south of the border ‘seems to be growing.’ He explains: ‘We have a representative in the States. And god, he seems to be sending reels out by the [dozen]. It’s amazing.’

Canadian and busy, Popescu has the advantage of really understanding agency creative teams, having been part of one for many years before joining the director ranks. In fact, more than just empathizing with creatives, he knows ‘what they want to do, and sometimes, what they have to do.’

In this regard, Popescu has a little advice for the benefit of the industry. He would like to see ‘the people running the ad agencies allowing creative teams the time to really craft what they are doing.’ Although Popescu says this lack of time ‘to fuss over the details’really comes across,’ he also realizes it allows him a bit of extra flexibility as a director. ‘In a fun way, I get to do some of that stuff, and talk about the little nuances,’ he says.

Nonetheless, respect for the creative teams is paramount for Popescu: ‘This great script you’re going on about? Who do you think made it? It’s them [the creative team].’

Listening, the director says, is the key to making a spot work for everyone. ‘It’s pretty arrogant to think that with 30 people on set that you’re the smartest guy and no one can tell you how to improve it. I always thought, ‘You’re in charge and you’ve got to steer the ship.’ But half of that is just listening to other smart people: ‘What if we did this?’ ‘

A darker side

Although unlikely to be called Alfie at parties, ‘the Alfred Hitchcock of Comedy’ admits that he does ‘kind of like the darker side,’ something he says can be ‘a hard thing to do because a lot of the time it is not what the client is looking for.’ However, Popescu does see the commercial benefits of dark humor.

‘You don’t see a lot of black humor in advertising. If it works, and it is not gratuitous, people start saying, ‘Did you see that?’ It seems that the darker things on my reel are the ones that people keep mentioning.’

Popescu also has a love for ‘crazy characters’ that he defines as ‘the weird people that you meet every day.’

As for the future, the Sparks helmer just wants to be ‘out there providing some quality.’ Before even thinking about directing features, Popescu wants to ‘become as good as possible. And not so much for [himself], but just to be able to deliver quality in a world of shopping malls and plazas.

‘I love this job so much. I’m always so happy doing this job,’ he says. Assuming Crosbie can keep the aliens at bay, it is likely David Popescu will continue to direct for a long time. •

-www.sparksproductions.com