Tryan George, a director for life and a finalist this year in the First Cut Awards, started his affair with filmmaking at a young age after finding a Super 8 camera at his friend’s house. George immediately began shooting little movies after finding that camera long ago, and knew at once he wanted to be behind the camera.

‘It’s strange to think about now, but as an occupation I wanted to be a director,’ he says.

George studied business after high school – even turning down a stay at the nyu film school in order to pursue a business degree – but never forgot about getting into filmmaking.

‘It became a little too trendy to go to film school because everybody who didn’t know what they wanted to do [after high school] went to film school,’ says George. ‘I figured that if I still wanted to do film at that point [after studying business] I would get into it then. When my senior year came, I decided I didn’t want to have anything more to do with business and wanted to do film.’

At the time, George played in an alternative rock band known as the Dam Builders. After touring Europe with the group, he decided to forgo the bright lights and potential of being a rock star and took on a behind-the-scenes role for the band, directing the first Dam Builders music video, and subsequently shooting his first real piece of work. He made the video on a budget of $200 with a Super 8 camera.

George continued with his filmmaking and made an early career out of directing music videos in Canada and the u.s. He has directed music videos for six years now (including I Mother Earth’s One More Astronaut and Sky’s Some Kind of Wonderful) and says he enjoys both the creative freedom and the challenges that come with the job.

‘I find music video is a much harder form of filmmaking,’ says George. ‘As a music video director, you are a one-man ad agency. You are the writer, the art director and mostly the producer as well.’

George’s efforts in music videos led to his impressive start as a commercial director. Although he lives in Los Angeles, George has only ever shot commercials in Canada and is repped here by The Partners’ Film Company. He estimates that 50% of the clients have been u.s.-based, but all of the production on every spot he has shot to date has been done in Canada. George did, however, shoot a pair of feature films in l.a. earlier on in his career, Rift and Murder and Acquisitions, so he has a first-hand knowledge of the differences in production between the u.s. and Canada.

‘There are no techno-cranes in Toronto,’ he jokes. ‘Los Angeles has become more expensive to make film and it is incredibly discouraging for the industry and the filmmakers. As a director, I want to put all of my value on the screen and in l.a., sadly, it doesn’t go there. In Toronto, I think the values are much greater and what ends up on the screen is a lot higher in quality than what happens down here in l.a.’

His approach to commercial making, he says, is very similar to his approach to music videos.

‘I set up each project as a set of objectives and within that I bring an esthetic to it,’ he explains. ‘I very much have an esthetic style which is about creating space and creating a magical realism to the mundane, raising the mundane to the magical. That’s how I’ve always approached filmmaking.’

In just his first year as a commercial director, George has already shot visually engaging spots for Bailey’s, Diesel, Ikea, Sheik Condoms, Seagate Memory Systems, Cheer and Lexus. His strong showing in the First Cut competition is a good indication of how far in the commercial business George is likely to go. To date, he says, he has had very few complaints.

‘I’ve been incredibly lucky with my commercials, because all of my experiences I’ve really liked,’ says George. *