Yes, that was Jason Priestley commanding all the attention at Roots whilst a small pod of commercial execs including Philippe Garneau and Michael Schwartz stood on the sidelines. It’s a face – Priestley’s that is – that advertising and music video production folk could be seeing more often as Black Walk Productions moves on up to spot-making with the 90210 mainstay in tow.

Toronto-based Black Walk, a music video production house, takes control of 99 Sudbury as of May 23, new digs and a new direction, says exec producer Mihkel Harilaid. ‘We’ve got the talent and the facilities to branch out into commercial production.’

The company will be positioned as an all-inclusive, one-stop shop, carving its niche in part by keeping four producers in-house. Using freelance producers lowers the overhead, but Harilaid says the level of consistency the in-house staff brings to the company is worth bucking the trend.

‘Clients work repeatedly with producers they know they can trust. From our side, we work with people with a broader commitment to the company. They’re involved with more decision-making processes, they learn more, and it leaves us able to throw more resources at a project when it’s required.’

Also contributing to the one-stop concept is Black Walk’s in-house post facility, Keep Me Posted, which will fill two Betacam rooms and two non-linear suites. A staff editor and an assistant editor are on the to-hire list.

Harilaid is looking to have five spot directors on staff by the end of the year. To start, he’s taking three of his nine music video directors, Lisa Mann and Stephen Scott and a player to be named later, into the spot spectrum and is looking for new talent, ideally with some expertise in post or shooting car commercials.

As for Priestley, although Black Walk doesn’t officially represent him, the Vancouver-born star just wrapped The Old Apartment video for the Barenaked Ladies at the end of April through the company and will be shooting another video with Black Walk later in May.

Priestley’s got 12 episodes of 90210 under his director’s belt, and has, says Harilaid, an instinctive sense of camera positioning and an ‘intense enthusiasm’ for the performers. He got the best performance ever out of the Barenaked Ladies. He’s very communicative and adaptable to the client and the band.’

His day rate for this particular video was about double that of your average music director. Whether Priestley will move into spot production and how that scale could play out is up in the air. Harilaid is mum on plans for the future, saying only, ‘We’ll have to wait and see.’

Alstad breaks out

The fraternity of hot new directors has added another brat to its well-groomed ranks. With his first turn at helming a spot for Bacardi Breezer Extreme, agency veteran and MacLaren McCann vp group creative director Howard Alstad has legitimately earned the ‘hot’ and ‘new’ appellations. The spot was his directorial debut, and it was indeed a hot shoot, on the steamy beaches of Costa Rica.

‘Why not?’ was the eternal question facing Alstad upon the suggestion by creative vp Rick Davis that he apply his vast tv experience to an actual directing job.

‘The agency sees doing this with me as a service they can provide,’ says Alstad. ‘It’s a different wrinkle.’

The plum assignment involved nine days in Costa Rica, including scouting time and a two-day shoot.

As he describes the experience of facing down his first time, it becomes apparent the experience has lent Alstad that instantly cool, dry director’s sensibility. ‘I tried to be as organic as I could; to not let stuff bug me and just do it.’

The requisite run-in with the weather while trying to grab that perfect sunset shot and shooting inside a sweltering tin-roofed building with ‘every light on the island’ made it a memorable first time for Alstad.

Alstad says he was going for a ‘Caribbean thing’ in the spot for the Rum concoctions, which are aimed at 20-year-old males. The spot begins with the archetypal beach shot and moves into a nightclub where ‘licensed insanity’ ensues, complete with stilt walkers, painted-faced freaks and fireworks.

Alstad acknowledges the indispensable contributions of pros like the spot’s dop Simon Mestel and says he’d like to do it again, speaking of ‘establishing a style’ as future directing opportunities present themselves.

In the meantime, Alstad is applying his smooth director’s brand of zen to the contemplation of throwing his cap into the Playback First Cut new directors ring: ‘Why not?’

Maxx and the mountain man

Okay, so there wasn’t the plane crash, the rugby team, and the whole cannibalism thing, but shooting Koldt Mints was just like living the movie Alive.

Well, maybe not living it, but Bill Heath, Maxx Productions’ first Canadian director and a fine mountain man in his own right, is obviously not a timid soul. His escapades on Calgary’s Delphine Glacier are described as ‘dangerous’ and ‘extreme’ by Maxx executive producer Harve Sherman, but Heath says, ‘I’d do it again, and again, and again.’

Let’s put it into perspective, shall we? Delphine Glacier, in the middle of the Rockies, is 12,000 feet high, with avalanche craters and a 700-foot perpendicular glacier waterfall where 100- to 200-foot-high pieces of ice regularly drop to their demise. Not your average studio day.

Heath says getting an experienced, albeit skeletal, crew was the hardest part, particularly a first ad who’s not only good but an experienced ice climber. The final crew, including talent, reached a grand total of six, with three of those being ‘riggers,’ climbers who prepare the ropes. The conditions didn’t allow many people on site because of those pesky ‘bottomless crevices’ bridged by snow.

‘What the riggers do,’ explains Heath, ‘is they hover above in a helicopter and probe around, making sure the helicopter won’t be landing on a hole. They gradually work away from the helicopter, always on a rope, and climb up the cliffs to set the ropes. They keep it to a minimal number of people, because you have to stay on the trail and you have to be roped at all times.’

Adding to his fun was the fact that Heath pretty much had total freedom on the shoot. The client, the J. Walter Thompson folks, and the producers were relegated to the lodge or to the top of Goat’s Ridge, a safe zone about a thousand feet away.

‘We had such a co-operative client. I said to the producers, ‘Here’s what I need in order to do this,’ and they put everything in place and let go of the money to get the safety crew I wanted. With a small crew – all people who were experienced and comfortable in the environment – it was really great actually.’

Except for one particular moment. ‘We’re up there, setting up, attached to ropes screwed into the ice. All of a sudden we feel this amazing crack, and we’re on top of an ice block about 150 meters wide. You take three steps and it’s a vertical for about 100 feet. The first thing everybody does is unclip from the rope, ’cause if this thing’s going over I don’t want to be attached.’

Now here’s something to think about when your commute gets a little harrowing – the 401 scares Heath more. ‘Being up there is way safer than driving in Toronto,’ he says. You know, I’m not exactly convinced.

People etc.

Avion Films’ Tim Hamilton has been picked up for representation by the prestigious Slavin/Schaffer Films for u.s. representation.

Hamilton, building a reputation for in-camera effects work, says the u.s. could be a little more open to his style, which is more experimental in nature than the norm. With a love of experimental film and an editing background, Hamilton likes to preplan special effects instead of relying on a heavy post-production process.

‘It’s a little niche that is more widely used in the States. I’m a little more adventurous stylistically and that may stand in my favor. I know there’s no guarantees, but there’s potentially more work, and at the very least, some quality time in New York.’

– On the awards side, Koko Productions/8th Avenue Sound Studios won the gold trophy for Best Sound Design at this year’s Clio International Advertising Festival for Imax Theatres’ ‘Into the Deep’ through Palmer Jarvis.

– In the credit where it’s due department, the team behind Bell Canada’s ‘Fine Print,’ which won a Bessie certificate of merit in the communications category, was inadvertently omitted from last issue’s tally of Bessie winners.

For the record, and two points apiece, they are: production house Cuppa Coffee Animation, director Steve Angel, production house producer Adam Shaheen, music/ sound house Jungle Music, agency BBDO Canada, creative directors Larry Tolpin, Steve Denvir (two additional points as writer of the spot) and Mike Smith (who adds art director credit for two more points), and agency producer Cathy Woodward.

‘Fine Print’ also earned Cuppa Coffee an animation craft award and five extra points.

– Correction: smw’s Neil Murchison was the copywriter on the Nicorette spot reported on in last issue’s Word.