I’ve been an art director for 10 years and I want to switch to become a commercial director. I’ve studied acting for 5 years. I have 6 videos on my reel, all commercials. Any advice on how to start?

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I advise learning as much as you can about the different production departments so you can communicate well with them and understand their needs. There’s nothing more frustrating to a G&E crew than a director who doesn’t understand how long it takes to light things or and how that influences the shooting order. Directors who didn’t come up through production often don’t have that knowledge.

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I second the Jordan Brady podcast recommendation. Part of my regular commute playlist.

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This is great guys. Thanks a lot. If you have more advices please keep it coming!

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Reach out to Cutters, Optimus, etc. (places in Chi with production arms who do all budget levels) and let them know your interest. They may be able to help build your reel with smaller jobs if talent shows through in your spots.

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Where are you based out of? And what genre are your spots? Having a full reel is a great start! There are some regional production houses who look for unsigned directors. Also consider entering Shoot new directors showcase. Great way to get noticed. Lots of very good directors got a start with that. Also get signed coming out of it.

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Check out a director named Jordan Brady. He does something he calls commercial directing boot camp every 3 months or so. He also has a great podcast called Respect the process. He advises doing spec work but it should look like real work. That is tough but I’m Chicago you’ve got great talent. Might be able to find people willing to help out from a production standpoint. Might also be able to direct something for your agency that has very little budget but can get out of pocket covered. For your reel. Also sorry if you know some of this, but check out spec bank. Online. It has a lot of spec commercials. To show you level of production value. You can pair it down to 3 for a reel of good spec work. And you only need 1 to enter shoot NDS.

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Focus on a genre. Then Pray, Meet a lot of people who can support you, Pray some more. Find a rep, pray again. Make a spec, pray some more. Build a website, say a prayer. Learn how to party and don’t pray to the porcelain god. Rinse and repeat.
Fine print: Praying is a private affair and should be kept quiet so not to offend.

I live in Chicago. Storytelling is the genre I want to focus on. I just saw the 2018 reel from shoot and the work is great. I’m not there yet and I think is because my spec work it has been a two men show and you can tell it’s not made by a production team. Quality is not bad but is not like that reel. Should I start saving money to hire the right people to do spec work or production companies are not looking for quality but for storytelling since they have the team to make it look great? Thanks

Send me your reel if you want

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