A writer, director and producer from Toronto, Canada. He has worked in television for the past 7 years, with experience in both long and short format productions. He cut his teeth as a producer at Star! creating co-branded campaigns for clients such as Second Cup, and played an integral part in the marketing of the Genie Awards. Ray has since been working for MuchMusic in the creative department, where for the past 5 years he’s worked on the Gemini Award winning show The MuchMusic Video Awards and many promotional campaigns that have gone on to win Promax World and National Golds, Silvers and Bronzes, as well as a New York Festival Finalist Award. Ray has also spent the past 5 years writing, directing promotional spots for clients such as Smarties, Stride Gum, Doritos, Adidas, Sony, Budweiser, Molson, Mastercard, Colgate, Nokia and Clean and Clear.
Peter’s entry into the commercial world began with a directing marathon. During the first five months of 2011, Peter directed 12 spec spots for submission to the crowd-sourced media company Poptent. Out of those 12 original specs, a remarkable number – six in total – were purchased by high-profile clients such as Netflix and Dell. Recently, Peter also co-wrote the promotional short film ‘Operation Kingfish’ for Activision’s upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 video game, which became the 2nd most watched video on YouTube upon its release.
Philip Sportel is a director based in Toronto, Canada. Coming from a visual arts background, his work incorporates stop motion, sculpture, photography and digital compositing. He is influenced by conceptual art, surrealist photography, science fiction and the works of Stanley Kubrick, Terrence Malick and David Lynch. Philip’s debut music video, for Colin Munroe’s “World of Pain”, was nominated for a Yahoo Video Award. The follow-up video, Colin Munroe’s “(I Want Those) Flashing Lights” was the second most popular video on the internet (viralvideochart.com). His stop-motion video for Johnny Polygon’s “Riot Song” reached #8 on MTV’s countdown. His videos have than 2 million views on YouTube, have played on MuchMusic, MuchMoreMusic, MTV2, MTVu, MTV Jams, and BET, and features on PerezHilton.com and KanyeUniverseCity.com.
Award-winning director John JP Poliquin has become highly sought-after for his fresh style, slick visual effects and youthful energy. His commercial credits include spots for Clearly Contacts, Canada Gold, The Bullion Exchange and Donnelly Group. He has worked consistently with Tricon Films to direct short form videos for their popular YTV television series The Next Star. Nominated annually for awards at the Leos, the East Coast Music Awards, the PEI Music Awards and the MuchMusic Video Awards, JP has made quite a mark in the music video world. He has directed hit music videos for top-selling artists including Finger Eleven, The Trews, The New Cities, Mother Mother, My Darkest Days, Nightbox, illScarlett, Kardinal Offishall, Adaline, The Paper Lions, Hey Ocean! Tim Chaisson, Current Swell, The Latency, Brock Zanrosso and Gary Beals, to name a few. JP constantly pushes the envelope and creates distinct and unforgettable work with each project.
Jerome Kruin is a passionate filmmaker who creates innovative stories through moving pictures. He jump started his career by working with award-winning feature film and music video directors Kevin Bray and Julien Lutz. Jerome’s distinct style is a visually stunning rollercoaster ride that is musically charged with a vibrant sense of beauty, colour and composition. His intuitive creative insight and vast knowledge of film history, photography, visual effects, music, and pop culture has allowed him to successfully penetrate a variety of mediums, such as short films, music videos, promos, and commercials. Over the years, his flair for energetic, high impact, stylized music videos for YTV, Universal, Sony, EMI, Virgin, and Warner Records has reached into the world of advertising, where Jerome has successfully directed several spots for Timex Canada, Marc Ecko Watches, and Mazda. Jerome maintains the same caliber of standards no matter what genre he works in – making him one of the most sought after directors in recent years.
Born in the 80’s Aaron A Bertrand (also known as “Director Aaron A”) has become one of the most sought after music video directors in Canada. Known for bringing his unique style and his cutting edge ideas to life Aaron has successfully delivered high production value to each and every one of his videos. Growing up in Toronto Aaron has always been a natural born problem solver. He is one of the few self taught directors as he taught himself how to camera operate, shoot, direct, edit and write treatments. With a passion to constantly learn and try new things, Aaron began his music video career shortly after he graduated with honours from the film program at Sheridan College in 2003.
Always proving himself beyond his years, Aaron started directing videos only two years after graduating. Since then Aaron has directed videos for top charting musical artists such as Nelly Furtado, Down With Webster, FeFe Dobson, Stereos, Jully Black, Kresha Turner, James Morrisson, Emily Osment, and many more. The international market is no stranger to Aaron’s videos either as he has toured worldwide doing stadium tour documentaries while working with some of the most world renowned artists. Aaron has recently become one of the top viewed directors in Canada with well over 50 million+ views on youtube, and recent MuchMusic Video Award winner for “Best Pop Video of 2011″.
What is unique about Aaron is; he has an incredible ability to tap into the youth demographics psychographics. His strength is that he is able to make his videos effective and impactful and create what this generation will find funny, evoking and entertaining. Aaron will continue to entertain as he continues to embark onto different avenues being commercials, television and eventually film continuously making his art on the screen unique, stylized and memorable.