While many young Canadian boys dream about winning the Stanley Cup, a young Adam Massey envisioned himself on a movie set running the show.

Today, the 27-year-old award-winning commercial director is well on his way to fulfilling his dreams.

‘I was attracted to film at a young age and probably knew more about it than any of my friends, but I never really thought I would be a film director,’ he says.

And while he isn’t directing movies just yet, he says he has been very fortunate in his career and hopes to reach his goal of making a feature film before he’s 30.

It wasn’t until he was accepted into a four-year film program at The Art Centre of Design in Pasadena, California that Massey believed he might actually become a director after all.

‘My dad was in advertising and I thought I might want to do that,’ says Massey. ‘I was studying English at Concordia for a year and a half and I wasn’t really liking it, so I went to California and took some night courses in advertising and film, and I fell in love with film.’

Massey, repped by The Partners’ Film Company, made his directorial debut about a year ago with two Budweiser commercials which aired during the Super Bowl, but his favorite work to date are three Molson Breweries spots through MacLaren McCann which he recently shot in Toronto, the Yukon and Vancouver.

Massey has been described by others as somewhat off-the-wall due to his knack for putting strange people in stranger situations.

And while most of his commercial assignments have been comedy, he d’es not want to be labeled a comedy director.

‘It’s so easy to get labeled in this business, you are either a comedy director or a kids’ director or something,’ says Massey. ‘I am really trying to bridge away from the comedy thing.’

Editor David Baxter of Toronto’s Panic & Bob describes Massey’s work as very flowing with lots of wide camera moves and angles.

‘There are a lot of sweeping moves and constant dollying or craning which brings a high production value to the spots and keeps it flowing,’ says Baxter.

The one thing Massey says he can always see reflected in his work is the experience he had behind the scenes.

‘I can watch a commercial that I had a really good experience on where I worked well with the crew, dop, agency and client, and I can watch one that wasn’t such a great experience, and right away I can tell which one has my heart and soul in it. And I think others can tell.’

One beef he has with the biz is being told how to shoot and what to do right from the second he arrives on set. The spots that come out of these experiences never make it to his reel.

‘It is really frustrating but it is part of the business,’ says Massey. He says he prefers to be on good terms with the agency and have them trust him because it makes the whole process more fun.

‘It means a lot to me that I do a good job and become friendly with the agency, because it can be a really fun business if you look at it that way.’

Enthusiastic about making movies, Massey sees each commercial he shoots as a short film which entertains either through the story or the characters, and when all is said and done he likes to end up with a ‘featurey looking, cinematic’ spot.

When it comes time to look at the storyboard, Massey likes to work as a member of the agency team, keeping the entire process as collaborative as possible.

‘I will come up to them on set and tell them that I have no idea what they want me to do in a certain shot. Instead of me just doing something that gives me all the power, I would rather tell them that I have no clue what they want from me.’ It’s an mo, he says, that sometimes ‘freaks them out.’

Between all of the commercials he is shooting and all the traveling from one coast to the other, Massey d’esn’t find a lot of time to play around with the idea of a feature film, but he is confident that it will happen.

‘When I was given the opportunity to have a camera in my hand, so that I could not only tell the story but also show people exactly what I wanted them to see, it was a very powerful thing. To be able to do that in a long format would be a great experience for me.’