By Bill Dunlap

This spring’s five directors picked by SHOOT as up and comers in the commercial world arrived from a number of different directions. Two came through MTV’s “college of production knowledge,” one was an agency creative, another started in the music video arena, and the fifth came from a fine arts background.
    Whatever their similarities and differences, all five are promising commercial directors who are making their mark in the field.

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AARON STOLLER
    For about as long as he can remember, Aaron Stoller has wanted to do MTV commercials. “I loved the landscape of the channel,” he says. “It was incredibly funny to me. All the stuff I did in college had that tone.”
    College was the University of Missouri at Columbia and his work in the Communications School there landed him an internship in 1997 at MTV’s On Air Promotions department in New York, which turned into a full-time job and subsequently landed him earlier this year at Backyard Productions in Venice, Calif.
    While his reel is still heavy with MTV spots, he’s already gotten busy with Backyard. “I did some Pringles stuff that was a lot of fun,” he says, “and I just finished Burger King with Crispin [Porter + Bogusky, Miami] and I did a Kingsford Charcoal spot with DDB San Francisco.”
    Stoller credits his MTV experience with much of his success. “It’s like the ultimate grad school,” he says. “You do it all. You write it, produce it and direct it. You’re in the marketing world as well–you’re trying to strategize and figure out new angles for the channel and new ways to promote and sell this big brand.”
    And MTV provided the opportunity for a young director to work with top celebrities. “All the celebrity experience through MTV has been a blast,” he says. “When I shot with Tom Cruise, for an MTV Movie Awards spot, “I thought, how am I going to approach it. At one point, he put his arm on my shoulder and said, ‘You tell me what’s funny, because I don’t know what’s funny.’ He made you feel confident.”
    Stoller likes funny, especially the kind that appeals to the MTV Generation. “I think I’ve learned really well how to talk to kids,” he says, “how to shoot cool stuff without it being forced. It’s a delicate thing. I love casting. One of my trademarks is finding the obscure and shopping for freakers but getting people who aren’t just bizarre for the sake of being bizarre.”
    The decision to move into commercial directing wasn’t a difficult one for Stoller. “It’s a new challenge. It’s something fresh. I felt I needed to bite something new off. I like working within the parameters of advertising. It’s not just go and make cool stuff. It’s go and make cool stuff within these confines.”
    And he has the examples of past MTV directors who have made the transition successfully, including Lisa Rubisch at Bob Industries, Jim Hosking at Partizan, Brian Beletic at Smuggler and Tim Abshire at Backyard.
    “When you start looking in the commercial world, you start looking at spots by people you know and your eyes open up and it’s so cool that Tim Abshire did that. Suddenly it becomes accessible. If they made that jump and are doing that really cool stuff, then so can I.”
    Stoller is currently trying to get a feature comedy off the ground, but he is open to anything right now. “I’m embracing all platforms,” he says, “making cool stuff, whether it’s for broadcast or the theater or your cell phone. I want to ride this new wave, this new frontier. I want to position myself to provide good content for anything.”

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