Don’t look down. Toronto dop rep house Vertigo is reaching new heights.

Vertigo represents cinematographers for commercials, music videos and long form. Launched in July 1999, Vertigo is under the thumbs of partners Kathie Tutter and Barb Murphy, two ad industry veterans. Last week Vertigo added American director Erik Tomasson (Taco Bell, United Way) to its roster of four Canadians and one other ex-pat American, living in Canada.

Tutter discusses the importance of representation for cinematographers. ‘The business is growing. It’s so big and so global that for a dop to be on his own, he’s not going to be able to take advantage of a lot of opportunities that arise. And, from the client side, I think it’s much better for a client to be able to call an agent who has a variety of talent at their fingertips.’

Vertigo is looking to expand its roster, but ‘we’re doing that very slowly,’ says Tutter.

‘The first thing we look for is talent,’ she says. ‘Talent is incredibly important because the business is more competitive than ever now. We receive many, many reels and we only talk to the guys whose reels stand out. And then, we make sure that they’re professional and that they’re nice people. That’s really important, too – the relationship. These guys are people we have to talk to almost daily and you don’t want to be dealing with difficult personalities. We also don’t want difficult personalities on set giving our company a bad name. So we’re quite careful on who we get,’ she explains.

Vertigo is excited about its Canadian talent and, according to Tutter, roadhouse productions that have used its homegrown dops are ‘totally impressed.’ Despite this Canadian emphasis, Vertigo will continue to look outside Canada to complete what it hopes will be a global roster.

‘We’ve got such a gamut,’ says Tutter. ‘From really young and up-and-coming guys to very experienced guys who have shot all over the world and been in the business for 15 or 20 years. It’s new options for the clients. They’re diverse.’

Along with Tomasson, the Vertigo roster consists of Stephen Amini (Sony Discman, Taco Bell, Harvey’s), John Crawford (Nissan, Labatt, Dr. Pepper), Micha Dahan (Great Big Sea, Our Lady Peace, Tricky Woo), Ray Dumas (Roots, Budweiser, Pizza Pops) and Derek Rogers (Cube, Jailbait, New Waterford Girl).

E-mail: kathie@vertigoreps.com