Thanks in part to the MuchMusic Video Awards, the Canadian production spotlight shifts for a night each year to some well-deserving young soldiers that wade in Canada’s film trenches.

Applying innovative, artistic and sometimes risky techniques, the directors of music videos are often on the cutting edge of filmmaking, but sometimes can feel their contribution to the Canadian production scene goes unrewarded and underappreciated. While there are a few proud warriors who enjoy the creative freedom offered by music video above all else, many succumb to the allure of commercial spot-making, where the money is usually better and it is easier to make a name for oneself.

At the aforementioned mmva’s, the biggest winner this year was a gentleman known as B-Rad, who will forever be Bradley Walsh on his birth certificate. Walsh and codirector Mark Costanzo helmed the Len video If You Steal My Sunshine, which was honored with the people’s choice awards for best video, best pop video and best overall video. (Costanzo, by the way, is also Len’s frontman, known to his fans as the Burger Pimp.)

Walsh, who also directed a short film entered in this year’s Toronto International Film Festival called Frog Pond, does not appreciate being labeled as one type of filmmaker as opposed to another, arguably speaking for the majority of video and spot directors.

‘I hate when people start classifying other people by saying they just do this or just do that,’ says Walsh. ‘I’m a storyteller and it doesn’t matter what medium I’m in. I’m trying to be the best I can. The next challenge is a feature and I am not abandoning all of those other things to make a feature film. It’s going to work along side of all of the other things I do.’ The film in question will be called Coming Down and will mark Walsh’s feature directing debut.

Like many of his comrades now actively making commercials, Walsh cut his teeth in the world of music video. Others break in on their own, and still others get their start through video production companies like Toronto’s Hoodoo Films.

Hoodoo president Michael Rosen began his career as a video producer some 15 years ago at video pioneering company Champagne Motion Picture Company. After nearly a decade, Rosen has seen many directors come and go, many of whom are eventually attracted to the allure of the commercial world.

‘The reality in Canada is such that I don’t think a director can build a career sufficient to satisfy a lifestyle just doing music videos,’ says Rosen. ‘I don’t believe directors who have a passion for making film would necessarily want to limit themselves to music videos. There is a whole world of filmmaking out there.’

Hoodoo music video director Jef Renfroe helmed and edited the acclaimed Sky video Love Song, and picked up an mmva for best achievement in editing. Having held the megaphone for both commercial and video shoots, Renfroe says that despite the money, he would generally rather be shooting a music video than a spot.

‘I get paid more for commercials, but with music videos there is so much freedom,’ says Renfroe. ‘There is more freedom and creativity involved with music videos, although commercials just in the last year seem to be picking up on a lot of techniques and lighting and are seeming to get a lot edgier.’

Stephen Scott, a copartner in Black Walk Productions, another video production company, says that money can be a big incentive for video directors looking to make a full-time jump to the world of commercial production. He points out that the fee for a music video director in Canada is only 10% of the video’s budget and that commercials pay more. A video director himself, Scott nonetheless says that music videos are a good place to start one’s directing career.

‘Video is a great training ground,’ Scott says. ‘You can start there, you can try different things, but with commercials there is a little bit more credibility sometimes. That’s the way to increase your profile as a director because it’s a little more high end and a little less rock ‘n’ roll.’

Scott adds that spending time in one’s career making videos puts a director in touch with some helpful tools that can later be applied in other areas of filmmaking.

‘Everyone in music video is looking for the new cool visual gag,’ says Scott. ‘So many processes you see in commercials now were first applied in music video, where there is a real hunger for a new look that pushes the envelope and that usually goes into commercials afterwards.’

David Hyde is just starting to make a move to commercial production, having recently directed his first major spot for Vex. Currently working in MuchMusic, and repped by Spy for advertising, Hyde has directed 17 videos, working with such artists as Moist and btk. He says that in some ways his first experience as a director of commercials was a refreshing change from the video world.

‘In music video you spend a lot of time having to explain stuff that should already be established,’ Hyde says. ‘With bands and record companies, because they are not visually trained, you spend literally half of the time when working with a client trying to explain the ideas rather than trying to modify the ideas to fit into a particular kind of image. In commercials, everyone is visually trained and you all speak the same language.’

Director Renfroe says that some of what makes him love making music videos is the control over the creative, coupled with a more relaxed atmosphere when shooting.

‘Music videos are four-minutes as opposed to 30-seconds, so you’re always sort of scrambling to get enough shots for four minutes, whereas in commercials everything is very nailed down,’ says Renfroe. ‘If you don’t get one shot in a music video it’s not the end of the world, but if you don’t get a crucial shot in a commercial, it can be the death of you.’

B-Rad Walsh gets the final word, summing up the sentiments of most directors be they at the helm of video, ad or feature.

‘Anytime there is a good story to be told, count me in,’ he says.