Comedy director Trevor Cornish has signed with Santa Monica-based TWC for exclusive U.S. spot representation. Cornish has been directing commercials for five years, primarily in his native Canada. On the strength of this year’s One Show Gold Pencil-winning spot, “Vending Machine,” for Canadian football team The BC Lions via Vancouver, B.C. agency Rethink, Cornish garnered considerable attention from the American. ad market. He had most recently been handled in the U.S. by Minneapolis-based production house Twist.
The latest credits for Cornish, who’s repped in Canada, by Toronto-based Spy Films, include spots for the B.C. Lottery from TBWA, Vancouver, Sportchek via Downtown Partners, Toronto, Dasani out of Cossette Communications, Toronto, and a campaign for the Vancouver International Film Festival.
“Vending Machine” reflects Cornish’s offbeat brand of humor. The spot shows an office worker vociferously encouraging a colleague to attack a vending machine that has taken her money. A graphic then simply reads, “Cheering works,” followed by a cut to a clip of a BC Lions football game and the sounds of boisterous fans.
This sense of the absurd was also evident in a Cornish-directed commercial, “Q1 Results,” for the YMCA via Saatchi & Saatchi, Toronto. In this spot, which made SHOOT‘s “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery in 2003, we see an executive at a business meeting about to report on less than stellar first quarter results for a company. In the darkened room, he flips the overhead projector light upside down so that it shines under his face. Suddenly his drab presentation takes on the feel of a scary campfire story. A parting supered message relates, “You never forget what you learn in camp,” followed by the YMCA Camps logo.
“We were very impressed with the style that Trevor brings to comedy; his work has a lot of personality,” assessed TWC partner/executive producer Mark Thomas. “He casts extremely well…We feel he has a great career in front of him and we look forward to the opportunity to introduce him to agencies across the U.S.”
Cornish said he was drawn to TWC’s profile as a company on the rise, and to Thomas’ track record developing directorial careers over the long haul. Cornish began his career as a music video producer. Later he spent four years on the agency side, producing for Bryant, Fulton & Shee, Vancouver. His first chance to direct came in ’01 through a pair of trailers for the Vancouver International Film Festival, including one, “Instinct,” which generated an industry buzz and helped to establish him as a helmer.
Cornish joins a TWC roster that consists of directors Suthon Petchsuwan, Jeff France, Michael Fueter, David Jellison, Seamus Masterson, Martin Brierley, Elliot Hegarty, Brian Baderman and the recently signed George Jecel (SHOOT, 9/23, p. 7).
