Four directors who have surpassed the first blush of success discuss their approach to the craft and offer some thoughts for those on the way up.

Hardly neophytes, the new directors who figured prominently at the First Cut awards have already negotiated the first several miles of a mine-strewn career path. From scraping a reel together, winning the backing of a production company, and doing the first spot, the challenges keep on coming.

Canadian directors who have gone on to establish viable careers in the Canadian and international marketplace say the work by no means stops there and managing a blooming career is a delicate matter in itself.

From this vantage point, four established Canadian directors address some of the issues facing newer practitioners of the craft and offer insight into how they have approached their work on set and in agencies and managed the task of building their careers.

Know the rules

Recurring among the execution-oriented advice offered by experienced directors is that a grasp of the basics of good filmmaking and storytelling can form the basis of creative freedom; in other words, you have to know the rules in order to break them effectively.

The Players Film Company’s David McNally has traversed a varied career path in becoming an ascendant name in the Canadian commercial market and is a strong advocate of bringing discipline and a thirst for knowledge to the job.

Like many commercial directors, McNally sprang from a music video background and he acknowledges the greater level of freedom inherent in that art form. He says making the transition to commercials requires a different discipline.

‘In music videos you were used to breaking the rules to start with,’ he says. ‘Coming into advertising, that was my starting point, and I think it took some time to understand that before you break the rules you have to be fully cognizant of what those rules are and know them inside and out.’

McNally says knowledge of rules can allow a director a solid basis from which to expand creatively while delivering an effective spot.

Advanced planning, happy ‘accidents’

Radke Films’ Philip Kates also discusses his evolution from music videos and finding a balance between planned and extemporaneous execution. Taking a page from Sun Tzu, Kates says in a director’s war, most battles are won or lost before they are fought, meaning all elements should be in place well before arriving on the floor, leaving shoot day for execution and happy ‘accidents.’

Kates says coming out of the video world, he undertook a discipline campaign, with heavy use of his own storyboards.

‘Coming from music videos we shot for coverage rather than shooting a storyboard,’ says Kates. ‘Advertising is a much more disciplined craft and at first I forced myself to be very disciplined and create my own storyboards. I took pride in the fact that my shots would match my storyboards precisely, but eventually I learned that that kind of rigidity can suck the life out of a piece of film.’

Kates says he tries now to have a plan but allows for accidents to happen, citing the Orson Welles adage that a director is one who presides over accidents.

McNally also stresses the importance of advance preparation, a key part of which is casting, and by extension, performance.

‘In casting you’re looking for people you don’t have to direct and putting them in situations where they don’t have to act,’ he says.

Learning about storytelling and learning in general are among McNally’s highest recommendations. ‘Find out everything you can about how to tell a good story; take screenwriting courses, take film appreciation courses, read books, watch films and write down the structural beam,’ advises McNally. ‘I’m still learning; I think I can learn as much from newer directors as they can from me.’

Maintain own identity

Kessler Irish Films’ Dale Heslip is yet another music video alum who previously worked as an art director and production designer before moving into commercial direction. Heslip acknowledges the intensity of focus required on commercial projects, and by extension, the importance of maintaining one’s own identity and bringing that to meaningful projects. ‘You can’t direct projects you don’t have a heart for, then it’s work,’ says Heslip.

This means a director is bringing a body of work as well as the person to the job, he says. ‘They have to want a piece of you to make it feel alive.’

While levels of creative input vary by project, Kates says, ‘I think it’s better for an agency if I offer them more than what they are asking for. They can always rein me in, but if I start censoring myself because I’m afraid, they may not like what I’m offering, I’m not giving them my best. I like to think they’ve seen something in my reel or in our past relationship that makes them think I’m going to bring something to their script.’

Listening skills and learning agency dynamics are also indispensable in agency and on-set dealings, says McNally. ‘If you really listen, you’re halfway there; you’ll understand what your job is at that particular moment and what is expected of you.’

Quality before money

In terms of career advice, Steve Chase, working now out of l.a.’s Reactor Films, wraps his up neatly: ‘Never do a job for the money; never do a job you don’t believe in ­ that’s death.’

Chase says his own guideline is to pursue only those jobs that he would want to see on his reel. ‘You have to continually impress the people you work with,’ says Chase. ‘You should only swing at a pitch you think you can hit out of the park.’

The quality of work issue was emphasized by all directors consulted as an important element through every phase of a director’s career.

McNally acknowledges the seductive nature of the remuneration offered when a director starts to get busy, but says an earlier understanding of the quality versus quantity issue would have moved his career along faster and better. ‘I try and work so that at any given time I’m working on the best possible creative I can regardless of the money, and then the money will take care of itself.’

No shortcuts

Heslip says because of the incredible stress inherent in directing spots, a genuine appreciation of the job is key. In short, it has to be fun. And there is no magic moment when the cake walk begins, he says, career care and feeding are as tough now as when he was starting out and each level has its perils.

Chase advises directors to rely on the skills and instincts that have served them: ‘You don’t get to the major leagues and start batting 300 and then let the batting coach change your swing.’

Careers are short, says Chase, and a good exercise for new directors is to look at the credits in an awards book from 10 years ago, as he did recently during a move. The book listed about 50 or 60 commercials and Chase notes only two or three of the directors’ names are still heard anywhere today.

In the hard-lessons department, Kates sums up: ‘There are no shortcuts.’